I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a
computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER
LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install the
card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. I found this
unusual, as all the other connectors were present (CD SPDIF, TAD, AUX), and
I had never encountered a Live! model that lacked this particular connector
before. At first I thought that maybe it had somehow been broken off, but
that didn't seem likely and it didn't look like it either. I chalked it up
to the card being an OEM version. Perhaps the DE in the title stands for
Digital Edition, and so there is no input for analog CD audio??

In any case, I am wondering about connecting the card to my optical drives
(one DVD/CDRW combo, one CD-ROM) so that both of them can send an audio
signal to the soundblaster. The card itself came with no cables, but one of
my drives included a 4-pin MPC-to-MPC cable for analog audio. When I
assembled my computer, I connected this cable to my DVD drive and to the AUX
slot on the soundcard (since it seemed like the only choice I had), and
decided I could accept my CD-ROM being a "silent" drive. However, I haven't
tested to see if this works as it was brought to my attention that you can
potentially damage your soundcard with an incorrect cable configuration (is
this true?). Since then, I have also purchased a 2-pin digital MPC-to-MPC
cable. If I connect my DVD drive to my soundcard using the 2-pin cable and
the CD SPDIF connector, and attach my CD-ROM using the 4-pin cable and the
AUX connector, will I be able to play audio CDs in either drive and hear the
sound through my speakers? Is it ok to use the AUX connector to input from a
CD drive?

Thank you to any who can help me out with this. It is difficult to find info
on this card, or to get adequate tech support.


Al

"AW" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6x68c.19542$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a
> computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER
> LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install
the
> card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board.
>
> snip <
>
>
I've never seen a sound card without a CD-in either. However, you do not
need any CD audio cables nowadays. Just enable Digital CD audio extraction.
Depending on your OS its either in the Control Panel/Multimedia/CD Music or
Device Manager/CDROM drives/Property of the drive.

Line-in, CD-in, AUX or Video-in all have the same signal level specification
so you cannot damage the sound card by plugging CDROM audio cable into any
of them.

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 08:21:30 -0000 Letting slip the dogs of war "Alien
Zord" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote :

>"AW" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:6x68c.19542$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a
>> computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER
>> LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install
>the
>> card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board.
>>
>> snip <
>>
>>
>I've never seen a sound card without a CD-in either. However, you do not
>need any CD audio cables nowadays. Just enable Digital CD audio extraction.
>Depending on your OS its either in the Control Panel/Multimedia/CD Music or
>Device Manager/CDROM drives/Property of the drive.

Correct.This was a feature added by MS from WMP 7 and later however it
also means that the Wave volume fader also controls the CD audio
volume.Error Correction should also be applied.


HTH



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

If you are using XP as your OS then you do NOT need to connect the audio
cables from your optical drives to the sound card. In XP the audio is
transported over the data cable, not the audio cable.

--
DaveW



"AW" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6x68c.19542$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I recently purchased an OEM version of the SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 for a
> computer I was building at home (the full title is CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER
> LIVE! DE 5.1 OEM and the part # is SB0220). When it came time to install
the
> card, I noticed that there was no CD IN connector on the board. I found
this
> unusual, as all the other connectors were present (CD SPDIF, TAD, AUX),
and
> I had never encountered a Live! model that lacked this particular
connector
> before. At first I thought that maybe it had somehow been broken off, but
> that didn't seem likely and it didn't look like it either. I chalked it up
> to the card being an OEM version. Perhaps the DE in the title stands for
> Digital Edition, and so there is no input for analog CD audio??
>
> In any case, I am wondering about connecting the card to my optical drives
> (one DVD/CDRW combo, one CD-ROM) so that both of them can send an audio
> signal to the soundblaster. The card itself came with no cables, but one
of
> my drives included a 4-pin MPC-to-MPC cable for analog audio. When I
> assembled my computer, I connected this cable to my DVD drive and to the
AUX
> slot on the soundcard (since it seemed like the only choice I had), and
> decided I could accept my CD-ROM being a "silent" drive. However, I
haven't
> tested to see if this works as it was brought to my attention that you can
> potentially damage your soundcard with an incorrect cable configuration
(is
> this true?). Since then, I have also purchased a 2-pin digital MPC-to-MPC
> cable. If I connect my DVD drive to my soundcard using the 2-pin cable and
> the CD SPDIF connector, and attach my CD-ROM using the 4-pin cable and the
> AUX connector, will I be able to play audio CDs in either drive and hear
the
> sound through my speakers? Is it ok to use the AUX connector to input from
a
> CD drive?
>
> Thank you to any who can help me out with this. It is difficult to find
info
> on this card, or to get adequate tech support.
>
>
> Al
>
>