Dual Audio Cable for CDROM & DVD Burner?

[SQLLady]

I have a DELL 8250 with a CDROM installed and a Soundblaster Live 5.1 sound card. I am purchasing a DVD Burner (Plextor) and want to have sound for both drives. I opened the box and noticed that there is no audio cable going from the sound card to the CDRom drive but yet I have sound. Can anyone tell me how this works? I also suspect that I will not need a cable for my DVD burner.

thanks in advance.

 

[franklin97355]

The cable is there (or not) to allow you to play audio CD sound through the computer speakers. If you don't plan to do this you don't need the cable.

 

[jsauce]

Newer operating systems like Windows XP use Digital Audio Extraction, therefore they do not need to have a cable connected from the sound card to the cdrom drive. It also requires that the cdrom is capable which most are. The audio is read directly from the cd as data and played. Using analog the sound is played like a radio. DAE is on by default in Windows XP.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[SQLLady]

Thanks John for responding to my post. Do you know if DAE is on by default in Windows 2003 Server?

 

[jsauce]

Well its been part of Windows since 98 SE, I'd imagine that it probably is turned on by default in Windows 2003 Server. It will likely be part of every OS microsoft puts out now. It produces the best audio quality you can get from a cd, so its likely everyone will support it now.

John D. Saucier
jsauce@magicguild.com
Certified Technician
Network Administrator

 

[satrow]

Right-click My Computer and choose Manage, - Device Manager - DVD/CDRomDrives - Double click each one in turn and ensure that 'Enable Digital Audio' is enabled under the 'Properties' tab.

If the devices are fairly modern: no cables will be required!

 

[SQLLady]

yes, they are aleady enabled.

 

[satrow]

I'm not familiar with the 8250 but check that the SBLive is not in the top PCI slot.

Device Manager - IDE controllers - (primary and secondary controllers) - make sure that DMA is enabled.

 

[cdogg]

SQLLAdy,

Since Windows 2003 Server is essentially identical to XP (as far as the user interface is concerned) with the addition of several new features, I would suspect that it is.

Also, if anyone reading this ever runs into a situation in an older PC that needs a dual-cable, you can get one here:
www.directron.com/tnmxr.html


~cdogg
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