Member Avatar for billenium_uk

Hi


ok.. im using a pinnacle media centre 300i tv card (its supports both analogue and digtal) with an audigy zs sound card... for some reason i cant get any sound when im viewing digital television... the sound works fine when viewing analogue tv but not on didgital.. can anyone shed any light as to why this is as its really frustrating...

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Dani AI

Generated

Short diagnosis and what to try next.

Digital TV audio is carried inside the transport stream and is often encoded (Dolby Digital / AC-3 or MPEG audio). Many capture apps either pass that encoded stream straight out via S/PDIF (expecting an external decoder) or they decode it to stereo PCM for the PC speakers. That difference explains why an analog audio path can work while the digital channels are silent.

Practical checks (in order)

  • In the TV software audio settings look for "AC-3 / Dolby / S/PDIF passthrough" and toggle it. If passthrough is on and no external decoder is connected, there will be no sound. Turning passthrough off forces the app to decode to PCM.
  • Verify the TV app is set to use the PC's playback device (your Creative card) and that the app is not muted in the Windows mixer.
  • Record a short clip of a digital channel and inspect the file with MediaInfo or GSpot to see the audio codec. If the track is AC-3, you need a decoder or to disable passthrough.
  • Confirm the TV-card audio driver/device is present in Device Manager and in the application audio-device list.

If decoding is missing, install a software decoder (AC3Filter or ffdshow) or use a TV application that decodes AC-3 to stereo. If you do intend to use passthrough, make sure the soundcard S/PDIF output is enabled and connected to a receiver that can decode AC-3. As suggested, also check the TV-card and application updates (matching OS version) if the above does not fix the problem.

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Member Avatar for JC7

Hello,

I have tried two brands of tv card and found both to be plaqued by bugs of various kinds. I had some success in fixing these over time by updating the drivers from the company website as soon as new ones became available. Also, it may also help to uninstall and reinstall the card drivers/software a couple of times, checking after each install to see if it performs better.

Member Avatar for billenium_uk

Hi

Thanks for your advice ill have a go at uninstalling/reinstalling and see if this makes any difference!

Thanks
:)

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