Thread: Review of the Extigy external sound card for AC-3 decoding

Originally Posted by beeb

Hi guys,

After reading this thread, I purchased an used Extigy to use with my Pansat 3500. Unfortunately the card seems defective. I would like to confirm that. So I have two questions to those who are successfully using it.
1. Did you have to set up anything on the card using a computer, or you just connected it to the receiver through digital and then to an amplifier? (Mine seems to only send signal through the headphone out jack, and none through the rear 3 surround jacks, and that's only when connected to a PC, not the FTA receiver. It does not work at all connected to the FTA receiver). I'm asking this also to eliminate the doubt that not having the original driver disc (and I can't find an image of it anywhere on the internet) has anything magical (that the currently published drivers on Creative's web site don't have) that may get it to work.
2. When you turn on the power on the card, does any light come out of the optical OUT (or IN) connectors - with the caps removed, of course? (No lights on mine, I would like to confirm that this means the digital connections are dead).
Thanks in advance.

Hi - just tried out my extigy connected to Pansat 2700A - haven't used it in a while - but still works.
So you refer to the extigy as a 'card' - does this mean you purchased the PCI card version of the extigy that has to be plugged in to a computer ?
What you need is the external extigy box. It's a flat rectangular black box with two silver volume knobs on the front. And uses an external power adapter.
If you have the correct one then here's some answers to your questions.
Answer 1. You should not have to set anything up on the external extigy for it to work with an FTA recvr.
Answer 2. When I power on the extigy - red light shines from the optical OUT. The optical IN remains dark.
I have only used the headphones out jack. I use it to listen on headphones or to send signal via long cable (mini DIN plug to RCA) to the hifi.
I also purchased a Sonic Voom device which works very well to decode AC3 - and it was like $20 (incl shipping) on Ebay.

Thank you, mpc30!
We are talking about the same external thing, although I refer to it as a "card". Your confirmation that no drivers or setup were needed for standalone operation and the fact that I don't see any red light out of the digital output confirms that the device I received is defective.

Originally Posted by beeb

Thank you, mpc30!
We are talking about the same external thing, although I refer to it as a "card". Your confirmation that no drivers or setup were needed for standalone operation and the fact that I don't see any red light out of the digital output confirms that the device I received is defective.

I wouldn't give up on it yet. When I had difficulty with mine, I went to the Creative web page, and downloaded the newest firmware, and installed it. My memory is a bit foggy, because it's been a couple years, so I'm probably wrong, but I seem to remember that there was a setup program that came with the new firmware, that had some mode of use that sort of dis-abled the optical.

So I was just thinking that it might be worth your while to download the most recent firmware, and see if there might be a way to enable/disable the optial ports. Or perhaps putting in the new firmware might possibly fix the problem.
I seem to remember that a diagnostic program was included as well.

I do agree though that when I use mine, the light comes out of the outside port, however I thought that perhaps a previous owner might have deactivated that function, because when used with a computer, there ARE some different modes that the Extigy can be put in.

Originally Posted by B.J.

I wouldn't give up on it yet. When I had difficulty with mine, I went to the Creative web page, and downloaded the newest firmware, and installed it. My memory is a bit foggy, because it's been a couple years, so I'm probably wrong, but I seem to remember that there was a setup program that came with the new firmware, that had some mode of use that sort of dis-abled the optical.

I'm also thinking something like that. I downloaded and installed the latest drivers and firmware, but since I didn't get the original installation disk from the seller, some of the applications on creative's web site won't install, saying I need the original application disk. I cannot install and run anything that would allow me to set up or diagnose the card - just plain windows drivers, the only sound that plays is through the headphones out, and no optical working.

I would highly appreciate if anyone of you having the original Extigy installation disk would be kind to share it with me - I couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet.

Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by beeb

I'm also thinking something like that. I downloaded and installed the latest drivers and firmware, but since I didn't get the original installation disk from the seller, some of the applications on creative's web site won't install, saying I need the original application disk. I cannot install and run anything that would allow me to set up or diagnose the card - just plain windows drivers, the only sound that plays is through the headphones out, and no optical working.

I would highly appreciate if anyone of you having the original Extigy installation disk would be kind to share it with me - I couldn't find it anywhere on the Internet.

Thank you very much.

I'll look, however if it's a big set of files, I may not be able to upload it.

BTW, is the file you downloaded for the Extigy called " SBEXTG_WEBUP.exe "??
I was looking for the new software I downloaded, and this was all I could find. I don't remember it asking me for the original disks, but it may have.
Strangely, I can't find the programs installed on my computer. I must have used an older computer to load in the new software.

Yes, that's the name of the file available from Creative. Unfortunately, the applications like AudioHQ that's supposed to manage the card is not available and the update for it from the website would not install if no original installation exists.

I found my original installation disk. However it's about 190 MB, too big for me to upload from home. If nobody else makes it available first, I'll see if I can compress it, and possibly go over to the next town where the library has high speed internet.