Need to Connect Audio Cable from DVD Burner?

[TomBrooklyn]

I am installing a Lite-On SHM-165H6S DVD Burner to a Dell Dimension 2400 with integrated audio (on the motherboard.)

The burner comes with an audio cable and instructions to "connect it if neccessary."

Could anyone tell me if it necessary or how I would know if it's necessary?

And if it is necessary, what would I connect it to and any idea about the whereabouts of the connection point?

[Inventive Software]

That little cable is for days of yore when audio was played through your DVD drive via analogue. These days, players such as Winamp and Windows Media Player can do it digitally through the IDE or SATA cable, so the audio cable's not needed.

If you absolutely must feel you need to connect it, look for the 4 pin slot on the motherboard that's CD or audio related. Should have a cover around it to stop different cables getting connected.

[Sirber]

It's an antique cable. No need of it since windows 98!

[TomBrooklyn]

That little cable is from days of yore when audio was played through your DVD drive via analogue.
Ahh, those were the days.

If you absolutely must feel you need to connect it, look for the 4 pin slot on the motherboard that's CD or audio related. Should have a cover around it to stop different cables getting connected.
I have the drive in already and I attached the cable to the drive and left it hanging off. I found two connection points side by side one surrounded by green plastic and the other black. I had called Dell Tech support and they told me which one was for the audio. Neither one has a cover though. Anyway, I'll just leave it disconnected.

Thanks for the info.

[TomBrooklyn]

It's an antique cable. No need of it since windows 98!
I wonder if it's valuable? Maybe it will be in a hundred years!

Cheers.

[Blue_MiSfit]

I wonder why manufacturers still include these totally unnecesarry cables. I haven't used one in my custom PCs for about 5 years, but even brand new computers have them, and optical drives usually come with them! Interestingly they often don't come with an IDE cable or software... Retarded..

~MiSfit

[Lazarus42]

The cable is for playing Audio CDs.
Your volume mixer panel has a CD volume slider for that input.
While playing it spins the drive at a quiet 1x and uses no cpu cycles.
It has its uses.

[TomBrooklyn]

The cable is for playing Audio CDs.
Your volume mixer panel has a CD volume slider for that input.
While playing it spins the drive at a quiet 1x and uses no cpu cycles. It has its uses.

That sounds like a useful function. I wonder why most people are not using the cable then.

[foxyshadis]

It only spins around 1.5-2x while playing digitally, anyway, and if you use analog you bypass your player's EQ, visualization, and DSP functions.

[CWR03]

Analog is also noisy, just as if you've plugged in an external player with stereo jacks.

[TomBrooklyn]

if you use analog you bypass your player's, visualization, and DSP functions.

By visualization, do you mean I cant get the psychadelic visual movies that are in time to the music in Windows Media Player? I like those and wouldn't want to give them up.

And what is DSP?

Cheers.

[CWR03]

By visualization, do you mean I cant get the psychadelic visual movies that are in time to the music in Windows Media Player? I like those and wouldn't want to give them up.
You would lose them for audio CD playback. If you like visualizations, check out MilkDrop for Winamp. It's way better than anything with WMP, and reacts in several was to your music (plus it has a 3D mode which works with the red/blue lens glasses). It even has a desktop mode so your wallpaper behind your icons can be a visualization.
And what is DSP?
Digital Signal Processing, basically what I said above, you'd be ripping and listening to an audio CD in analog instead of digital.

[TomBrooklyn]

You would lose them for audio CD playback.
Well, I don't want that. End of audio cable discussion.


If you like visualizations, check out MilkDrop for Winamp. It's way better than anything with WMP, and reacts in several was to your music (plus it has a 3D mode which works with the red/blue lens glasses). It even has a desktop mode so your wallpaper behind your icons can be a visualization.
Cool. Thanks for the tip. I just checked the website and the still pics look very cool. I haven't been using WinAmp lately but I'm going to re-get it now. I'll be trippin' :)

[CWR03]

The still pics don't do it justice. You can actually rate the presets so the ones that you don't fancy will come up less often. There are hundreds of presets, most of which are better than the best movie graphics of 20 years ago.

[foxyshadis]

The one problem is that when you delete presets you hate, winamp will reinstall them when you upgrade. Hrmph.

I prefer tiny fullscreen anyway. :D

[Blue_MiSfit]

Dude.

Milkdrop is AWESOME. It's even hardware accelerated, so it gets nice filtering etc..

I used to occasionally provide tech services to big parties, and I would run visualizers on projectors. People would just stop dancing and stare at the graphics tripping out.

SO cool.

Oh, and you asked about DSP stuff - I think one of the most basic and cool things is remaping audio channels. So when you are listening to a 2ch source on a 5.1 set, it will expand to fill all the speakers. And of course the equalizer.

~MiSfit

[CWR03]

The one problem is that when you delete presets you hate, winamp will reinstall them when you upgrade. Hrmph.
I was referring only to the MilkDrop visualization - you can rate the presets within it which affects how often they're reused.