[remilard]

Okay so I have the chaintech av-710 and use foobar2000, they are set up per Mr. Radar's guide for using digital out (I just reinstalled via drivers and foobar to make sure of this). That is to say, in via audio deck I have digital output enabled, pcm only checked, high res mode not enabled. In foobar I am using kernel streaming and no resampler. I get the error message that the output device cannot be opened. so...

1. Any ideas of what I could be doing wrong?

2. What about asio4all? I downloaded and ran the exe and downloaded the asio foobar plugin and put the dll in the foobar components folder (I'm not sure if this was the right thing to do since I couldn't read the documentation), and I get an error message here also.

3. What about flashing to prodigy drivers? I would do this but I'm probably of average computer ability and I'm not sure I understand the process.

I guess my last option would be to just buy another soundcard but I feel like I should be able to get the chaintech working.

 

[Glassman]

you have to use 32bit output in foobar.. otherwise if you're just after digital output, definately flash for Prodigy..

 

[remilard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glassman you have to use 32bit output in foobar.. otherwise if you're just after digital output, definately flash for Prodigy..

well I'm going to have to give that a shot.

Speaking of 32bit output in foobar.. when I select any of the advanced options (ie 24 bit padded to 32) foobar won't save the setting when I restart. Is that weird? This happened before and after uninstalling/reinstalling foobar.

 

[remilard]

Glassman, could you confirm that I understand (somewhat) how to flash to prodigy?

1. Using a windows 98 boot disk I boot into real dos mode and run eeprw and select the option to read eeprom backing up my chaintech firmware.

2. I rename eeprom_prodigy71 to eeprom.ini

3. In real mode dos I run eeprwa

4. I install audiotrack prodigy drivers

 

[Glassman]

step 1) is not really necessary, I have many firmwares including the Chaintech's I can give you if needed, on top of that the file generated by eeprw is not the same as ini files needed for eeprwa..

step 2) also isn't necessary, because it's Prodigy firmware in the eeprom.ini already.. so just boot from the w98 boot disk and run eeprwa.. then restart and install Prodigy drivers..

 

[remilard]

sounds pretty easy, I'll give it a shot tommorrow. Thanks for the help Glassman

 

[remilard]

worked like a charm, thanks glassman.

I was a bit intimidated since I haven't flashed anything hardware before but it couldn't have been easier. Took about an hour and 50 minutes of that was reading, the actual process took about ten minutes and I could have done it without reading all the stuff I did.

BTW, there was some concern that newer audiotrack drivers would not work with other cards, as of today prodigy 7.1 drivers work with the chaintech.

The prodigy drivers are much nicer than via and I would recommend anyone using the chaintech for digital only do this. I wish I had earlier.

For people as computer illiterate as me here is what I did step by step.

1. Made a bootable floppy. On Windows XP and 2000 this is as simple as putting a floppy in the drive, right clicking on the floppy drive icon in windows explorer and choosing "format", in the format options window click the box for "create ms-dos startup disk".

2. Copy needed files for flashing the card onto the bootable floppy. Download
these files and copy eeprwa.exe and eeprom.ini to the bootable floppy.

3. Restart the computer with the floppy in the drive and when given the command prompt run eeprwa (which just involves typing eeprwa and hitting enter since you will be in the correct directory). Wait a few seconds for confirmation and reboot the computer (without the floppy in the drive, I always forget that one

)

4. Go here and download the prodigy 7.1 drivers and install them.

The prodigy drivers seem to have a lot of options that I will read more about but I appear to be getting a bit perfect output without chaning anything (I need to borrow a dts reciever to double check and foobar2000 is set to use kernel streaming).

Thanks again to Glassman, Mr. Rader and the others who have written on these subjects for helping me on my journey to computer based audio. I would have given up already without this community.