Quote:
Originally Posted by
cybrsage 
Here is a summary:
1. Aeneas is using the CD_IN on his motherboard (we do not know if it is an actual connector or just pins) to route his audio out of his tv tuner card into Windows.
2. He did a BIOS update without knowing what the update did and without having any problems with his motherboard. This update broke the CD_IN connector, rendering it inoperaperable.
3. He reverted to an older BIOS and the CD_IN connector resumed working.
4. He then upgraded his OS from XP to Vista and it stopped working again.
5. He then blamed Microsoft for it not working. In this instance, he was correct, for MS sets the CD_IN to disabled by default in Vista.
6. He disregards easy and clear instructions on how to enable it in Vista so he can continue to blame MS for it not working.
7. He then says MS should use its influence in the PC industry to force the FCC to force CableLabs (the non-profit group which controls CableCards) to allow PC users free and unencumbered access to everything. The managers at MS should all be fired for not being able to control the US Government.
That is basically it in a nutshell.
1) Every motherboard I have ever bought has an explicit connector on it for connection of CD-IN, from a device within the PC to the audio mixer chip on the motherboard.
Even discrete audio cards which contain replacement audio mixer chips like Soundblaster from Creative Labs reserve their most prominent top-edge position for this CD-IN connector.
2) I was misled by the motherboard manufacturer into believing that it was necessary to upgrade the motherboard to a newer version to achieve 3GB SDRAM memory insertion capability. In fact, they claimed it would allow 2GB+2GB=4GB usage.
What the BIOS upgrade does is allow the insertion of 2x2GB=4GB and still boot, physically restricting use to only 3GB of the 4GB inserted.
If the user inserted 2GB+1GB=3GB with the old BIOS, it still works.
A side effect of the new BIOS was loss of CD-IN and Composite Audio.
3) The older BIOS reflash restored CD-IN and Composite Audio.
4) I had attempted installation of Vista back in March 2008. It interfered with both identical Hardware Audio devices, CD-IN and Composite Audio.
I reported this to Microsoft but have received no notification that they even intend to fix this problem.
5) There is no reason for CD-IN to be set to disabled in Vista. The target audio mixer chips which are available for Vista, which are often termed HD Audio chips, always from those I have read have discrete pinouts for CD-IN and MIC, so they do not conflict.
Windows Vista could then select each individually, read whether the pin was floating or connected to a voltage source, and thus decide to enable CD-IN, even when it is multiplexed. No proof of such multiplexing has been presented, anyway.
6) As I have already presented, the CD-IN signal was not even in the list, to be selected. Maybe that has changed recently.
However, I have screenshots where it was not listed, running on a mothrboard which had a hard disk with alternate boot for Windows XP, which used this CD-IN device flawlessly.
Thus, what you describe does not fix the problem, because there has been no explanation of why the signal was not displayed in the list and whether that specific non-listing of CD-IN has been fixed.
In addition, no one has presented any proof that Vista has been fixed to no longer interefere with Composite Audio.
7) The managers at Microsoft responsible for Multimedia have performed incompetently for years now and should be Fired.
Microsoft in addition, on the instructions of a competent multimedia manager, should have been involved in ensuring that CableCard be defined differently, so that decryption of the ATSC encrypted stream be performed by chips agreed to between TV Tuner companies and the Cable industry so thatTV Tuner devices could seamlessly perform decryption provided the correctly keys for that card are distributed by the cable head end.
