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Post by ÈlTwo on Nov 3, 2014 15:31:37 GMT -5
XMC-1 USB AND DRIVER UPDATES ATTACHED  Hmmmm.... I seem to be having some slight difficulty with actual attachments on ProBoard today.... This has been a problem for a while, link from October 16th, you should find out from the admins what's going on  . |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 3, 2014 17:21:51 GMT -5
It's being looked into... apparently most folks use links so it went largely unremarked. XMC-1 USB AND DRIVER UPDATES ATTACHED Hmmmm.... I seem to be having some slight difficulty with actual attachments on ProBoard today.... This has been a problem for a while, link from October 16th, you should find out from the admins what's going on . |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 3, 2014 17:37:19 GMT -5
USING THE DRIVERS WITH WINDOWS 8.0 ....
Yes, they DO work with Windows 8.0 - when it's set right.
It seems that, in Windows 8.0, Microsoft decided to protect us from drivers that aren't properly signed. I don't know if the drivers really have flawed or missing signature hashes, or if Windows is simply wrong, but either way Windows is invisibly blocking the drivers from being installed. In previous versions, you would be asked, and offered the opportunity to go on anyway; in Windows 8.1 the option seems to be Off by default. So, to get the drivers to install in Windows 8.0, you need to turn OFF the "driver signature checking". (Apparently this was enough of a problem with enough drivers that they changed the default... but the real problem is that you get no indication about why your drivers didn't install, or even THAT they didn't install.)
Here's how you do it:
1) Mouse over to the right so you get the charm bar to pop up and select SETTINGS.
2) Click CHANGE PC SETTINGS.
3) Click GENERAL.
4) Scroll way down to the bottom and select RESTART NOW under ADVANCED STARTUP.
Now your machine will restart into a menu...
5) When your machine pops back up, select TROUBLESHOOT.
6) Then select ADVANCED OPTIONS.
7) Then select STARTUP OPTIONS.
8) Then select RESTART.
Now your machine will restart into another menu...
9) Select DISABLE DRIVER SIGNATURE ENFORCEMENT (I think it was item #7 on mine).
Your computer will reboot again.
NOW you will be able to install the Windows 8.0 drivers with no errors and they WILL work just fine.
(Incidentally, I would still recommend updating to Windows 8.1, cuz it really is a lot nicer anyway - and it is a free update for anyone who has 8.0 .)
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 3, 2014 17:42:19 GMT -5
I had that same bit - where the updater wouldn't even open while a specific USB stick was plugged in (even if you weren't running it from there). It happened consistently, but only with one particular stick of the several I tried (and not with another one of the same brand). I assume that, since the updater does scan all USB devices to enumerate them, it simply has trouble with a few specific makes and models of USB sticks. (In C-Media's defense, they really expect this utility to be run on a production workstation, where you would make sure it worked with a specific hardware configuration, then leave it that way... but it does get a bit silly sometimes.) I was able to get the firmware installed, but it was a tremendous pain. The .exe file would never display a window at all when I tried to do the update from a Windows 7 computer. The window would not come up at all on a Windows 8 computer for the first 8 or so times I tried to run it, then it couldn't find the firmware file. In addition, I had to extract to the hard drive in order to get the file to run at all, as it would never display a window when the USB drive was connected to the computer. Removing the drive made the installer pop up. I was finally able to get the firmware to load and I am now streaming music from my Synology DS1513+ without issue. I sincerely wish that the installer worked on a Mac, as I use my Mac 99.9% of the time. |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 3, 2014 17:52:53 GMT -5
Believe it or not, most manufacturing and production stuff is still done with Windows (which I don't find especially surprising). What is surprising is that about 2/3 of the machines still in use worldwide are still running Windows XP.  (If it still works, they aren't going to change it just because there's a newer one out there...) I'm surprised that for a chip on a Linux box there isn't a Linux program to perform this USB firmware upgrade. |
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Post by ÈlTwo on Nov 4, 2014 0:05:36 GMT -5
The update went smoothly and works great, but did you guys really have to put zipped files in a zipped file when folders would have sufficed?
I wonder how many people had trouble because they thought they were running the update file when they were really trying to run the zipped file from within the archive, and apply the zipped hex file?
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 4, 2014 12:29:14 GMT -5
You can thank WeTransfer for the extra Zip wrapper..... it seems that, when you upload multiple files to them, they put them all inside one "outside wrapper" to make the download easier.  I expect to have the instructions finished and the drivers up on the Website later today or tomorrow... The update went smoothly and works great, but did you guys really have to put zipped files in a zipped file when folders would have sufficed? I wonder how many people had trouble because they thought they were running the update file when they were really trying to run the zipped file from within the archive, and apply the zipped hex file? |
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Post by ÈlTwo on Nov 4, 2014 14:11:23 GMT -5
That'll probably save some people, you included, some headaches.  |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 4, 2014 15:21:20 GMT -5
UPDATE -
BY DEFAULT, DRIVER SIGNATURE ENFORCEMENT IS ENABLED ON 64 BIT VERSIONS OF BOTH WINDOWS 8.0 AND WINDOWS 8.1 .
YOU MUST DISABLE THIS IN ORDER TO PROPERLY INSTALL THE DRIVERS WITH EITHER.
(IT IS NOT ENABLED ON THE 32 BIT VERSIONS OF WINDOWS 8.0 AND WINDOWS 8.1)
FULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOING SO WITH BOTH WINDOWS 8.0 AND WINDOWS 8.1 WILL BE INCLUDED WITH THE DRIVER INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
(WHICH WILL BE POSTED TO THE PRODUCT PAGE BY TOMORROW)
--------------
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Post by rogersch on Nov 4, 2014 16:13:18 GMT -5
As already posted in other topic link I received an XMC-1 with firmware V1.3 where the C-Media firmware was already upgraded. For testing purposes, I normally have an HTPC connected via HDMI to the XMC-1, I took a Windows 8.1 laptop (64 bit version) and connected it to the USB input of the XMC-1. Windows automatically installed a "Spdif (XMC-1)" audio driver. Thereafter I configured in Foobar2000 to use this device as audio output in WASAPI push mode. I tested several FLAC files with different bit depths and sample rates. Here are my results: 44.1 kHz 16 bit stereo => Succes 48 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes 88.2 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes 96 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes 192 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes  The XMC-1 showed the correct sample rates on the display. 48 kHz 24 bit 5.1 multichannel => Fail. Foobar reports unsupported device Well it is/was known that the used C-Media chip "only" supports 2 channel audio but more importantly: the driver, automatically installed by Windows 8.1 also works with 192 kHz 24 bit stereo! Hence my question: Why would you want to install the C-Media driver on windows 8.1 and "messing" around with unsigned drivers??? Until somebody can clearly indicate why the default windows 8.1 driver is inferior to the C-Media driver I would recommend to use the default driver. (If it works don't fixed it...) |
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Post by richter250 on Nov 6, 2014 2:36:01 GMT -5
Update successful! Thanks Keith! Used an old Windows Vista laptop that I had in a closet as I am now a Mac fanatic. Update was not exactly smooth as I kept getting an error message that said "flash power off"? Whatever that means. Just kept running the program, turning things on and off, plugging and unplugging various cables and I got it to update. Really only took about 30 minutes of fiddling. Now I can play any file up to 192kHz from my Mac Pro. I use Pure Music and Amarra Symphony and both work great. The Audio Mini program, Pure Music, and Amarra all recognize the XMC-1 as "XMC-1" instead of the lame "USB speaker" that showed up previously. I am afraid this update just made my Benchmark DAC2 an expensive paperweight. What a wonderful piece of equipment the XMC-1 is. Congratulations and thanks for all the hard work Emotiva guys.
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 7, 2014 3:38:51 GMT -5
As for FooBar and multi-channel files... you may be able to get around that (although I don't specifically know how). I can tell you that Foobar will pass DTS audio to the XMC-1 as long as it doesn't "know" that it's DTS. If you have the DTS decoder plugin installed, then Foobar will do the decoding. If so, then it (Foobar) will generally say "not supported" for surround sound DTS recordings. However, if you UNINSTALL the plugin, Foobar will simply pass the DTS signal to the XMC-1 which will then decode it. This worked for me for "DTS CD" sources, but not for one that I tried that was DTS encoded at a higher sample rate. (Note that, to play DTS, YOU MUST LEAVE THE VOLUME IN FOOBAR SET TO 100% AND YOUR SIGNAL PATH MUST BE BIT PERFECT.) In general, Foobar will refuse to play any encoded formats unless it "knows" how to decode them... but that can be gotten around. Oppos also seem to play DTS with no problems (both Stereo and Multi). As for that driver.... As far as I know, Microsoft still does not "officially" provide UAC2 support (for the XMC-1 or anything else) in Windows 8.1 . (Meaning that they still don't include internal drivers for it as Apple does.) The C-Media USB chip we use is quite popular, so it's quite possible that drivers from other companies may work with the XMC-1, and that Windows 8.1 may indeed locate drivers that would work on its own. However, since we KNOW our drivers work, I would recommend using them. (The driver "knows" it's connected to the XMC-1 because we pass that information to it... so the fact that the device shows up as "XMC-1" does NOT necessarily mean that the driver was specifically intended for the XMC-1.) However, since the driver isn't going to hurt anything, even if it is the wrong one, go ahead and use it if it works As already posted in other topic link I received an XMC-1 with firmware V1.3 where the C-Media firmware was already upgraded. For testing purposes, I normally have an HTPC connected via HDMI to the XMC-1, I took a Windows 8.1 laptop (64 bit version) and connected it to the USB input of the XMC-1. Windows automatically installed a "Spdif (XMC-1)" audio driver. Thereafter I configured in Foobar2000 to use this device as audio output in WASAPI push mode. I tested several FLAC files with different bit depths and sample rates. Here are my results: 44.1 kHz 16 bit stereo => Succes 48 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes 88.2 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes 96 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes 192 kHz 24 bit stereo => Succes The XMC-1 showed the correct sample rates on the display. 48 kHz 24 bit 5.1 multichannel => Fail. Foobar reports unsupported device Well it is/was known that the used C-Media chip "only" supports 2 channel audio but more importantly: the driver, automatically installed by Windows 8.1 also works with 192 kHz 24 bit stereo! Hence my question: Why would you want to install the C-Media driver on windows 8.1 and "messing" around with unsigned drivers??? Until somebody can clearly indicate why the default windows 8.1 driver is inferior to the C-Media driver I would recommend to use the default driver. (If it works don't fixed it...) |
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 7, 2014 3:51:27 GMT -5
NEW XMC-1 USB DRIVERS ARE NOW ON THE XMC-1 PRODUCT PAGE (Resources tab)
You will now find the final version of the USB Firmware Update on the XMC-1 product page
(this is the same version as from the link posted here earlier, and the same version now included on all shipping XMC-1 units).
You will also find the final version of the new USB drivers there (Emotiva v1.11a).
The v1.11a drivers can be installed with the XMC-1, the DC-1, or the XDA-2 connected to your computer.
The v1.11a drivers work with Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.0, and Windows 8.1 .
The v1.11a drivers support both WASAPI Event and WASAPI Push with Windows 7, Windows 8.0, and Windows 8.1 .
(The new package still includes the v1.01 Vista drivers, which support WASAPI Push, but not WASAPI Event.)
PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY WHEN INSTALLING DRIVERS FOR WINDOWS 8.0 OR WINDOWS 8.1 .
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Post by rogersch on Nov 7, 2014 4:54:54 GMT -5
Thank KeithL for the explanation regarding the driver.
For me it is absolutely not a problem that I can't play multi channel audio via USB because normally I use a HTPC which is connected via HDMI to play music and video.
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digi
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Posts: 41
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Post by digi on Nov 10, 2014 6:54:39 GMT -5
Hello all,
Has anyone had issues running the installation software off a vista pc? Initially it seemed the xmc was not recognized but changing the usb port likely resolved that. Now my issue is when I try to run the installer application it does not seem to load or show up on the screen. I have tried re-booting the machine and using another cable. A few times it did come up but had no communication with the XMC since the installer had blank fields. I have not yet called technical support as I realized the problem over the weekend and have not or will have the time to do so for the next several days. I hope this is an easy solution as I bought this unit for many reasons including the published support of 192k from day 1.
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KeithL
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Post by KeithL on Nov 10, 2014 12:46:52 GMT -5
Assuming you're talking about the FIRMWARE update installer, don't worry about the two lower fields. As long as the top line shows the correct versions when it's supposed to, it's not important whether the bottom fields fill in or not. I had one really odd situation where the updater wouldn't come up on screen at all while a certain USB stick was plugged in (this was with Windows 8.1). It wasn't running from that stick, it simply wouldn't come up AT ALL while that stick was plugged into any port on that computer, but came right up when the stick was unplugged... but the problem didn't happen with a different stick of the same brand, or any other stick (or mouse or other device) I tried. Apparently that particular stick caused the part of the updater that goes out and looks for connected USB devices to get confused and hang. (What was really odd was that the program would appear to run, but nothing came up. Then, several minutes later, the second I removed the stick, the updater would "pop up" just like normal - and work fine. This was quite repeatable with that computer and that stick.) The important thing is that, once the update completes, and you see that the correct firmware version is installed on that top windows, it ALWAYS works as it should (you really aren't going to have to do this again). Hello all, Has anyone had issues running the installation software off a vista pc? Initially it seemed the xmc was not recognized but changing the usb port likely resolved that. Now my issue is when I try to run the installer application it does not seem to load or show up on the screen. I have tried re-booting the machine and using another cable. A few times it did come up but had no communication with the XMC since the installer had blank fields. I have not yet called technical support as I realized the problem over the weekend and have not or will have the time to do so for the next several days. I hope this is an easy solution as I bought this unit for many reasons including the published support of 192k from day 1. |
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digi
Minor Hero
Posts: 41
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Post by digi on Nov 14, 2014 10:23:45 GMT -5
Thanks Keith. I had the same problem you encountered and this morning running the update without the usb stick allowed the update to complete. I thought I had tried that originally, but I guess not. I have not tried to send any audio to the xmc through usb yet though I have no doubt it will work as described.
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Post by allyn22 on Nov 15, 2014 9:57:17 GMT -5
I'm posting this on Saturday. I don't think EMO is open on the weekend for tech support. Normally, I'd call them first. I went to try out my USB audio stream from a Dell XPS Win 7 machine. It has Realek on-board sound and an NVidia GeForce GT 220 with HDMI (older card but does work - no Dolby Tru HD or DTS MA encoding though).
I needed to update the Cmedia firmware and install the new drivers. I had some heartburn getting the firmware updated right. It took a couple of tries, but I was able to confirm seeing 24/192 coming up in the OSD when it would not play before the fw update. The first time I ran the fw update, it looked as though there may have been 2 selections for different chips the first time I said erase. I never got a pop-up box confirming completion when I asked it to erase the firmware the first time and the two selections never showed up again. I had to reboot the computer for the fw update program to run correctly again. My recollection of this two chip selection may be wrong, but I thought I would mention it in case it is relevant to the issue I am having now.
My issue is the XMC-1 driver. I am using JRiver 20. I am new to media software, but have been in the audio setting screen quite a bit when I tried streaming with HDMI.
I installed the driver using setup.exe from the main folder as the pdf suggested. In device manager, under "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" I see an entry for JRiver 20 and XMC-1. Both report the device is working properly.
I read the "Configuring WASAPI Mode with Some Popular Windows Audio Applications" pdf. The JRiver v20 section mentions picking USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio (WASAPI), but I do not see that listed. I do see SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [WASAPI], ASIO for USB device [ASIO], ASIO for Generic USB Device [ASIO]. The only other selection available that mentioned USB or XMC-1 was SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [Direct Sound], but I knew to stay away from Direct Sound. I am currently using SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [WASAPI] and can get sound out of the USB port.
I did uninstall and reinstall the driver just to see if that had any effect - it didn't.
Can someone tell me where I went wrong or why USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio (WASAPI) isn't available as a selection?
Thanks,
Al |
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Post by doc1963 on Nov 15, 2014 13:04:42 GMT -5
I'm posting this on Saturday. I don't think EMO is open on the weekend for tech support. Normally, I'd call them first. I went to try out my USB audio stream from a Dell XPS Win 7 machine. It has Realek on-board sound and an NVidia GeForce GT 220 with HDMI (older card but does work - no Dolby Tru HD or DTS MA encoding though).
I needed to update the Cmedia firmware and install the new drivers. I had some heartburn getting the firmware updated right. It took a couple of tries, but I was able to confirm seeing 24/192 coming up in the OSD when it would not play before the fw update. The first time I ran the fw update, it looked as though there may have been 2 selections for different chips the first time I said erase. I never got a pop-up box confirming completion when I asked it to erase the firmware the first time and the two selections never showed up again. I had to reboot the computer for the fw update program to run correctly again. My recollection of this two chip selection may be wrong, but I thought I would mention it in case it is relevant to the issue I am having now.
My issue is the XMC-1 driver. I am using JRiver 20. I am new to media software, but have been in the audio setting screen quite a bit when I tried streaming with HDMI.
I installed the driver using setup.exe from the main folder as the pdf suggested. In device manager, under "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" I see an entry for JRiver 20 and XMC-1. Both report the device is working properly.
I read the "Configuring WASAPI Mode with Some Popular Windows Audio Applications" pdf. The JRiver v20 section mentions picking USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio (WASAPI), but I do not see that listed. I do see SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [WASAPI], ASIO for USB device [ASIO], ASIO for Generic USB Device [ASIO]. The only other selection available that mentioned USB or XMC-1 was SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [Direct Sound], but I knew to stay away from Direct Sound. I am currently using SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [WASAPI] and can get sound out of the USB port.
I did uninstall and reinstall the driver just to see if that had any effect - it didn't.
Can someone tell me where I went wrong or why USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio (WASAPI) isn't available as a selection?
Thanks,
Al The only suitable WASAPI selection that I have available in the JRiver selection list is the "SPDIF Out (XMC-1) [WASAPI]" driver. That's what I'm using and it's working just fine. I can't explain why we're not seeing what's noted in the documentation, but I'd recommend just using it and not worry about it since it appears to function exactly as it should.... |
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Post by ejn1111 on Nov 15, 2014 16:17:23 GMT -5
I've spent hours trying to get the Cmedia driver loaded on my Music server pc running Windows 8.1 and Jriver. Continue to get an error at the end saying it did not install. I have updated the USB Stream firmware and also disable the driver certification in Windows 8.1 and still the error. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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The XMC-1 showed the correct sample rates on the display.
