DDL Soundcards

[Hi Ho]

I'm thinking about getting a PC sound card with DDL (DolbyDigital Live) so I can connect my PC to my theater and achieve full surround sound in games without running six 35' coaxial cables.

The two I'm looking at are the Turtle Beach Montego TBS-3300-01 and the Bluegears b-Enspirer. Does anyone have any experience with these cards? I want stable Vista compatible drivers. I'm also looking for excellent analog performance since I have good speakers at my PC desk. I currently have an X-Fi Extreme Music and the sound quality is excellent but the drivers are poor and it does not have DDL.

 

[Djizasse]

The X-Fi has DDL, but it's not active.

I haven't tried this, cause I don't use Vista, but you could have a go and tell me if it really works

http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/x-fi-drivers/

 

[gus6464]

If you are using optical make sure you get a fairly silent cooling system. I have encountered a lot of electronic interference in the past when using optical through PC to receiver because of loud fans in the case. At very low volumes I would get slight hums and hisses. I tried everything from onboard, PCI, and even a variation of onboard that uses a separate module like the one found on DFI motherboards (Karazhan audio module) and would still encounter the same problem. In the end I just gave up went fully external with USB module isolated from PC case and interference went away. Of course if you wanted to go fully silent with a watercooled solution with isolated radiator that would be loads of fun to build.

 

[Hi Ho]

Wow, how did I never hear about that? I'm downloading the stuff now. The "Installation Disc" by Daniel_K is over 400 MB and I can only find it on Bittorrent. It's holding steady at 550KB/S though so it should be done soon. I'm really curious if this will work.

If you are using optical make sure you get a fairly silent cooling system. I have encountered a lot of electronic interference in the past when using optical through PC to receiver because of loud fans in the case. At very low volumes I would get slight hums and hisses. I tried everything from onboard, PCI, and even a variation of onboard that uses a separate module like the one found on DFI motherboards (Karazhan audio module) and would still encounter the same problem. In the end I just gave up went fully external with USB module isolated from PC case and interference went away. Of course if you wanted to go fully silent with a watercooled solution with isolated radiator that would be loads of fun to build.

I have never expeirenced any extra noise using either optical, coaxial, or analog. The noise level of the fans has absolutely nothing to do with the noise floor of the sound card output unless you're using a microphone.

 

[gus6464]

Wow, how did I never hear about that? I'm downloading the stuff now. The "Installation Disc" by Daniel_K is over 400 MB and I can only find it on Bittorrent. It's holding steady at 550KB/S though so it should be done soon. I'm really curious if this will work.


I have never expeirenced any extra noise using either optical, coaxial, or analog. The noise level of the fans has absolutely nothing to do with the noise floor of the sound card output unless you're using a microphone.

The noise of fans wasn't my problem. It was the vibrations they were causing in my case that were giving me issues. I like to use big cases with all my PCs because I am a picky about cooling and want the best possible airflow. The big case doesn't help because it's more prone to vibration than smaller cases. Then again you might have a small case so I was just throwing that out there because I am a fan of the newer external USB cards.

 

[Hi Ho]

I fail to see how vibrations could possibly affect signals traveling through an optical cable.

Anyway, I have run into a road block with the DDL unlock for my X-Fi. It appears that the Auzentech drivers required to make it work now require a valid serial number to download.

I can say for sure that I will not be buying another Creative product. What other company cripples their products like Creative? Not one that I can think of. Why include a DDL chip and not use it???

 

[gus6464]

You trying to do the Unlocker right?

If so give me an hour or so to see what I can find.

 

[Hi Ho]

I think I actually found a torrent that includes the necessary files from the Auzentech driver so I'm going to give it a go. It's taking a while to uninstall the Creative drivers.

 

[gus6464]

Tried that torrent, it has crap seeders. Anyway I found the driver and will be sending you a direct http link via PM.

 

[Hi Ho]

I got DDL working after downloading the torrent (it was a fast download). The problem was that even though my receiver showed it was receiving 7.1 Dolby Digital, everything came out of the front left and right as if there was no DDL.

I tried the newer driver that gus6464 sent and It appears that Auzentech caught on and tweaked the driver so it won't work. After seemingly successfully updating the DDL module the DDL option in the Console Launcher has dissapeared and I'm back to square one.

I tried installing the old DDL module and it simply says, "A new version is already installed. Installer will now exit".

So, it looks like I will have to reinstall everything again. I'm tired of rebooting over and over so I'm giving up for the night.

 

[sparky77]

Try using spdifer with your last config you mentioned, it will insure that the data is transfered to the sound card properly. You can download it here.
http://ac3filter.net/projects/spdifer
I know it works with 5.1, but can't be too sure about 7.1, but its worth a try.

 

[Djizasse]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out :\