SB Live! 5.1 Modding - Page 3 - bit-tech.net Forums

bsodmike · 12th Dec 2003, 11:20

That was a smart way to get you to leave the chat and then send you an email that is basically useless. She did say she would send you the info and didn't BAH!

_krypton · 12th Dec 2003, 14:45

Yeah...

One thing that i have learned again and again is:

Creative products(especially sound cards) are good,
BUT, their support sucks, big time! Starting from their driver right to their technical support.

The only reason i got this card, is because i needed linux compability. My olp pc(also my media server) runs on mandrake 9.2, and i needed something that had support on linux os. I have 1 vortex based and 2 vortex based sound cards not being in use. But i tried compiling the drivers for linux, and the sound was crappy.. Those are good cards.. what a pity..

2 are from Turtle Beach, another from Diamond.

Anyway, to those who are fellow linux minded, i need to ask a question:

I have used only Mandrake 9.1/9.2 so far. Though i have Red Hat
9, i have not installed it. Which should be better? For performance and multimedia-wize? SuSe, Mandrake, Red Hat(the reason i did not install this is because of the release of the fedora core) Debian or others??? My bro keeps on telling me to use Slackware, but that, i cannot use, as my linux understanding is not up to a level to use a non-graphical system. Anyway.. tell me what you think.

My current system(check this thread: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthrea...threadid=44883 )
has 3 OS installed; Mandrake 9.2(main os),
BeOS Max v3(installed it just to drool over its speed. It's like lightning!),
and crappy Win XP Pro. I personally hate this OS but, Protel DXP doesn't run on linux like Eagle does.. so... do the math.

Jaguar_Infinity · 12th Dec 2003, 17:24

I prefer freeBSD personally but gentoo is anotehr good linux to consider

Jaguar_Infinity · 13th Dec 2003, 01:54

RIGHT, i got a reply from creative and all i can say is this is bringing out the british in me, stuborn ******* who won't give up untill he gets what he's after, this means war creative!

here's what i got -

Dear Sir/Madam

Thanks for the email!

I have escalade this issue and this is what I've got:

we can't actually help him with this. The SB220 does not have the
AUD_Ext connector anymore. It only has the white connector which he
already mentioned, but that one is not usable for his purpose.

I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better answer.I've tried my best to
help. Sorry.

Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this
email.

Best Regards

Andy Teyu
Technical Support
Creative Labs Europe

obviously this isn't the answer i was after so i sent a reply....

Thanks for the reply.

What about the SPDIF_IO port located on the right of the card? what about the pin out details for this port?

also the white connector is of no use to me, may i ask what it is for, its general purpose? I'd like to know what an unknown port on my card is and it seems unfair that Im not permitted to know what the items are on the card that i have paid for.

Another question, a bit of topic but why was the AUD_ext port removed from the card? am I right in understanding that with this port removed i could no longer use a Live Drive? This seems unfair and indeed with such a fundamental change it seems wrong to even call the card the same as this modification prevents me and others from accessing the same features other people with older models can use. This feels unjust as it disciminates against users with newer cards who may have braught these cards to use under the false pretence it would be able to be used in the same fasion as older cards.

Can i please have the pinout details for my card even if they are 'not usable for my purposes' (even though this should be for me to decide for myself once i review the pinout details) as I would like to know details of my card. If you are unable to help can I please have contact details of your manager so I can take this higher.

Many thanks

Stuart

Watch out creative i'm after those details!

_krypton · 13th Dec 2003, 02:08

Way to go!

Then WAR it is.

I am quite sick of the replys i keep getting..

I am NOT giving up!

What a pain in the ar*e they are.

bsodmike · 13th Dec 2003, 12:19

I sold my Creative card off for the drivers were quite sucky....very very annoying!

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?postid=483604#post483604

Thanks Krypto, thats your design there

_krypton · 13th Dec 2003, 14:14

Nice to see your pc growing..

Good work!

tomek · 15th Dec 2003, 11:26

Hello
All i'm tried is tell that You have to follow my leads. I've describled how to find out witch pin prowide siglans that You need.
Tomek

_krypton · 15th Dec 2003, 15:44

I know I know.. It's just that i've been quite busy now.. I am aware of what you have said..

Thanks for reminding anyway!

Rovman · 22nd Dec 2003, 01:58

I have done a little digging around for the pin descriptions.

I do not know if this is correct or not but its the best i can find.

1 - SPDIF out TTL level
2 - Ground
3 - SPDIF IN
4 - Ground
5 - +5V

Pin 1 is the pin closest to the where the PCI connects into your mobo.

Disclaimer

: i do not know if these are correct and im not responsible if something does happen to go wrong.
You can easily check if the grounds and 5v are correct and then the rest isnt really a problem.

(and yeah, im newbie to the forums

)

RR5 · 22nd Dec 2003, 02:02

Welcome to the Forums Rovman!!

RR5 · 23rd Dec 2003, 02:20

I just found a sheet of paper that came with my SoundWorks Digital Subwoofer.

Connection to Sound Blaster Live! Value via SPDIF Bracket.

That is Version 1.0 Dated September 1999.
0430001918 Rev. A at the bottom.

And there is the insert.

Badepapa · 6th Dec 2004, 07:34

Hi All,

I got a Creative's SB Live 5.1 Digital recently, but i dint got to see the AC-3 Decode option in my Surround Mixer. After an exhautive search I got to know about soft modding the card. In one of the forums i got to know that if i connect the PIN 1 and PIN 23 of AUD_EXT with a 4.7 K resistor, i can turn on that option. But but but .... I dont see that AUD_EXT on my card. Can you guys help me to figure out why i dont have AUD_EXT on my card and is there any other way that i can make my card decode digital dolby 5.1 sound. I have read a lot of stuff regarding OEM but I got the card in a reatil box og Creative Labs.

jeromie · 20th Jan 2005, 10:04

Hello Forum!

I just wanted to affirm Rovman's pinouts for the 5-pin SPDIF I/O port on the SBLive 5.1 Digital cards. (SB0220)

I already had the soldering iron warmed up when I realized that the familiar 20-pin connector was gone!

I removed the pins from one end of the supplied two-wire Digital CD-ROM cable and placed the white wire on Pin-1, and the black wire on Pin-3 of the 5-pin SPDIF I/O connector, and plugged the opposite end of the cable into the CD SPDIF/IN connector on a second card. It works like a charm.

Cheers,
Jeromie Clark
VP Information Technology
Smoothjazz.Com, Inc
http://www.smoothjazz.com/

Yelrad · 21st Jan 2005, 03:59

My Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Has No pin areas except for like a wire plugin for TAD (WTF IS THAT??) AUX_IN (Dunno Either ) CD_SPDIF (ONLY 2 PINS??)

dj_stick · 14th Mar 2005, 07:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yelrad

My Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Has No pin areas except for like a wire plugin for TAD (WTF IS THAT??) AUX_IN (Dunno Either ) CD_SPDIF (ONLY 2 PINS??)

TAD - Telephone Answering Device - i think it's used with CL and some other internal modems
AUX_IN - similiar to CD_IN, with 4 pins for left and right audio, and ground
CD_SPDIF - two pin digital audio input from an optical disk drive (or any other source) it supports both standard spdif levels (+/-0.5 V) aswell as TTL levels (0-5 V)

22nd Dec 2003, 02:02	#51
RR5 Hypermodder Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Bellevue, Washington Posts: 710	Welcome to the Forums Rovman!! __________________ <+Crash0rz> i cool my pc by pissing into a tube <@Yo-DUH_87> "Han will have those pants down, we've got to give him more time!" <+WoodShop> if you abuse cats i'll hunt you for as long as you live then slowly kill you with an AA battery <+bloodcar> bah, the forums still have me as loobcard

23rd Dec 2003, 02:20	#52
RR5 Hypermodder Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Bellevue, Washington Posts: 710	I just found a sheet of paper that came with my SoundWorks Digital Subwoofer. Connection to Sound Blaster Live! Value via SPDIF Bracket. That is Version 1.0 Dated September 1999. 0430001918 Rev. A at the bottom. And there is the insert. __________________ <+Crash0rz> i cool my pc by pissing into a tube <@Yo-DUH_87> "Han will have those pants down, we've got to give him more time!" <+WoodShop> if you abuse cats i'll hunt you for as long as you live then slowly kill you with an AA battery <+bloodcar> bah, the forums still have me as loobcard

20th Jan 2005, 10:04	#54
jeromie What's a Dremel? Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA USA Posts: 1	5-Pin SPDIF I/O Pinout Hello Forum! I just wanted to affirm Rovman's pinouts for the 5-pin SPDIF I/O port on the SBLive 5.1 Digital cards. (SB0220) I already had the soldering iron warmed up when I realized that the familiar 20-pin connector was gone! I removed the pins from one end of the supplied two-wire Digital CD-ROM cable and placed the white wire on Pin-1, and the black wire on Pin-3 of the 5-pin SPDIF I/O connector, and plugged the opposite end of the cable into the CD SPDIF/IN connector on a second card. It works like a charm. Cheers, Jeromie Clark VP Information Technology Smoothjazz.Com, Inc http://www.smoothjazz.com/

21st Jan 2005, 03:59	#55
Yelrad Multimodder Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 137	My Creative Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Has No pin areas except for like a wire plugin for TAD (WTF IS THAT??) AUX_IN (Dunno Either ) CD_SPDIF (ONLY 2 PINS??) __________________ STATS: Asus A7N8X-E Motherboard, nforce2 Chipset,128 MB Radeon 7500 Video Card, 512 DDR400 PC3200 Ram,Liquid Cooling. Current Project:Chvey SSR RC Visit My Site!:Sunkist guess what! pimping your site in 11 different signatures is a good way to get suspended!

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12th Dec 2003, 11:20	#41
bsodmike Banned Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka Posts: 763	That was a smart way to get you to leave the chat and then send you an email that is basically useless. She did say she would send you the info and didn't BAH!

12th Dec 2003, 14:45	#42
_krypton Multimodder Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Penang, Malaysia Posts: 160	Yeah... One thing that i have learned again and again is: Creative products(especially sound cards) are good, BUT, their support sucks, big time! Starting from their driver right to their technical support. The only reason i got this card, is because i needed linux compability. My olp pc(also my media server) runs on mandrake 9.2, and i needed something that had support on linux os. I have 1 vortex based and 2 vortex based sound cards not being in use. But i tried compiling the drivers for linux, and the sound was crappy.. Those are good cards.. what a pity.. 2 are from Turtle Beach, another from Diamond. Anyway, to those who are fellow linux minded, i need to ask a question: I have used only Mandrake 9.1/9.2 so far. Though i have Red Hat 9, i have not installed it. Which should be better? For performance and multimedia-wize? SuSe, Mandrake, Red Hat(the reason i did not install this is because of the release of the fedora core) Debian or others??? My bro keeps on telling me to use Slackware, but that, i cannot use, as my linux understanding is not up to a level to use a non-graphical system. Anyway.. tell me what you think. My current system(check this thread: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthrea...threadid=44883 ) has 3 OS installed; Mandrake 9.2(main os), BeOS Max v3(installed it just to drool over its speed. It's like lightning!), and crappy Win XP Pro. I personally hate this OS but, Protel DXP doesn't run on linux like Eagle does.. so... do the math.

12th Dec 2003, 17:24	#43
Jaguar_Infinity Just some guy Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: On the edge of nowhere UK Posts: 357	I prefer freeBSD personally but gentoo is anotehr good linux to consider

13th Dec 2003, 01:54	#44
Jaguar_Infinity Just some guy Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: On the edge of nowhere UK Posts: 357	RIGHT, i got a reply from creative and all i can say is this is bringing out the british in me, stuborn ******* who won't give up untill he gets what he's after, this means war creative! here's what i got - Dear Sir/Madam Thanks for the email! I have escalade this issue and this is what I've got: we can't actually help him with this. The SB220 does not have the AUD_Ext connector anymore. It only has the white connector which he already mentioned, but that one is not usable for his purpose. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better answer.I've tried my best to help. Sorry. Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this email. Best Regards Andy Teyu Technical Support Creative Labs Europe obviously this isn't the answer i was after so i sent a reply.... Thanks for the reply. What about the SPDIF_IO port located on the right of the card? what about the pin out details for this port? also the white connector is of no use to me, may i ask what it is for, its general purpose? I'd like to know what an unknown port on my card is and it seems unfair that Im not permitted to know what the items are on the card that i have paid for. Another question, a bit of topic but why was the AUD_ext port removed from the card? am I right in understanding that with this port removed i could no longer use a Live Drive? This seems unfair and indeed with such a fundamental change it seems wrong to even call the card the same as this modification prevents me and others from accessing the same features other people with older models can use. This feels unjust as it disciminates against users with newer cards who may have braught these cards to use under the false pretence it would be able to be used in the same fasion as older cards. Can i please have the pinout details for my card even if they are 'not usable for my purposes' (even though this should be for me to decide for myself once i review the pinout details) as I would like to know details of my card. If you are unable to help can I please have contact details of your manager so I can take this higher. Many thanks Stuart Watch out creative i'm after those details!

13th Dec 2003, 02:08	#45
_krypton Multimodder Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Penang, Malaysia Posts: 160	Way to go! Then WAR it is. I am quite sick of the replys i keep getting.. I am NOT giving up! What a pain in the ar*e they are.

13th Dec 2003, 12:19	#46
bsodmike Banned Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka Posts: 763	I sold my Creative card off for the drivers were quite sucky....very very annoying! http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?postid=483604#post483604 Thanks Krypto, thats your design there

13th Dec 2003, 14:14	#47
_krypton Multimodder Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Penang, Malaysia Posts: 160	Nice to see your pc growing.. Good work!

15th Dec 2003, 11:26	#48
tomek What's a Dremel? Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Polska Posts: 15	Hello All i'm tried is tell that You have to follow my leads. I've describled how to find out witch pin prowide siglans that You need. Tomek

15th Dec 2003, 15:44	#49
_krypton Multimodder Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Penang, Malaysia Posts: 160	I know I know.. It's just that i've been quite busy now.. I am aware of what you have said.. Thanks for reminding anyway!

22nd Dec 2003, 01:58	#50
Rovman What's a Dremel? Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 15	I have done a little digging around for the pin descriptions. I do not know if this is correct or not but its the best i can find. 1 - SPDIF out TTL level 2 - Ground 3 - SPDIF IN 4 - Ground 5 - +5V Pin 1 is the pin closest to the where the PCI connects into your mobo. Disclaimer : i do not know if these are correct and im not responsible if something does happen to go wrong. You can easily check if the grounds and 5v are correct and then the rest isnt really a problem. (and yeah, im newbie to the forums )

6th Dec 2004, 07:34	#53
Badepapa What's a Dremel? Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 1	Hi All, I got a Creative's SB Live 5.1 Digital recently, but i dint got to see the AC-3 Decode option in my Surround Mixer. After an exhautive search I got to know about soft modding the card. In one of the forums i got to know that if i connect the PIN 1 and PIN 23 of AUD_EXT with a 4.7 K resistor, i can turn on that option. But but but .... I dont see that AUD_EXT on my card. Can you guys help me to figure out why i dont have AUD_EXT on my card and is there any other way that i can make my card decode digital dolby 5.1 sound. I have read a lot of stuff regarding OEM but I got the card in a reatil box og Creative Labs.