Damien

Yes you can get all four speakers working - I presume you have a SBLive, and I hope that you have a SPDIF input (you're rather stuck if you don't). What I did was to connect the SPDIF output from my DXR3 (Creative's Hollywood Plus clone) to the SPDIF input of my SBLive. NOw under the DXR3 software, there's an option under the audio configuration tab to set the sound output to DXR3 Digital - select the PCM option. Enable Digital input on you SBLive - use the Mixer applet - and if all goes well, restarting the player will give you four speaker surround. This procedure might differ on a genuine Hollywood Plus card - but as I don't have one of these I guess it's up to you guys to match these instructions to your setups.

Yep - look at the Adaptec website- personally I always prefere a scsi card solution rather that motherboard embedded chip - with a card you're always free to upgrade it - you can also apply standard bios upgrades - without having to wait for the manufacturer of your motherboard to bring an upgrade out. LVD stands for Low Voltage Differential - it's the standard of connection used by both scsi2 and ultra160 - if my machine is anything to go by, the LVD connector has twice as many wires as a stardard ultra scsi lead - rather like the doubling up of wires on the ide UDMA66 cable. LVD therefore allows higher data transfer rates with increased reliablilty. I'm using the new Adaptec 29160 64bit PC I scsi controller - which using adaptec's speedflex technology allows devices of different tranfer rates to cooperate fautlessly - something that's not generally possible with other soltions.

I had the same problem with this product, unfotunately, the laser had stopped working. As I bought the drive in the States (I live in England) returning it wasn't an option - unfortunately I had no option but to replace it - covered by household insurance though. [This message has been edited by Damien (edited 07 May 2000).]