hp cd-writer 9100 series problem

[salvacion]

hi, i'm pretty much a newbie if you might say but anyways, i just purchased the 9100 series cd-writer and replaced my old cd-rom player. installation went great win 98 recognized the cd-writer with no problem. also i installed every thing pretty much of the software that came with the cd-writer but the one thing that i've noticed is that it would not play regular audio cds from the cd recorder. i think i did read somewhere here in the support site stating that 9100 series has problems with sound cards specially "SOUND BLASTER LIVE". well guess what thats what i have and can anyone tell me how to get around this problem? can i just change settings on the cd-writer so that i can hear it through my sound card and not just the headphones input on the cd-writer? thanks in advance!

P.S. This thread has been moevd from Disk to Optical Jukeboxes & Drives. - Hp Forum Moderator

[Roger Faucher]

I found this in an article on HP's web site:

"The full retail version of the Sound Blaster live sound card has an SP/DIF digital input, this input is not compatible with the output from the HP CD-Writer plus drive."

[S Thompson]

It seems odd that your sound card could handle the audio from your old CDROM drive but not from your new writer. I suppose you do know that a CD drive can play audio disks in two different ways. The first, and oldest, uses hardware in the drive to read the disk and generate the audio signals. These are analogue and they come out of a connector on the back of the drive as well as the phones socket on the front. You have to link that rear connector to an analogue input on your sound card if you want to hear the sound through your PC's speakers. You use something like Windows CD Player to control the drive but that's all it does. The other method, which works with most drives, is called digital audio extraction (DEA). For this you need special software to read the disk contents through the IDE cable because an audio disk isn't laid out like a data disk. (There are plenty of programs available which can do this. I recommend EAC from www.exactaudiocopy.de.) A variation of the first method now exists. You still use the drive's own hardware to generate the audio but it comes out of yet another rear connector in digital form. You can only use this if your sound card can accept it. If all you want to do is listen to your CD's while you work, try the old fashioned analogue option. If you want to copy audio tracks onto your hard disk you will need some DAE software. Note: the sound on the hard disk will be in WAV format and can be played by Media Player. If you are trying, and failing, to use the analogue option, the problem lies in that connection to your sound card OR --- the CD input in your mixer is muted!