Is CD-Audio cable desirable for WinXP builds? \ VOGONS

Is CD-Audio cable desirable for WinXP builds?

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First post, by Tavisco

Posted on 2021-06-10, 20:09

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I'm almost finishing building a Windows XP retro-gaming machine and now I'm in the process of acquiring a CD/DVD drive, but most of them don't come with said cable. As I've read here on the forum, CD-Audio cable seems very important to Win9X/DOS builds but didn't see nothing about XP. I should source a drive that has the digital out output and accompanying cable or it should make little to no difference in my use-case?

The sound card i'm currently using is a SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS.

Thanks!

Reply 1 of 6, by mothergoose729

Posted on 2021-06-10, 20:24

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Depends on how far back you are trying to reach with your library. After about 1998 or so redbook CD audio becomes very rare. There are a few games you might want to play with XP that have it, like Quake 2, but for the most part everything has switched to digital audio files by that time. I don't know of any games with redbook audio after the year 2000. Creative stopped including the header on their sound cards beginning with x-fi release in 2005.

Reply 2 of 6, by mihai

Posted on 2021-06-10, 20:29

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no need for such a cable with win xp. WDM audio drivers will allow digital audio output from the cdrom without the cable.

Reply 3 of 6, by chinny22

Posted on 2021-06-11, 09:03

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Above is correct but a bit of a fuller explanation, It's more down to driver then OS

WDM removed the need for the Audio cable
WDM drivers do exist for Win98/ME but EAX support wasn't included. This is why everyone prefers the VxD drivers, catch is you now need an audio cable.
XP also uses WDM drivers but now EAX was supported and the audio cable started to disappear.

Reply 4 of 6, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on 2021-06-11, 09:11

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-06-11, 09:03:

WDM drivers do exist for Win98/ME but EAX support wasn't included.

Technically, WDM drivers do have EAX support on Win98, but game compatibility is a crapshoot. You randomly get buzzing, stuttering and crashes.

Even Creative's official driver CDs suggest using WDM drivers for audio creation and VxD for gaming under Win98.

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Reply 5 of 6, by Tavisco

Posted on 2021-06-11, 18:15

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Perfect! I guess I'll look after a SATA DVD driver then and not bother with the audio cable. Thanks for all the input!

Reply 6 of 6, by weedeewee

Posted on 2021-06-11, 20:07

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on an old system the audio cable is always appreciated since you won't consume any bus resources to just play some audio tracks.

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