Can SB Extigy be used with Vegas?

cosmo wrote on 3/29/2003, 12:05 PM

i got a sound blaster extigy and can succesfully play back Dolby Digital material(ac-3) through 6 analog channels on my receiver. the extigy unit even has a DD indicator so i know when ac-3 content is delivered and is being output by the unit. vegas, however, still does not monitor as it should, in 5.1. that is, if i solo a track and pan it around, it doesn't go front to back discreetly. so vegas must not be getting a DD signal out to the sound device right????

i'm having a ridiculous time getting this to work correctly. i've checked the audio properties and everything is pointing to the proper audio device; windows has the device set to 5.1 speakers; it's a 5.1 mix; etc etc.

so i'm wondering if the extigy unit will work with vegas, since it does seem to decode ac-3 on the pc.

please advise, thanks.

Comments

JohanAlthoff wrote on 3/29/2003, 3:10 PM

*sigh* I'm starting to get REALLY pissed off with hardware vendors claiming their stuff to be the second-coming of Christ, then having the guts to make people believe it's the software companies' fault that the stuff doesn't work.

OK, bottom line: You're not SUPPOSED to get AC3 content from Vegas. It doesn't work that way. Vegas can output multiple channels, yes, but AC3 is a compression algorithm for delivering 5.1 content through a lightpipe: it's either done in software (not real-time, I might add) or in rare (and usually expensive) hardware, such as the nForce chip on the nVidia mobo.

All you can get out of Vegas is a bunch of discreet channels, that you can then amplify and send out through a surround system. If you want to monitor a 5.1 mix in Vegas, connect everything through the analogue ports, select ASIO mode (if the Extigy supports it, not sure) and map the outputs correctly:

1-2: Front stereo connector
3-4: Rear stereo connector
5-6: Cen/Sub connector (usually the digital out that doubles as a stereo 3.5 mm analogue jack, dunno about Extigy)

This should do the trick.

cosmo wrote on 3/31/2003, 8:20 AM

thanks for the reply. turns out, the extigy didn't do the trick - NON ASIO. So...back to the store I went to come home with the Audigy 2 - found a technote somewhere here that says it has been used successfully....they shoulda said it sucked too! So...I'm returning it today as well. It seemed to work good enough but after a few minutes of playing time the audio would just get locked up and make terrible noise for like a minute or two before getting untangled. I don't think it's my machine(brand new dell w/2.4P4 and 256MB RAM...etc) so I'm guessing its the card.

I think I read here somewhere that someone *likes* the santa cruz card so I'm gonna give that one a try and see what happens.

Who can name a card the works *well* with ease??

Baylo wrote on 3/31/2003, 9:05 AM

This is one of those areas where you generally get what you pay for. If you want a card that is 'easily' capable of dealing with surround, then you should look at the M-Audio cards.

Mark

JohanAlthoff wrote on 3/31/2003, 9:51 AM

M-audio Audiophile or Delta 410. The end of your agony is near.