Getting Your X-Fi or Audigy’s Dolby and DTS To Work In Windows Vista (SPDIF IN Working Too)
8 08 2007So hopefully you’ve all got your Audigy’s working in 5.1 now. If you haven’t you need to go back and read Working 5.1 Audigy Series Vista Drivers. As far as I know this fix will work on most Creative Labs sound cards in Vista 32bit and 64bit.
5.1 sound is great when it works. Mine worked for me playing DVD’s and playing games, but when I played multi channel mp3 through Windows Media Player the sound would be 2 channel only.
Creative Labs released a FAQ that said:
”Will decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS signals be supported in the future? If not, why not?
These functions are not supported at driver level in Windows Vista and going forward will be supported at application level by applications such as Power DVD or WinDVD.”
What a load of rubbish! Creative Labs removed Dolby decoding on their mainstream drivers, yet saw fit to leave the feature in Dell drivers!
Please Note: The follow method is the advanced manual method. I strongly suggest you try the recently added Audigy Series Vista Driver Installer Package before you try this manual install.
Firstly we need to download the Vista x86 X-Fi driver from Dell. Just go on the Dell site and get these Dell drivers. Now extract the R144728.EXE file (again using WinRar) to a folder but dont install it just cancel after extracting.
All you really want are two files that you can find located in your newly extracted folder; R144728\Drivers\wdm\win2k_xp\i386\
These files are ctac32k.sys and ctdvda2k.sys. Copy them and place them into your c:\windows\system32\drivers folder, replacing existing versions.
Now reboot and afterwards you’ll have a brand new tab in the Creative Audio Console (CAC -lol) labelled “Decoder”.
Now you can enable the internal decoder and your SPDIF IN can now decode DTS. Now you can use more than 2 speakers in Windows Media Player when playing .avi or .mp3 with multichannel soundtracks.
I hope this fix helps somebody as much as it helped me.
Thank you for continuing to fight the good fight.
I am not going to transfer my Audigy 2 Platinum card from my old XP computer to my new Vista Ultimate machine until the official proved driver appears….in other words, I am going to be looking for a new sound card in all probability.
Bob
Thanks man, you have saved my sanity!
All worked first time and now I have use of all my surround 5.1 speakers for .mp3 and .avi files.
Keep up the great work and maybe Creative might learn a lesson from this but I doubt it!
P.S. I am glad you have also spoken the truth about the misleading comments made by Creative on their online forums blaming Microsoft and everyone else!
For those that are running Audigy, they are very inexpensive (cheap) cards. Quit whinning and buy a new card.
Thanks, this helped a lot, I got banned from Creatives website for speaking my mind, Ohh well.
Who needs creative anyway, they have no support and I would like to say this to creative….. Kiss my ass, last product I buy from you.
Scorpion: It’s that sort of mentality that encourages manufacturers to pull stunts like this. You’re obviously made of money, so remind me to put up a PayPal link for you.
Robert Souders, Deanot and Martin: Thanks for taking the time to say thanks. Best of Luck!
Scorpion, we bought the cards at a very high price for a very good product, the product is still a good one, probably one of the best out there.
But there is no excuse for the lack of support, Windows XP has been around longer then my card and it is still supported.
Creative said they would support my card (Audigy 2 ZS Platinum), do you know what this card is? do you know what functions it has/had? do you know how much of it works now?
So lets see, you want me to drop my $250 card and buy another Creative card for $50 that don’t work either?
Sounds like you don’t know what you are talking about, sounds like you are like creative, full of AIR and no knowledge of Creative products.
Move along, this is not the place for you or your lame comments.
First off let me thank you for the efforts you are putting in here to help people who use these cards. Great work!
I’m going to try the manual method for the reason that I have the SB live! 24-bit. Do you have any word if the fix would work for that card?
In theory, it should work with any Creative Driver that uses ctac32k.sys and ctdvda2k.sys
I must confess, I don’t have a Live! 24 at my disposal, so I’d love to hear if it works or not!
Thanks for the support
Goat
Did anyone get this to work with the USB-Devices? I have an Audigy 2 ZS Video Editor, which too uses the ctac32k.sys and ctdvda2k.sys.
However, replacing the files will not make a decoder tab appear
Unfortunately, I don’t own a Audigy USB.
From memory, the Audio Console was always different to standard Audio Console due to the extra settings for USB speed, firmware tab etc.
..at least it was in older XP drivers.
Perhaps that’s why it didn’t work on your external device.
I tried the “soup” for SB Live!24. There are no files in the drivers folder. I pasted the Dell one’s anyway - made no effect, still greyed out SPDIF options. BUT I was able to activate digital output with DD, DTS working now. Done by going to Control Panel->Sound->Speakers->Properties->Custom->Digital Out Only (check). It works, though still no SPDIF control. So, I guess it qualifies as half-victory. Hope this might help some people.
Hi again….
I don’t know if you got my earlier message tonight, but I did do a complete reinstall, and do have correctly functioning 5.1 Yay! However, I still don’t think I have the correct control panel business…..I did follow the setup all the way thru, but still don’t see any new tabs or options…..I even tried to go into the console file from your latest download, and just keep hitting an error. Is the normal? I am close, I can feel it……
Bob
I’ve never had an error when installing ctac32k.sys or ctdvda2k.sys If you could post the error message, I can look into it further for you.
Hi, again….thx for getting back….
Here is what I did: 1) I let the download package completely run on its’ own (5.1 returns, minimal control back, but not what I have been reading in your site and on Creative that should improve….seems to still be pretty limited…no SPDIF in, for example, and pretty generic looking…just as my onboard generic stuff looked….and yes, before my reinstall, I zapped all audio stuff, Generic, Creative, and otherwise)…..
Then, I tried opening up the file from your download that in the AudCon folder, thinking that was the console…..hit the setup file, and got this:
Setup has experienced an Error:
Please do the following:
-Close running programs
-Empty Temp Folder
-Check Internet Connections (Internet Based Setups)
Then, try to run again
ERROR CODE: -6003
Maybe I’ve overshot the extent of what your great package provides, and / or I should not be fiddling with the setup command again in the AudCon folder, but I was under the impression all these months that this is the folder that one must use because the original CD programs are doa (probably forever, no?)
If you have any ideas, it sure would be appreciated, as I have done a lot of work just to move the sucker to the Vista computer, and all I have gained so far is 5.1. Don’t get me wrong, that’s great on its’ own….again many thanks.
Bob
Yes that error message is normal and will display for all users.
It only occurs when you try to run a program from within one of the subfolders. I assume it’s part of the file protection, because only allows Setup.exe to execute the subfolder setup programs.
The only sure-fire way to install this package is to run “Setup.exe” (Newest Driver Pack) in the main folder you extracted to, and NOT in any of the subfolders contained within. Audio Console will not install independently. The driver pack has to be installed fully.
I’ve tried to replicate an install with missing decoder tab, but everytime it installs perfectly.
Perhaps redownload the Driver Pack in case of corruption. Failing that I’m all out of ideas for the time being, I’m afraid.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for trying!
Like you say, if Mr. Creative would get off his creative ass and release the correct driver package so that we can all once more use the device we paid for….it would be a good thing….
Have you considered that the reluctance to do this comes from some deep dark reasons concerning DRM?
I purchased a very expensive ATI All-In-Wonder card as I built my new Vista machine in early Feb. only after being “100% guaranteed” thru their tech support that it would have drivers and total functionality by July at the latest….I also confirmed this with them at least two more times as July approached…..guess what?
Now it is a collective “Huh?” From them. And, their off the record belief that there will never be capture support for the card.
The same might be in the mix with the Audigy, especially with regards to decoding Dolby and such. You are their best third party.
At least ATI sorta ‘fessed up.
Creative still has acute cranial rectitis.
Thanks once more.
Bob
ATI’s web site steers you to third party software to restore full functionality (with a corporate “maybe”
to the card.
Actually, I’ve had no problems with ATI under Vista. Only one minor annoyance, the HD2900XT’s noisy fan, but that’s the same in XP too!
There’s another driver pack in production, I hope to post it soon.
Best of Luck
Goat
Hi, again…..
I look forward to the new driver pack….I assume that you mean Audigy…..as for the ATI board, yes, the video seems just fine, it is the television playback and capture functions that are Vista crippled…..they steer you to third party fixes if you read deeply enough into the install notes….
Bob
S/PDIF-In working fine in WinXP-MCE but not in Vista Ultimate. Needed S/PDIF-In functionality for HT-PC I build to play surround when watching HD on PVR from Verizon FiOS TV (set top box). I have to reboot to Windows XP (SP2) Media Center Edition 2005, if I want to watch TV on my GigaWorks S750 speakers.
Excerpts from Creative’s Tech Support email says the reason for: “not getting surround sound when decoding from your Verizon FiOS TV (digital set top box) connected to your X-Fi Elite Pro via SPDF IN. … driver does not support … Decoding of Dolby. Digital and DTS… signals DVD-Audio DirectSound.-based EAX games 6.1 speaker mode. … This is the reason why you are not able to get complete surround sound from your speakers. …”
I couldn’t believe it! In bewilderment I emailed back saying so, this is crazy RealTek has had S/PDIF working in Vista a year before the O/S was released!! They must be working on something for the future right? Email back, NO!
So I went searching through the Discussion Forums to find an answer.
I’m grateful for your post as someone who’s found a solution for Creative Lab’s non-support laziness.
Your solution has my X-Fi Elite fully functional in Vista Ultimate with the S/PDIF-In.
I posted my comments on Creative’s message board:
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=Vista&message.id=23960&jump=true#M23960
I hope you receive a job from them. They need to hire you!
Thank you,
Larry Morley
Thanks for the feedback. It’s always nice to hear of a success story for a change! :p
Hello!
Hopefully i tried this “fix” for my Creative Audigy 2 ZS with Vista Ultimate 64 bit.
But this doesnt work.
The Audio Console ditn´t change.
I also used your driver Package, but it didn´t work for me
These files come from a “Dell” X-Fi driver, therefore we can offer no guarantee these files will work for everyone. It does state in current Creative drivers that; “SPDIF passthrough is supported on Vista 32-bit only” which looks like the route to the issue.
At the end of the day, none of the files have been altered. The install files were all created by Creative therefore are bound to be a bit hit and miss. I am responsible for the readme.txt though.
I’ve passed on your comments to those responsible, and they have assured me they will look into the Audigy2 Zs/Vista 64bit decoder. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a solution to this issue.
Thanks for the feedback,
Goat
Hi.
I am running Windows Vista 32-bit (home premium edition) with the Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty champion edition soundcard. I’ve tried your fix to get Dolby Digital and DTS to work with my soundcard software but copying the two Dell files into the system32/drivers directory doesn’t seem to have changed anything
On another subject, i’m sure it can work since when i test dolby and dts in control panel–>sound–>spdif out–>supported formats i get sound from all five speakers and the dolby and dts logos show on my Logitech z5500 control panel display.
Hi you all,
I also tried it, but it didn’t work for me… I’ve tested it with a Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS sound card on Windows Vista x64 Ultimate.
When I had copied the file and restarted I saw the new tab (Decode) on the audio console. But as soon as I changed the setting to “internal decoder” and wanted to play anything programs such as Winamp refused to play (freezed). Windows Media Player on the other hand told me, that the audio format was not supported (with the other driver version this file played fine).
I hope, that there is anything you can do?
Thanks for the great supporting and this nice site (I didn’t know it ’til now).
Greetings,
Drago
Firstly, xplode, I think the Champion uses a different driver set to standard X-Fi. I’ll research the Dell FTP site to see what I can dig up regarding this model.
Drago, Sadly it seems to be an emerging pattern with some Audigy 2 Zs owners. We’re researching the issue, and have discovered further errors in the CTAud2k.sys file. We are trying to correct these, and hope to bring a fix sometime soon.
Regards
Goat
hey goat, i appreciate the walkthroughs for the install as well as the DTS issue. however i’ve followed your steps to installing the hidden audigy driver on the x-fi release, but when you do that setup.exe it simply updates the driver and has not installed the audio console. what ever shall i do?
-sysy
The only thing I can suggest would be to uninstall everything, run (The Latest Version of) Guru3D.com Driver Sweeper and try again to install. Sometimes Vista keeps backups of files, and will choose to use whichever one it prefers. We suspect this issue to be related to leftover files.
Some X-Fi users claim this fix only works with earlier Vista drivers too, while others it seems to work with any version. It seems to be an emerging pattern that affects Audigy2 Zs also.
We were able to replicate a failure to install by leaving *.BAK and *.CDF files before installing new drivers. Sadly that’s the only way we found to “break” our decoder tab with the files. Every install attempt with a clean system worked for us.
We’ve posted a list of Creative entries that cause problems here. Rest assured we’re working on this issue, any input will be gratefully received.
Sorry I can’t help more.
Goat
Hi,
I have a Dell OEM Audigy2ZS. Can I used those files too?
If cannot, I’d rather not to install Vista instead of my current system.
Sorry I haven’t ever been umm… (fortunate enough?)… to own a Dell.
In theory it sould work, I think they are the same card -but there’s only one way to find out for sure.
Regards
Goat
not working w/ my X-Fi Fat. edition in vista x64 (no decoder tab) :/
I’ve got a X-fi audio extreme pci-express card in vista x64 home premium, when to do this fix, but the two files aren’t present in the system32\drivers folder. copied them in anyways and it doesnt work (no decoder tab or the dts/dolby ones either)
hello i ve tried the one you have recommended but didnt found useful now i m trying it by complete uninstalling old creative crap and will let u know.
one more thing i just downloaded the dell file but as download gets completed file gets delete automatically i dont know why?
can anyone please link those 2 files so i can just download the required files
i have audigy 2 using windows vista 32 bit
Ok, My x-fi xtrememusic seems to be working perfect; when I put in a dvd, i get 6.1 dts or dolby digital passthrough and the 7 speaker indicators light up on my home theater receiver. In games with EAX, is this ALSO suppose to happen OR is it still suppose to get a PCM signal making only the left and right speaker indicators to show on my 7.1 receiver?
Just tried this on my Vista32 system with a X-Fi Platinum, after replacing those .sys files and rebooting I get an error when starting the audio console. Tells me that no supported device is found.
Now that Creative has broken internal decoding in the latest X-Fi WDM drivers for Windows XP (available from Windows Update), I tried your method. Unfortunately it did not work.
Details: When you do a clean XP install and go to Windows Update before installing the Creative drivers from their website, Windows Update will download and install X-Fi drivers which do not support internal Dolby Digital/DTS decoding even under XP.
Using your method, replacing the ctac32k.sys and ctdvda2k.sys files from the Dell installation package, will do nothing: No new tab appears in the Creative Audio Console. What may be even worse: In Audio Creation Mode, SPDIF options are now grayed out.
The drivers from Windows Update are dated 12/19/2006 (December 19, 2006).
Hi there, thanks for the great information and instructions. I have a Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 card and it is suffering from the same symptoms. I’m using optical/spdif and can’t get DTS, DDL, 5.1 to work.
Would this Dell method work on this card?
Thanks.
I have used your methods and everything is working fine, i got the new tab and my external optical signals from optical i/p are being decoded, Thanks for the great article.
I did the patch, the decoder tab does show up in control panel now. I set it as bypass mode, as well set SPDIF as default playback… still no sound/signal coming out from the flexijack… why is this so hard! any ideas?
I’m looking into buyig an X-Fi. I have an Audigy 2 ZS and have never (even in Win2k and XP) been able to get the SPDIF-IN working correctly. I get stereo fine, but it will never decode surround out to the analog outs.
I called Creative tech support and the guy flat-out told me that the drive
*will not decode digital surround to analog outputs*
does this driver offer a work-around? Or does it just get stereo decoding to work. I really wish someone could give me a straight answer. It seems as though NO sound cards will do this and Creative discontinued the DTS-100 and its like $500 on ebay
Hello,
I did a clean uninstal using the Driver Sweeper util. (twice, just to make sure). Then I did a fresh install off the new Vista - X-Fi disc (except for the drivers, I installed the latest ones). After all that was finished, I swapped in the Dell driver file (64bit) and restarted (again). When I started back up the decode tab WAS available as well as the decoder options, but under the SPIDF tab the drop down menu for the SPDIF I/O options is grayed out. Any idea what else I could do, or have done wrong?
P.S. Thanks for providing all this info on your site!
I try it but nothing happen can anyone help me vista 32bit thanks
windows vista home premium dvd media decoder player
yes indeed…
I am thinking of getting auzentech x-fi prelude. Anyone of you here know that whether the card will be able to decode the optical in dolby signal to analog with Dell driver? From what i read from auzentech, the default driver will not work.