Sound problems with X-Fi...

[Etihtsarom]

So I play .mkv movies with my 5.1 set up and it sounds fabulous. But, when I plug my headphones in, the sound becomes lost, I can't hear people talk, but some music and background sound can be heard. If I were to stop the movie and play some music, I can hear it completely with headphones and it sounds fabulous. I've tried every search, reinstalled the codecs, etc...
Can some one with the know-how advise me on this?
Thnx.

[ToTTenTranz]

I think you're plugging in your headphones when the AC3 filter is still configured to 5.1 (6 discreet channels), which means the headphones are only getting the left and right channel from the 5.1 source. You don't hear voices because those are generally attributed to the center channel. You're also losing all the the background effects from the rear channels and all the low-frequencies that are usually attributed to the subwoofer channel. That's why the sound is so weird with movies.
The music is in 2 channels so you hear what you're supposed to.


Before plugging in your headphones to watch a movie in 5.1, you must go to the AC3 Filter options and change the output from 5.1 to 2 channel stereo. AC3 Filter will take care of downmixing the 6 channels into 2 channels for your headphones.

It's not a problem of your soundcard :P

[Etihtsarom]

Thank you for the help. It looks like having to change the output manually each time is a little inconvenient, although it fixes the problem. Isn't this what the option labeled : "Automatically enable headphone settings" in the Creative Audio Console supposed to handle? I can't imagine every one who uses a set of 5.1 speakers have to manually change the audio output everytime they decide to put on headphones?

[YukonTrooper]

Sure, but what are your headphone settings at? You'll also want to make sure the X-Fi control panel is sharing settings with your window sound settings. It's also possible you have the program set to automatically detect your headphones as well, which could be confusing the crap out of your computer.

[Etihtsarom]

Hello,
The problem has been identified. The software works, but not the way we might expect. The auto detection occurs only on the front panel output of the case and NOT when the headphones are plugged into the Z5300E module (which comes with the speakers and controls the power and volume of the speakers). The problem, then, is that the sound quality for front panels connected to the Extreme Gamer is a known problem with hiss, static and noise. I am still searching for a solution to make the front panel output work.

[ToTTenTranz]

The auto detection occurs only on the front panel output of the case and NOT when the headphones are plugged into the Z5300E module (which comes with the speakers and controls the power and volume of the speakers).

Of course it doesn't! There's no digital connection between the Z5300E and your PC so there's no way for your system to "know" you've plugged in the headphones in the speakers' control unit.
That's not a software issue.