X-FI Gamer Digital Out?

joek1

joek1

joek1

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22 Nov 2006
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I am waiting for my creative X-FI Xtreme Gamer soundcard to arrive, and im a bit confused by the advertised specs, it says it has a flexijack, that basically does 3 things, line in, mic. in, and optical out (supports stereo SPDIF)
how on earth do you connect a opti cable (from my home cinema amp) into a 3.5mm jack connection, (sound card flexijack) is there some sort of adaptor ?
and does it route thru 5/1, 6/1 or 7/1 to a external home cinema amp ?

also i have read some reviews that says it comes packaged with a i/o Drive bay unit ? (one of them things you fit into a drive bay with mic, line in/out, optical in/out, coax in/out volume control etc)

cheers
 
Well connecting your amp up via the "old" electrical flexijack is going to be a pain. you CAN get convertors but they genereally arnt cheap...

Now if you have bought the new style gamer from the this week only deal (i.e. Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard - Retail) then as far as im aware they have replaced the electrical "flexijack" with a proper optical socket. If this is the case then you will need an optical cable with the standard "D" shaped TOSLink connector at one end and the far less common 3.5mm style socket at the other end (forget the name) a lot of good quality cables will come with an adaptor that just clips on one end to allow this sort of connectivity.

Devices such as Minidisc players used to use them as space was at a premium.

As far as the I/O bay goes, im pretty sure the £58 gamer doesnt come with this? Although I might be getting mixed up with which model you have bought. I think congratulations goes to Creative really for having as confusing a product line-up as most graphics cards manufacturers...
 
er, a proper optical out?

It still has a flexi jack.

The extreme gamer (NEW) comes with a breakout box? If it does then that has the "proper" opti outs. I'll have a research as I'm looking to nab an x-fi atm :D
I'm sure only the fps and professional ones come with the drive bay box?
 
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I thought the major feature change of this new "low profile" X-Fi gamer was that it has a proper optical out (albeit not the proper TOSLink but the smaller version that looks like a normal 3.5mm jack that I forget the name of)

Certainly thats how it reads on the creative website and all pictures show a physically different plug where the electrical Flexi-Jack is on my "traditional" X-Fi Music?

Could be wrong :)
 
i just had a look and all i can see is 3.5 jack plug holes? What am I missing? Nothing to me on the backplate of any of the cards looks like a toslink squary or a big round spidif?
 
Thats what I mean! its in the literature that it has a optical port, which would make the little white socket (note that its different to the colour of the electrical flexi-jacks on other models) the optical socket.

Presuming this is correct then it would use this type of connector rather than the standard TOSLink (you can get an adaptor from most good electrical stores for about a pound. (my Hitachi optical cable came with one.)

hMiniOpticalPlug.jpg
 
O: hacks!

I just through it was a value card (like the audigy2's) as the rest of the connectors are green/yellow etc.

Didnt know about that little adapter, interesting!
 
There also seems to be another new model called the Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty which uses the old package style (i.e. big PCI card) and has the traditional electrical digital socket.

The low profile "xtreme gamer" says "shared optical socket" so i presume what they have done is the same as one of my old laptops did, the socket could be used for an analogue connection (in this case it'll be the mic in like all the X-Fi's with the electrical digital socket) but it also emits an optical signal via one of those ickle connectors up there :) I remember when I first got it and plugged in my headphones and noticed a red glow coming from the port... thought something was getting very hot for a second ;)
 
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