Possibly a silly question, but did you unmute the "CD Digital" volume slider in the audio settings?

IIRC, it's muted by default.

The option is grayed out for me. It might be available with the WMD driver but I have never gotten it to work with the VXD driver.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-03, 18:30:

Possibly a silly question, but did you unmute the "CD Digital" volume slider in the audio settings?

IIRC, it's muted by default.

No silly questions or answers. Is the CD Digital a different slider somewhere? In the creative mixer panel there is a CD Audio slider which I have used well with the analogue CD cable, but swapping to the digital version doesn't output anything.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-07-03, 19:01:

The option is grayed out for me. It might be available with the WMD driver but I have never gotten it to work with the VXD driver.

Yeah, that works for me when swapping to the WMD drivers, I'm trying to get the CD SPDIF in to work like the analogue CD audio does so I can keep VXD drivers and get digital directly from the drive.

AlpacaFiasco wrote on 2021-07-03, 20:05:

No silly questions or answers. Is the CD Digital a different slider somewhere? In the creative mixer panel there is a CD Audio slider which I have used well with the analogue CD cable, but swapping to the digital version doesn't output anything.

This is the volume slider that I mean:

I don't currently have an Audigy2 ZS on a Win98 system, but I do have a SBLive. On that card, digital CD audio does work with VxD drivers, though this slider was hidden and muted by default. I had to go to Options -> Properties to unhide and unmute it.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-04, 09:30:

This is the volume slider that I mean: […]
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AlpacaFiasco wrote on 2021-07-03, 20:05:

No silly questions or answers. Is the CD Digital a different slider somewhere? In the creative mixer panel there is a CD Audio slider which I have used well with the analogue CD cable, but swapping to the digital version doesn't output anything.

This is the volume slider that I mean:

CDDigital.jpg

I don't currently have an Audigy2 ZS on a Win98 system, but I do have a SBLive. On that card, digital CD audio does work with VxD drivers, though this slider was hidden and muted by default. I had to go to Options -> Properties to unhide and unmute it.

Thank you, I think this might be the issue, but when I checked yesterday that slider isn't an option in the properties menu. Need to try other drivers?

AlpacaFiasco wrote on 2021-07-04, 13:31:

Thank you, I think this might be the issue, but when I checked yesterday that slider isn't an option in the properties menu. Need to try other drivers?

I vaguely recall Audigy cards missing certain digital inputs unless they are connected to a LiveDrive front panel.

No idea why/if this would apply to "CD Digital" though. That would be fairly odd, even for Creative. But I might be misremembering.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-04, 15:05:

AlpacaFiasco wrote on 2021-07-04, 13:31:

Thank you, I think this might be the issue, but when I checked yesterday that slider isn't an option in the properties menu. Need to try other drivers?

I vaguely recall Audigy cards missing certain digital inputs unless they are connected to a LiveDrive front panel.

No idea why/if this would apply to "CD Digital" though. That would be fairly odd, even for Creative. But I might be misremembering.

I've had a further play around in Windows 98 today, I decided to download a different installer CD for the card and start over with that. Uninstalled the card then reinstalled.

With WDM (the default it installs first) I had the slider! But still no audio. I remember reading elsewhere on VOGONS about some CD/DVD drives not having all of the audio outputs, especially later ones. I swapped it for an LG model from 2001, and I finally had audio via the digital cable! Thinking that the last step would be the swap to VXD, I did that, unfortunately that then removes the CD Digital, only CD Audio, and I'm left without audio that way again.

I think what happens, is if you install from scratch, clean system, with the audio cable hooked up, it defaults to audio cable, because of lower system load, then it's stuck there unless you wipe and reinstall from scratch with no cable. Then if you've got it in digital mode and "try" a cable, it gets stuck on analog again. Analog isn't to be thought of as bad, because you'll get full 16 bit high sample rate sound from the CD drives DAC, whereas you're limited to what your soundcard can do if it's digital, be it 8 bit or only 24khz or something. Anyway, when you put in a drive that needs a different driver entry, it does it from scratch again, so digital if no cable analog if cable exists. Not sure if games with CD audio from the early 9x era or DOS will support digital CD audio, or if they do and your CPU and CDROM isn't twice as fast as recommended, whether it will be choppy and/or cause freezes and lags.

I have changed out the A2ZS with a Live 5.1 and with the VXD drivers for that card I can see the CD digital and it all works perfectly; I have the same digital output via the bracket into my recording PC, VXD drivers for better compatibility, and CD Digital works. Am I really going to miss anything with this set up? I suppose it's more period correct too.

AlpacaFiasco wrote on 2021-07-05, 13:43:

Am I really going to miss anything with this set up? I suppose it's more period correct too.

The Audigy has a slightly cleaner signal and supports EAX 3&4. The latter is irrelevant for Win9x gaming unless you want to play games from 2002 onward on that setup for some reason.

I have done some testing in the past with my SBLive 5.1 (SB0100) and my Audigy2 ZS (SB0350) and my ears could barely perceive the difference in clarity between the two. The Audigy also takes one additional IRQ for its FireWire port which can be an issue if you're starved for resources on a Win9x machine.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-05, 14:00:

AlpacaFiasco wrote on 2021-07-05, 13:43:

Am I really going to miss anything with this set up? I suppose it's more period correct too.

The Audigy has a slightly cleaner signal and supports EAX 3&4. The latter is irrelevant for Win9x gaming unless you want to play games from 2002 onward on that setup for some reason.

I have done some testing in the past with my SBLive 5.1 (SB0100) and my Audigy2 ZS (SB0350) and my ears could barely perceive the difference in clarity between the two. The Audigy also takes one additional IRQ for its FireWire port which can be an issue if you're starved for resources on a Win9x machine.

I'm planning to build a specific machine for XP so I might use the A2ZS in that instead for when EAX 3 and 4 are relevant.

From what I remember Phil (of PhilsComputerLab) compared all of the cards for W98 and said that over digital out (which I'm using via a bracket into my XFi Titanium W7 machine for recording) he couldnt hear any difference in the short amount of testing he did. I imagine if I used headphones directly on the cards then a difference would be possible as you've mentioned. The other benefit is I can use the A2ZS drivers with the Live card for better soundfonts in Dos and better dos support in general, if I want to go that route.

Thanks for the help!