Trouble with WDM Realtek digital output

[tox]

Yes, the problem only appears to affect Dolby Digital Live. On a side note, Dolby DIgital Live and DTS Connect are once again broken in Windows 10 Insider Builds. I'm now running build 14986 and it doesn't work no matter whether it's direct from the Realtek driver or via Voicemeeter.

Microsoft really need to get their act together when it comes to multichannel / multi device audio.

[CaptaPraelium]

the problem seems to concern only this Realtek Optical output in multichannel mode and WDM interface...
we simply have to reproduce the problem here to correct it...
what is connected to your optical link : an AV-amplifier ?

I agree, it seems specific to multichannel mode (dolby digital specifically) and WDM and realtek cards.
I have a headset base-unit connected to the PC via optical cable. I've tried a hifi receiver and had the same behaviour.
I have lots of spare time if you want any testing done consider me available.

[Vincent Burel]

thanks for your help... maybe you could try to reproduce the problem on other application (VLC ?) using WASAPI to output audio to this optical device in multichannel mode and let me know if it works or not...

[CaptaPraelium]

Thank you for helping us!
Good idea. I had not seen this problem anywhere else but after a few minutes trying different configurations of VLC, I was able to get the distortion to occur. It only gives distortion when I select "Windows Multimedia Device output" as the 'Output module', and select my realtek optical output as the default in windows. Using this configuration, if I view the module list, I can see 'generic"wasapi"' as a loaded module. Other configurations which do not distort, do not show this module... So I guess I am using wasapi when the distortion occurs, and no distortion when I am not using wasapi.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if there's anything else I can try for you.

[Vincent Burel]

it's maybe a problem more related to Realtek driver or Micrsoft WASAPI ...
i've posted the question on 'wdmaudiodev@freelists.org' ...

[CaptaPraelium]

This may be interesting: Reaper seems to work with this card and driver in WASAPI mode. Exclusive mode throws an error:

Code: Select all

There was an error opening the audio hardware:

WASAPI error: could not find output device format

But shared mode works fine. No distortion, no long/odd length buffers
HTH!
By the way, I stumbled across ASIO drivers for these cards while testing, if anyone's interested I could send a link.

[Vincent Burel]

ha, this could mean that it is a problem on format negotiation or share mode management...
i will take a look soon...

[tox]

Just an FYI, since all Insider builds and the current live build have now syncronised to the Creative Update, DDL and DTS Interactive are now broken on all current builds of Windows 10. We can only hope that Microsoft fix this but they seem to be pushing Dolby Atmos and Windows Sonic Audio as these are now integrated in the sound options.

[Vincent Burel]

thanks for the information!

[CaptaPraelium]

DDL is working fine on my win10 box, but I did hear of problems with it in the test ('insider') builds... So are you saying that they never fixed it and are now rolling it out to everyone anyway? What's the problem exactly?