Spdif DTS/DD Surround stopped working on Creative SB X-FI - no sound, only when using stereo

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farbot

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Apr 24, 2013
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10,510
A while ago I bought an Optical out spdif cable and connected it via my soundblaster x-fi to my new Onkyo home cinema receiver. I use kmplayer and by googling I found out I apparently had to downgrade kmplayer to version KMPlayer_3.4.0.59 cause that's the only that doesn't hang when you try to play spdif out (it seems to bug and load very slow to where it will start playing without sound). Everything was working great with this older version of kmplayer. Until I saw this version shows the subtitles of any file later than it should...
So forgetting about why I downgraded in the first place I updated the kmplayer and now all my spdif sound was gone except for stereo (damn!). I remembered and uninstalled the newest version, then installed the 3.4.0.59 again but it stayed broken! Now when I want to play surround DTS/DD mkv files wether on kmplayer, vlc media player or wmp classic I get no sound whatsoever, only when I play stereo video files does it work. I don't understand how this can be.

So I updated everything: my creative sb x-fi soundcard driver and installed the creative DTS/Dolby Digital drivers separately, updated AC3 too, and got the 64bit Haali Media Splitter. I've tried every setting on kmplayer & AC3 and currently have the settings from the threads with these screenshots:

I'm assuming installing the new kmplayer broke it, and somehow the uninstall and reinstall of the older version didn't help, but I could be wrong. And how could this break spdif surround only and for other media players too?! So at the moment only stereo sound can be transmitted through the spdif.

Does anyone know why the optical out may not be working anymore and what I could do to fix. It's so frustrating. I've spent hours and tried every setting from every forum post I could find.

Btw why I'm not using HDMI out for audio:
I changed from HDMI out from Nvidia GTX560 because I didn't like seeing Multichannel PCM on my decoder and it also prevented me from using Dolby PL2 or Neo6 Cinema settings on the Onkyo cause stereo would be sent as 5ch PCM too. Seemed like a shame to not be able to use my Onkyo Home Cinema fully.

When the spdif was working I could see what was playing: DTS or DD or Stereo and for stereo use the receiver's great sound settings like Dolby pl2 or Neo6 Cinema. How come the spdif could stop working like that and what could I do to fix?

TLDR: spdif surround sound stopped working on all programs, presumably after an update of kmplayer. reinstall of older version didn't help, any ideas?
 
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thently

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have you made sure in sound settings in the control panel that the digital spdif output is the default audio device? also is the encoding on the PC end set to one supported by the stereo? I mean the link frequency 44khz 96khz ect. I had an issue like this and had to downgrade my x-fi driver to an old one. Ever since Windows 7 came out the older pci soundblaster drivers have sucked monkey balls.
 
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farbot

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Apr 24, 2013
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Yes spdif is default audio device. All 3 frequencies the soundcard can put out via SPDIF being 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz and 96 kHz are checked and supported by the Onkyo as specified in the manual. I'm gonna see about finding legacy drivers, if anyone else has more ideas please share.
 
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farbot

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Apr 24, 2013
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I've tried installing SBXF_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0013 and SBXF_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0015 older sb x-fi drivers but they say there's no related hardware. Currently using driver version 6.0.1.1348. I can't seem to find other version nrs yet. I tried using the "former driver" option in device manager (translated from dutch) but it just installed the same one after reboot apparently.

Thently thanks, there's nothing much that helps me there though, I installed shark but no change. Except maybe disabling Microsoft DTV/DVD decoder they talk about? Does anyone know if this would be of benefit? Cause it's a bit lengthy to change permissions to be able to edit 2 filenames. like said here: http://www.makeyoutubevideo.com/disablemicrosoftdtvdvdvideodecoder.html

It's odd that it worked before and stopped working when reinstalling kmplayer (I assume.) Any other ideas?

update: installed 6.0.1.1347 creative sb x-fi drivers from the cdrom that came with the card, that included a dts pack, but no change. Also tried to get my onboard sound of my Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 mobo working, but no go. Installed the realtek drivers but it doesn't appear in device manager or audio devices, and can't find an enabling setting in the bios. So far it looks like I'll have to stick with hdmi out, which is a shame.

It seems I won't find a solution for this problem, but maybe someone can answer me this
a) what happens when stereo encoded video files are played when the nvidia hdmi sends it to my receiver as 5.1 PCM multichannel? With some files more than others I clearly hear all 5 speakers. Is some kind of surround effect used? Does the video player do it? I would like to know because I prefered optical because surround effects like Dolby Pro Logic 2 and Neo6 cinema could be applied via the Onkyo amp which is now sadly impossible cause you can only get multichan
 
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farbot

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Apr 24, 2013
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I enabled the optical out on my Gigabyte mobo, realtek drivers. When trying the optical out there it's the same in kmplayer and in VLC player IF I use a/52 over SPDIF instead of Dolby Surround: no surround, stereo does work. If I use "same as input" for ac3 & dts instead of SPDIF in kmplayer it sends surround as stereo over the creative optical out. Boo creative!

But when using the on-mobo optical out it does transmit via Dolby Surround 5.1, only if I set 5.1 sound in the advanced tab in sound devices for the realtek optical out (if I use 2 channels nothing comes out), and it's just transmitting stereo but the amp sees it as 5.1 which means I can't use Dolby PL2 or Neo6 again, UNLESS I check Dolby Pro Logic 2 in the sound devices, so no choice then besides DolbyPL2 for stereo or pure stereo.

So very odd, both the spdif out configs for realtek and creative are flawed. Creative used to work fine: send pure stereo or pure dolby or dts, but suddenly it stopped working, I think after updating kmplayer, but I think it may be more related to updating creative drivers. Oh well, At least I know my options now. Switch between hdmi or creative optical for full options, or just keep realtek optical with PL2 auto-enabled for stereo. I also compared the sound quality of an explosion and vlc player sounds better than kmplayer&ac3 and hdmi sounds better than optical, the explosions are a bit more crackly (in a bad way) on 3 combinations (optical with vlc & km, hdmi with km) except hdmi & vlc, then it's crystal clear. For stereo however, optical is better cause I can then use neo6 & dolby pl2 from the amp, and I just found I don't have to set on the Onkyo in Source Setup - Audio selector if it's hdmi or optical, just by changing the standard audio device on pc the amp detects if it's coming from optical or hdmi. So I'm finally sorted, best surround and best stereo sound found. Hope this thread helps others.
 
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