DVD Player - audio is scratchy, please help!

[aprice88]

Today I installed a Hitachi LG 16X DVD-ROM Drive in my Dell 4550 desktop pc. I installed the middle connector on the cable, the end of which is going to my pre-installed CDRW drive. When I put in dvd's the video plays well, but the audio is horribly scratchy. The same thing happens on audio CD's. The audio on the CDRW drive is great. I only have audio problems with things in this drive. The 1st time this happened I thought it was the drive, but now the same issues are occuring on the 2nd drive (I returned the 1st).

Any ideas? Please help. Thank you!

- Aaron

 

[zephyrprime]

Does audio work from your cdrw drive?

 

[Slammy1]

Sounds like a sound card issue. What are you running, what settings do you run (I usually run S/PDIF for DVD playback, and you can run that even without the audio cable between the SC and drive in Win2k or XP), how do you output (speakers, receiver), do MP3's sound OK? I find the S/PDIF settings give the best sound on my system, but you have to play wav output for mp3s and games. I hope this helps some.

EDIT: Whoops. Disconnect the S/PDIF from the CDRW, and insert it into the DVD drive if you do not have Win2k or XP. Otherwise, donate it to a friend .

 

[aprice88]

Yes, the audio on the CDRW drive works great.

I'm using Cambridge Soundworks speakers (with a digital output) and EVERYTHING except this sounds great.

What settings could I try changing to test it?

 

[Slammy1]

See my edit. Sorry, I missed where you said the CDRW works fine.

 

[aprice88]

It's win xp. Not sure where I could disconnect a SPDIF??? The only cable was the cable inside the comp (not sure what that's called, but the female one that accepts all the pins) and the power cable in the comp.

???

 

[Slammy1]

It's the small (4 pin?) cable that runs between your optical drive and the sound card/system. You do not need it with XP, you have more choices without it. Mute all sound except CD Digital and try it. What sound are you using, on-board? Check out your audio control center for your software, it should have the necessary volume controls.