# x-fi surround pro 5.1 v3 windows 10 21h1 dd live or dts drivers?



## snaker1 (Dec 26, 2021)

Hello, i have a usb x-fi surround pro 5.1 v3 sound card. My windows 10 version is 21h1. I have read numerous threads, tried a lot of stuff with no avail. Has anyone made this card work with dolby digital live or dts on windows 10 21h1? 
The only reason i want this is just for gaming on 5.1 through spdif interface and nothing else. Thanks in advance and merry christmas!


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## oobymach (Dec 26, 2021)

Afaik spdif is stereo only, not surround.


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## Ferather (Dec 26, 2021)

X-Fi has DTS-Dolby for SPDIF multichannel. He is looking for solutions to run X-Fi on Windows 10.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 26, 2021)

First up. I dont have an X-fi surround pro 5.1. But i have had years of experience using Asus and Creative soundcards and hooking them up either via my Logitech Z5500 or Yamaha RX-V573 via TOSLink.

What is your signal chain? How are you hooking your XFi up to the speakers? 

Normally to get DTS to work you need a DTS capable decoder. My Z5500 had this and so does my current RX-V573. If you dont have a DTS capable decoder then the only real thing you can do is either get a cheap AVR decoder or a set of speakers that does like the Logitech Z906

Video players might also need to be configured to pass through DTS signals to your speakers.


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## snaker1 (Dec 26, 2021)

For start I tried all of the official sound card drivers i found on creative website. I also found official older drivers that where made for the v3, just to make the card work with no luck at all. 
Drivers install but dont show any version at device manager (like corrupted install), sound card doesnt work and all the apps that install with the creative installer (creative entertainment console, creative audio control panel) show "There are no supported audio device available", which is not true as i am 100% sure these are the correct drivers for this product. Creative simply dropped the support for these older cards along the way as windows 10 dropped the support for flash player on windows 10 after an update on octomber of 2020 i think. 

But if i let windows install the microsoft driver for the sound card from windows update it installs a microsoft driver with version number 10.0.19041.1202 with date 26-Aug-21. Thus, even though the card works with this driver the apps continue to show the same error message "There are no supported audio device available" and maybe this is due to the microsoft driver or the drop of flash player support on windows 10. 
Maybe v3 has its own drivers compared to v1 or v2 and i am saying that because i found some old drivers that where patched from the community for dts interactive and dd live, but they didnt work in my case. These patched drivers dont install at all on my sytem and the reasons that i can think of is either the drivers dont work at my windows 10 version 21h1 or the hardware is different on v3 and the patched drivers are from previous versions of the card like v1 or v2.

So using the microsoft driver as my only way to make the card usable i have tested the analog imput of a friends z906 speakers and the driver let me change to 5.1 surround from sound settings. I also tested it on games and the card worked great with correct surround 5.1 without issues.
But my problem is that i have a sound bar that has spdif only and supports dts and dd live decoding. Thus i reach to the conclusion why i need a driver which supports dd live or dts interactive.

My whole situation is like a joke because i cant even find one driver that works with windows 10 exept for the microsoft one, so imagine my luck with a patched dts interactive or dd live driver.
I just need to be able to decode the signal for 5.1 gaming and i dont care about the creative apps. That is why i am asking if anyone has made this work and if i have any hope trying.

Thanks a lot for taking you time reading my problem!


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 26, 2021)

Should have tested it with digital output while you were at your friends with the Z906, No idea why you didnt do that when it wasnt analogue part of the card that was giving you the headache...

But i digress...

I had a SB-Z and at one point in time (i think i was last year or the year before) Microsoft released an update that totally messed up DTS, and that messed me up real bad because at the time i was connecting to my Yamaha with a TOSLink cable. so it could also be a windows update thats messing with your card not working properly...

Cant remember how i fixed the issue - I might have rolled back the update but I eventually put on my big boy pants and done away with the soundcard and used my 1080Ti as an audio output device to my Yamaha.

If you have a spare drive my suggestion would be to install windows 7, try both the official and unofficial drivers on that to see if optical works - if it still doesnt work then it may be the soundcard itself that is buggered.


Have you tried hooking up other devices to the optical port on your soundbar? knowing the make and model number of that soundbar might also help with troubleshooting.

If rolling back to windows 7 works or doesnt work. then youre at the end of the road.... 

The final options would be to upgrade to a Creative X3 or ditch soundcards completely and just go with the built in optical port on your PC. soundcards only make a difference when youre using them in analogue mode. With digital its the decoder itself (which should be your soundbar) that does all the audio processing instead of your PC. Depending on how old your PC is and the realtek chipset on it, it should be capable of 5.1 and there are custom drivers on TPU for those builtin soundcards.


I dont have a definitive solution for you but thats how it goes when dealing with legacy products, Even parts for old cars eventually have to stop officially being made.


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## Ferather (Dec 27, 2021)

@emanresu, do you have any advice on this? I know you have a working Auzentech X-fi, do you know if the drivers work on the USB one?


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## emanresu (Dec 27, 2021)

Hmm DTS X Ultra from what I can see but not your version of DTS Interactive. Hifi.ooo


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## Ferather (Dec 27, 2021)

Good to know, do you have any X-Fi driver that works on Win10?


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## emanresu (Dec 27, 2021)

Yes, which card?


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## Ferather (Dec 27, 2021)

He has a 'usb x-fi surround pro 5.1', if not, then I might have to look into the generic Interactive I have and try to program your X-FI at some point.


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## snaker1 (Dec 27, 2021)

Thanks a lot for trying to help i really appreciate it! I also have an nvidia gpu. Is it possible to pass dd live or dts interactive through the hdmi port to my sound bar?

I searched some old posts and i found 2 modded hdaudio drivers for nvidia that where supposed to work but unfortunately due to the 21h1 update they also dont work!
If i could find some latest modded drivers and then i used the fx configurator to force the endpoint to play dd live, it whould have worked?


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 27, 2021)

If your soundbar has HDMi then yes. Both DD and DTS. HDMi also supports higher bitrate so if you watch movies with higher bit-rate audio, you might notice a slight difference in sound quality.


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## snaker1 (Dec 27, 2021)

Which method should i use to pass dd or dts from my gpu hdmi to the soundbar? The modded drivers dont work on 21h1 version of windows.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 27, 2021)

Just plug the soundbar into your graphics card. Thats it. The soundbar should appear in your sound control panel, no drivers required. 

Plug it in, set it as the default audio device and go. a lot of GPUs come with multiple HDmi cables but since you have repeatedly avoided answering questions about what sort of hardware you are running and how you are running them. I cant help you any further.

I hope you manage to get it working.


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## snaker1 (Dec 27, 2021)

It is working like a stereo sound bar. I want to work with dd live or dts. Not stereo. It supports dd live and dts. It has 5 speakers inside.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 27, 2021)

right click on the soundbar in the sound control panel and set it to 5.1


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## snaker1 (Dec 27, 2021)

It doesnt have this option. It shows only dolby atmos, which says that i must pay.


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## CityCultivator (Dec 27, 2021)

Is this driver, released last year also incompatible? I used that driver on my Omni on latest Windows, with DDL and the driver is said by Creative to be compatible with v3.
Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro Drivers


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## snaker1 (Dec 27, 2021)

Yes i have tried all of the drivers that i found on creative website including these.


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## CityCultivator (Dec 27, 2021)

Does atleast passthrough work?


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## emanresu (Dec 28, 2021)

Those modded Nvidia drivers do work if you boot into disable cert signing mode


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## snaker1 (Dec 28, 2021)

I have found 2 drivers from 2020. I boot into disable driver signature enforcement. Driver install but when i go to device manager it says that it has a problem.It worked at previous versions of windows 10 but not in 21h1.


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## emanresu (Dec 28, 2021)

snaker1 said:


> I have found 2 drivers from 2020. I boot into disable driver signature enforcement. Driver install but when i go to device manager it says that it has a problem.It worked at previous versions of windows 10 but not in 21h1.


 I'll upload the one(s) that worked for me when I get home. The best sound is DTS over HDMI with Ferather's old tools.

Sometimes you have to stack drivers like a clusterf#ck for them to finally work.


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## snaker1 (Dec 28, 2021)

emanresu said:


> I'll upload the one(s) that worked for me when I get home. The best sound is DTS over HDMI with Ferather's old tools.
> 
> Sometimes you have to stack drivers like a clusterf#ck for them to finally work.


Thanks a lot. That will be really helpfull.

I cant believe this. This whole time the problem was an option on my tv. Digital sound out was set to auto instead of pass through. This is why i couldnt see the multichannel pcm at driver options. Actually the soundbar supports max of 8 channels and i also tested with a dolby atmos video test file which shows multichannel pcm 7.1 . So no need for modded drivers, dd live or dts interactive. This is so embarrassing. Thanks a lot for all the effort trying to help me!
As for the x-fi i dont think that will ever have any luck with spdif. Its a very old card with no support at all. At least i found a solution using this way.


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## emanresu (Dec 28, 2021)

I have xfi auzentech and titanium hd and audigy 2 zs and fatality gaming ed. all working on 10..

Damn im a fuxiing nerd.
/slitvram


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## Ferather (Dec 28, 2021)

Good luck, nothing but a nightmare when it came to my old X-FI and Windows 10 (who dropped support, and basically disabled X-Fi).
I do have a different solution, but it requires you use the native Windows driver, and I would need to test a few things.


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## snaker1 (Dec 28, 2021)

Now this is another crazy situation. That makes 2 today. I found a generic microsoft driver somewhere online that was supposed to work with sevreal old usb sound cards. I installed it, then used fx configurator to add dolby home theater v4 on spdif. Went to audio settings and changed to dolby digital. The sound card works perfect playing dolby digial without a modded driver. The wierd thing is that when i tried to play the dolby digital demo from the dolby home theater v4 app it shows that my sound card cant play dolby digital content, but all the dolby atmos, dolby digital and surround test videos i tested work all correctly! Thanks a lot again for you replies!


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## Ferather (Dec 28, 2021)

Indeed the problem is the driver, and changes in Windows, and yes 'most' APO's can be added to the Windows setup.
I have a DTS pack that also works with Windows drivers, at least the last time I tested it did.


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## KLiKzg (Dec 31, 2021)

Move to Xonar...better sound, no problems with drivers...all around better experiance!

I did not believe it, when one audiophile told me about it...but tried it & use now only Xonars.


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## Ferather (Jan 1, 2022)

I tried my onboard Realtek after the X-Fi, then switched to AMD GPU. Cant say if the GPU is better than a Xonar, I have not owned one to compare.
Certainly less functionality with a GPU mind, no input, so no microphone, no DAC, so no analogue out, else all good.


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## wencaslas49 (Jan 4, 2022)

Hi! Hope this thread isn't too dead at this point. I'm actually attempting a similar setup with the same USB sound card for the same purpose, trying to get a DDL signal out for surround sound gaming on a sound bar. My sound bar only has SPDIF input, and my motherboard doesn't have an SPDIF output so I need some kind of sound card and I have an old Soundblaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro laying around, some card as the OP. I was wondering if you could point me to the exact generic driver that you used to get your setup working? So that I can get mine working as well. Thanks so much!


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