Help with my cicero sound card.

[Lee Moreau]

Can someone please help me? Yesterday I bought the creative inspire 5.1
5300 speakers with a Sony PC-DVD Drive. I also bought a Cicero 5.1 6
channel PCI sound card to get the dolby digital and such. However I can't
get it to work! Everything installed fine. When I run the programs that
came with the sound card, all 6 speakers work no problem. However in
anything else, only the 4 + sub work the centre speaker will not work. It
doesn't work in DVD or anything. I downloaded PowerDVD XP and the only way
to get it to work is to use Dolby Prologic II and even then its staticy.
Its not the speaker because in the sound card programs it works fine. I
don't know how pro logic ii compares to dts or anything like th at, but is
this just an issue with the cheap sound card? Should I return it for an
audigy? Whats the diff with an Audigy Gamer and Mp3? Also I found another
one caleld Audigy for $50 cheaper then the last two it just said Audigy1394
or something can't remember right now. Can someone plesae help! Thanks!

Lee

[Erik Tomlinson]

I can answer some of your questions, but not all.

First thing, try looking for new drivers for your Cicero card. I'm willing
to bet it's based on a chip made by either Cmedia or Crystal Audio, in
either case, you can use drivers for the same base chip, which may help
solve your problem or give more options.

Dolby Prologic surround sound takes the rear/center channels out of the
existing stereo signal, which is much worse than Dolby Digital or DTS, which
actually have 6 separate channels of audio. You should be able to set
PowerDVD to 6 channel output, and sound should come from all speakers if
everything is configured right. You should not have to turn on Prologic II,
as it 'makes up' surround sound from a stereo source.

Audigy Gamer and MP3 are identical except for the software bundle they come
with. If you like games, get the Gamer. If you think you want the MP3
software, get the gamer and download better tools off the net :) The
Audigy1394 is an OEM version, which is a nearly identical card to the
Gamer/MP3, except you get no box and no software except the driver CD. I
have installed several 1394 audigys and they work exactly the same as a
boxed audigy.

And please please please consider buying non-creative, like a Philips
Acoustic Edge, a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, or anything Hercules (except the
Muse XL, it's as bad or worse than your Cicero). Although the list of
features may not seem as great, they're a HELL of a lot easier to get
working :)

"Lee Moreau" <lee.m...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:MqEQ8.6271$bh2.6...@news20.bellglobal.com...