[D0gbert]

Hi,

I've written a windows driver for CMI-8738/8768 cards. Unlike the official drivers, it supports bitperfect output at sample rates up to 96kHz, AC3/DTS passthrough and has a pretty small footprint.
I appreciate any useful bug report or feature request.

Here's the URL of the driver's site:
cmediadrivers - Google Code

So long,

dogbert

 

[thomaspf]

Very cool. Can you recommend any external card that has this controller to try this with?

Cheers

Thomas

Edit: The Zoltrix Nightingale PRO 6 is a card with this controller. However digital connectors are on a daughterboard. Someone lese with a card that has integrated digital I/O.

 

[D0gbert]

The cmedia controllers in questions can only sit on the PCI bus, thus I'm afraid there are no external devices.

 

[thomaspf]

What about that Nightingale card? External in the above post meant to indicate not installed on the motherboard.

This driver could have the potential to replace the RME digi8 for clean digital output from a PC using the standard sound apis.

I am still looking for a card that has the digital connector integrated.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[D0gbert]

ok, I got you wrong then - there are plenty of 'external' PCI cards which use cmedia chips.
If you're looking for bitperfect digital spdif connectivity, grab the cheapest card which has spdif connectors and a cmedia 8738/8768 chip onboard, e.g. the Zoltrix Nightingale. They are priced usually around 15 USD/Euro. There's an incomplete list of cards on the site which meet both conditions.

 

[thomaspf]

Sorry if I don't get this, but which site?

I want to order one and try this out on Vista but I would prefer integrated digital I/O.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[D0gbert]

http://cmediadrivers.googlepages.com/supporteddevices

 

[thomaspf]

Okay, I have this card on order for $23.08 with UPS ground delivery

and will report back my experiences once I have it.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[skinnie]

they don't work for the 9738 chipset don't they?

 

[D0gbert]

The 9738 is an AC97 codec chip, therefore completely different and limited to 48kHz sample rate. The driver only supports the cmedia PCI chips, so it doesn't work.

 

[thomaspf]

Hi D0gbert,

sorry for the very long delay. My Vista machine went dead on me and had to be send back to the manufacturer.

I downloaded and installed the

CMIDriver-1.0.5-bin-x86-WaveRT.zip

Version on Vista and the driver does not work. In the Resources tab of the driver it says:

This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use.

If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system.


any ideas. Is this the wrong version for Vista?

Cheers

Thomas

 

[thomaspf]

Here is an update and the conclusion.

Dogbert debugged the problem and the latest version of his driver works great on my Vista machine.

However, on Vista the driver is not bit perfect if you use applications that use the WAV or directsound APIs.

If you stick with the non RTwave version of the driver you can get around this with kernel streaming and with the RTwave version of the driver you will eventually have WASAPI applications.



Cheers

Thomas

 

[Ludmil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D0gbert /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, I've written a windows driver for CMI-8738/8768 cards. Unlike the official drivers, it supports bitperfect output at sample rates up to 96kHz, AC3/DTS passthrough and has a pretty small footprint. I appreciate any useful bug report or feature request. Here's the URL of the driver's site: cmediadrivers - Google Code So long, dogbert

Thank you! You saved me a lot of trouble. The original CMI8738 drivers for XP64 were terrible - crashing my PC as soon as I try to use the microphone.
But from what I see I do not have the 4 ch option now, only plain Stereo from the Volume panel.

 

[noahlapuz]

I downloaded this, worked with no problems at all. But I can't seem to notice any difference and/or benefit from the drivers as far as sound quality is concerned. I also have a sound blaster 5.1 not live by creative. Which card has better output?
Using winxp os btw.

 

[D0gbert]

Ludmil, what's the revision of your chip?

noahlapuz, that depends whether or not you use the analog ports. The analog part of C-Media chips is rubbish, so the soundblaster would be the better choice. If you use the digital outputs only, then the C-Media card in conjunction with my drivers is superior.