Make sure that the "CD Digital" slider is visible and unmuted in the volume mixer panel:

Also, don't connect the analog and digital CD audio cables at the same time.

I disconnected the analogue, and now I get no CD audio at all. I also still get hissing, which only stops when I mute the CD Audio. Yes, CD Digital is unmuted and turned up.

This may vary depending on the device manufacturer, but my Lite-On DVD drive has the "D" and "G" markings above the digital out pins. In my case, the "G" pin on the DVD drive connects to pin 1 on the CD_SPDIF header of the SBLive. That's how I orient the connector, if there is no key.

From what I remember, the original CD_SPDIF cable which shipped with SBLive/Audigy cards was actually keyed, so you couldn't plug it in backwards. There was a small plastic tab on the top side which helped to orient it correctly.

The cable plugs in just fine both ways, on both the sound card and the DVD drive. I've tried it both ways on both ends, but nothing's made any difference. My sound card has no plastic tab on the CD SPDIF pins. Could I have broken it by plugging it in the wrong way?

There's also a small chance that your DVD drive doesn't output digital CD audio, despite having the pins.

I have an older Hitachi CD-ROM drive which behaves that way.

The pins are documented in the manual, which also says: 'Outputs 16-bit digital audio data over the ATA interface. (support
Audio Accurate)'. This sounds to me like it does support digital CD audio, at least over the IDE cable.

Are you using VXD or WDM drivers?
I know to get CD audio for virtual drives you need WDM, maybe the same thing here?

VxD.

For accessing digital CD audio over the ATA interface, you do need WDM drivers.

However, the CD_SPDIF header connected via digital audio cable works just fine with VxD drivers, assuming everything is set up correctly. I have it running on my Audigy 2 (SB0240) at the moment.

I see two possibilities:

1) The drive doesn't support digital audio output via the cable, despite having the pins (though the manual seems to suggest that it does).
2) I've broken it by plugging the cable in backwards.

Is there any way of testing these possibilities?

Or do I need to somehow tell Windows that I've plugged in the cable?

AdamP wrote on 2024-02-12, 23:00:

Or do I need to somehow tell Windows that I've plugged in the cable?

Nothing special needs to be done in Windows, aside from unmuting the CD Digital slider.

It's already unmuted, and, according to the manual, the 'Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device' option needs to be checked. It's always greyed out, so I can't check it.

AdamP wrote on 2024-02-12, 23:49:

It's already unmuted, and, according to the manual, the 'Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device' option needs to be checked. It's always greyed out, so I can't check it.

That setting is only available when using WDM drivers, and it only affects digital CD audio over the ATA interface.

It has zero impact on the CD_SPDIF connection.

Well, I just get silence when I play CD audio when the analogue source is muted. Attached are some quotes from the manual about the drive's audio output, and a screenshot of my mixer settings. It looks to me like the drive does support digital output, yet I just cannot get it to work.

Here's a picture of my digital CD audio cable. It's the original version that Creative used to ship with their SBLive and Audigy cards. Notice the plastic tabs which act as a key for the connectors:

And here's how it attaches to my DVD drive and SBLive card:

As mentioned earlier, on my setup, pin 1 of the SBLive's CD_SPDIF header gets connected to the "G" pin on my DVD drive. The cable cannot fit any other way. And lastly, here's the relevant page from the SBLive manual:

For me, this just works. Meaning, when the cable is connected and the CD Digital volume slider is unmuted, I get crystal clear digital CD audio on that card. This is with VxD drivers installed, and no other settings changed.

I don't have a Creative cable; I just have this generic one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/372606655766

As you can see from my photo in the first post, mine has a white wire and a red wire. No black wire. Do I have the wrong cable? Mine also has no clips, and the sound card has no plastic cover over the SPDIF pins.

Assuming the white wire on my cable is the same as the one on yours, I switched the wires to the position you have them, but I still get silence.

At a guess, either of these things could be the problem:

1) your cable is defective
2) your DVD drive cannot output digital CD audio despite having the pins (uncommon)
3) you accidentally caused a short somewhere while plugging your cable the wrong way

For what it's worth, I have used simple jumper wires in the past to connect SBLive and Audigy cards to a DVD drive. Digital CD audio always worked for me, as long as the proper orientation was ensured (pin 1 to G). Maybe try another DVD drive, or get a different cable?

My money's on number 3, though I'm hoping it's something else. According to the DVD drive manual, pin 2 is ground, which is black, right? Can red be ground, too? I thought white was left and red was right?

I've contacted the seller for advice, though I'm not sure if I'll get a reply.

Does this cable look better? https://ecprof.com/audio-video-keyboard-kvm-e … ecker-0-9m.html

Ever since I started using SPDIF I don't think I've managed to plug the connectors right way around on the first try even once, I've looked for markings on the sound card and the drive, plugged in the cable thinking the pins are right way around, get only silence and then plug the cable the other way around on the sound card to get it working 😀

So it doesn't seem plugging it the wrong way can cause any damage. If you have a multimeter you could try to check the cable for continuity to rule out any fault on it, otherwise I guess you need to test your sound card/dvd drive/SPDIF cable separately on some other PC.