Little niggle with Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Pro...

Urban Reflex · 1 Sep 2008 at 00:04

Hello folks. I've recently purchased and installed a lovely new Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card. It all works fine, and after messing around with the settings I have optical output working fine for surround sound in all the games (Well, just Halo 1 and BF2 really...) I've tested so far.

My only gripe with it is that when I start playing an MP3 file the very first miliseconds of it are cut off in Windows Media Player. This happens if I open the file while WMP isn't open, when it is, and even when it's open and already playing the file. If the file is already open in WMP and I hit stop and then play again it works without losing the opening miliseconds, but otherwise I lose the very beginning. Also this happens with the Vista start up sound too - not a big deal but slightly annoying nonetheless. Anyone had anything similar?

Uriel · 1 Sep 2008 at 00:26

You using digital out for your speakers? Edit: I see yes. It's either taking a little while for your reciever to pick up the Dolby Digital or DTS signal or for the soundcard to start outputting it. Not sure of a solution off the top of my head. What receiver are you using?

theufnk007 · 1 Sep 2008 at 17:51

Yeah need to know your receiver matey?

Urban Reflex · 1 Sep 2008 at 21:38

It's a Creative DDTS-100, hooked up via optical to the PC and via 3x3.5mm to my GigaWorks G500 speakers.

Richdog · 1 Sep 2008 at 21:38

Just out of interest... what messing around in the settings did you have to do to get 5.1 sound in your games via digital?

Urban Reflex · 1 Sep 2008 at 21:53

In the Creative volume panel (Game mode), I clicked Settings and then on the Encoder tab checked the "Enable Dolby Digital Live" box. Then added my games to ALchemy.

Urban Reflex · 2 Sep 2008 at 00:37

Hmm. Can't get surround from either Halo 2 or Gears of War...

Urban Reflex · 2 Sep 2008 at 20:57

Just as a note for anyone who has a similar problem, I managed to get my surround sound working for those games. You have allow applications to take exclusive control of the sound card (Control Panel > Sound > SPDIF interface > Advanced tab). The only problem I have now is that WMP errors me when I try to play music, but I'm off ask at Creative's forums about that one.