Just found out about this driver when I was about to give up on getting the SPDIF-in
to work with by SIIG SoundWave 7.1.
It works, but only for a couple of seconds while XP is booting. Then the spdif sound stops
coming from the speakers ( other sound still works. )

I enabled spdif-in via cmicontrol, and in the windows sound mixer the spdif-in stream no longer shows up as muted.

After a reboot, it works again for a few seconds.

Any ideas ? I'm using version 1.1.9 on 32 bit XP.

sam987,
I've just tested the recording feature again and it works. Usually, you have to enable SPDIF-In recording, tick the "Select secondary SPDIF-In" box and then start the recording software of your choice and press the record key. Then you should start playing the source and the recording should work. The only thing that might be important is to select a sample rate and resolution equal to the source material.

audigio, are you talking about spdif-in or spdif-out? The latter works only if passthrough mode is enabled for dd/dts streams, or if the speaker configuration is set to stereo. SPDIF can carry only uncompressed stereo signals. Signals for more than two speakers have to be pre-encoded for compression (dd/dts) - such precoded streams are for instance on DVDs.
Once you set the windows speaker configuration to something other than stereo, the kmixer upmixes every stereo stream to that n-channel format by interleaving zeroes for unused speakers, and because the driver doesn't have a dolby digital live or DTS connect encoder, it disables the SPDIF ports and plays the stream via analog ports only.

hi dogbert its muds470 from avforums, i had a problem getting 5.1 dolby digital etc?

Anyways i installed the card again, used your drivers, now i am playing standard mp3s, and i get interference, i have followed your thread some of it i understand some i dont!
whats kernel etc??

Anyways, i had a previous soundcard i dont know maybe thats whats conflicting, i removed it, but i dont know how i can see if thats been disabled or it may even be onboard.

Now a few times i have used vlc changed to a52 and got full 5.1, i tried the kingdom etc it worked! But later i couldnt get it to work, ie the next day! I think maybe the drivers were conflicting, i have been to windows and deleted some of the files you have stated previously, ie dll files.

The drivers which i have saved are in a desktop folder, is that why theres a problem?

Hi Dogbert, this is about spdif-in.

so how do you determine that spdif-in recording works while XP is booting? and why should the sound "stop coming from the speakers"?

mohammed, driver conflicts are usually not an issue. also, I'd like to ask you to keep things on one board for the sake of simplicity - thanks.

The speakers I'm talking about are the speakers driven by my PC.

My CD player is connected to the S/PDIF-in port of my PC. When the CD player is playing a CD while the PC is booting, I hear the music coming from the speakers connected to the PC. The speakers are driven by the SIIG soundwave 7.1 card that has the S/PDIF-in port.

The sound comes out of the speakers while windows is showing the screen with the black background and the blue bar going back and forth. When the screen changes to the login screen with the blue background the music from the CD player stops coming from the PC's speakers.

that's the so called "monitor mode" - the soundcard converts the signal on the SPDIF-in port to the analog ports. This is fundamentally different from recording stuff on the spdif-in because it's done entirely in hardware. Exclusive access to the DAC is required for regular PCM playback so the monitoring stuff will be disabled when the soundcard is being initialized.
There might be some combination of register settings to re-enable this, but I haven't bothered to take a look at it because this is rarely used.

Hi, I have just purchased a new trust 5250 card and have installed your custom drivers. I have an optical lead connecting my optical out to my external Beresford dac then into my amp and speakers.

When I try to use kernel streaming, flac plays perfectly in winamp but when I try to play mp3’s I only get static! Bit odd, perhaps due to changing soundcard (used to be sb xfi)? Anyway in asio with the asio4all drivers it works perfectly with mp3’s and flac.

Is Asio giving me a bit perfect output with winamp?

Any input on how to fix the kernel streaming problem is much appreciated, if its bit perfect with asio tho that’s fine too!

Cheers

Simon

can you reproduce the static with foobar in conjunction with its KS output plugin?

A reinstall solved it, thanks for the help though.

However, other things such as youtube and slingplayer (for my slingbox) will not play sound and say faulty driver. Is there a fix for this?

Thanks

software players which use KS have exclusive access to the soundcard to the effect that other applications can't play sounds.
if you are using XP, you might not need to use KS to achieve bitperfect playback - I've put an article on my site which elucidates the basic principles of it.

Dogbert, any idea regarding my question about index marks in digital output?

sebastian, sorry, no idea - I've never used MDs. My guess would be that in a CD player after a track the SPDIF signal is shut down for a short amount of time and restarted. A regular software player usually plays the tracks in a continuous fashion, hence the tracks can't be detected.

OK, thanks for the information. I doubt that it interrupts the signal though because using such a technique would break the gapless playback functionality.

not necessarily - a buffer large enough to fill the gap between signal shutdown and start, a drive which can read faster than 1X and some DSP which glues the end of the finished track to the start of the new track should be sufficient means to achieve gapless playback. But as I said, that's just a guess.

Hello,
I am using the 'Xp' version of DB's driver with a trust card[sc5250]. I was hoping to use the spdif-out to an amp and the spdif-in on the card with a mic. I have tried every configuration[I think ] in the control panel that I can, but I can't get the mic to work.
Please advise.
thnx.

keeto, what mic do you have and what software do you use for recording?

Sorry, should have included:
a basic mini-jack mic [spdif-in] and msn.
the ''in/out'' config???- can't use the native drivers[with yours] for the analogue in so, any way around this?
Thnx

A basic mike won't work when connected to the SPDIF-in. You should connect it to the MIC jack (usually a red-coloured jack).

I have a connector/adaptor for a mic[mini-jack] to spdif. if I try to connect the mic to the analog input on the card[it's pink], there's no sound because[???] the drivers are not loaded for the card, only dogbert's...
do I need the native drivers for the card in order to get the mic to work?
thnx for your help

No, Dogbert's drivers should work fine. Try to connect to the MIC connector and enable in the control panel the "Mic boost" option (see additional cmedia driver configuration in the system contol panel), don't forget to turn on Microphone in the Volume control.

I have tried to use the analogue[mic in] on the sound card and the spdif out config.
The 'complaint' from the microphone setup wizard is that 'I can't have a simultaneous connection'...ie. pple would hear me, but I couldn't hear them[or vice-versa] with the config the way it is now.
Had a go at all possible[~] configurations in the C-media control panel[as well as the audio and sound setup[OS control panel] , but no joy.
There's no point in contacting the sc[trust] native driver company as this is not a version[dogbert's] that they have written.
Any other ideas...perhaps Dogbert could weigh in here.
thanks Egor all the same

keeto, the microphone is analog - the "converter" you have is presumably just an electrical connector for notebooks which have shared spdif/analog jacks. It needs some electronics for an analog signal to be converted to its digital representation. This is the reason why the SPDIF-In recording from the mic doesn't work.
As Egor correctly stated, you need to connect the mic to the analog mic-in. Recording from the mic-in works, but the recorded sound isn't automatically played to the digital ports.

thanks.

it is a connector/adaptor-one end fits onto the mic-jack and the other into the spdif on the card.
I was hoping to use the mic for conversing in msn/similar.
Is this possible or no...?
keeto

that's possible by using the mic-in.

maybe this will clarify things keeto:

no, it's ok... ...I do understand ...I do really...

the problem is and has been that when I try to set up the microphone wizard- he tells me that I cannot have a 'simultaneous' listen and speak situation...I can hear someone, but they can't hear me, if ya get me. The mic in and spdif out, and the use thereof at the same time, are the roots of the problem for me.
Please tell me of the 'checked boxes' that I should have in order to en-able:

mic in and spdif out[so I can use the conversation utility in msn]----in Dogbert's driver control panel

and many thanks to everyone[Leto, you've a hidden talent !-never mind your patience]

What am I missing?
....would someone please tell me?

by the drawing I would surmise that if I use the mic[in] from the sound card and spdif out from the card. then I should have mic capability. That is the way I set it up.
However, the mic calibration prog[''hardware test''] in XP won't accept this setup and says that I can't have it this way as I can't have a simultaneous[sound out and mic in] configuration.

These 2 connects are on 2 different channels surely[one for sound out and one for mic in] so why would one interfere with the other, which it is seemingly doing?
Initially I tried the spdif in[using a special adaptor/connector] and the spdif out, but no luck there.

Anyone got any ideas...someone...?

Have you followed the Installation Guide? There are troubleshooting links regarding WinXP and Vista installation at the bottom. Maybe it hasn't installed properly.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

keeto, you're doing everything correctly - the wizard is buggy. the hardware is limited to running at only one sampling frequency at a time which means that the recording and playback stream have to have identical sampling frequencies.
The purpose of the wizard is to determine whether a soundcard can record and play a stream simultaneously ("full-duplex"), but this fails because the recording stream can't be opened due to a incorrectly chosen sampling frequency. However, this doesn't affect normal apps like Skype or MSN - the kmixer usually converts the recording or playback stream to the necessary sampling rate to overcome this limitation, so it should work right out of the box.

ok...thank YOU.
A rather odd thing going on here now. The Sound Is Working from the mic, but there are NO drivers installed...no control panel, nada, I did get the mic working for a short time and then lost it...did a re-install of the MSN 8.1 and an uninstall of the Dog drivers, but found they were still on my system, re-started and there was the sound intro[ms]...and still the drivers were in the 'choice of device' and there was/is sound ..and the mic works..lol...can't believe this, very strange indeed.
will keep youse posted...

I did a re-install of the D's C-Media drivers and so far so good.
I have to do alot of 'messing' around with some of the choices[setting of the buttons] in the control panel[re-setting]. I have to re-configure the analog and digital output to my receiver for some reason...this is undone every time I exit from the systema nd restart msn...nuisance, but better than not working at all.
Cheers for now.

/quote[Have you followed the Installation Guide? There are troubleshooting links regarding WinXP and Vista installation at the bottom. Maybe it hasn't installed properly.]/quote

Slipstream that did the trick.

I did a 'long' install of the d's media drivers and no problems with sound or msn. problems seem to have been resolved with this style of install.
all the best & thnx,
keeto

Hi,

I have been using these drivers for quite some time now and they provide absolutely perfect AC3/DTS passthrough and bitperfect music playback. Many thanks to Dogbert for providing them.

However, I just wondered if someone could tell me what the options "Enable 5v signal levels" and "Enable copyright bit" in the S/PDIF output page of the audio control panel are for and when you would enable them.


Many thanks


Russell

the copyright bit can be enabled for creating DAT tapes/MD discs (?) with copy protection - the security of the SCMS system relies on it. The 5V level switch enables 5V voltage for the high level - the specs just mention it and so I've implemented it. I haven't bothered to test it with an oscilloscope.

Thanks for the reply,

So, should the 5v level be enabled or not.


Regards

Russell

I'd say disable, but the motto is: "whatever works".

The 5V 0.5V is for adjusting output level to optical/coax.
For optical, choose 5V
For coax, it depends on hardware. With on board 5V-0.5V convertor, choose 5V otherwise choose 0.5V

Why should it matter what it's set to for optical? How does an optical connection even have a voltage?

The CMI8738 chip itself does not have an optical output, just a "good old metal" output pin that gives low and high voltages.
This low-high voltage swing is configured with the checkbox, and obviously must match the used electrical to optical convertor.

Thank you for the new relase!

thanks DB and.....many thanks Axl Mas, for the heads up

The toslink requires 5V to power the LED light.

Your stereo's spdif input and output requires 0.5V (which is the spdif standard). You may damage your stereo if you give the stereo a 5V voltage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

The problem is that TTL voltage is 5V --- i.e. communications between one computer chip to another computer chip is 5V.

This whole confusion started with early soundblaster live sound cards with spdif in the daughter cards --- they communicated in 5V. Then Creative "forgot" that the spdif standard was 0.5V and the daughter card outputs the spdif signal "naked" at 5V via its RCA connector. Asus also made the same mistake in their early spdif module. Later designs of soundblaster cards and asus spdif modules reduced the voltage back to 0.5V before it goes out the RCA output connector.

There is also a potential problem with the input channel. Your stereo is designed to output the spdif signal at 0.5V, but early soundcards and motherboards forgot about that (and expects to be communicated via TTL signals at 5V). Without putting in an amplifier chip inside the soundcard or motherboard --- it doesn't hear the 0.5V spdif signal.

The CMI8738 chip has 2 spdif inputs --- the first spdif input can hear both 0.5V and 5V, the second spdif input can only hear 5V signals. So if you plug a stereo with a 0.5V spdif signal into the CMI8738's secondary spdif input (which can only hear 5V signals) --- you won't hear anything.

I have installed the driver, but I can't get Direct Stream working in my winamp output plug-in... it crash my winamp everytime.

When I use the official driver, it work with direct stream, I really don't know which output method is the most suitable for this driver.. Direct Sound? or what else? n how can I get direct stream working again? Thank You..

Hmm... I've been using the optical connection fine for a long time and have never enabled the 5V option. Perhaps it always has it at 5V for the optical connection, and the toggle only affects the coax connection.

It really depends on how they design the motherboard and the spdif module.

For example, this is a 2003 forum discussion on the design flaw of the discontinued Asus spdif module (the pictures are long gone in the page) --- the flawed spdif module had both inputs and outputs for both optical and coax.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/f96/looking-...dule-55195.html

I suspect that Asus motherboard just feeds the flawed spdif module with 5V (because it needs 5V for the LED light). So there were 2 potential problems: (1) the coax gets 10x the juice which could fry your stereo and (2) Asus use a million different chipset combinations in their motherboards and some of the chipsets can't listen to 0.5V spdif coax input from your stereo.

The corrected spdif modules have 2 versions: (1) coax and optical outputs and (2) coax input and output --- but no more 4 jacks version.

And they have to put an IC chip on the correct version to correct the voltage problem.

This is an old (1999) DIY hack to get spdif from an old soundblaster live card --- voltage converters everywhere in the DIY hack.

http://www.andrewkilpatrick.org/mind/spdif/

the hardware doesn't support direct recording of the playback stream, and there isn't a software implementation for a loopback recording pin in my driver yet. This is the most requested feature by now, so when I manage to get some free time, I might implement it.

I'm wondering if it's possible to software decode Dolby Digital coming from the SPDIF input and output the sound in multichannel to the analog ports. I have a XBox 360 attached to my trust sc-5250 via TOSLink and I can only select Stereo, triying to select DD only outputs clicks and distorted sounds.

Get a receiver, maybe? The whole point is to bypass the analog part of c-media card.