no dvd audio -- hollywood+ with sblive

[raftman]

problem: i used to have dvd audio, now i don't get anything from dvd's (games work fine, cd's play, etc) -- either analog signal or dolby digital. i have cambridge soundworks desktop theatre 5.1 speakers. i have the 2-pin digital cable from my dvd drive to my soundcard, and the spdif output on my hollywood+ to the speakers, and of course my analog front and rear chanell outputs on the sblive to the speakers.

anyone have any suggestions? do i need a new decoder card? can i trasmit the dolby digital signal from my spdif out on my soundcard to the speakers to test the speaker spdif in?

thanks a lot for any help guys!

raftman

 

[PG]

It doesn't sound like you have the connections right to me, but I could be wrong.
The DVD digital audio is going to the SB live, but shouldn't it go to the Hollywood Plus? How is the Hollywood Plus going to get any audio from the DVD drive?
Then you need to use another cable to connect from the output of the Hollywood Plus to the input of the SB Live. There are 2 ways to do this, internally and externally. The internal cable connection is probably the better way to go because you have less external cables.

 

[Fallen Kell]

PG, not to really say your wrong, but from what raftman is describing, this just started to happen, and unless he messed around with the wiring, your solution can't be the reason for the problem.

I actually have the same setup that you have Raftman, Hollywood+, SB Live (x-gamer though), and Cambridge 5.1's. But I was never able to get the spdif output on the Hollywood+ working correctly. I do however run into problems now and then with the audio not working, but it is usually always the fact that the line-in is muted on my SB live (I have an external patch cable going from the stereo out of the Hollywood+ to the line-in on the SB live). Anyway, if do solve this problem could you tell me what type of cable you used to connect from the Hollywood+ to the aux spdif input on the cambridge speakers? And also what settings you have in the drivers for the Hollywood+, as that would be a great bonus for me to actually use the speakers correctly with DD 5.1.

 

[raftman]

thanks guys, i'll try to scrounge up a couple of internal audio cables and hook up the sblive to the hollywood+. i was reading a post somwhere and they had mentioned something about audio being able to travel along the IDE bus (not t sure if digital or analog) so i might change the port my dvd drive is on. what puzzles me is why i can play cd's and hear them, but not even my dvd analog audio works.

Fallen, if I figure it out I'll let you know what i find.

 

[jmorrell]

I used to have a similar combination. You need to either hook up the Hollywood to the SB Live with an internal cable from the Hollywood AUX out to the internal AUX in connector on the SB Live, or run a short jumper cable from the external AUX out miniplug of the Hollywood to the external AUX in miniplug on the back of the SB Live.

 

[raftman]

fixed 5.1 audio problem by enabling digital ac-3 output in dvd station. on left side of dvd station tool bar (to left of volume) one of the buttons is options or preferences. audio output needs to be set to digital ac-3 for spdif out to be active on hollywood+.

still no results from using an rca passback cable from hollywood+ stereo out to live line-in. haven't come across an extra audio cable to try internal connectors. but, does a cable need to go from my dvd-drive to my hollywood+? (reason i'm asking is if i come across a dvd that does not output either a dolby digital 5.1 or downmixed 2-channel signal).

this is actually where most of my confusion comes, do some dvd's only output analog signals? and can anyone tell me what digital PCM audio is and when it should be used?

thanks