No SPDIF passthrough when Dolby Digital Live is enabled?

Question

Hello,
I have SB Audigy 2 ZS and Logitech Z-5500 speakers connected digitally and I am using Win XP SP3.
I bought Dolby Digital Li've Pack and I have a problem with not getting SPDIF Passthrough for DTS audio.
Before I enabled DDL, when I played back content with DTS-encoded audio, audio was passed through SPDIF to the decoder in Logitech speakers and the DTS logo would appear on the display of Z-5500 console. And decoding chain from AC3Filter would look like this:
Decoding chain:
(DTS - 48000) -> Spdifer -> (SPDIF 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Dejitter -> (SPDIF 3/2. (5.) 48000)
And there is also information: "SPDIF status: SPDIF passthrough"
This is straightforward - DTS audio stream goes to SPDIF output.
Of course this would only work if I chose SPDIF Passthrough option in Decoder tab of Audio console.
But after I enabled Dolby Digital Li've and played back DTS stream, the DTS logo would no longer appear on the console, which meant that the SPDIF passthrough was not working, despite the fact that it was still enabled in the drivers. For contrast, the Decoding chain for DTS after I turned on DDL looks like this:
(DTS - 48000) -> Decoder -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Processor -> (PCM24 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Dejitter -> (PCM24 3/2. (5.) 48000)
And there is info: "SPDIF status: Disabled (SPDIF output is not supported)" and info of what is happening under the "processor" stage
Processor:
(Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Input levels -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Equalizer -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> SRC -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Mixer -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Bass redirection -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Dither -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> AGC -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Delay -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Spectrum -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Output levels -> (Linear PCM 3/2. (5.) 48000) -> Linear->PCM converter -> (PCM24 3/2. (5.) 48000)
Much, much more steps along the way, which probably means inferior quality and also is in disregard of the SPDIF Passthrough that I had enabled.
Same thing happens when you play "nati've" Dolby Digital stream - instead of being passed through SPDIF to external decoder it is somehow "hijacked" by Dolby Digital Li've and needlessly tampered with.
My question is - how can this be disabled. I understand benefits of Dolby Digital Li've (that's why I bought it) but they stop being benefits when they interfere with legitimate DTS audio which should not be "down-decoded" into Dolby Digita - it should be passed through to the Decoder.
Not to mention that DTS Connect is not supported in Windows XP. "Real" digital DD and DTS streams should? be passed through untoched, and ony converted audio (mp3s, games, etc) should be decoded into DD. Otherwise there's degradation of quality.
The only "benefit" I noticed is that DDL is enabled, the sound is noticably louder, but for increasing loudness I have my volume knob on Z-5500 so I dont need it.
Does that mean that every time I want to listen something nati'vely encoded in DTS od DD I should disable Dolby Digital Li've? I hope there is some other solution to this.

Answer 1

Creative just admitted it is a bug - this is information from the "what was fixed" in the latest version of Creative Console Launcher:
"Unable to select the external decoder option automatically while Dolby Digital Li've or DTS Connect is enabled in the encoder settings."
Will this ever be fixed for Audigy software?
Message Edited by Simplex on 06-02-2009 07:02 PM