The Creative Sound Blast Live card incorporates an SPDIF Digital Out port. This
port can be used to output an undecoded AC3 digital audio stream. To accomplish this,
you will need several things:
- The updated Live!Ware program package (2.0 or newer).
- The latest version of DVD Genie (inmatrix.com).
- The latest CineMaster decoding engine (v1.0.29 at the time this article was written).
Once these are installed, you need to enable Digital Output within the Creative Sound Mixer.
With that done, all you need to do is load DVD Genie and go into the extended
CineMaster settings (More...) and as an SPDIF output select 'Ensoniq / SB live'.
You can now attach an AC3 receiver to the Live's SPDIF out port and get a truly digital
sound without a dedicated DVD Hardware decoder.
Notes:
- Live!Ware is the software package that comes with the Sound Blaster Live card.
If your card doesn't come with version 2.0 or newer, you will need to download
an update from Creative Labs's Sound Blaster Live Site.
- DVD Genie is a program that allows you to fiddle with CineMaster's engine settings
and region code. The latest version is available at
DVD Infomatrix.
