AOpen AW850 Cobra - SPDIF passthrough

[Dropbear]

Has anyone got one of these cards? Have you managed to get the SPDIF passthrough to work for AC3/DTS with Windows XP? This does not seem to work for me, regardless of which driver I try to use.

Any hints/tips gratefully received.

[raid517]

AOpen sound card works in perfect harmony with game, educational, Web, audio, and video phone applications. Add new dimensions to games and multimedia with realistic 3D wavetable sound. AOpen AW850 PCI Sound Card, Model: AW850, Bus Type: PCI, Audio Processor: AOpen AS9400, Wavetable Synthesizer: Software, Support Stereo Mixer/Recorder/MIDI, w/ Internal Modem Connector. Part# 90.18610.851. Retail box.

Key Features: AOpen AS9600 chipset; C-Media CMI8738-LX Audio Processor; 5.1 6-Channel Speaker; HRTF 3D positional audio, supports Direct Sound 3D, EAX, A3D interfaces, supports earphones, two and four channel speakers mode; PCI 2.1/2.2 Compliant PCI Interface; PCI Bus Master for PCI Audio; Supports DDMA, Advanced Legacy Support for legacy DMAC emulation; Analog/Digital Enhanced Gameport; 3D Effects Processor; 16-bit full-duplex for concurrent recording and playback.

Specifications: Audio Chip AOpen AS9600 audio processor, 3D Effects Processor, Support DirectSound and DirectSound3D; Stereo Mixer and FM Music Synthesizer Stereo analog mixing from CD-Audio, Line-in, Stereo digital mixing from Voice, FM/Wave-table, Digital CD-Audio, Mono mixing from MIC and software adjustable volume, OPL3 FM synthesizer (4 operators), Up to 15 melody sounds and 5 rhythm sounds(20voices); MP3 / Wave Player Play mp3, wave, and MPEG-1 files, Provide EAX and equalizer to improve the sound effects when you playback the audio files, Also provide a Karaoke function, Record input signals and save it in a wave file as well; DOS Legacy Mode Support Support DOS compatible modes: DDMA under Windows 95/98, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro System compatible; I/O Interface MPU-401 UART MIDI I/O Interface, Game/MIDI, Stereo/Line-Out (Both Front and Rear), Mono In/Mono Out/CD Audio/Line-In/, Microphone-In; Drivers Support Windows 95/98/98SE, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000; Application Software Audio Rack, Equalizer, DEMO Program; Dimensions 120 (L) x 98 (W) x 14.3 (H) mm.

PCB Color: Blue.

Well it uses a CMedia CMI8738-LX chipset - maybe you should look on the CMedia web site for better drivers? It also uses an additional card that plugs into the PCB to give you SPDIF in and out. I assume that you have this? SPDIF will not work without it. It is a very cheap card. I have seen it listed new at $12. At that kind of money, I wouldn't go expecting too much from it.

GJ

[Dropbear]

I have the daughter card. I'm not expecting "much" from it, other than to use either the optical or coax out to do SPDIF passthrough


(and it's $60 in Australia buddy - not everyone in the world is a freaking yank ok?)

[raid517]

Well screw that if that is what you get for trying to be helpful. Or maybe suggesting you try the CMEDIA site directly just wasn't up to your high standards of online advice?

It's not my fault either that you got ripped off on the price. I mean, all things considered, it would probably have been cheaper to buy the card in the US and have it shipped to Austrlia. At least at that kind of money it would have been.

I took a good ten minutes of my time looking for the technical specs of that card for you - the purpose being that I suspected it used a generic chip set and wanted to see if I could find a wider variety of cards and advice for you.

The least you can do is say thanks, rather than just throwing abuse my way.

And in any case I'm not a Yank. Although I suspect that since you have been somewhat derogatory towards all Americans too, I guess that this will preclude them from rushing to offer any advice.

Learn to be a little patient and a little appreciative of other people's time now and then and I am sure you success rate in obtaining advice on-line will increase significantly.

GJ

[Dropbear]

Thanks for your help. As I said, I tried numerous sets of drivers and none of them seemed to help.

Anyone else?