Homebrew CMI 8738 drivers Options

[DualIP]

1) In my previous post in this topic, I reported the original 8738 driver outputs only 14 bit SPDIF data, based on viewing osciloscope waveforms.
Today, I hooked up my yamaha amplifier and tested with dts wav files.
Using the original CMI8738 driver, there was no player/setting to make the amplifier decode the DTS data, and all I heard was an ugly noise
However, using Dogberts driver, hardware DTS decoding worked fine right away, both in wmp and foobar.
This is exactly what I expected from viewing the oscilloscope waveforms: Since the original driver only transfers 14 out of 16 bits, data is lost, and the stream is no longer detected as a valid DTS signal

2) Dogberts driver not only auto switches between 44.1 and 48 kHz sample rate, (original CMI8738 driver needs manual adjusting) but dogberts driver also can output 96kHz sample rate! (according to 8738 specs 96kHz isn't supported)

All odd sample rates (11.025 22.050 24.000 and 32.000) I throw at wmp are automatically resampled to 96kHz. However the pitch is way off at 11.025, but that must be a windows problem

[Dogbert]

Seems as if Rear and Center/Subwoofer are beeing swapped.

That's a general issue: there's a major difference in the order in which the audio samples are interleaved. The hardware expects FL - FR - BL - BR - Center - LFE, Windows can only provide FL - FR - Center - LFE - BL - BR. However, a custom Audio GFX filter (Windows XP) or a sAPO (System Audio Processing Object, Windows Vista) could be put in place before the driver which would then swap the samples. Currently, I don't have any plans for implementing these though.

[CiNcH]

Don't think it is worth the time implementing such a filter. Exchanging the plugs does the trick and is less prone to bugs .

BTW, there is a new release, let me take the opportunity to announce it , version 0.9.9 with a control panel...

This post has been edited by CiNcH: Jan 6 2007, 23:48

[DualIP]

I just tried the 0.9.9 driver and like the control panel applet.
One bug I found so far:
Using control panel you can generate test tones to check wiring&speaker setup.
However, both Center and Subwoofer are sent to the same channel of a mini-jack, whereas the other channel of this mini-jack remains silent.
I tested this using two different cards (trust 511 and sweex5.1)

[Dogbert]

I just tried the 0.9.9 driver and like the control panel applet.
One bug I found so far:
Using control panel you can generate test tones to check wiring&speaker setup.
However, both Center and Subwoofer are sent to the same channel of a mini-jack, whereas the other channel of this mini-jack remains silent.
I tested this using two different cards (trust 511 and sweex5.1)

Confirmed and fixed with the freshly released version 1.0.0, thanks.

[DualIP]

found some issues in 1.0.0 :

-in playback mixer, A/V input mute switch seems to be toggled
-in playback mixer, setting microphone slider at it's lowest position doesn't kill mic input fully (as it does with original driver)


moreover, can your driver be used for analog in?
I tried netmeeting audio tuning wizard (XP: start, run, conf...) but didn't manage to get input from mic, CD A/V and line inputs. For some inputs, netmeetings level meter seems to be stuck at max volume.

[Dogbert]

first of all, thanks for doing the cumbersome testing.

-in playback mixer, A/V input mute switch seems to be toggled

By A/V, do you mean the line or the analog/AUX or the CD playback mute switch?

-in playback mixer, setting microphone slider at it's lowest position doesn't kill mic input fully (as it does with original driver)

OK, I have to test this. I suspect that the original drivers toggle the mute switch internally if the volume slider is at its lowest position.

moreover, can your driver be used for analog in?

Yeah, I tried the silly speech recognition thing in Vista the other day, and it worked.

I tried netmeeting audio tuning wizard (XP: start, run, conf...) but didn't manage to get input from mic, CD A/V and line inputs. For some inputs, netmeetings level meter seems to be stuck at max volume.

This might be a netmeeting issue (it's software from msft after all), but I'll take a look at it.

[DualIP]

[quote name='Dogbert' date='Jan 18 2007, 14:17' post='465294']
By A/V, do you mean the line or the analog/AUX or the CD playback mute switch?[/quote]

I discovered this when I hooked up CDROM audio cable to the wrong input and didn't get audio when I maxed & unmuted all.
Indeed I fed the audio to analog/aux/AV input.

[quote]I suspect that the original drivers toggle the mute switch internally if the volume slider is at its lowest position.[/quote]
Or your lowest position doesn't correspond to vol=0 setting.


[quote]
....This might be a netmeeting issue (it's software from msft after all), but I'll take a look at it.
[/quote]
Netmeeting works normally on standard cmedia driver.

I tried the silly speech recognition thing in Vista the other day, and it worked.[/quote]
I'm testing on a pretty clean XP install. You won't find netmeeting in vista...


another question:
Some audio cards come with software ac3 and/or dts encoding. Why isn't this software useable on any card that can passthrough AC3 & DTS (like 8738)?

This post has been edited by DualIP: Jan 18 2007, 17:55

[Dogbert]

I discovered this when I hooked up CDROM audio cable to the wrong input and didn't get audio when I maxed & unmuted all.
Indeed I fed the audio to analog/aux/AV input.

Windows XP plays audio CDs digitally by default with the effect that the analog output of the CDROM stays silent.
The external analog inputs (Mic, LineIn) work here on a freshly installed XP, and the internal inputs aren't much differently handled.

Or your lowest position doesn't correspond to vol=0 setting.

Mhh.. I just tested that and the lowest position does kill the mic fully (to the extend that you can't hear loud input fed to the mic jack).

Netmeeting works normally on standard cmedia driver.

I tested this, too, with the result that netmeeting functions as to be expected.

My XP version is xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519, and I installed it today. All the latest patches and security updates have been applied.

This seems to be a very nasty bug because I can't reproduce it.

I'm testing on a pretty clean XP install. You won't find netmeeting in vista...

sndrec32, the Speech Recognition and all the other Windows applications presumably all use the Win32/WaveMM API, so it shouldn't matter.

another question:
Some audio cards come with software ac3 and/or dts encoding. Why isn't this software useable on any card that can passthrough AC3 & DTS (like 8738)?

You're correct - the encoding ('Dolby Digital Live', 'DTS Live', 'DTS Connect' etc) happens entirely in software, or in the drivers, to be more specific. I suspect that the hardware of these 'premium' cards is identical with the exception of the subsystem identifier and the subsystem vendor identifier and possibly some flags in the internal registers which gets checked by the official drivers. The encoding features get presumably enabled/disabled according to these flags.
NVidia has done similiar things with the GeForce / Quadro series.
So, if you buy one of these cards, you're effectively paying an extra 30$ for a few toggled bits.

[Dogbert]

A new version (1.0.2) has been released.

[Dac]

A new version (1.0.2) has been released.

hello

I'm trying tu use your masterpiece with my Terratec Aureon Fun (XP SP2). It doesn't seem to work for me, first I get "the system cannot find the file specified" when openDevice appears, then control panel always crashes when applying changes. Any hints on that? Did I do something wrong?

thanx

[Dogbert]

I'm trying tu use your masterpiece with my Terratec Aureon Fun (XP SP2). It doesn't seem to work for me, first I get "the system cannot find the file specified" when openDevice appears, then control panel always crashes when applying changes. Any hints on that? Did I do something wrong?

thanx

It looks as if my driver hasn't been installed properly. I suggest that you try to install it manually - there's a how-to on my page.

[Any2]

Hello

every time I have been installing CMI8738 64-bit driver (recently it was 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03 version) I've got following error (copy->paste from SystemEventLog):

Error code 000000000000000a, parameter1 fffff6fb7ea04008, parameter2 0000000000000002, parameter3 0000000000000000, parameter4 fffff8000101f605.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Could you take this event into consideration when you will be developying this very interesting driver.
BTW it happens each time the computer is booted-up and shutted-down but not always it restarts (sometimes only above event is logged in).

Best regards
Any

[Dac]

It looks as if my driver hasn't been installed properly. I suggest that you try to install it manually - there's a how-to on my page.

very fast response. will try, thank you

[Any2]

It looks as if my driver hasn't been installed properly. I suggest that you try to install it manually - there's a how-to on my page.

Thank you however I had done so because setup only started but could not install driver. Then I did it using Device Manager and update driver operation. It works only when I didn't shutdown or boot-up my PC. I ahve XPx64 Windows.
Has anyone a case like me?

[Dogbert]

every time I have been installing CMI8738 64-bit driver (recently it was 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03 version) I've got following error (copy->paste from SystemEventLog):

Error code 000000000000000a, parameter1 fffff6fb7ea04008, parameter2 0000000000000002, parameter3 0000000000000000, parameter4 fffff8000101f605.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Thanks for the bug report. Can you provide me with a minidump of the crashes for further analysis?

[Any2]

Thanks for the bug report. Can you provide me with a minidump of the crashes for further analysis?

Yes,
how I can provide you with minidumps? Send via email or is it possible to add into the forum post?
Please answer and I will deliver minidumps.

[Dogbert]

Yes,
how I can provide you with minidumps? Send via email or is it possible to add into the forum post?
Please answer and I will deliver minidumps.

Windows puts them into the folder "C:\Windows\Minidump" everytime the system crashes. They are roughly ~100kB in size. Please forward the dump(s) to my mail address which you find on my homepage.

This post has been edited by Dogbert: Feb 3 2007, 21:55

[Any2]

Windows puts them into the folder "C:\Windows\Minidump" everytime the system crashes. They are roughly ~100kB in size. Please forward the dump(s) to my mail address which you find on my homepage.

already sent.
Hear from you tomorrow (my time zone is GMT+1 so we have night now)

[mugen]

Can you make drivers for the ALC882M so I can get bit-perfect in XP? Pleeeeeease?

[Dogbert]

Can you make drivers for the ALC882M so I can get bit-perfect in XP? Pleeeeeease?

That'll be 20000$ plus testing expenses then .

[wdekler]

Can you make drivers for the ALC882M so I can get bit-perfect in XP? Pleeeeeease?

Bit-perfect drivers already seem to be available for this chip: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/ind...567562-p-2.html

By the way, will the 8738 driver also support the 8787/8788 chips in a future version? Or does this require a totally different driver?

CMI claims 24bit capability:

Integrated 192k/24-bit S/PDIF transmitter

but I've read those claims before somewhere...

This post has been edited by wdekler: Feb 4 2007, 11:32

[Dogbert]

By the way, will the 8738 driver also support the 8787/8788 chips in a future version? Or does this require a totally different driver?

Dunno - if it's just a revision of the old 8738 like the 8768, then it's no problem, but if it's a new design from the scratch, then probably not.

Any2, I received your dumps, thanks. Can you provide me with any additional information about the crashes? Do they happen exactly after you installed the drivers or when you are trying to play something? Also, is your memory OK?

[mugen]

Can you make drivers for the ALC882M so I can get bit-perfect in XP? Pleeeeeease?

Bit-perfect drivers already seem to be available for this chip: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/ind...567562-p-2.html

Not for the M variant, unfortunately. Whether or not DD Live is enabled, the XP drivers lock the optical to 48kHz and resample everything so that, in the rare event that it is enabled, no problems arise. Realtek don't intend to 'fix' it under XP, and, while that 'feature' is not in the Vista drivers, Vista is both a pain in the ass and a big hit to laptop battery life

[Any2]

Dunno - if it's just a revision of the old 8738 like the 8768, then it's no problem, but if it's a new design from the scratch, then probably not.

Any2, I received your dumps, thanks. Can you provide me with any additional information about the crashes? Do they happen exactly after you installed the drivers or when you are trying to play something? Also, is your memory OK?

With regards to what and when happen it seems to be generally OK after installing and also using it e.g. "Sound Recorder" works (record and playback). The problem is mainly during start-up the XP 64-bit Edition what often causes the next restart etc. On the other hand during shutdown it happens that EventSystemLog is updated with the error message and after starting-up again a Windows message about the crash is dispayed with sending a raport to Microsft etc. The memory I have is rather good. Theay are KingStone 3200 DDR in amount of 1024MB (2x512 dual channel) running at 400MHz. They work perfectly with the older W2K system to where I have checked all with SiSoftSandra 2007L. So I am afraid the only case is when CMI8738 driver is installed.
BTW some rows in minidumps may be as a result of other my testing i.e. nvidia a new graphic driver, gtr2demo game etc. So please only look at CMI related information
Regards

This post has been edited by Any2: Feb 4 2007, 14:53