6-Speaker Audio Playback Problems on Original DVDs

[AHSGoose]

Recently, after I bought my SB Audigy 2 (regular) sound card, I've been having trouble playing DVDs. The audio is horrible, there is large amounts of interrupting static and the the audio that does play inbetween bursts of silence and static is distorted and scratchy.

I tried using Cyberlink PowerDVD (came with my computer) initially, then got a demo of WinDVD Pro and it had the same issue. I then downloaded Maximus DVD player from Zdnet and voila, same issue. I also tried to play DVDs using Windows Media player 9, and it gave me an error message saying "Windows Media Player cannot play this DVD."
I used two different DVDs, both brand-new, both able to play fine on my DVD player hooked up to my TV set.

I had the latest drivers, firmware, everything for my DVD drive and Audigy 2. At long last I changed the speaker setting in PowerDVD from 6-channel audio (I have Monsoon MH505 5.1 speaker system) to 2-speaker audio and then it worked FINE.

Why is this? I have a 6-channel sound card in the Audigy 2, I have 6-channel speaker system. Why should I have to settle for 2-speaker sounds? When I set it to 2-speaker only the front speakers play. This is really annoying especially considering all speakers work when I use Winamp or play games with surround sound like Neverwinter Nights, which positions its sfx beautifully using all speakers.

I should reword the problem slightly.

Yes, the sound is distorted, but the most prominent problem is that it STUTTERS. It STUTTERS BADLY. There will be a burst of distorted sound, then silence, then a burst of distortion-free, clear sound, then a tiny burst of static, and it continues like this. These "bursts" last less than half a second usually.

I checked my sound levels, don't see a problem. My speakers don't use Spdif or digital or whatever, each has a separate plug that goes into the subwoofer, then the woofer has 4 separate plugs that go into the audigy 2, they are front speakers, rear speakers, and the center.

I unmuted Spdif to see if that would do anything, no dice. All the settings in the DVD players seem ok too. In the audigy2 setup panels I have CMSS-3D II enabled and in PowerDVD I have Dolby Prologic 2 enabled, but disabling both or one of each has no effect on the problem.

One final point. Under the Information Tab in PowerDVD, it says:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Information :
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2100+ running at 1738 MHz
3DNow! Technology : In Use
Enhanced 3DNow! Technology : In Use
3DNow! Professional Technology : In Use
IA MMX Technology : In Use
IA Streaming SIMD Extensions : In Use
IA SSE 2 : Not Detected
Video Accelerator : NVIDIA Hardware Video Acceleration (in use)
Multispeakers Audio Device : Not Detected
SPDIF Output Device : Not Detected
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Note it says "Multispeakers Audio Device: Not Detected. WTF??



Any feedback would be appreciated.

[DarkVamp]

Hi,

install this driver and it will run perfect.

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=340

[AHSGoose]

thx i'll give it a try and let you know what happens.

[DarkVamp]

Hi,

the problem with the sound is that without this little IDE driver your CPU goes up to 100% and there is not enough horspower left to do the 5.1 decoding.

[RabidDog]

what exactly is this problem? via drivers or creative drivers?

[DarkVamp]

Hi,

problem is that without this driver the MSI maonboard don´t use U-DMA 33 for the DVD ROM DRIVE. In PIO the cpu is about 100% all the time.