Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

DigitalDirect — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:29:18 GMT

Vista/Win 7 Audio Stack and Room EQ questions…

1. Any easy way to get bit-perfect output via USB, FW, S/PDIF?

a. People on the forums are clamoring for this, and are presently running into various issues with third-party drivers (Lynx, M-Audio) not really being up to speed in Win 7.

b. This approach allows doing PCM, 16 and 24 bit HDCD decoding, etc., externally, and thus people with expensive DACs will feel they’re getting their money’s worth .

2. The room EQ and related features are tremendous. And they’re even available in the Windows 7 starter edition! Imagine, a $359 HP mini as a digital media server, but it works. The beneficial effect is clearly apparent. I’m using a calibrated microphone and medium-level electronics in my office; moving this to the reference system will be very interesting.

a. Is HDCD content be decoded “prior” to going through the EQ?

b. In other words, can the room EQ take advantage of the extra quality available in HDCD encoding?

c. Is it possible to export the EQ settings to another computer? The laptop used to make the measurements might not be the one used as an audio server, even though the DAC will be the same.

3. Are the effects of room EQ, etc., once set up for the main USB audio device, also available via S/PDIF?

a. There’s a mysterious “disable system effects” check box there, and we’re wondering what it does?

b. I personally would rather do the EQ in the computer, and from there, to the DAC.

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

Tim — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:10:11 GMT

Good info,

PC: Gateway GZ7220

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Sound card: IDT High Definition Audio

Amplifier: Peachtree Decco

Speakers: Vienna Acoustics Bach Grand

Settings:

Formats supported

DTS Audio (no sound)

Dolby Digital (default; works)

Micorsoft WMA Pro Audio (have not tried)

Sample rates:

44.1 KHz (only one that works) 96.0 KHz (amp supports)

48.0 KHz 176.4 KHz

88.2 KHz 192.0 KHz

Level: set @ 24

all enhancements disabled

Formats:

only 16 bit 441000 Hz works but

44100, 48000, 96000, & 192000 Hz available in 16 & 24 bit

I use toslink to connect to my amplifier, USB worked for awhile and then suddenly produced static, digital coaxial (digital audio) produced a hum, it was nice having multiple options. The only problem I have is not being able to use any of the sampling rates other than 16 bit 44100 Hz, my amp supports 16 bit 96000 Hz pcm when I set the default format to anything else there is no sound (not even when I click on the "test" button). I believe I can get better sound quality than what I get currently. I mostly listen to soundscapes (meditative/classical) and smooth jazz via music choice (internet)

Any suggestions on what I should do to get optimum sound quality from this configuration?

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

Wendy — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:08:26 GMT

When playing songs on my computer, I can hear through both speakers. But when playing songs into paltalk or yahoo rooms, the sound from only one speaker is transmitted, greatly affecting the sound quality I'm sending. This is especially true for older songs that were meant to play different sounds/voices on different channels. Is there any solution?

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re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

wrathofdoom — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:02:18 GMT

Guys, I just replaced my old dimension with a dell xps 630 with vista. My prior setup had the digital output (s/pdif) running into my home stereo while at the same time running my 5.1 computer speakers. It was nice, they sounded great together or separate. Now I am told that due to piracy concerns this is no longer possible. I think I have a realtek sound card. My computer has s/pdif, analog and Hdmi outputs. Any suggestions?

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

Spiny — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:15:37 GMT

Works great with VMC. ac3filter can encode to dd 5.1 too.

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

AbeF — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:54:49 GMT

Vista Team

Are there any plans to support simultaneous analog and digital sound output from within Vista ? Kinda weird that XP does it but Vista has been crippled in this regard - particularly for those who use VMC.

Thanks

Abe

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

Kristin Carr — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:04:41 GMT

Hi Xman,

It sounds like your problem is definitely a driver one. Unfortunately, my only suggestion is to contact the manufacturer that provided the driver.

This doesn't solve your problem right now, but one thing that we have been trying to do is get the industry to converge on certain audio hardware standards (like HD Audio, USB, etc.) so that the Microsoft driver can support hardware from a wide variety of manufacturers. This would mean that you wouldn't necessarily have to rely on a third party for the driver, but would be able to get basic audio with our driver.

-Kristin

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

dnm — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:58:52 GMT

S/PDIF will not work as a audio protected path, I guess that is why you would need an HDMI connection.

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

Xman — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:12:21 GMT

Kristin,

My laptop has SIS 7012 audio and offers S/PDIF. Unfortunatelly ever since I moved to Vista the PC crashes every time I use the Media player or stream something from lets say youtube.

The laptop runs rock solid only if I go to the device manager and disable the SIS7012 Audio Driver.

I am using all vista drivers but have failed to find a solution and the computer without audio is just not fun at all... I am not using any 6.1 feature only the stereo would do.

Please contact me if you have any suggestion.

Regards

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

berimbau — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:37:32 GMT

Jaxim / Nick,

I also have problems with my Creative soundsystem. I have the X-Fi Music with the latest Vista 64 drivers from Creative. With my 5.1 set I am unable to send signals to my subwoofer, the satelite and centre speakers are no problem. Redirection to the centrespeakers is no problem, but that is not why I have a subwoofer offcourse.

Do Microsoft support this problem and when is it going to be solved?

Thanks,

Mark

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

caywen — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:45:17 GMT

Kind of off-topic, but on the subject of Windows Vista audio, I have kind of a disappointment with the treatment of USB audio products. I bought a Logitech USB Headset and at first it seemed to work great. But a huge gripe is that with most programs, including Windows Media and iTunes, unplugging or plugging it in while audio is playing results in either no audio, or audio playing from the wrong speakers.

This is a significantly worse experience than using the plain old headphone jack.

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

m04arch — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:14:21 GMT

Hey Nick, slightly off the topic but related...

I have a persistent problem with listening to audio with BTooth headset (v2.0) both on Moto Rokr S9 and Sony DR-BT21-G. Both support A2DP and all the whiz bang features. My system is 3 month old 2.4GHz Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop running Vista Ult 32b and I believe a Broadcom 2.0 BTooth transmitter/receiver. I've had no problems with these headsets with my mp3 player but one *techie* suggests that it is the generic MS BTooth driver stack. Will SP-1 deliver a more robust stack. Any suggestions? Link follows http://www.djkaty.com/drupal/vista/bluetootha2dp

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

newscientist2000 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:57:26 GMT

Wow great article, luckily my sound system is real basic, no fancy stuff here...so I dont run into any trouble with digital/analog sound output.

Although I do have a converter analog digital converter box, that I picked up on clearance sale at RadioShack, didnt need it but it was a dollar so, and now I have a better idea of what it does.

Great info, very clear :-)

re: Using S/PDIF to send audio from your PC

jaxim — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:35:32 GMT

I wish Vista could handle my 6.1 creative speaker system. None of my back speakers work. It may be a driver issue, but Microsoft should still allow systems that are not the conventional 2.1, 5.1, or 7.1.

Also, I'd like to be able to have some applications output to one audio device and others output to another -- all at the same time. I also wish the volume mixer could be used to make an audio device into the default system rather than that feature be hidden down in the Playback Devices window. Also it is a bit annoying when you switch the default audio device, you have to close all applications that output sound in order for the change to take into effect.