Is a digital out on a CD-ROM useful for Win2K ? how does DAE work?

[RupTheKid]

Hey all. What's the use of a digital out on a CD-ROM if I'm using Win2K? I mean, what benefit does it give me connecting the digital out to my soundcard versus no cable at all? Also, does DAE work when just playing a music CD? (i.e. 1x DAE ?) Or is DAE only useful for ripping songs? I'm trying to decide what type of CD-ROM drive to get for playing CD's, using the computer as a transport.

Thanks

Rup

 

[RupTheKid]

somebody has to know this!


Rup

 

[vash]

DAE works for Win2k. You have to enable it through your sound card drivers, but it works well. Clean sound, but my ears couldn't hear much if a difference between DAE and plain ol' CD audio from a cd audio cable.

When I rip sounds, I rip them using ASPI layer. Very fast and no problems with pops, hisses, etc. DAE is worth getting, as long as your sound card has the port.

vash

 

[RupTheKid]

>DAE works for Win2k.
Yes, we've established that. But that doesn't tell me specifically when it works.


>DAE is worth getting, as long as your sound card has the port.
What does that mean? What's 'the port'?

Will someone please answer my question. Specifically, the difference in data extraction / conversion via digital audio cable vs. no cable. Again, is DAE implemented during (1x) audio CD playback? And does any soundcard specifically output the original digital signal without any D/A -> A/D conversion?

Rup

 

[Courtland]

bump, id like some info too...

 

[drewski]

Maybe it's the lingo that's confusing me, but I didn't think that DAE (Digital Audio Extraction?) used the soundcard to cdrom connection.

I thought that soundcard/cdrom connection that was asked about was the spdif connector that not all CD-ROMs had, and was used for live-playback not ripping at higher speeds. The DAE occured over the IDE connection.

From my understanding, DAE is something that all CD-ROMs can do, but the digital out to soundcard is CD-ROM model specific.

Anyone know for sure?

 

[vash]

<< Yes, we've established that. But that doesn't tell me specifically when it works. >>

It will be used when any CD audio stream is used and if you have it enabled in your sound card properties. As long as its enabled and you are playing back a CD audio stream, it happens.



<< What does that mean? What's 'the port'? >>

This &quot;port&quot; is a 2 wire cable that is additional to the cd audio cable that comes with CDroms, etc. The standard CD audio cable has 3-4 wires and one is labeled red. The digital cable is only two wires, typically labeled with red and black.



<< Will someone please answer my question. Specifically, the difference in data extraction / conversion via digital audio cable vs. no cable. Again, is DAE implemented during (1x) audio CD playback? And does any soundcard specifically output the original digital signal without any D/A -> A/D conversion? >>

From what I've read and used, DAE is another method to extract audio from CD using a digital stream versus using your sound card as the additional extractor. It is supposed to be a cleaner extraction of audio compared to the default of CDROM-Sound card->WAV file. In this method, its purely CDROM->WAV file. The output of the CD audio will vary depending on your speaker setup, so you could have an analog speaker setup and use DAE to play/rip, or you can have a digital playback method using an analog method to play/rip. I would imagine if you used DAE to play back audio and had a digital speaker setup, there wouldn't be a need to do D/A-> A/D -> D/A.

vash

 

[RupTheKid]

vash, thanks for the replies, though I wonder how we can know for sure. I also would be led to believe that if I were using a Live! or Montego's digital out into an external DAC, there would be no necessity for D/A-> A/D conversion. However, a difference in digital quality between Live! and Montego lead me to believe something is amiss, either in the very nature of transfer or the drivers. I also emailed WinAmp , Microsoft, and ATi, to see if they utilize DAE during CD-ROM playback in their respective players. Since Microsoft wrote the specifications for DAE, it may be that software needs to be written specifically for DAE, or it will revert to the standard mode of reading a disc. Hopefully I'll get a response within the next couple of days.

Rup