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asus.com/Sound_Cards_and_DigitaltoAnalog_Converters/ROG_Xonar_Phoebus_Solo#support
What's this?
The app pack is infected ?
https://www.virustotal.com/de/file/f105168d6f90c56a0ac7a411ed9179a7e51ecf9e3482620d49d3a5c7fda00526/analysis/1393767608/
Hm very strange
It's a false positive.
Chrome blocked the download as malicious as well. Is it even necessary for using the features of the card (Mic, switching to front panel/onboard, etc.)?
Chrome does not have a Antivirus, Chrome blocks legit files on who knows what crazy reasons.
The package is not necessary, it's only for people needing it. Nowadays the purposes of those apps are mostly replaced by XonarSwitch.
Thanks.
Is there a way to increase audio buffer? or latency?
Hello , i just tested last driver UNi Xonar 1822 v1.72 with low dpc and magic voice aint working. Then i did switch to normal one and magic voice works but when i set in xonar center 2 channel / 5.1 speakers changes my windows settings to 2 speakers in configuration. While on the one with low dpc when i pick 2 channels it stays on windows config with 5.1 speakers still . Not sure if its an known issue . Sorry for my third old country english
It's possible that Magic Voice would run only on Normal configuration as it seems it needs GX processes running (which are disabled on Low DPC Latency). I will have to check things more and update the UNi Xonar features table.
I'm not sure about the second issue, I will have to check that too. Thanks for bringing these up.
it's better to use 'ASUS Xonar ASIO Driver' or 'ASIO4ALL' in foobar2k ?
my musics are all in 16 bit/44.1 KHz so i have to set ASIO in 16 bit correct?
how much of latency? and about Buffer lenght?
*Xonar DGX
Thanks 🙂
"ASUS Xonar Asio" and for the rest of the settings I've already written what I believe are better settings, see FAQ Q&A9.
Don't think you need the buffer length adjusted.
Hi, thanks for your drivers!
I just installed UNi Xonar 1.72 on Win7-64, Xonar D2X.
I tried the C-Media option *with* and *withouth* the GX option.
I believe the option *with* GX should give as much as latency as the 'Normal' installation option (or the standard Asus drivers for that matter)?
(This is not made clear in the description of the C-Media panel option on http://maxedtech.com/uni-xonar-features/)
Anyway; I don't see any difference in latency between the standard Asus drivers, and the 2 C-Media panel options; they all seems to fluctuate between 124 and 159µs (DPC latency checker)?
Btw; is there any way to tweak the installation manually (afterwards), instead of having the reinstall the driver again 'just' to have another option/configuration?
It would be great if there could be a guide on that?
Should spare one 2 reboots already..
(And I am not really a fan of the crunched clicking sound the card makes when installing a driver) (It clicks on every boot & shutdown, but when installing a driver, it makes a couple of clicks in rapid sequence (sounding 'crunchy'))
(I don't feel too comfortable with that?)
I guess something like this should be quite possible? (And would be most welcomed by 'power users' I guess..?)
Btw(2): on http://maxedtech.com/uni-xonar-features/ I read in some cases it is necessary to reboot your system to regain low DPC latency. Are you sure this can't be done by e.g. terminating some process and/or disabling/enabling your device in device manager?
Btw(3): maybe it could be in someones interest; DPC latency checker detected problems with my system, and it showed red bar spikes when stuff got more CPU intensive. The fix for me was setting the power plan to 'High performance' (in fact, what I end up doing, was making a custom profile based on 'balanced' - all I had to change was setting the minimum CPU state to 70%)
And I /might/ be able to reduce my latency by following the steps discussed here (haven't tried yet): http://maxedtech.com/the-case-of-dpc-latency/comment-page-1/#comment-3978
(I do know I have some power-saving stuff enabled in my BIOS...)
(As I DO want to keep some power-saving features (as I'm running a multi-purpose system), this might be of interest: http://mx-3.cz/tringi/www/Full_Throttle_Override (so one can switch to another power profile on launching certain applications) (still have to try it myself though).
Thanks!
Why do you question marks when you are stating and not asking something?
There is a difference, but it depends on how you test it. If you've launched ASUS panel in that Windows session when you where testing DPC with C-media panel, then there would not be any difference. To correctly test this, you need to restart the PC when you've installed C-Media Panel, and not launch ASUS panel afterwards. Test both when you are playing music and when you are not.
Things are the way they are, and there is no way around them. You only need to restart from the DPC latency perspective. These panel configuration options are made as to pick the one you need based on your needs and stick with it.
(2) Yes I am sure. But you are welcomed to try and find another way.
(3) Altering the power settings like you did would bypass the power saving features in BIOS. I for one don't have problems from the power saving features. It depends on you platform (CPU & mb) and it depends how you test DPC latency, if you system is IDLE or if you system has activity.
I found the article intersting...Not related to Unixonar directly...
"What Does It Take To Turn The PC Into A Hi-Fi Audio Platform?"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/high-end-pc-audio,3733.html
I'm having pops/crackling randomly with my Xonar DG, it pops every few minutes but sometimes it can take more than an hour, when it pops it only does once. The pop is like the one i hear when i change the amp setting.
I'm running windows 8.1, 1.72 drivers with default settings,i only disabled EAX and GX.
Don't think I've heard of this before. Try with 1.71 drivers and see if you still get these.
The pops still happen with v1.71(low dpc latency). I'm running on a fresh install of Windows 8.1.
Could this be the card?
I only heard pops using my headphones (Senheiser HD518) in both front panel and back panel, but i don't use my speakers much, soo i can't be sure.
I'll try to change amp settings and see if it helps.
The pops happen even with no audio playing.
It could be the card. Maybe you can try your card in another PC, or at least try it on Windows 7.
I'm also having the "click" issue, Win 7 x64 with 1822 drivers, Xonar D2X. If needed/wanted, I can give full system specs and more details. The problem ist that over headphones (Beyerdynamic MMX 300, didn't try line out yet) there's a sound that sounds a "digital click" (similar to a CD skipping) from time to time. The clicking is random, varies in volume, and happens independantly from the system playing/not playing audio. The clicks also happen when the volume in the windows mixer is muted, which baffles me. I've been using my system as it is now for at least two years, always running Xonar Unified drivers, and never noticed any clicking sounds.
There are a few "specialities" with my system though. I'm using a headphone amp, and the cord from the sound card to the amp is 10 m long (high quality cable though, no interference sounds at all). I also have the onboard Realtek sound adapter enabled, and my system has a pretty new graphics card (Radeon 280x, latest beta drivers).
CarvedInside, if you're willing to analyze the problem please drop me an email. I'd be happy to help in any way I can.
My setup:
Windows 8.1 Pro
Using the Xonar DG sound card, with the Uni Xonar 1.72 drivers. The MB (via bios settings) sound is disabled.
Sound output works great for the 5.1 to my A/V receiver, via the SPDIF.
Sound output works great when I select headphone, to my Sennheiser's
My problem, the headset microphone doesn't appear to work. I have both the green & pink analog lines from the head phone plugged into the Xonar card's input's in the back.
ps. I've also tried going into the Xonar audio center, mixer, MIC, advance setting, and clicking on front Mic and Microphone... No joy...
TIA for your help! 🙂
I have a conundrum here. I want to use the following:
http://www.phppoll.org/WASAPI/WASAPI_Manual.html
It relies on WASAPI, which according to several places on the internet (hydrogenaudio and jriver in particular), gets resampled on Xonar sound cards no matter what.
Since ASIO is obviously not supported in this case, am I out of luck if I don't want double-resampling to take place? (the WASAPI module in question already resamples once)
Expecting delivery of an Essence STX (PCIe) this PM.
Wow - it's kind of demoralising to belatedly discover just how FUBAR Asus's drivers are.
That said, I'm ONLY going to be using the analogue-outs into a stereo hi-fi (mainly music in FB2K (asio or wasapi), although sometimes in the 'Music Browser' plugin for WM7 for less critical listening. i.e. with possible re-sampling), but also watching movies/TV and some gaming.
Surround/multi-channel is never going to be used - I suppose that I'm going to be using Essence in an 'audiophile' context - reliable 'bit-perfect' stereo audio whenever I want it is the goal.
PC is an Asus p8Z77 / i5 24K / win7 Pro 64.
Someone mentioned that using installing their xonar in the PCIx1 slot at the top their board, instead of in of the full-length PCIx16 ones wrought improvements. This seems counter-intuitive as it places it right next to the graphics card and most of the MB components (mosfets, clock generators etc') - any comments?
Given the above, can someone give me a quick list of key settings/configuration during and after installation of the Uni-drivers? Or a link to a page with a walk through?
Thanks.
Hello, CarvedInside!
Big fan of your work. I have been posting a bit back in the old website/place; I have been using your drivers and the stereo upmix is just amazing. I have switched to a different OS, so I now find myself in need of your great unified driver again. 🙂
However, I now realize that in order to have the surround sound I was aiming for, I need to be able to output all my PC audio into Dolby Digital Live or DTS. I have a Xonar DGX card, and I output my sound through the S/PDIF output, towards a home theater (HTIB or home theater in a box). Most movies that have encoded audio in DTS or Dolby Digital sound fine; the spatial audio is coming out nicely. However, my biggest issue is with PC games which output their audio, should you select surround sound, in RAW 5.1 audio.
Doing some Google research, I have found out that raw/uncompressed 5.1 audio cannot come out of S/PDIF, and it needs an on-the-fly encoder that converts the raw 5.1 audio signal into Dolby Digital Live or DTS, so that the home theater "understands" the signal and outputs it in the spatial audio that I'm gunning for.
To this effect, is there anyway I can use Dolby Digital Live (real time encoding of all PC audio to DDL) for my Xonar DGX? Or as it stands, would my option be stuck with just using stereo upmixing? I would like to know your thoughts since I have a feeling I have reached the limits of this card, and should purchase another that has Dolby Digital Live or DTS support.
Thank you as always, Carved, for all the hard work and dedication. 😀
Hi.
I think you previously went by a different nickname and/or e-mail address.
I'm not sure if we are on the same page with stereo upmix, either you have mistaken the term or I am missing something. I mean, stereo upmix was there (and forced enabled by default) in the original drivers, I added the option to turned it off. So when you say stereo upmix was amazing, it sounds to me like you where using it and that you would had with the original drivers as well. Then is the part with "be stuck with just using stereo upmixing". I don't understand how while SPDIF surround sound( 5.1 channels to 5.1 signal) does not work for games, SPDIF stereo upmixed sound (2.0 channels signal upmixed to a 5.1 signal) would work. I'm no expert on how S/PDIF works and I have not had a chance to check it out for myself, so I may lack certain knowledge.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable would clarify things.
Now back to your request. It probably would not work but you can try to force enable card's DDL through registry. You need to find the Xonar registry settings (see FAQ on how to), edit "SpDigitalOut" value with "10 00 00 00", edit "SpdifSignalL" value to "01 00 00 00" and after that disable and re-enable the card from Device Manager.
Thank you for the reply, Carved. Yup, I did use a different name and email, but I couldn't look it up (I forgot the name, but not the email, and only decided to use a different one) as the brainbit URL now leads me here. 🙂 If you can somehow lookup the old posts in the brainbit site, I believe I was the one with the last topic before the old place closed up.
Please forgive the ignorant post; I merely wanted to thank you for the unified drivers and I can be a complete doofus when it comes to understanding the technicalities of these things. I assumed all along that the stereo upmix was your doing. But even so, you have my gratitude for the immense support. Namely, helping me out last time with the concept of stereo upmixing and how to go about it - that's the one I remember in our last discussion.
Now, for the S/PDIF concept, I am no expert in it by any means, but I do seem to fully agree with this post:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=509795
^ Please check the second blue/teal item, titled: SPDIF (optical connection) can only pass 2.0 (2.1?) or Dolby Digital or DTS sound
Based on my findings, most PC games output their audio in raw, uncompressed 5.1 audio if you select surround sound in their audio configuration. Since S/PDIF (based on my findings, and the SWTOR link confirmation post above) cannot output raw 5.1 audio, then the solution is to somehow encode the raw 5.1 audio on the fly using DDL's technology - which can either be achieved by software or by the sound card's chipset, if DDL is somehow in there.
That's the gist of what I understand, hence the inquiry about DDL. Anyway, the explanation above is just to stat where I am coming from (or at least where I am coming from... I think, lol).
Also just to clarify about the part you said "S/PDIF stereo upmixed sound (2.0 channels signal upmixed to a 5.1 signal) would work" --- does this mean with my current setup, S/PDIF connected while my games are on stereo audio, sounds can still be upmixed to 5.1? I mean, even without using the 3.5mm jack - since my notion before is that stereo upmixed to 5.1 can ONLY happen with 3.5mm jack output and NOT S/PDIF - have I been wrong about this one?
Thank you for the registry values for SpDigitalOut. That sounds very good, I'm gonna try it now and see if it works for me. A very last question, is this method kind of like having the Dolby Digital Live option under the Xonar DGX Audio Center >> SPDIF Out >> Dolby Digital Live --- except it's not really there? If it is like that, could I suggest this kind of integration in your next driver update? 😀
Like I've said, please pardon the ignorance. Would just like to know if that last part is possible. 😀 TY very much again, Carved.
In its context is: I don't understand how “S/PDIF stereo upmixed sound (2.0 channels signal upmixed to a 5.1 signal) would work”. I was not saying "it works". Just to be clear: on your current setup, 2.0 sounds can't be upmixed to 5.1 on S/PDIF output.
Stereo upmix works on S/PDIF output with DDL option.
Those registry settings will not activate the DDL drop-down option in the panel. "force enable card’s DDL through registry" = when you load them in the registry it's as if you would select S/PDIF Out: DDL in the Asus/C-media Audio Panel.
Let me know if this trick worked.
Thanks for the clarification.
I tried it, and it doesn't seem to have any effect/changes to the output. Like before, only the movies can output Dolby Digital or DTS properly (and that's because they're encoded that I way I assume), while the raw 5.1 in PC games are still very much the same.
Sorry for another question. I read somewhere, true to the previous link I posted, that games indeed only output raw 5.1 uncompressed audio, and it's up to the sound card if it's going to send the signal through SPDIF in either encoded DDL or DTS-Connect (competing brands); To this effect, is DDL ran by software - like the registry edit we did, or does it still have to first be supported by the chipset of my audio card? I am using a Xonar DGX. Reason for my question is since we force enabled DDL in the registry, would that be enough already? Or does the sound card/chipset also need to have DDL supported as manufactured? Because force enabling it in the registry might not do anything if, in the first place, my sound card first needs to have DDL support.
Sorry for the convoluted question, but I'm nearing the finality of understanding this concept; And I do hope I shared something meaningful in this convo today. Many thanks again!
These settings should work for games:
http://imgur.com/14MOIhp
They are for XonarSwitch, but you can easily replicate them in either the ASUS or C-Media control panels.
One important thing though:
In the system sound control panel, make sure the DGX speakers are selected as the default render endpoint AND NOT SPDIF pass-through. It's counter-intuitive, but because of how the windows audio engine works internally, the operating system needs to be "tricked into thinking" that there are multiple physical speakers directly connected to the sound card, and then the Xonar driver has to intercept the normal multi-channel stream and convert it to Dolby Digital Live on-the-fly. If you choose SPDIF pass-though as your default render endpoint the trick doesn't work.
One small detail I forgot: the DGX doesn't have Dolby Digital Live support.
How do you get multi-channel audio with movies? On your receiver, do you use something like ProLogic on a downmixed SPDIF PCM stereo output?
Thank you very much Giulio, and again, thank you for introducing me to XonarSwitch - I had no prior knowledge of this very useful app!
However, like the ASUS panel, Dolby Digital Live doesn't show up under "Digital (SPDIF)", only PCM is selectable.
I've followed Carved's advice in changing the registry for SpdifSignalL from 02 to 10, and now in the ASUS panel, it shows Dolby Digital Live is being used, as shown here:
http://i.imgur.com/VwQVE2c.png
^ Would you know if I am indeed using Dolby Digital Live now, even though DGX doesn't support DDL? Because my initial worry is that the audio card must first support the sound system (in this case, DDL) whether by chipset or hardware architecture, and that forcing the sound system via registry or other software wizardry would be pointless.
Also in the same image, I have selected the DGX speakers (as opposed to the Digital Output - though in my screen, it does not say SPDIF but I'm certain it's the very same one) as you have suggested; This sounds like a very promising trick, and I will observe in the next few minutes. For all I know, this might be the only thing I need to do in order to have my games outputting the surround sound/Dolby/what-have-you I have always been aiming for lol.
As for your question, my movies' audio are encoded in Dolby Digital and/or DTS already, which is why I never had problems with them (and to my understanding, SPDIF cannot output raw 5.1 sound, and surround sound needs to be compressed in Dolby Digital or DTS which is why they "pass through" nicely, without the need for DDL or DTS-Connect on-the-fly encoding).
Again, I will observe and try things out with the new setup/tweak (DGX speakers as default, instead of Digital Output) and see if I've achieved the desired output. My only ardent hope is that the registry tweak to output DDL, even though DGX doesn't support DDL, would work and suffice.
Many thanks for your help!
You do need to bump up the configuration so that your game outputs a multi-channel audio stream. You don't need to do that from the system sound control panel, though: choosing audio channels in XonarSwitch or either the ASUS or the C-Media control panel will do just that for you: reconfigure the Windows audio engine to a corresponding physical speaker layout.
The only way to know if CarvedInside's registry trick works is to play a game with that setup and see if your HTIB receives a DD stream. I doubt it's possible, but you never know: it might all be done in software and locked on lesser models only for marketing / licensing reasons. It's indeed worth trying and also your only chance to avoid an upgrade, if you want PC multi-channel audio on your HTIB. Let us know the outcome.
Ah, another note: the remark in my previous post to have the speakers as the default output is about having DDL work with games, since it's required for the sound card to encode multi-channel PCM into Dolby Digital. If you watch movies and you want to bitstream an already encoded Dolby Digital soundtrack to your receiver, I guess you need to use the pass-through, and if your movie playback software doesn't allow you to choose the output endpoint, you might have to make it the default output when you watch movies.
It didn't seem to work; Your configuration settings, coupled with Carved's registry tweak. I'm beginning to think DDL support is either: A) needs to be at the core of the sound card hardware, or chip archictecture, and/or B) properly installed using a software, which might mean a registry tweak won't suffice. As to what is more likely between the two, I have no idea.
By the way, when it comes to movies and media players, if I set the DGX speakers as default, I can still use the Digital Out/SPDIF just fine; I mean, I don't have to switch the HTIB between AUX/3.5mm or SPDIF; Having the DGX speakers as default, sound is still outputted properly through SPDIF when watching films (or just Windows environment sounds in general).
If it's any contribution to the topic, I also tried another method. Apparently, my LCD TV has SPDIF out. Since my computer is connected to this same TV via HDMI, and since HDMI carries Dolby Digital 5.1, I connected the SPDIF cable to my TV. In essence, the connection becomes like this:
Computer video and audio --> HDMI --> LCD TV --> SPDIF sound output --> HTIB
But since HDMI carries Dolby Digital 5.1, and most likely NOT raw 5.1, then it's all very much the same; It still needs Dolby Digital Live for on-the-fly encoding, which is more likely possible in a PC environment, and less likely possible in the chip architecture of an LCD TV. So yeah, still no dice with that hahaha.
So as it stands, what I need right now is something like AC3Filter, but one designed for games, or anything/everything raw 5.1 that converts it to Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS, since AC3Filter does on-the-fly encoding but only for media players.
And btw, for the term encoding, I might be using it wrong; the word might be "decoding", but I can't tell for sure.
Thank you very much, Giulio.
Honestly, I don't know if the registry trick not working depends on a hardware deficiency of the DG(X), or rather the hardware would theoretically be able to do DDL encoding but the driver locks the feature out because ASUS didn't pay Dolby royalties on that specific card model. Either way, I'm afraid we have to conclude it's a no-go.
About routing HDMI multi-channel output to SPDIF through your TV, I don't know what your TV features are, but HDMI is perfectly able to carry multi-channel PCM (what you call raw) sound up to 8 channels, so that's not a limitation at all.
But you have to make sure to select your HDMI output as default and configure it for 5.1 output. I think it won't show up in the sound control panel until there is some HDCP compliant device (your TV surely is) hooked to it.
From then on it all depends on your TV: is it capable of taking multi-channel PCM HDMI audio and encode it to DD through SPDIF? It doesn't seem likely. I think even with the right setup, at most your TV will receive the multi-channel input OK, but then it will downmix it to stereo.
So, since I guess your HTIB supports neither HDMI nor multi-channel analog input (otherwise we wouldn't be here, duh) I guess your less expensive option is to upgrade to a sound card with Dolby Digital Live or DTS connect support.
Unless, of course, you already had planned to upgrade your HTIB to an AV receiver.
I'm replying to a different message, Giulio, as it seems the reply limit for this thread has been reached.
You are totally right with all those points; Even if HDMI is able to "understand" the signal, even if its in raw multi-channel PCM, the question remains if it can encode it to DD, and if it can't, then I'm stuck with mere stereo signal since as we both know, SPDIF cannot carry the signal raw.
As for your first point, the DDL system being locked out of it because ASUS not paying for royalties, that could be a big possibility, so even if with all these theories and tests I came out with a no-go, I'm still gonna try and research more because for all I know the registry trick for DDL is working BUT I need to switch on or tweak something else. In fact, as I was typing this, the tweak was for the SPDIF digital out; what if I do the same registry tweak, but only this time, to the DGX speakers registry set? I just have to figure which. Because as pointed out earlier, the DGX speakers have to be set to default - indirect way of telling Windows "hey this is my default speaker, and its 5.1" so Xonar catches the SPDIF and converts that one to DDL. I dunno, lol but gonna give it a try.
Anyway, sorry for being persistent and obnoxious about this; My interest with this goes beyond wanting to make it work. I also to understand everything about it as a learning process.
The idea of upgrading my card to a DDL or DTS Connect type really sounds tempting. Frankly, budget is not really a concern. It's the availability of it. From where I am, these cards are VERY rare.
My thanks again.
Sorry Giulio, another question. Now that I've set the DGX speakers as default, do I need to bump up the speaker configuration from Stereo to 5.1, as highlighted/shown in the right window here?
http://i.imgur.com/JwfRclh.png
Got my brand new Essence STX today, installed it in an XP SP3 box and it almost works great. I found out about Uni Xonar while searching for why I can't get 88.2 kHz or 176.4 kHz files to play using ASIO. Do the Uni Xonar drivers resolve this issue? I searched here but found no reference to my question in the history. I apologize if I missed it.
At this point the STX is back in its box and this is my last try before contacting Newegg for a Return Auth.
PS. I did try the ASUS 17731 Beta driver and no it didn't work. ASUS Tech support wasn't supportive except to tell me that Newegg has a good return policy.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dennis
But have you tried the latest original drivers (1816)? In regards to your issue, UNi Xonar drivers would work just as original 1816 drivers.
I don't have any problems playing 88.2kHz files with ASIO playback output, but I am not sure if the card is running at this sample rate or if it is actually downsampling or upsampling.
Hello guys, im having such a hard time with my brand new essence stx. running windows 8.1 here...
at first i have installed asus drivers and so using xonar audio center. it worked for a while but after a few days it started to freak me out. Whenever a tried to switch channels (2,4,6,8) the app crashed and then i got no audio at all.
Just tried with unified drivers with Low DPC and still no luck. No matter what i do i cant get a sound of it 🙁
I dont know if i am doing something wrong here or it is a windows 8.1 issue.
Can you help me please?
Is it possible for a driver for a Xonar U7? The latency regularly spikes to 400-600 (USBPORT.SYS), the control panel is crap, disabling permanently all effects disables the Dolby Home Theater v4. Though its a USB DAC, a driver would be immensely valuable.
It's written in the Uni Xonar Features. Answer is no.