Dolby Digital Problems

[Richard M]

Yes, it is computer related.

Basically, if I put a DVD in which is encoded in Dolby Digital it will play for 2 seconds and then it will drop to 1-2 frames per second with the sound stuttering really slowly.
I mean I get a quick blast of sound every 2 seconds...

Then after about 10 seconds it's fine and the Dolby Digital logo flashes up on the screen.
It's as if the sound card is having difficulty "locking onto" the stream.

It's not the DVD drive or even the computer because it did this on the old Athlon 3200 system I had.
The only things the same are the sound card, the OS (WinXP Pro), the DVD software decoder (PowerDVD XP) and the graphics card manufacturer (Radeon).
I ran a 9600XT on the old system and a 9800 Pro on this one but I still get the same problems and it also happens in Media Player, WinDVD and PowerDVD.

Has anyone else had this problem or do you know what's wrong?

If I watch a movie encoded in DTS I have no problems, which is cool because DTS sounds better anyway but about half of my DVDs are in crappy Dolby Digital.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Richard M

Yes, it is computer related.

Basically, if I put a DVD in which is encoded in Dolby Digital it will play for 2 seconds and then it will drop to 1-2 frames per second with the sound stuttering really slowly.
I mean I get a quick blast of sound every 2 seconds...

Then after about 10 seconds it's fine and the Dolby Digital logo flashes up on the screen.
It's as if the sound card is having difficulty "locking onto" the stream.

It's not the DVD drive or even the computer because it did this on the old Athlon 3200 system I had.
The only things the same are the sound card, the OS (WinXP Pro), the DVD software decoder (PowerDVD XP) and the graphics card manufacturer (Radeon).
I ran a 9600XT on the old system and a 9800 Pro on this one but I still get the same problems and it also happens in Media Player, WinDVD and PowerDVD.

Has anyone else had this problem or do you know what's wrong?

If I watch a movie encoded in DTS I have no problems, which is cool because DTS sounds better anyway but about half of my DVDs are in crappy Dolby Digital.

I've got a DTS amp downstairs, it's sounds exactly the same as Dolby Digital and from what I've been looking at on Google, pretty much everyone say's the same, "the difference is negligable".

Anyhoo, try uninstalling your creative drivers, then run driver cleaner to make sure they're ALL gone, reinstall the original's from the CD then update from creative's site.

Alternatively, enable your onboard sound (if it's got a digital out) try it using that instead of your Audigy (make sure it's set to use it in the control panel etc too)

[Richard M]

Yeah I'll give that a go, I've got the onboard VIA 7.1.
It'll sound like crap but it'll eliminate the Creative card from the equation.

[Stuart]

I found the Audigy is not that good at decoding Dolby Digital. I have set the digital out of the Audigy to output the Digital to an external Dolby Digital amp.

[jtwn]

The technologies are both comparable, both have their pros and cons, its just that stuff mastered in DTS tends to have a better original mix. Myself, i prefer DTS. I have yet to find a dvd where i would listen to the dd mix over the dts.

If you have setup to output through a digital out, it bypasses the dac and outputs the raw ac3/dts to your receiver/amp which does the decoding, not your audigy.

[Richard M]

BTW - I've discovered that the cause of this was due to the notorious Starforce copy protection system.
It only happened after I installed Toca Race Driver 2, which uses this crap.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

I found the Audigy is not that good at decoding Dolby Digital. I have set the digital out of the Audigy to output the Digital to an external Dolby Digital amp.

Sounds fantastic to me?