Audigy 2 ZS Variants and Dolby Digital Decoding \ VOGONS

Audigy 2 ZS Variants and Dolby Digital Decoding

Topic actions

First post, by KT7AGuy

Posted on 2016-11-10, 01:49

KT7AGuy Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1089
Joined: 2012-11-30, 19:21
Location: Chicago

Do we have any Audigy 2 ZS experts here?

As far as I have been able to determine, there are at least five variants of the Audigy 2 ZS:

SB0350 - Retail with gold connectors
SB0353 - Dell OEM with colored connectors
SB0355 - Gateway OEM
SB0358 - Dell OEM with gold connectors, colored slot
SB0359 - HP OEM

From what I've been reading online, it looks like the non-retail variants may or may not have their internal DD decoders disabled. Does anybody happen to know which of the variants are crippled? Is there a way to re-enable the internal DD decoder?

It also looks like Dell and other OEMs had similar shenanigans with their versions of the X-Fi as well.

Reply 1 of 2, by beastlike

Posted on 2016-11-10, 14:32

beastlike Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 159
Joined: 2016-09-08, 18:01

not sure if this is credible, but this guy on the creative forums says "The in-built DD decoder on the Audigy is in fact a sofware decoder. " http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=308521

if that's true, would something like KX-Project help you out? I've had to use it in the past when my Audigy drivers didn't work, it's worked brilliantly for what I was using it for. I believe they have some sort of software decoding.

Reply 2 of 2, by KT7AGuy

Posted on 2016-11-11, 04:12

KT7AGuy Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1089
Joined: 2012-11-30, 19:21
Location: Chicago

beastlike wrote:
not sure if this is credible, but this guy on the creative forums says "The in-built DD decoder on the Audigy is in fact a sofware decoder. " http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=308521

if that's true, would something like KX-Project help you out? I've had to use it in the past when my Audigy drivers didn't work, it's worked brilliantly for what I was using it for. I believe they have some sort of software decoding.

Thanks for that! From that link:

The newer Audigy 2 ZS and X-Fi cards have DTS decoding in SPDIF mode as well.

Yep, this is what I was referring to. However, it is apparently only available on the retail cards. I suppose the easiest way to get around it is just to install PureVideo and call it a day. Or, ya know, just buy a retail card.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware