17 replies to this topic

[xPETEZx]

So I got hold of a Creative X-Fi Titanium OEM. (Out of a pre-built dell)

It has pin-outs for HDMI and can do DTS interactive encoding, so I though PERFECT! Pop this into my media PC, connect the HDMI pinout to my GPU and I should be able to get true surround sound in games on my home theater!

Well, the good news, the hardware appears to be fine. (Connected the SDIF cable, and get signal) but the software side is NOT. I cannot get this card to properly install.

I have spent the last 2 nights trying everything I can think of to get the drivers to properly install, but no luck.

The problem is, none of the creative control software will detect the card. The card shows up in device manager. In Playback devices it only shows the digital outputs. (SPDIF & HDMI) but neither work. The card does not show its analog outputs.

Here is what I have tried:
Latest drivers from Creative's website.
PID detection fix pack from Creatives site. (Claims I dont have the card installed)
PAX drivers. (found topics suggesting this would work)
Dell drivers. (Dell has an older package listed on there site)
Disable on-board audio
clean off all drivers with Driver cleaner pro and try again.

All end in the exact same situation.

I have found many topics on Google of people having the same problem, but most end without a solution or end with the person using the original CD that came with the card and it somehow working.
Anybody have an X-Fi Titanium working on Windows 7 x64?
If so, what did you have to do to make it work? (Please don't say use the driver CD!! )

I have tried searching for an ISO of the drivers CD, but been unsucessful!
Any help would be appreciated! Would be great to get this thing working. Just glad I did NOT pay for this! Was considering putting it in my main rig first! Glad I stuck with the D2

[sword_fish]

tried using the card's Optical out with a Toslink cable then connect it into your A/V receiver Optical in(home theater amp)?

[xPETEZx]

Yup.

Problem is I cant open the Console to tell the sound card to output over Optical. When I set it up in "playback devices" and then press "Test" it says "failed to play test tone"

I just tried the card in a Windows 7 x86 PC, and it all worked flawlessly. First time install, and everything showed up as it should. So I know the hardware is fine. Its the 64 bit thats causing problems.

[sword_fish]

have you tried this?

[xPETEZx]

You are a hero!
That worked!!!


Now... a new question:

Whats going to give me better sound:

Set the X-Fi to DTS Connect. (This means EVERYTHING is encoded into DTS and then passed to my AMP. My amp then just takes the signal as is, and plays it out)
Set the X-Fi to just SPDIF (essentially no better than on-board) (This would mean anything NOT encoded in DTS/DD is passed to the AMP in PCM, at this point the amp automatically does the surround simulation.)

So, the question is:

Which does better surround emulation on 2 channel audio?
Creative X-Fi Titanium
Onkyo TX-NR509

The advantage of using the X-Fi encode, is I now get true surround for games. As these where multi-channel but not encoded. For everything else I am not sure whats better. Hence the question.
Hope this makes sense!

Edited by xPETEZx, 14 January 2012 - 10:24 AM.

[wevsspot]

Daniel K is nothing short of genius on those driver packs. During the beta and RC phases of Win7 he was the only one who could put together an x64 driver pack for Win7 and the Creative x-Fi cards. I didn't know he was still busy at it, but kudos to him.

[wevsspot]

I've got the exact same sound card as you in my HTPC (a fire sale find on ebay )

I've got my output set to SPDIF and let my A/V receiver do the decoding. IMHO it sounds better and I'm pretty sure that my A/V receiver has better DACs than my sound card does.

[sword_fish]

Set the X-Fi to DTS Connect. (This means EVERYTHING is encoded into DTS and then passed to my AMP. My amp then just takes the signal as is, and plays it out)

^the way it should be.

Which does better surround emulation on 2 channel audio?
Creative X-Fi Titanium
Onkyo TX-NR509

it's Xi-Fi + Onkyo either ftw, just play around with your settings for proper speaker configurations.

enjoy!

[Stonerboy779]

Don't ask us just test both and run a few different things ie classical music with lots of highs and rich sounds some rock and then some rave music dubstep anything to test your speakers in all sorts of ways. Finally run a silent cd to test for system noise. Repeated for both you will discover yourself which you like more and which sounds and works better for you.

[sword_fish]

Don't ask us just test both and run a few different things ie classical music with lots of highs and rich sounds some rock and then some rave music dubstep anything to test your speakers in all sorts of ways. Finally run a silent cd to test for system noise. Repeated for both you will discover yourself which you like more and which sounds and works better for you.

+1
and playing the music which you are most familiar with is the best/easy way doing it, and your ears will be the final judge.

been waiting for you with this Stoner!

[d6bmg]

So, the question is:

Which does better surround emulation on 2 channel audio?
Creative X-Fi Titanium
Onkyo TX-NR509

X-Fi FTW!!

[Stonerboy779]

X-Fi FTW!!

X-Fi for EAX. If using the simulated effects although this has nothing to do with 3D positional audio and you will not get positional surround audio from a stereo source only speaker fill.
Although for speaker fill either will do nicely but as pointed out before you may likely find the DACs in the onkyo amp to be better being a less noisy environment. Although they spec out the same as the soundcard as 24bit DACs with a 192kHz sampling rate.