Sound Blaster ZxR 5.1 S/PDIF output to wrong Channels

[TheTrumanShow]

Hi All,
I recently got a new Creative Sound Blaster ZxR and am having problems with the S/PDIF Output.

Setup and Installation went fine, hooked up the toslink to my home theater system (Sony BDVE880), Enabled Dolby Digital encoder (Same problem with the DTS Encoder) in the cinematic tab of Pro Studio, switched playback to speakers(Not S/PDIF, For some reason when set to S/PDIF without an encoder it can only output 2.0, when an encoder is selected nothing outputs to the S/PDIF until you set the speakers as the playback device, this isn't an error, this is both how the pro studio panel and manual explain how to do this).

For the most part all is well, but then quite randomly, the output channels start going to the wrong speakers. When I say that the output channels change, I mean that at one moment the Front L&R channel is outputting to the front left and right speakers, the next it is outputting to the centre speaker and subwoofer and vice versa, or to the Surround L&R speakers, there seems to be no consistency in the change. Often this is accompanied by a crackling noise as well.

The problem appears to be unconnected to any particular file or application, as a matter of fact I've experienced the change happen in the middle of the ProStudio channel test, that is, when testing the output of each speaker, the change would happen in the middle of a test tone and play through a speaker that had already played it's tone, no other applications were open at the time, and most were closed even from the system tray. I've also experienced this in the middle of music (.mp3) being played through windows media player 11, and in the middle of 3 different games, Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3 and call of duty blackops.

When I switch the out put from 5.1 to stereo however, still using the encoder, the channel doesn't jump around.

I've contacted Creative, they gave a BETA patch for the ZxR Driver(1.00.15) but that hasn't worked to solve the problem. I've contacted them again, and I am waiting to hear back.

I'm going to try a clean install of the driver(not the OS and all, that's a little too much work and time), might help.

Any help or suggestions you can make would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

UPDATE:
Tried the clean install, no change.

UPDATE 2:
Looks like Creative have mostly solved the problem in driver v1.00.16. It seems to solve the problem, but only when the card is in a pcie x1 slot, problems persisted in x16 slot, though that might just be my motherboard. 'm not going to mark it as solved until I've had more time with it, but everything sounds good so far.

UPDATE 3:
Well, It's been a year and I've learned a lot, not least of all that this thread has had 2500 views, this recent answer might help some more of m you

Hi Sebas,
I can't say I've experienced any problems with the card since posting this. I'm not too sure why you are having pcie slot problems, again I found using the 1x slot and the latest drivers solved my problems, it may have something to do with your pcie layout, certain chipsets will only run 1 x16 slot at x16, and actually run all x16 slots at x8 in multi gpu configurations.

As for your audio drops, I've had that experience as well, but only in windows media player, quickly solved by moving the volume slider in wmp, not the system slider. as best as I can tell this seems to be to do with usb peripherals, I often find it happens when unplugging a memory stick. Oddly it doesn't seem to make a difference to games either active or running in the background, I'm not sure about youtube videos.

Lastly, as for running an optical cable from the ZXR, I tried this as well, and ran into all manner of problems. Though I'm older and wiser now. Limitations of the S/Pdif / toslink / Digital Optical Audio mean that it can only transmit Linear PCM, and the compressed Dolby digital, and DTS Digital. In order to take full advantage of the soundcard, and the noticeably better uncompressed Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio you'll have to use an analog setup.

Hope this helps

 

[festerovic]

Wow that really sucks, I would be suspect of the hardware after that, but if Creative thinks its a driver issue, then I would try that first.

One bummer I've experienced with Sony receivers and using Toslink is that when the sound is 0's (there is silence in the audio track) it will mute all the speakers, and then when the audio continues, it takes a second or 2 to "reconnect" the audio to the receiver, resulting in what sounds like a 2 second mute. Curious if yours does the same thing. I usually use the multichannel audio in, in analog form, but your receiver doesn't have that, so you can't try it.

Also, regarding the 2 channel only when using SPDIF - this is normal, SPDIF can only pass along a multichannel-encoded 5.1 audio stream, or a 2.0 PCM stream. I think its about bandwidth, the 5.1 is encoded in ac-3 or DTS and is compressed to some degree. Also, when there is a 5.1 stream, it can either be an ac-3 file from a DVD or video file, or for games, you must have an encoder such as Dolby Digital Live, or DTS Connect in order to have your audio in games be rendered in 5.1 over SPDIF. There is nothing on any of the literature for this card to suggest it has that feature, which happens to be included on <$50 cards from Asus and others.

At $250, this card should do it all, but it appears to be missing ASIO and DDL support, a pity.

 

[festerovic]

Also, one other thing - what bits/frequency are you setting the digital out to use? I've found problems trying to use 24bit/192khz on some receivers, try 16/48 or 24/96 for testing.

 

[TheTrumanShow]

Wow that really sucks, I would be suspect of the hardware after that, but if Creative thinks its a driver issue, then I would try that first.

One bummer I've experienced with Sony receivers and using Toslink is that when the sound is 0's (there is silence in the audio track) it will mute all the speakers, and then when the audio continues, it takes a second or 2 to "reconnect" the audio to the receiver, resulting in what sounds like a 2 second mute. Curious if yours does the same thing. I usually use the multichannel audio in, in analog form, but your receiver doesn't have that, so you can't try it.

Also, regarding the 2 channel only when using SPDIF - this is normal, SPDIF can only pass along a multichannel-encoded 5.1 audio stream, or a 2.0 PCM stream. I think its about bandwidth, the 5.1 is encoded in ac-3 or DTS and is compressed to some degree. Also, when there is a 5.1 stream, it can either be an ac-3 file from a DVD or video file, or for games, you must have an encoder such as Dolby Digital Live, or DTS Connect in order to have your audio in games be rendered in 5.1 over SPDIF. There is nothing on any of the literature for this card to suggest it has that feature, which happens to be included on <$50 cards from Asus and others.

At $250, this card should do it all, but it appears to be missing ASIO and DDL support, a pity.

Hi Festerovic,
Thanks for your reply, Firstly, I haven't experienced any muting when using the toslink with Sony HTS, I've had it connected to my tv and PS3 before, and with the PS3 daisy chained through HDMI into the tv and out put from the tv to HTS via toslink with no problems, no muting, no channel swapping, and 5.1 outputting just fine.

The card does include Dolby Digital Live and DTS encoding, both of which are stated in the documentation, on Creatives Web Site, on the box, and the option to select which encoder to use on the SBX ProStudio Panel. For the most part these work fine and output 5.1 fine, until the channels start jumping around. Also, though not available at launch, ASIO and DDL support where added with first Driver update, also documented on the website.

As for bit/frequency, I've tried it on 16bit-48/96KHz and 24Bit-48/96KHz, the most my HTS can support, the problems still persists regardless of the settings.

 

[festerovic]

As for the Sony muting, I've used pretty much only Sony receivers for the last 20 years, my current one is about 5 years old. It still does it, and so do a few others in my lab. I'm glad to see they figured it out if yours is representative.

I see I missed the DDL and DTS on the card when I skimmed, it's right there, thanks. But that same page doesn't say anything about ASIO, just in the comments.
http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-ZxR-PCIe-Sound/M/B00AQ5PK6I.htm

I saw this thread and it looks like at least a few other people have the exact same problem. I would guess its likely a driver issue, but later in the thread someone said Creative would fix the card.
http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=699420

 

[TheTrumanShow]

Looks like Creative have mostly solved the problem in driver v1.00.16. It seems to solve the problem, but only when the card is in a pcie x1 slot, problems persisted in x16 slot, though that might just be my motherboard. 'm not going to mark it as solved until I've had more time with it, but everything sounds good so far.

 

[sebas0123]

hey there, i know this thread is old but i just got a zxr two weeks ago and im experiencing the same problem, either 1x or 16x, gen 2 or 3 it doesnt matter i always get channel swapping... tried cd drivers, 010, 016 and the latest wich are 22 i believe... wondering if i should just re-install windows and try it in the 1x slot with 016 driver ...for now the only solution have been to put in in 24/44.1 , but that doesnt sound good to me... also experiencing volume drop sometimes volume just randomly drop by about 25-30% ... this is connected via optical to a pioneer sc-1227-k... well someone have found any solution to make this card work as it should ??? thanks

 

[sebas0123]

oh and... my motherboard is an asus maximus extreme vi... the pcie slot is a 4x could it be the problem ?

 

[TheTrumanShow]

hey there, i know this thread is old but i just got a zxr two weeks ago and im experiencing the same problem, either 1x or 16x, gen 2 or 3 it doesnt matter i always get channel swapping... tried cd drivers, 010, 016 and the latest wich are 22 i believe... wondering if i should just re-install windows and try it in the 1x slot with 016 driver ...for now the only solution have been to put in in 24/44.1 , but that doesnt sound good to me... also experiencing volume drop sometimes volume just randomly drop by about 25-30% ... this is connected via optical to a pioneer sc-1227-k... well someone have found any solution to make this card work as it should ??? thanks

Hi Sebas,
I can't say I've experienced any problems with the card since posting this. I'm not too sure why you are having pcie slot problems, again I found using the 1x slot and the latest drivers solved my problems, it may have something to do with your pcie layout, certain chipsets will only run 1 x16 slot at x16, and actually run all x16 slots at x8 in multi gpu configurations.

As for your audio drops, I've had that experience as well, but only in windows media player, quickly solved by moving the volume slider in wmp, not the system slider. as best as I can tell this seems to be to do with usb peripherals, I often find it happens when unplugging a memory stick. Oddly it doesn't seem to make a difference to games either active or running in the background, I'm not sure about youtube videos.

Lastly, as for running an optical cable from the ZXR, I tried this as well, and ran into all manner of problems. Though I'm older and wiser now. Limitations of the S/Pdif / toslink / Digital Optical Audio mean that it can only transmit Linear PCM, and the compressed Dolby digital, and DTS Digital. In order to take full advantage of the soundcard, and the noticeably better uncompressed Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio you'll have to use an analog setup.

Hope this helps