SBLive! AC-3 pass-through under Win2K

[Liquid Snake]

It looks like AC-3 pass-through doesn't work for many people here under Win2K. However, <A HREF="http://www.techextreme.com/display.asp?ID=293&Page=1">here</A> is a article from Tech Extreme that claims they were able to get AC-3 to work under Win2K. Here's a snippet:

I'm guessing some folks will need a slight translation on what Mr. Peck relayed to me, so here it goes. The current, shipping drivers for the Platinum 5.1 already include support for AC-3 passthrough under Windows 2000. However, in order to get the feature to work, you need to use a software DVD player that makes use of Creative's ac3api.dll file.

[This message has been edited by Liquid Snake (edited 16 January 2001).]

[DosFreak]

Yeah, I heard the 5.1 works in Windows 2000 but since I don't have a 5.1 or the drivers or a hookup for digital well I can't test it. The 5.1 drivers SHOULD work fine on plain ol' lives tho.

[Gurm]

Nope. I have yet to hear of ANYONE with a 5.1 getting AC3 in Win2k. And I religiously monitor the Creative Newsgroups.

Creative is aware of the problem and it's scheduled as a fix for LW4. Grr.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Liquid Snake]

I myself don't have any 5.1 system (yet), so I can't test it either. According to the article, Win2K SP2 should fix any AC-3 problems.

[Gurm]

No AC3 receiver here, either. Otherwise I'd test SP2 (RC installed here) for y'all.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Digital_Hell_Native]

The solution is finally available.
Thx to Tristan from the Creative SBLive Newsgroup.
It works (well at least with PowerDVD).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Sorry about the reposting of this message, but I f***** up with the last

one, some of the links didn't work.

USE THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK! _THIS IS NOT FROM CREATIVE LABS!_

READ AND ACCEPT THE LISENCE BEFORE YOU INSTALL IT.

FOR SBLIVE ALL VERSIONS EXCEPT FOR THE 5.1 (5.1 cards should already be

working with the drivers from the install CD, the CineMaster patch do work

though).

Enables AC3 on SB Live with PowerDVD, it's just an upgrade, you need to have

Live!Ware 3.0 for Windows 2000 installed already.

http://trix.ctw.cc/lw3ac3up.exe

Enables AC3 with CineMaster with the above update installed. CineMaster is

kind of buggy though, but if it hangs, just press forward and then back, and

it will release, unlike with the regular drivers, when you have to reboot to

get it to release.

http://trix.ctw.cc/cineac3.exe

If the above links doesn't work, here's a mirror for both the files:

http://www.angelfire.com/movies/trix/bin/

--Tristan</font>

[Indiana]

Great link, thousand thanks!

The first time I heard 5.1 sound with my SBLive! (not 5.1) Platinum in Win2k.

Yes, it actually works, at least the link for PowerDVD with the PowerDVD 3.0 trial.

I probably won't try the Cinemaster link because last time I installed Cinemaster2000 on my Win2k partition it messed up every other DVD software

[DentyCracker]

I'm almost tempted to try those when I reinstall Win2k as some kind person (one of my interfering brothers no doubt) has fubar it. Should have done so last night but was too damn tired from reconfiguring Cisco switches that I didn't know the passwords for. Of course this gives me a good excuse to go "borrow" my cousin's AC3 receiver

[DosFreak]

Got my 5.1 yesterday but I don't have AC3 Receiver yet. I don't see why the 5.1 drivers wouldn't work on a non-5.1 card tho. They look the same to me. Anyone try the 5.1 drivers on their non-5.1 cards?

[Digital_Hell_Native]

AFAIK because AC3 under PowerDVD already works with the 5.1. Only problem was that it has newer drivers which are not available for download. So some smart guy just took some files which enable ac3 and put them in a patch.