okay, so I bought the sound blaster x-fi xtreme audio pcie card because it offered me the ability to us optical in which I am using to connect my PS3 to my 7.1 speakers.

i enabled all the sound output formats for the ps3 and some of them didn't work so i bought windvd 9 plus blu-ray. it helped and now I can use a lot more.

the only problem is that I can't get the dolby digital to work. when i start up the ps3 with it set to ouput in dolby digital, i get nothing but static and it does the same thing when i play a ps3 game or a movie with dolby digital.

what really aggrivates me is that creative advertises that the card supports dolby digital, but only after you get the free download for power dvd. i never got any material when i bought it for a free download that the website says comes with every purchase.

when i checked the website for solutions, it says there is supposed to be a decoder tab in the audio console of my control panel but that's nonexistant on my computer.

so i tried contacting customer support via e-mail, that was a serious mistake.

they offered me four links, two of which were down, the third offered no solutions for vista users (which i am and i told them i was since they asked) and the fourth was already information that i had looked into. then they tried to sell me some headphones....

so here i am, four message boards later trying to find someone who can help me.

oh yeah, did i mention that it's supposed to be a 7.1 surround sound card but for some reason i can only get 5.1 out of it with my 7.1 speakers?

i can't beleive my brand loyalty to creative has lead me this astray after all these years!

The audio pcie version is akin to an original audigy as far as technology is concerned, it software emulates eax and openal. I was considering buying one, but decided that i was better sticking with my audigy 2 untill they release a true audigy for pci-e. To be fair though, surely send it back if you're unhappy with it, it's like £22 in the uk so like 35 dollars i'd guess, it's not that bad to lose money on.

unfortunatly, money is a problem for me.

i know i must sound really, extremly cheap but i cannot afford to throw money away but getting another card. i need to stick with this.

your estimate wasn't too far off, i got the card fo 49.99 american dollars. which is fifty bucks i can't get back since i bought it awhile ago and have long since past the period for a RMA.

vista support for sound blaster was non-existent last i checked for my card. i have the soundblaster x-fi extreme gamer and i had to install it with winxp drivers. they work ( although i only game and listen to win media player)

http://hosted.filefront.com/braziliantech

Ah unlucky mate, there were some non official drivers for x-fi cards on vista that were floating about, i'm not sure where they are as i'm still on xp but perhaps someone else knows.

yeah i heard about what they did to that one guy who was writing drivers for people on the cretive website. they threatened him with legal action or some bull like that so i don't think you can find them anymore.

does anyone else know?

oh but wait, there's even more...

i've been looking through alot of the stuff they have on the website and according the tutorial, i am missing a good deal.

there's supposed to be a gaming mode, entertainment mode and audio creation mode. I have only entertainment. even that is missing some key ingredients. I am supposed to have an icon in a program for dts and dolby digital decoding. that's not there. what's also missing is a svm icon and a digital i/o icon for all sorts of other stuff.

i have been totally robbed!

okay so i stand corrected. now i now that the gaming mode is only available in some of the higher end cards. i go the idea mine had gaming mode because i sent an e-mail to creative tech support and they directed me to a tutorial that included all the features of all the cards instead of something specific for my own.

okay....

so it turns out, vista is the problem. vista doesn't support dolby digital.

can anyone explain why?

can anyone explain how to work around that?

so now i find an artical contradicting everything creative says on their website.
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6411277.html

i am running around in circles here and would really appreciate some help.

So i found that apparently, the xtreme audio doesn't come with the full software and for that model you only get dts and dolby digital when you play a dvd on your dvd-rom drive.

too bad i need it for the s/pdif in. my whole thing here is who makes a card with optical digital in and not expect people to use it as a reciever for something else where they might just need dts and dd.

yeah i have checked out that site and a couple of others... nothing seems to work!