Envy24HT-S - The Definitive Source - Page 5

If you are getting static, then that means that you are not getting bit-perfect playback.

Later,
Bill

*In theory* this flash hack should work for any Envy 24 HT based soundcard. Meaning that a Mad Dog entertainer should work witht the Prodigy drivers and support ASIO over SPDIF after flashing.

HOWEVER you should be prepared to throw away your sound card if you are going to attempt this.

AND be comfortable with command line utilities and be prepared to mess about a bit.

You should also be sure to follow the instructions and tips throughout this thread AND MAKE SURE you do a "dump.txt" of the current Mad Dog eeprom contents so you can flash back in the event something goes wrong.

It seems that some folks can get this to work without a problem and others are having difficulties. It's difficult to say what can be causing the issues because there is such a wide variety of configurations and technical aptitudes and .. well.. it is a hack after all hehe.

Basically getting a $25 sound card to have the same driver capability as $100 + sound cards is going to have some risk. I can say that my MP3 and WMA files never sounded better.

Eamonn

I successfully flash my AV-710, and what a success it is. I enjoyed it all this past weekend, the sound is that much better. Not to mention, the Audiotrak control panel is much more functional than VIA's. I also tried out Exact Audio Copy and encoded the .wavs to FLAC. Needless to say, I deleted my entire CD collection that was all in .mp3 and started over using FLAC....WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!

Does a flashed AV-710 allow ASIO when using analog out? I have read through this thread, but it seems most are using SPDIF. I have a PC that I will use for two channel music only, and this might be a low cost option.

I second the analog question. I have the av-710, but I'm using logitech z-640 speakers (no receiver or anything nice). Would I get any benefit? Also, I generally listen to mp3s and watch divx movies with mp3 audio. Every now and then I'll get a divx with ac3 audio or an actual dvd, though. I mostly use media player classic, too, because of its pan/scan power.
JJ

Edit...
Also, I tried adding logitech z-340's as channel 7/8 and got silence while watching the matrix dvd. Doesn't 7/8 just bridge the rears? I didn't see an 8 channel option in the via envy drivers. Do you have to use specific dvd's or something?
JJ

I have not seen a single post that confirms "Analog out" to be working on a Chaintech AV710 after flashing with the Prodigy 7.1 eeprom data.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Post issue:

I bought a 710. For some reason I can't get the machine to POST with the 710 in. Has this hapened to anyone else? Any ideas?

I'm running an
ABIT IC7G
P4C2.6@3.1
Kingmax 1GB
Hauppauge 250 MCE
Pioneer 105 DVD

Can the unflashed 710's analog outs play the full surround (i.e. 5.1) from HD WM files like the trailers and T2? Do you just need a couple of stereo jack->L/R RCA cables to hook it up to a 8-channel receiver?

Also:

I was kind of hoping to be able to use this card to do both analog out and get good ASIO usage. Obviously the latter would get way more use, but if I can't do both, no big loss. I'm putting in an order for this card regardless.

JBlacklow...
I read that wmvhd won't play surround unless in winxp. Also, don't you have to get the 1080p for 5.1 to be in there, anyway?
I do get analog surround out on my unflashed 710 for dvd's and such, if that makes any difference. That's going directly to 5.1 computer speakers, though, not a receiver.
JJ

doublej: I'm running XP Pro, but I know only certain chipsets (Nforce2) can play WMVHD 5.1 thru SPDIF, otherwise you have to use analog outs. It sounds like it does work, if you're getting analog surround. Can anybody confirm or disconfirm the analog outputs after flashing to Prodigy eeprom?

In regards to the cables, I'm wondering if there's additional stuff I need to buy or not. My receiver (Harman Kardon AVR325) has 8-channel analog RCA input. Commercial DVD-A and SACD players have 6- or 8-channel RCA outputs.

I listened to Steely Dan's "Gaucho" DTS album at lunch today.

You say "Big Deal !" Well, it is!! You see, the playback (via spdif to my receiver) was with MediaCenter 9.1, from my HardDrive, and the DTS Audio CD had been ripped with EAC and the .wav files were converted to lossless .wma for advanced tagging and broad compatiblity. I've been going nuts trying to find a simple solution to playing all of my 450+ Gb of .wma compressed CD rips with bit-perfect un-resampled spdif output. The ability to play these DTS files tells me I've found the answer. Sure, there are plenty of hoops I could have jumped and expensive sound cards I could have bought, but this solution is a thing of beauty:

Onkyo UD-5

This little USB to TosLink dongle cost all of $29.90 (from Fry's Outpost)!! And no drivers required, thank you very much! When I got home for lunch, I found the DHL overnite package sitting on the table. I opened it up, plugged it into an open USB port on my HTPC, hooked up the TosLink cable to my receiver and watched as XP installed native USB Audio drivers. Hmmmmm.... that was simple! Opened up MC9.1 and pointed it at Track 2 of the ripped DTS CD and Voila!!! It was playing!!! Un-Friggen-Believable!! All those messing with Chainlink cards and eeproms and bootleg drivers take note!! A cheap and quick solution, and no PCI slot required!!

Furthering my 25 minutes of testing squeezed between mouthfuls of pasta and sausage, I played the ripped non-DTS version of the same album and smiled when I saw the Sony report 44.1kHz PCM. Tried it with both DirectSound (default) and WaveOut... works either way, and NO ASIO driver required! Hey.... Wait a minute.... what happened to K-Mangler - I mean K-Mixer ??? I thought that in order to bypass the K-Mixer under XP, one had to have tricked drivers like RME or use Kernel Streaming or ASIO or something? Mind you, the drivers are native WinXP USB-Audio drivers.... I guess there IS a way to write XP approved drivers that can bypass the dreaded K-Mixer! And get this... the ripped DTS CD played just as well with Windows Media Player!!

Can you tell I'm excited? I can't wait to get home after work and play with it some more. Gotta test DVD AC-3, but I'm sure it will work, it comes bundled with an OEM copy of WinDVD. My guess is that I'll want to use my onboard audio for system sounds, and use this as a secondary sound device for media playback, assuring no system sound glitches. OBTW, I had 3 audio devices enabled during this quick test, the Onkyo UD-5, my on-board SoundMax and my Firewire 410. Gee.... a little setting up here and my system will be convenient enough to use with my receiver, and I can then re-concentrate on my overall project of building a software-preamp to sit between audio players and my FW410 card.... yup, the last bugaboo of an open source DTS decoder has been cracked and now I think a software layer that appears to be a sound card and that talks to the multi-channel interface of cards like the Delta410 and 1010 and FW 410 is possible. Where did that delphi compiler go.....

Do I need an Onkyo receiver for this or is this just USB to TOSLink? The "Detailed Description" really lacks.

any receiver with a toslink input will work just fine!

This sounds like a great solution Jim.

One point to consider... KMixer can pass a 44.1KHz signal, but it would not be "bit perfect". There are some SACD audio format files that are in DTS format that can verify that the audio is bit perfect. You can download them here: http://www.sr.se/multikanal/english/e_index.stm

It might be interesting to test those with this configuration.

Althouh KMixer can pass a 44.1 KHz signal, it is noticeably different in tonal quality than an ASIO or Kernel Streaming 44.1 KHz signal. Apparently this is because KMixer "reverses the byte order" according to someone much smarter than me.

All I can say is that a 44.1 KHz PCM signal sent via directsound, does not sound as good as a 44.1K Khz PCM signal sent via ASIO using Winamp 5.02.

So, while you may have a fantastic solution, a 44.1Khz signal does not necessarily mean "bit perfect". And I'm not just being anal, I used to think this bit perfect requirement was rodoculous, I do believe that truly bit perfect playback - avoiding resampling of any kind - seems to have the best sound quality, even on my very mediocre equipment.

Eamonn

I guess you quickly skimmed the post.... the files I was playing were DTS files.... any bit mangling would have instanly brought white noise into play!!

hehe yeah .. didn't notice they were DTS

Sounds like a great solution.

Eamonn

The only problem now is that I can't get any AC3 decoders for DVD playback to connect to it!!!!

Are there any thoughts as to why I can't POST with a new 710?

If the device is incompatible with the foobar2000 kernel streaming output mode and does not have ASIO drivers, it may be impossible to bypass the kmixer.

Jim - one clarification on your method for testing DTS playback. Did you ever play the ripped .wav files, or just the converted .wma files? If you were just playing with the .wma files, does that make a difference?

I ask this because the only DTS files I have tried are .wav files via kernel streaming. I am curious if the conversion to .wma might have mangled the bits in a different way, but one that invalidates the bit-perfect test.

Later,
Bill

Jim,

Can you play these monstrous wav files through your USB dodad?

http://www.sr.se/multikanal/english/e_index.stm

ripped wave files, converted .ape files, converted .wma(lossless) files, direct from CD..... doesn't matter.... they all play!! and with the DLL WinDVD(anyVersion) plays DD/DTS DVD's fine!! I'll try sometime and see if PowerDVD will use the DLL.... I'm a happy camper!

Interesting.... all of the DTS files I downloaded here work fine.... including the ES 6.1 files (my receiver is only 5.1 !).... but, although the reciever kicks into DD (3/2) mode, I get no sound from the DolbyDigital files.... maybe it has to do with the "640" in the file name?

I've gotten a flashed Chaintech 710A card, and ASIO works great, as does DTS and DD5.1 pass through of DVDs, but I have no analog sound at all, so DivX, TV and even basic windows Sounds do not work, is there a fix for this as this is a major issue?

Thanks,
ERIC

Forget this, I'm a dope, I had Wave Out Muted, while playing with ASIO, I fell really dumb.

Recently bought a chaintech card and flashed it to a prodigy. I had some pretty good success but a big problem

1st - the good - The sound has been remarkable! I'm picking out all kinds of things in music I'd never noticed. Very impresisve.

2nd - the bad - I can't play any DTS files! Not DTS audio nor DTS from my DVDs. Dolby audio works fine. I get no audio with DTS DVDs and the usual white noise with DTS audio. Sny help is appreciate.d Thanks

egandt...
Will DTS, DD, ASIO (you know, the good stuff) only work through the spdif, or will it output through the analogs, too? I only have analog speakers, so if the bit perfect stuff only goes through the digital, then it wouldn't help me one bit.
JJ

My guess is that either your playback is misconfigured, or your card is using the wrong driver. I receommend deleting all of your audio drivers (check the registryy, too), and then just load the prodigy drivers. Hopefully that will give you bit-perfect playback.

Later,
Bill

THanks for the suggestion, however, I never had this card installed with any other driver - as soon as I bought it - I flashed it. The first driver it ever knew was the Prodigy driver.

I am wondering if this is related to another issue - whenever I try and play a dvd the source audio is automatically upsampled to 96khz! I can verify this both from my receiver (which starts flashing and from the audio software - which says 96khz). Thanks for the help.

jimwhite, personally I can not get analog out to work with teh Chaintech modded at all, infact when I need to use analog sound for recording I need to physically remove the chaintech and use the on board audio. I'm looking for a work around but have not found any yet. Basiclly I do not think analog will work, but I can not say for sure.

ERIC