CMI9880 Codec - Full-duplex? Yes or No?

[ezefl]

I've looked on C-Media's website and their specs do not show if my new Gigabyte motherboard's onboard audio (CMI9880/Azalia) supports full-duplex mode.

I am trying to do simultaneous playback and recording at the same time. With my older SB Live! card, I just had to enable "What U Hear" in the sound recordings properties box, record a new sound, hit "play" and there it goes!

With the CMI codec, I have "enable multi-streaming" checked in the Audio Properties.

Any way how to do this with the onboard audio? I eventually want to upgrade to an Audigy2 ZS card, but it's not going to happen at least for another month or two.

Thank you...!

ps, trying to find reviews on this codec, general information, etc., is such a pain! I couldn't find anything via Yahoo! search, Google Groups, etc. So, I've come here...

 

[Peter]

Yes they do. The days of half-duplex audio chips is long over. CMedia have had full-duplex chips ever since the last twitches of ISA sound.

 

[ezefl]

Thanks for answering that. Now, my next question is how do you actually enable full-duplex recording? I've look just about everywhere, and I cannot figure it out. Simply recording a new sound and playing one does not work. Again, it was really simple with my SB Live! card, but I'm just confused.

 

[Peter]

The C-Media codecs are pretty complex in their possible in/out jack configuration. Make sure you got the software set up to match your hardware connections. THEN make sure Windows is set to use the right play/record devices, check the "use preferred devices ONLY" right on the same page.

There's no control switch anywhere to explicitly enable full-duplex - your hardware and its drivers either support it or don't. Yours does.

 

[ezefl]

Peter,

Thanks for the follow-up. I'll double-check the applications and Windows settings again. As far as my hardware connections go, there are none except for earphones as my primary speaker output. So, the sources for my playback (and thus, recording for that matter) would just be, say for instance, a WAV file on my computer -- not from a line-in/AUX source.

On a side note, my primary goal is to convert purchased songs from RealPlayer into MP3 format. RP's Music Store uses some proprietary (.AAU or something else) format for music. Instead of spending $xx.xx to upgrade RealPlayer to a version that supports MP3 encoding/decoding of 96kbps and higher, I record a new music file, playback the RP song, stop it, and then save the soundclip to the mp3. A little tedious, but I'm not aware of anything else that will convert the formats to mp3 without having to spend money on upgraded software.