Is my DD-5.1 defective, or is this "normal" ?

[wallst32]

I just got a DD-5.1 as a gift over the holidays to go along with my Promedia 5.1s. I was initially having problems getting any sound from my computer to play going from the soundcard's digital out to the DD-5.1 SPDIF RCA. The DD-5.1 LCD display would read "UNKNOWN COAXIAL".

After fiddling around with the cabling and DD-5.1 menus for 30-45 minutes or so, I finally tried to play a DVD movie on the computer. This worked; the LCD changed from "UNKNOWN COAXIAL" to "PCM COAXIAL" or "DOLBY DIGITAL CO". After closing out of the movie, all my Windows sounds worked as well. So I figured the problem was just a loose cable (even though I reseatted them about 25 times).

The next day, I turn on my computer, try to play some MP3s, and "UNKNOWN COAXIAL" comes up again (#$%!$!$!). My first thoughts were "oh no, not again"; I had to go through 3 Promedia 5.1 sets. So I tried playing another DVD movie as I had the other day, and this "corrected" the problem.

Is anyone else experiencing this kind of behavior? Will I need to play a DVD movie EACH and EVERY time I turn on my computer and expect to get sound out of it (hardly acceptable)? *sigh*

My setup:

Windows XP SP1

SB Audigy OEM

Promedia 5.1

DD-5.1

PowerDVD 4.0 XP

[brothenberg]

Did you run the Audigy throught the COAX?

I run mine through coax, and it says unknown till the pc turns on and the audigy sends out signal, than it says PCM.

[wallst32]

Brothenberg: yes it is connected to the COAX.

I finally got this working correctly. It turns out to be a cable problem/incompatibility (I guess).

I had to try 3 different cable combinations to get this working. The first combo was an RCA/RCA cable connected to an RCA-to-mini-jack converter. This produced the problem I described in my previous post, where I HAD to play a DVD movie before any computer sounds would play.

I also tried a single cable (RCA/mini-jack) and this would output sound when I connected a device to LINE IN. But I could not get this to output any sound from the computer (not even DVD movies).

Finally, I tried the other RCA-to-mini-jack converter they had at RadioShack with an A/V grade RCA/RCA cable and this did the trick.

As far as I could tell, all the parts I tried had the same characteristics (ie mono, pass through coverters).

So I am once again a happy camper, but this was a very frustating experience. I didn't expect to have so much trouble setting up two Klipsch devices that were made for each other. Yes there was a Creative card involved, but they easily have the most market share in the sound card market so there's no way Klipsch didn't test their cards. An included "working" cable would have been nice *hint hint*