By
default when Audio CDs are played they are converted from Digital to
Analog by the respective CD/DVD drives DAC (Digital-to-Analog
Converter) before being sent to the Soundcard. By enabling digital
CD audio playback this process occurs on the Soundcards DAC instead, most
new Soundcards have a better quality DAC than an optical drive will &
as a result CD Audio playback quality can be improved. To enable this
feature on your CD\DVD drive, take the following steps depending on your
Operating System:
Click on
Start, Settings, Control Panel. Open the Multimedia
applet. Select the CD Music tab.
Enable
digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device. Tick
this setting to enable the Soundcards DAC to convert CD Audio rather than
the drives DAC. Untick this setting should you experience problems
with Audio CD playback as a result. NOTE – This process can reduce
system performance slightly, although this should not be a concern to you
unless you are a very old system, or very slow CD\DVD drive. More than
likely you won’t even notice difference. Also, should you find this
option greyed
out then check out this Microsoft
article, which should help you to enable it (Thanks to Roger Sinnott
for the link).
Right
click on My Computer, select Properties
then select the Hardware tab followed by the Device Manager
button. Expand the DVD/CD-ROM drives tree & Right click
on the respective drive & select Properties, then the Properties
tab.
Enable
digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device. Tick
this setting to enable the Soundcards DAC to convert CD Audio rather than
the drives DAC. Untick this setting should you experience problems
with Audio CD playback as a result. NOTE – This process can reduce
system resources slightly, although this should not be a concern to you
unless you are a very old system, or very slow CD\DVD drive. On new
systems you won’t even notice the slightest difference.
Those of
you with Sensaura based Soundcards may have noticed that when loading
certain EAX, DirectSound3D or A3D Games/Applications that a short Sensaura
splash screen is displayed as 3D Sound support is queried for, e.g. Aureal
Minerva or Unreal Tournament. This is no doubt a minor annoyance to most
of you but can easily be disabled. Click on Start, Run, type
in regedit & hit Enter. Now open to the following
registry key [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Sensaura\Audio3D\Settings].
Right
click on the SplashScreen entry &
select Modify. Changing the value (Hexadecimal or Decimal)
to 0 will disable the splash screen from being launched.
