I've re-read the FAQ but I'm not sure how to get the non wavert version to work

I've manually copied the cmipci.sys (non wavert) over the existing cmipci.sys file but I can't get Winamp to play. I've also tried setting SPDIF as the output device but that didn't help either as it only seems to be useable for non PCM formats (?) which my DAC doesn't accept.

When manually installing the nonwavert driver I got a crash. I'll e-mail the minidump. EDIT: this may have been caused by unloading the Terratec driver as you mention in the documentation.

BTW, will a future version of the control panel be usable to manage two CMI cards in the same machine...?

WinDbg spits out:

This leads to the conclusion that either the terratec/cmedia driver crashes when it is unloaded or my driver does. I haven't got crashes from loading/unloading my driver in eons which gives reason to the same suspicion: the terratec/cmedia drivers caused the crash.


I tried this in one of my test machines and the second instance can't access the registers of the second card for some reason. This behaviour is reproducible on Linux/FreeBSD, so this doesn't work due to the incapabilities of the hardware.

Btw, you can delete drivers from the repository of Vista from the shell/command prompt with the tool pnputil.exe

Hi Dogbert,

Thanks for the fantastic drivers! The best I've used yet!

I'm running the latest 1.1.2 drivers on Vista, and outputting SPDIF to a Pioneer AV receiver that decodes DD, DTS and WMA Pro.

Everything works great, except for the following two issues:

- In the Vista control panel, under the "Supported Formats" tab, there is a "test" button where you can check if the soundcard will pass through DD, DTS and WMA Pro. This works perfectly for DD and DTS, but for WMA Pro I get an error message "Windows was unable to play the test tone". But if I enable it anyway, WMA Pro passthrough works perfectly. Only the "Test" feature is broken.

- If I'm running Media Center and put the PC into standby, sound doesn't work correctly when resuming from standby. Sometimes I get silence, and sometimes I get really loud crackly static. If I close and reopen Media Center, it normally starts working properly again (I'm using the latest 1.1.2 drivers with the power management stuff included).

If you could fix these two issues, then these drivers would be perfect for me!

Let me know if I can help with any testing or debugging.

Cheers
Chris

I'm going to give these drivers a go shortly, like the idea of it switching between 44.1 and 48khz automatically as thats a real PITA to do.

Now, since I have to change it to 2 channel to get spdif out working, but need it on 5.1 to be able to use the analog outs, is there any way to do this from the commandline? Also, is there a way to get foobar2000 to change it back to 2 channel before playing so that the DD and DTS output will work ok?

Thanks for the report - I don't have a receiver which can decode WMA Pro so testing is a bit difficult - I'm guessing that the playback software passes through the WMA Pro stream as AC3/dolby.


Already reported and this is gonna be fixed in the upcoming version 1.1.3.


Yes - cmicontrol.exe can be controlled from the command line (/enable51Mode, /stereo). However, changing the channel configuration from 5.1 to stereo and vice versa only works under XP/2k - there were some intentional changes made in Vista which prohibit access to the channel configuration by any application.

You shouldn't need a receiver to test this. The "Test" button simply outputs the WMA Pro signal via SPDIF if the soundcard will allow it, regardless of whether your receiver can decode it.

If you get the message "Windows was unable to play the test tone", this means it was rejected by the soundcard. If you get the message "Did you hear the test tone?" this means it was sent successfully, even if your receiver couldn't decode it.

As I've already mentioned, playback works perfectly when you play a WMA Pro soundtrack. Its just the "Test" button that seems to have a problem.



I believe WMA Pro is a completely separate codec from Dolby Digital or DTS. I've had a quick Google, and this link looks relevant:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/wmadrv.mspx

It's not that simple: the question is whether WMA Pro is transmitted correctly if I implement explicit support for it - there are some differences im comparison with AC3/DTS, and it's possible that the codec which sends the WMA Pro-stream as AC3 stream down to the driver does some kind of preprocessing which might be required in the driver itself if WMA Pro passthrough is explicitly supported.


Correct - the least common denominator is that all three codecs require passthrough and that there are definitions for KSDATAFORMAT_SUBTYPE_DOLBY_AC3_SPDIF for both AC3/DTS (and even WMA Pro) _and_ explicitly KSDATAFORMAT_SUBTYPE_WMA_SPDIF which makes me suspect that some extra stuff needs to be implemented for WMA-Pro.


This document is outdated. The interesting stuff should happen in the ChannelConfig property handler and DataRangeIntersection of the wave miniport driver, and that's where the documentation is scarce. There aren't any examples for WMA-Pro over SPDIF-passthrough in the DDK, so I better keep my hands clean for now.

I didn't realise it was that complicated!

In any case, WMA Pro passthrough seems to work well with your latest drivers, even though you haven't implemented explicit support.

If you decide to add explicit support in the future, then I'm happy to help with any testing that may be needed.

I take that back - it doesn't work quite as well as I thought.

Using Vista, with the "WMA Pro Passthrough" checkbox ticked in the Sound control panel, I get the following results:

- The "Test" feature in the sound control panel reports "Windows was unable to play the test tone".
- Windows Media Player downconverts the WMA Pro soundtrack to stereo, and outputs PCM via SPDIF.
- Windows Media Center passes through the WMA Pro soundtrack correctly, and its decoded correctly by my receiver. But after playback has finished, the mixer settings aren't restored correctly. I need to restart Media Center to fix the problem.

This isn't a complaint, since WMA Pro isn't supported in the driver. But I thought I'd write down my findings in case anyone reads my previous comments and gets the wrong idea.

Dogbert, maybe it would be useful to update your web page to mention that WMA Pro isn't supported?

Chris

Hey! I have the Diamond XtremeSound 7.1 and I installed the latest version of these CMI drivers. They installed fine and the output runs fine, but nothing is detecting the analog input. I triple checked to make sure that S/PDIF-in is disabled. It still doesn't seem to be working. Any idea what the problem may be?

Not sure if this replies is of any help (found it in the thread)

what input are you trying to record from? microphone? you might want to enable the +20dB boost and unmute it.

Hi all

Same problem here, with Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard, a cmi 8768, and Athlon X2 4400. No BSOD but a freeze which corrupt system and need a winXP reinstall. Win is a SP2.

I think the problem is with this model of motherboard.



Without reinstall, other device drivers like DVD-reader are corrupted / not activated with an IRQ problem.

I'd like to ask you for the minidump files then.


You can always roll back to a state before the driver was installed - that should "repair" the multimedia subsystem.

Ok I'll backup my Win directory and see with a new try if I can send you minidump.

Edit: Sorry but no minidump has been generated. Freeze come just after copying CMICONTROL.EXE, perhaps during driver initialisation.

I tried to install without cmicontrol, but it's lockup anyway.

I'll try to install it with dvd-r unplugged to see.....

No..... Always same freeze, even all other cards and dvd-r unplugged.

Also tried with a fresh install of Win XP but nothing better...

It seems that this motherboard isn't compatible.....

On the other hand, the wavert version didn't freeze, but system can't initialize the driver (code 37)

The WaveRT version isn't compatible with XP.

Is the gameport enabled in the BIOS by any chance? Also, are there I/O resources available in the region 0x300 to 0x330?

I suspect that the system freezes up during the gameport initialization - this might be caused by a bug (?) in the ULi chipset. If you're still brave enough, I can provide you with a version that doesn't enable the gameport.

No, motherboard's gameport is disabled. There's no gameport on the soundcard.

In fact, to avoid reinstall of my XP, I've reserved an old hd with fresh install for my different tries.
Then no problem to test different solutions.

For the resources, I've also tried without any other card (except graphic) plugged, but no change.

From the driver's point of view, there's no way of telling whether a MPU401/game port is actually there on the card or not, so the initialisation is always tried.


System restore _should_ work if you create a restore point, reboot, try to install the driver and go back to this restore point if it doesn't work.

It doesn't work always. Sometimes, files are corrupted in Windows\system32 directory after reboot, and system can't be restored as it was before.
But that's not a problem for me to have a clean directory to restore. It's pretty fast.

have you already tried the debug version I sent you?

It works !!!!

Well done and Thanks for the "patch".

Hello, I tried to use the gameport on 8738 on windows xp sp2, but it does not work.
I could not use it with the official c-media drivers too.
I bought another card with the 8738 chip, and again it does not work.
Can you give me some advice ?
Thank you.

I'm gonna disable all the gameport / MPU401 in the next version anyway due to stability issues with ULi boards.

So the gameport is actually not functional, and it is on the card only for delusion
I have to buy a MIDI-USB cable ?


I am using a cable like this one, which goes from a digital piano into the 8738, but I recieve no data at all.

It is functional, of course, but it's a "legacy" port and therefore outdated.

There are actually two subdevices on the DB15 connector: the gameport and the MPU-401 MIDI connector. I have implemented support for the MPU401 stuff, but the gameport is disabled (and the MPU401 stuff will be disabled from the next version on).
If you want to connect your MIDI device to your computer, a 'special' MIDI->USB device (e.g. M-Audio Uno) is required because a regular gameport->USB adaptor lacks MIDI capabilities - this causes some joystick / wheel devices not to work with those adaptors.

I am not into computers very much and barely understand what you say.
But I find it rather incorrect that the card's description includes gameport/MIDI connectivity, which acutally does not work.. or is outdated whatever this means
Even the installation of the official driver has the option of turning off gameport or MIDI.
Anyway thanks for the andwer.

You need to realise that these are not official drivers - Dogbert has written them himself to suit his own needs (ie bit-perfect playback via S/PDIF) and he is kind enough to share them with us all. I am personally very grateful for all his work, and they are the best drivers I've found for achieving bit-perfect playback.

Therefore, it doesn't matter what the card's description says - these are not official drivers so Dogbert can add whatever functionality he likes! As he has already explained to you, he is disabling MIDI/gameport functionality due to stability issues with ULi boards.

If the MIDI functionality is important to you, then I recommend that you use the official drivers with MIDI support. If the official drivers don't work as advertised, then you should bring it up with the card manufacturer. Alternatively, if you want to keep using Dogbert's drivers, you should buy a MIDI-USB cable as he suggests.

I think I mentioned that the MIDI feature didn't work with the official drivers.
I was addressing C-MEDIA with my previous post , because obviously they market a product with a feature that is not (or not fully) functional, and they even do not have customer support to answer your questions.

So in a way this Dogbert's driver is way more official if you ask me than the C-MEDIA ones, and I salute him for it.

Post removed... as this was already covered in the FAQ.

Dunno if can help, but here's what the Echo Digital Audio Corporation' Software Developer Page claims:


Source code is provided under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

How about adding an option to enable or disable UART/MPU-401 -support?

That would need some major implementation work, and I really don't have the time for this right now.

Hello there.

I've just installed the drivers. I have a bit perfect sound with my AV Amplifier when a DTS file is playing. So now everything seems to be ok.
I was wondering about two things. Is there a bit perfect when mp3s or waves are playing in Foobar2000 + kernel streaming plugin?
I suppose these sound files (mp3, ogg, etc.) are convering to the PCM wave and sending directly to the spdif-out without any resampling.

Correct. I encode my wave files which contain a DTS/AC3 stream (converted with spdifconvert.py) to the lossless FLAC format in order to be able to tag them - during playback they are decompressed and sent to the receiver without any resampling or other signal processing which would destroy the DTS/AC3 frames - the frames are finally decoded by the receiver. This wouldn't work with the vast majority of soundcards due to their bad drivers.

Splendid, it works excellent!

Thank you for your answer and drivers of course ^^

Hello!

I have some problems with drivers v1.4 on Vista x64 with last security updates. After updating drivers are not loaded, Windows informed, that the drivers are absent or are damaged. How it can be corrected? Before updating of Windows all worked.

Hi, isn't this a known problem?
FAQ: How do I permanently disable the enforced driver signing in Vista x64?:

It should work with F8 key method during boot up. The driver signing crap can't be disabled permanently after the update has been installed even when it is uninstalled, at least there is no way I'm currently aware of.

Egor, Dogbert
You have not understood me. I perfectly know about a problem of the signature of drivers, and have switch off this function first of all. It at me also has been switched off, while I have not put new updatings for Vista x64. After that version 1.4 has ceased to work, instead of not signed drivers from the Cmedia works (can be download here: http://www.cmediadrivers.info/driver/8738/.../8738-Vista.zip ). So here a problem in other.

After some licensing discussion, drivers now included in ReactOS !!!


Maybe my "fault" ?

EDIT: seems that drivers are also included in DriverPacks.net, check out my 3ad...

Garthower, I've got a mail from a guy who says that uninstalling KB938979 ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938979 ) makes the driver load again. Can you or anyone else confirm this?

At me update KB938979 is NOT installed, here a screenshot http://garthower.org.ua/garthower/screenshots/screen1.jpg . The driver all equally is not loaded.

OK, thanks.

hmm.. should it be possible to use mic-in and spdif output at the same time? i mean, to bypass mic signal straight into the amplifier

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Theoretically, yes - you need software that plays back the record buffer simultaneously. But there's gonna be a delay of roughly 20ms on the non-WaveRT versions due to design limitations of the Windows Driver Model.
The hardware doesn't support digital monitoring of the analog inputs afaik.

the current version loads with the F8 trick. At the moment I'm taking a closer look at the registry keys as to find out what key breaks the DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECK stuff.

Hey man, thanks for these great drivers. I bought me a Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakerset recently, which supports DTS via SPDIF. I bought a Trust sc-5250 audio card with it ( I know, el cheapo, but one of the few cards for sale here in the netherlands with both SPDIF out and a price tag of below 100 euro's (= about 120/130 dollar). Sadly the Trust drivers did only support 2.0 by SPDIF, no DTS for me . I got a tip to use the Trust 5600 soundcard drivers, and hey it worked. Full 5.1 via SPDIF. I was pretty happy till I started to get these blue screens and system reboots. The drivers were very unstable with this card when it came to playing DTS off a DVD. I went searching on internet and found these great drivers...!

No blue screens so far and full 5.1! Great Job, I really appriciate what u have done/are doing for people like me with these homebrew drivers of yours , I especially registered to thank you . Thanks for giving me the ability to fully use the great sound of my new speakerset!


Greetings from The Netherlands,


Feroxz

Hello,

I have read all the posts here and the FAQ on the website but I'm still a little confused so could someone please clarify:-

If I am using these drivers with my XP & a Trust 511 soundcard which has SPDIF out, do I also need to use Kernel Streaming/ASIO to get a bit perfect output?

The features page states you get "bit perfect with Waveout/DirectSound/WASAPI" and also "bit perfect with Kernel Streaming via foobar/winamp plugsins" - so if you get it natively with the driver anyway then why the need for the plugins?

Sorry, I'm sure these are dumb questions but if someone could clarify for me that would be great I'm just looking to get the best possible playback of my MP3s.

Thanks,
Starfire.