Garbled sound from SBLive!

Dave T · May 20, 2001

I'm having a weird problem that I'm hoping somebody has seen before. I have both a M-Audio 24/96 card and a Creative Labs SBLive! card in my HTPC. The 25/96 card is working like a chahm (like we say in Boston). I'm using it for audio from both WinDVD and Siren Jukebox, and it sounds excellent. The SBLive! is another story. With WinDVD, it seems to sound fine. However, with Siren, and any PC games or other PC sound sources, the sound is horrible. It's hard to describe, but I'd say it sound garbled. I'm not talking about the subtle inferiority to be expected from the Soundblaster card compared to the 24/96 - it sounds totally garbled, like the timing is off or something. I've tried both digital outs on the SBLive, as well as the analog out, and they're both the same. I've tried sending the output to my Casa Nova, as well as to headphones, and they're both the same.

The weird thing is that WinDVD seems to sound fine.

Can somebody please help?

- Dave

xcel · May 20, 2001

Hi Dave:

___First off, are you switching the Windows mapped Audio out via your Control Panel --> Sounds and Multimedia --> Audio tab --> Sound Playback â€“ Preferred Device to the Live Value from the DiO or AP2496? I have not had your experience with the messed up sound but how about trying this as another test. Pull all the cards except for the Creative and Video card. Kill off all the Live Ware 3.0 garbage as well as SB Emulation. Run a few games and or MP3â€™s via Siren. Is the problem still there? If not, install the various cards including the M-Audio one by one in the exact spots you had them placed before and see if something comes up. If so, you may have to shuffle irqâ€™s around by shuffling your cards and/or forcing irqâ€™s in your MBâ€™s bios if possible.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes

___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.

___ xcel@midwest.idsonline.com

------------------

New E-Mail address for the time being ... waynegerdes@earthlink.net

Dave T · May 20, 2001

Wayne:

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am switching cards as you said. I'm going to hold off on pulling cards for now - my PC just got installed in a rack, and I don't want to pull it out and start pulling cards just yet. I think I'll try tweaking a few more things today, and then call AVS (where I got it) tomorrow, if I don't get anywhere. In the meantime, if you or anyone else has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

- Dave

sukothai · Aug 22, 2001

Hi Dave:

Just in case you haven't found a solution to this... I found that turning off hardware acceleration in [Control Panel -> Sounds and Multimedia Properties -> Audio -> Advanced] solves the problem for me. I know this isn't ideal as Hardware acceleration is prefered, but it works.

I suspect that this is really an IRQ sharing problem, but after swapping cards with no success a few times, I'm happy to have a solution that does work.

-Ben

Sauron · Aug 22, 2001

Is your HTPC based on a VIA chipset?

There have been a bunch of complaints in many forums about SBLIVE and crackly, crappy sound in VIA based PCs.

It has something to do with latency on the PCI bus. Basically something in the PC just interfers with the audio data as it is sent over the PCI bus.

sukothai · Aug 23, 2001

Yup, I have the VIA on an Epox EP-8K7A+. I saw the references to the VIA/SBLive interaction problems, but I didn't see any solutions other than trying for non-shared interupts. My guess is that turning off hardware acceleration eliminates the interupt problem as it goes to SBLive board less frequently.

I also have an ATI AIW Radeon in this. The question is whether it's the ATI or the SBLive that's at fault for mishandling interupts. Or it could be the network card...

Garbled sound from SBLive!

Our Vendors

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities