Sound Blaster Z - Dolby Digital surround sound cuts out

Question

I have a problem that I'm hoping someone with more knowledge can shed some light on. I recently received a Razer Goliath 5.1 Soundbar for my birthday, capable of accepting input through Aux, Bluetooth, and Optical cable.

My motherboard is only capable of outputting stereo over SPDIF, so I bought a Sound Blaster Z sound card (which promises 5.1 over optical). Sadly, I've had only headaches and issues since I installed the damned thing.

I've managed to overcome most of the other problems that I've had with the card, however even as I type this out my sound has dropped out almost a dozen times - it simply stops playing through the speakers.

In the beginning I would restart my computer, and things would simply work again. More recently I've discovered that switching the encoder version in the Sound Blaster Z Control Panel to anything else, then back to Dolby Digital is enough to get my sound playing again.

I tried installing the newest drivers for both the card itself, as well as the Sound Blaster Audio Controller, and even newer/older versions of Sound Blaster Z Control Panel; nothing's worked, so I'm hoping you guys may have some insight.

I'm running Windows 10 Pro V. 1803, with all the latest updates; CPU: Intel i7-3770K; Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene

Solution 1

So I've sort of managed to solve the problem, and want to post this answer for the sake of anyone else encountering a similar issue. First of all, make sure to install the latest drivers, and version of Sound Blaster Z Control Panel.

When outputting over SPDIF (Sound Blaster Z), I selected "No Encoder" in Sound Blaster Z Control Panel, and enable the Dolby Digital setting on the speakers themselves (there's a button to toggle it on or off).

The sound coming out over the Leviathan seems to be 5.1, however it's difficult to tell because, duh, it's a soundbar, and all the speakers are right next to one another, and unfortunately the Sound Blaster Z Control Panel loses all ability to interact with the bar itself (I can't test the speaker output). It sounds good, however.

When I need to output over headphones I switch the output to headphones in the Sound Blaster Z Control Panel, and change the system sound output to Speakers (Sound Blaster Z).

With this setup I've had no drops, and no grief.

Solution 2

I'm Sorry for the Necro here, but i've had a similar issue. If you're using S/PDIF, understand that it can only properly transmit up to 16bit/48khz. If your sound devices in the Windows Sound Control panel are set to above 24bit, then this is what's probably causing your issues.

After having flipped it to 16bit/48khz, I haven't had the cutout/stop issues anymore.

Comments

[Tetsujin]

What happens if you use 'no encoder' & let the soundbar do it?

[AndreiROM]

@tetsujin - hi, when I disable Dolby Digital in the Sound Blaster Control Panel sound stops playing over the Speakers (Sound Blaster Z) audio device, and instead plays over SPDIF (Sound Blaster Z). Which is fine, except it only outputs 2 channels, not 5.1 (please see the NOTE in the screenshot on clarification on how the software routs sound with/without Dolby enabled). All sound tests through the Control Panel also stop outputting any sound ...

[Tetsujin]

OK, that probably reinforces what you said at the beginning of the question - your machine is incapable of outputting 5.1 at all, & is using a bit a a hack to push an undecoded signal to the soundblaster for those specific audio types. You may be hitting a processing bottleneck; the machine is just not capable of even pushing the undecoded signal as fast as required. Not sure there's a lot you can do to overcome that, but let's see if anyone knows better than me [many people do ;-))

[AndreiROM]

@tetsujin - The whole point of this card is (supposedly) to enable me to play 5.1 over optical, which seems to work when Dolby is enabled. I would get it if a bottleneck would cause latency (which there was, but it was mostly resolved with newer drivers), but having the encoding fail altogether, then work again on toggle, seems to me like some sort of software failure. As you said, maybe someone has encountered this sort of issue before

[Blackwood]

This would have been better as a comment (you will be able to comment on other people's posts once you have a few reputation points).

[AndreiROM]

Hi, did you ever figure out the audio drop issue? Thanks.

[Toto]

This should be a comment.

[Greenonline]

It's a wee bit difficult to understand your answer. Are these meant to be a series of comments addressing different answers?

[Greenonline]

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review