PureVideo and AC3Filter

[scbundy]

Man that did not work. Trying to get my SBLive X-Gamer 5.1 to do any kind of AC3 Decoding just cratered. First, I tried getting the SPDIF passthru. However, I don't think it even has passthru. I thought it did, but it wouldn't work. I went to creative's site and they were so unhelpful that I'd rate them as having a negative amount of help, which means that help I received in the past was being undone in spacetime. On the forum was even debate as to whether or not the SBLive 5.1 cards can even do this. Nobody really knew and Creative's only response was "read the sticky". The sticky doesn't say which cards have passthru and which don't. They wouldn't answer the question, just kept refering people to a sticky that didn't exist. What I tried was I told AC3Filter to passthru AC3 and DTS. Then clicked the "Digital Out Only" button and tried every single port on the back of the card. Nothing. So that failed and I gave up with passthru. Which isn't a total loss b/c I only want to use my stereo for DVD's, for normal TV playback I want the TV speakers.

Next I tried software decoding but low and behold it wouldn't let me select 5.1 speakers. Only Headphones, 2 speaker, or 4 speaker. I don't know why. The device drivers had my card listed as SB Live Value! Uhh, wrong! It's a 5.1, the drivers I downloaded from their site were for the 5.1. But it wouldn't recognize the card as having a center channel and subwoofer. The forum's are full of complaints that the SBLive cards are broken with Windows XP.

So that didn't work either.

ARGH!

If Oblivion wasn't coming out next week I'd just move my brand new SB X-Fi into the HTPC. But somehow I suspect I'll be playing Oblivion more than watching DVD's I've already seen 20 times. Sooooo, I'm going to get my brother to place an order for a 30 dollar soundcard that has SPDIF optical passthru and charge it to his company's account and will pay him back 6 months from now when the wife lets me spend money on PC upgrades again

Argh, I want that hour of my life back.

[scbundy]

If anyone is curious, this is the card I had in mind:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...164887&CatId=0

The prices are in Canadian.

[ben_95sl1]

ncix.com sometimes has the chaintech AV-710 for $20, in fact I think that was a week or two ago...regular price is still only $31. tigerdirect is a little evil IMO. I own both the chaintech AV-710 and a CMI 8738 (4ch though) card with SPDIF out. The chaintech card (envy24ht-s) probably has better analog outs vs the aopen CMI 8738 MX, I'm guessing...atleast you'll find a number of reviews for the chaintech, and a much larger user base. If optical out is all you need, then I would stick with the chaintech. I've had problems with CMI drivers before, but have had no issues with the VIA drivers for chaintech.

[scbundy]

I'll take a look at that card, thx.

[ben_95sl1]

Originally Posted by scbundy

I'll take a look at that card, thx.

after briefly looking at it....the chaintech is 7.1 analog out vs 5.1, supports 96khz/24bit. The aopen is a lesser card.

[scbundy]

Ya I noticed that too. It'll be the card I get if I can't find a free one a friend might have kicking around. Come on, everybody has an old soundcard kicking around!

[bobrap]

For two days now I've been trying to get AC3 to work with DVDs. If I play an AVI with ac3 audio, it plays fine. DVDs lock up. I'm using Nvidia decoder and ac3 filter. I really don't know what other info to give that might help. Any help is appreciated, I would really like to use just one player.

[svemuri]

Originally Posted by bobrap

For two days now I've been trying to get AC3 to work with DVDs. If I play an AVI with ac3 audio, it plays fine. DVDs lock up. I'm using Nvidia decoder and ac3 filter. I really don't know what other info to give that might help. Any help is appreciated, I would really like to use just one player.

PureVideo + AC3 filter locks up on DVDs. Try FFDSHOW Audio Filter. It seems to work for me.
Sarat.