Blog: Old School HTPC Gaming

[Naylia]

[quote=”vile2064″]
The X-Fi based Auzentech cards actually include the Creative Alchemy software with the driver package.
[/quote]

This was my thought…why look at buying a Creative card, when you can just buy one of the newer model Auzentech cards.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

[quote=”Naylia”]
[quote=”vile2064″]
The X-Fi based Auzentech cards actually include the Creative Alchemy software with the driver package.
[/quote]

This was my thought…why look at buying a Creative card, when you can just buy one of the newer model Auzentech cards.
[/quote]

Unless I’m missing something, it’s $120-$250 (new, since I can’t find any used) for the Auzentech versus $60 for the X-fi Titanium (used, ebay).

[Anonymous]

The titanium would be a good choice, but whatever you do, avoid the X-Fi Xtreme Audio like the plague.
[quote]Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio, does not actually have the EMU20K1 chip but is a re-branded Audigy SE, using the same family of chips (CA0106-WBTLF), and even the same drivers.[/quote]

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

Excellent to know… thanks!

[Anonymous]

Oh, not bad.  The X-Fi titanium does dolby digital live.  Didn’t realize Creative included that on any of their cards.

I guess the only other benefit you could get out of an Auzentech card at this point would be if you want the audio to go over HDMI

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

[quote=”vile2064″]
Oh, not bad.  The X-Fi titanium does dolby digital live.  Didn’t realize Creative included that on any of their cards.

I guess the only other benefit you could get out of an Auzentech card at this point would be if you want the audio to go over HDMI
[/quote]

Since I have an ATI card with HDMI, I don’t think I could get the audio from the sound card to go out over the ATI or vice versa.  Since I’ll only be using the X-fi for old games, I don’t think it’s a big deal to switch the audio source from the ATI to the X-fi.

[Naylia]

I believe there are even apps out there that will switch audio device based on when you run certain executables.

[George L. Schmauch Jr.]

That would change the device in Windows between the X-fi and the ATI card, right?  That does sound good to me, so if you know what kind of Googling I should do for such an app, I’m all ears.

But, what I’m actually talking about is switching the source on the receiver, since I’ll need to change from HDMI video and audio via the ATI card to HDMI video on the ATI and X-fi audio, which will be plugged into another audio input on the receiver.

My thoughts are:

1.  Get my butt up and hit a button the receiver
2.  Program a button on the remote to switch audio inputs
3.  Program a new activity with the only change being to swap the audio input and NOT start SageTV

I think #2 is going to be the easiest and most logical to deal with.

[Naylia]

Check out EventGhost. I can’t see it on the website, but their is an entire folder of commands dedicated to SoundCard control.

[skirge01]

It took quite a bit of effort, lots of installing, and even more uninstalling and rebooting, but I finally got the audio working through the X-fi.  In case anyone else decides to do this, here are the important parts:

1.  Let Windows 7 download all the drivers for you automatically
2.  DO NOT run Creative’s Automatic Updater utility
3.  Go to the Creative site and download the Alchemy drivers, as well as the Dolby Digital Live pack
4.  Install Alchemy
5.  Install DDL
6.  Add the game’s path to Alchemy (this may be done automatically through Alchemy combing the registry for you and locating your game paths)

At this point, you should have 5.1 audio going through your SPDIF connection to the receiver and EAX will be available under Windows 7 in your old games.  You will need to disable the HDMI audio when playing games and enable the X-fi, but that’s pretty simple.  Additionally, you may need to switch your receiver to pick up the digital audio from the SPDIF input, rather than the HDMI cable.

Now, my next project is to [url=http://www.missingremote.com/forums/guide-installing-sagetv-v7#comment-27284]finish getting bitstreaming working[/url] with my setup.

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