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#1
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OEM SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, no CD IN, two optical drives
I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a
computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install the card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. I found this unusual, as all the other connectors were present (CD SPDIF, TAD, AUX), and I had never encountered a Live! model that lacked this particular connector before. At first I thought that maybe it had somehow been broken off, but that didn't seem likely and it didn't look like it either. I chalked it up to the card being an OEM version. Perhaps the DE in the title stands for Digital Edition, and so there is no input for analog CD audio?? In any case, I am wondering about connecting the card to my optical drives (one DVD/CDRW combo, one CD-ROM) so that both of them can send an audio signal to the soundblaster. The card itself came with no cables, but one of my drives included a 4-pin MPC-to-MPC cable for analog audio. When I assembled my computer, I connected this cable to my DVD drive and to the AUX slot on the soundcard (since it seemed like the only choice I had), and decided I could accept my CD-ROM being a "silent" drive. However, I haven't tested to see if this works as it was brought to my attention that you can potentially damage your soundcard with an incorrect cable configuration (is this true?). Since then, I have also purchased a 2-pin digital MPC-to-MPC cable. If I connect my DVD drive to my soundcard using the 2-pin cable and the CD SPDIF connector, and attach my CD-ROM using the 4-pin cable and the AUX connector, will I be able to play audio CDs in either drive and hear the sound through my speakers? Is it ok to use the AUX connector to input from a CD drive? Thank you to any who can help me out with this. It is difficult to find info on this card, or to get adequate tech support. Al |
#2
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"AW" wrote in message
. .. I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install the card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. snip I've never seen a sound card without a CD-in either. However, you do not need any CD audio cables nowadays. Just enable Digital CD audio extraction. Depending on your OS its either in the Control Panel/Multimedia/CD Music or Device Manager/CDROM drives/Property of the drive. Line-in, CD-in, AUX or Video-in all have the same signal level specification so you cannot damage the sound card by plugging CDROM audio cable into any of them. |
#3
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On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:21:30 -0000 Letting slip the dogs of war "Alien
Zord" wrote : "AW" wrote in message ... I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install the card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. snip I've never seen a sound card without a CD-in either. However, you do not need any CD audio cables nowadays. Just enable Digital CD audio extraction. Depending on your OS its either in the Control Panel/Multimedia/CD Music or Device Manager/CDROM drives/Property of the drive. Correct.This was a feature added by MS from WMP 7 and later however it also means that the Wave volume fader also controls the CD audio volume.Error Correction should also be applied. HTH -- Free Windows/PC help, http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html email shepATpartyheld.de Free songs to download and,"BURN" :O) http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm |
#4
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If you are using XP as your OS then you do NOT need to connect the audio
cables from your optical drives to the sound card. In XP the audio is transported over the data cable, not the audio cable. -- DaveW "AW" wrote in message . .. I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install the card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. I found this unusual, as all the other connectors were present (CD SPDIF, TAD, AUX), and I had never encountered a Live! model that lacked this particular connector before. At first I thought that maybe it had somehow been broken off, but that didn't seem likely and it didn't look like it either. I chalked it up to the card being an OEM version. Perhaps the DE in the title stands for Digital Edition, and so there is no input for analog CD audio?? In any case, I am wondering about connecting the card to my optical drives (one DVD/CDRW combo, one CD-ROM) so that both of them can send an audio signal to the soundblaster. The card itself came with no cables, but one of my drives included a 4-pin MPC-to-MPC cable for analog audio. When I assembled my computer, I connected this cable to my DVD drive and to the AUX slot on the soundcard (since it seemed like the only choice I had), and decided I could accept my CD-ROM being a "silent" drive. However, I haven't tested to see if this works as it was brought to my attention that you can potentially damage your soundcard with an incorrect cable configuration (is this true?). Since then, I have also purchased a 2-pin digital MPC-to-MPC cable. If I connect my DVD drive to my soundcard using the 2-pin cable and the CD SPDIF connector, and attach my CD-ROM using the 4-pin cable and the AUX connector, will I be able to play audio CDs in either drive and hear the sound through my speakers? Is it ok to use the AUX connector to input from a CD drive? Thank you to any who can help me out with this. It is difficult to find info on this card, or to get adequate tech support. Al |
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