M-Audio's response to when Vista drivers will be available for the Revo 7.1

That just means that they aren't going to give you a date, in case there are delays. No need to panic yet.

You could always wait to install Vista until you know you have drivers available, and save some money.

You can install the standard Via driver on the Revo cards (at least in XP). My guess is you'll get a Via Envy driver long before you get a Revo driver.

"Not to mention the only reason we have the decent XP driver, is because of Cliff Watson (who doesn't mess arround with the Revo anymore), and not M-Audio. "

my guess is that Cliff found a live successor to his Revo 5.1 in that paradise-in-the-clouds where he's enjoying all of his music live from the original artists....

Would the VIA driver work under MCE2005?

Wher would one find the Cliff Watson driver?

Probably. You have to download the drivers, unzip them, and then manually force windows to use that driver for the card (update driver and pick which driver). You can't run the install program.

I've had similar issues with my Revo 5.1.

The hardware is great. But the Driver's control panel is crap, and difficult to use. I also have a minor driver bug where the Line in/Mic in rarely work, and ended up enabling my onboard sound for using Skype.

THEY ARE THE WORST DRIVER DEVELOPMENT COMPANY ON THE PLANET. They have never revised the drivers for the Revo 5.1. An initial release 2 years ago and that's it.

I've reported my bugs and issues and they have done squat.

Great hardware, I'm happy I bought it, but let down by the drivers.

I wouldn't believe them... It works in XP, try it and see for yourself.

I just tried the Via beta drivers for Vista (linked above) with my Revo 7.1, thought I should share my results:

S/PDIF out: As long as the Via control panel had S/PDIF locked at 48kHz, stereo sound reached my receiver. Choosing any other sample rate just displayed an error in Via's app.

As far as Windows was concerned, there was no digital out, however. The Sound control panel only had "Speakers" in the list of available outputs.

I tried and failed to get S/PDIF passthrough to work with either the MS or Nvidia DVD codecs. No sound at all with Zoomplayer; downmixed to stereo in MCE. The passthrough option was available in the Nvidia control panel, but wouldn't stick and was reset to 'computer speakers' every time MCE started playing a DVD. Presumably because Windows thought it had no digital output.

Analogue out:

I briefly tried using six of the eight speaker outputs (5.1) but was rewarded with wildly distorted rubbish. Didn't pursue this option further.

So, if you want stereo PCM locked at 48kHz, you might be in luck. Otherwise, it may be a matter of waiting until 2010 for a beta driver from M-Audio, or getting a new soundcard.

Installing the XP Revo drivers in Vista produced a bsod, as you'd expect.

(This was all on Vista Ultimate RTM, 32 bit).

Cheers,

John

My M-Audio Delta DiO 24/96 gets updated drivers all the time and this has impressed me quite a bit. Keep in mind that M-Audio may not have as much leverage with Microsoft as do some larger companies such as Diamond. So while the big guys get tons of MS support, the little guys have to wait in line.

What this means is that it will take them longer to get updated drivers out to their clients, regardless of how much effort M-Audio puts into the drivers.

It is now nearly mid January. Nothing on their website that I can find regarding Vista...

Has anyone tried these?

http://cmediadrivers.googlepages.com/

lordsiris

EDIT: Sorry I believe those are only for the Montego DDL Card...

FWIW under XP only the SPDIF work correctly when you use the VIA drivers for the Revo. The analog outputs are all distorted.

They don't. Blue screen for me. I'm now looking for a sound card with good Vista driver support. M-Audio sucks. Never again.

I can confirm that I tried the drivers with a Revolution 7.1 under Vista Ultimate and it blue screens on startup just as mo0sic says.

The following table in the M-Audio knowledge base seem to indeed imply that Revo 7.1 drivers for Vista are not planned at all M-Audio Vista support table

Another very unhappy M-Audio user

That table says that Revo 7.1 Vista drivers aren't currently in development. I am still hoping that someday M-Audio will decide to start development of Vista drivers for the Revo 7.1. But M-Audio is mistreating its customers by such late (or never) development of a Vista driver for such a popular card.

In any case, I've moved on. There are other cards with better sound quality than the Revo, and some of them have rudimentary Vista drivers available now.

I was just hoping to be able to use my Revo 7.1 in another (Vista) PC. Looks like I'll be waiting a long time.

Looks like they still do not have a driver in development for the Revolution 7.1. I hope my on board S/PDIF jack passes through audio as well as the Revo did.

Some 2 years ago I was thinking about building a HTPC. I dropped the idea when I became frustrated that that the whole concept in disarray.

I am now embarking on the same path (having built a new PC and having a PC left over to rebuild into an HTPC case). I now remember why I gave up the first time.

After much deliberation and research I ordered an M-Audio 7.1 soundcard. This is because the driver actually allows setting of speaker distances (important for surround sound setup for movies). I was intending to use XP.

I have an 8800GT graphics card and a blu-ray/hd driver - and now find hardware acceleration on the card can only be enabled under Vista.

The M-Audio soundcard will not function under Vista.

I tried to cancel the order, but was too late.

I am now in the position of being able to use the soundcard, but not hardware acceleration or vice-versa.

It looks like I will have to put the soundcard to one side (the graphics hardware acceleration is, to my mind, essential) and hope that eventually a Vista driver arrives for it. The impression I get is that it is a quality piece of kit. Although, it may well be a minority piece of hardware and M-Audio may just discontinue it rather than go to the expense of providing the drivers.


There is always the hope that NVidia will bring out a graphics driver for XP that will enable the hardware acceleration - but I am not holding my breath on this one as posts on this topic were going on half way through last year.
And I thought I had done my research well....

It was my understanding (though I could be mistaken here) that 8800-series cards do not have any HD acceleration features period, unlike their 8x00 lower-end counterparts which do. So you really won't gain anything in Vista anyway.

However from the comments about M-Audio and driver development/support posted in this thread--wow, I'm glad I never bought anything M-Audio (and now never will, heh).

From the Knowledge base at M-Audio

A Vista (32-bit) compatible driver for the Revolution 7.1 is currently in development. At this time, no M-Audio devices or drivers are supported under Windows Vista 64-bit. Due to the nature of software and driver development, we are not able to provide exact dates for when specific drivers will become availablebut please rest assured that supporting Vista is a top priority for us. As soon as more Vista drivers or updates for any product become available, this FAQ and other portions of our Website will be immediately updated to reflect this.

Not sure how long this has been posted, but then I just started a new HTPC build and I'm planning on Vista Ultimate with the Revo card.

Here's the link:

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...2720fb3beba029

Should have bought the Revo 5.1...

But anyway, what do you want hardware acceleration for? Software decode is better anyway - hardware accel is only for legacy CPU's IMO

I'm happy enough with my Revo 5.1. It does what it's supposed to.

The 8800gt and I believe the new 8800GTS on the G92 core do have hardware acceleration, unlike the other 8800's.

The 8800GT has the latest version of Nvidia's hardware decoding engine for HD video.

CPU utilisation drops from around 80% to around 15%.

But there is a hint of good new above re. M-Audio working a driver.

N.B I'd like to keep XP if only because it will save me £70!

Also, having built a dual boot PC, my experience with Vista is quite good - after turning off the annoying protection mechanisms and search indexing. For instance if I replug my USB devices, one or two them get confused under XP and need their drivers reinstalling, Vista is much better and doesn't mind at all.