Operation And Usage Playback; Dvd-Playback (Ac-3/Dts) - RME Audio Digiface AES User Manual

Table of Contents

8. Operation and Usage

8.1 Playback

In the audio application being used, Digiface AES must be selected as output device. This can

often be found in the Options, Preferences or Settings menus under Playback Device, Audio De-

vices, Audio etc.

WDM playback devices are not available if the number of WDM devices is set to 0 in the

Settings dialog.

We recommend switching all system sounds off (via >Control Panel /Sounds<). Although the

Digiface AES comes with extensive support for system audio, setting it to be the Default Device

for playback could cause problems when working with ASIO.

Increasing the number and/or size of audio buffers may prevent the audio signal from breaking

up, but also increases latency i.e. output is delayed. For synchronized playback of audio and MIDI

(or similar), be sure to activate the checkbox 'Get position from audio driver'.

Note: Since Windows Vista the audio application can no longer control the sample rate under

WDM. Therefore the driver of the Digiface AES includes a way to set the sample rate globally for

all WDM devices within the Settings dialog, see chapter 7.1.

Popular DVD software players can send their audio data stream to any AC-3/DTS capable re-

ceiver via the Digiface AES SPDIF output.

The sample rate must be set to 48 kHz in the Digiface AES Settings dialog, or the software

will only playback the down-mixed analog signal via SPDIF.

In some cases an Digiface AES output device has to be selected in >Control Panel / Sound /

Playback< and be set as Default for the software to recognize it.

The DVD software's audio properties now show the options 'SPDIF Out' or similar. When selecting

it, the software will transfer the non-decoded digital multichannel data stream to the Digiface.

Note: This 'SPDIF' signal sounds like chopped noise at highest level. Try to avoid mixing and

routing the signal to your loudspeakers, as they might get damaged.

Multichannel

DVD software player can also operate as software decoder, sending a DVD's multichannel data

stream directly to the analog outputs of the Digiface AES. For this to work select the WDM play-

back device 'Loudspeaker' of the Digiface AES in >Control Panel/ Sound/ Playback < as Default.

The playback software's audio properties now list several multichannel modes. If one of these is

selected, the software sends the decoded analog multichannel data to the Digiface AES. TotalMix

can then be used to play back via any desired output channels.

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Troubleshooting