# X-fi Surround 5.1



## wayfaerer86 (Aug 15, 2008)

Hi all.
I recently purchased the following external USB sound card.
http://au.creative.com/products/pro...ory=244&subcategory=718&product=17751&listby=

Pretty happy with its sound quality, definitely leaps and bounds above my laptops onboard, plus I can use my 5.1 system.

Only problem is i'm somehow getting a slight lag in sound, I'll see people mouths finish talking just before the sound, or hear a guns fire just after I fire the weapon. It's nothing incredible like a second long but it's certainly a little annoying!

I'm just after ways that will get rid of this sound lag, possibly conflicting programs? 

I can't imagine this is something that is expected of the product even if it's USB.

I'm running it on vista on a dell 1520, so its less than a year old, definitely using USB 2.0 ports then.

Help is appreciated!
cheers


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

make sure you have the latest dvd codecs and sound card drivers.


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## Luda (Aug 16, 2008)

+1 to codecs and drivers, creative's latest driver was released on aug 3rd i believe

also, check to see how much cpu usage is going on [watch a movie with tast manager open] due to it being usb it might be sucking down alot of CPU cycles


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## wayfaerer86 (Aug 15, 2008)

I had a look on creative page, can't for the life of me find any drivers whatsoever for my soundcard. Also using the creative auto updater only shows a couple updates available for Alchemy and Media Source.

I watched a movie file, it moved around from CPU usagage 10% to 25% the whole time basically, saw it peak at 30% only once, mostly hangs around 10-15% unless the tv show started playing louder music or theres lots of activity etc. I have a Intel Core2Duo 2.2ghz and 2 gig ram if this helps.

In regards to DVD codecs what exactly do I need there and where should I look to find them? I never assumed they could affect sound lag in every part of the PCs operations, so i've never paid attention to them.


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## Adonisius (Sep 8, 2008)

I don't think you'll find anything that can help you. I have the exact same card + vista ultimate on a dell xps m1730 with all the goodies (4gb ram, raid0, dual 8800m gtx, etc - $5000). No way my computer's the culprit.

Lag is definitely there, even with DTS passed through the optical cable when watching dvds (that would be minimum processing required).

I had the predecessor to this usb sound card on my winxp machine from 3 years ago and that had no lag! Which leads me to the conclusion that Vista sucks. Again. You need a driver that works best on vista, which creative ain't got. One way to test it is to have the sound card on an xp machine and see if you notice the lag.

The only option I can think of is if you get the drivers done up by a person who hacked the creative drivers. Forgot his name or website though ..


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## wayfaerer86 (Aug 15, 2008)

Ah yeah? Bugger!
Looks like I might just have to play the waiting game till more compatible drivers arise or I find 'better' ones.
cheers


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

What application are you watching the DVD's with? Also take into consideration that your CPU does not meet minimum specs for that unit, requiring a 2GHz C2D (and yours is 1.6). I doubt that will make much difference, but you never know.

You may be able to update your drivers by going to autoupdate on this page (at the bottom): http://support.creative.com/downloads/?h=7

Any fix that does come up will be shown here: http://forums.creative.com/creative...hread.id=126546&view=by_date_ascending&page=8


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## wayfaerer86 (Aug 15, 2008)

1.6ghz?, nope mines a 2.2Ghz C2D


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## FreoHeaveho (Aug 22, 2006)

Im sorry i read some specs and i thought it was a 1.6, either way i doesn't seem to be the issue.


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## ComputerGuy2008 (Sep 24, 2008)

Creative has a fix for the lag. There is a beta driver posted in their website forum/support area. It seems to work for me with my limited testing on one DVD. 

I have a sound interruption (popping/cracking) issue (observed before and after installing the beta driver) that I posted in a separately in this forum.


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## Adonisius (Sep 8, 2008)

Read the fix file - looks like they know about the "video/audio synchronisation" issue. Tested it for a few minutes. DVD playback seems ok - the words come out of the mouth same time I hear and see it!

Downside - dvd pass through of the sound doesn't seem to be working, but then again it was only on one dvd I've tried so far and it's not like anyone really uses it.

I'll give it a few more days and see what other bugs turn up


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## wayfaerer86 (Aug 15, 2008)

Yeah this seems to have fixed the sync issues indeed, but sometimes while viewing video files from the computer it will randomly sort of slow the video down briefly and cut the sound for a second.
Sometime it will hardly do it in the slightlest or sometimes a couple times in quick succession, havn't tried any dvds however. So there are some bugs still to be ironed out


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## ///M Power (Feb 12, 2009)

THREAD REVIVAL!

You can also make sure that under the "Audio Control Panel" the USB Connection speed is checked at "Full".

I just bought this thing today, amazing sound quality in regards to iTunes music, movies sound great as well. I have it hooked up via optical cable to my Yamaha Receiver. I have a couple questions tho b/c I'm a newbie with this stuff:

Does this really produce Dolby Digital sound? My Audio Receiver is telling me otherwise...When I select 6 speakers in powerDVD, I only get background noise, no vocals. Same thing in Windows Media Center, it only picks up background noise, no vocals or anything? Or does it decode it into DSP Surround, and send the signal in this format rather than Digital? My receiver isn't picking it up as a digital signal, only Pro Logic? 

When I go into the audio configuration on powerDVD, select 6 speakers, and the only option in the drop down menu for output is CLMEI-2 and Neo. Shouldn't there be a SPDIF or optical out or something of that nature?

In that same configuration menu, I click on the info tab and it says 
Multispeaker Audio Device: Speakers (SB X-Fi Surround 5.1) (in use)
SPDIF Output Device: Speakers (SB X-Fi Surround 5.1) (not in use)

But the Optical is in use b/c I'm getting sound? Im comfused :4-dontkno

I can't figure out how to configure the X-Fi to indicate that the SPDIF Output Device is in use? 

Well, any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!


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