10 May 2008
SPDIF KeepAlive
After building a new HTPC I’ve discovered that the onboard IDT audio has a problem with the SPDIF output, or at least my Sony receiver has a problem with it! Every time a sound is played it causes the SPDIF input on the receiver to initialise which takes about 500 milliseconds, after the sound has finished the SPDIF goes back to sleep. As a result the first 500ms is lost off every sound that is played; not really a problem if you’re watching a movie but for applications that have little blips as you navigate around these sounds tend to get missed altogether; such is the case in MediaPortal the HTPC application I use.
My old motherboard with Nforce sound didn’t have this problem the SPDIF remained “active” all the time.
After much searching I did find a few other people with the same problem but no solution so I’ve written a small .NET application called SPDIFKeepAlive. It does just that. It sits in the system tray and continuously plays a silent wave file to keep SPDIF port active.
Hope this is helpful for others, leave comments for bugs or if you want the source code.
Download
.NET Framework 2.0 Required
Version History
Version 1.2 (Current Version) – download
- Fixed auto play on startup
- Added auto-restart option
Version 1.1
- Added new output options
Version 1.0
- Initial release
Thank you for the 64bit update. Now working great in vista x64 sp1 with .dot net 3.5!
Keep up the great work.
Now if I could only find vista 64 bit drivers for the ps3 sixaxis controller id be set to use vista full time.
Vampyre
April 19th, 2009 at 7:28 ampermalink
That’s exactly what I was looking for. However, I think I might have a canine ancestor, as I’m able to hear the inaudible tone. That happened to me before with other high frequency sounds people usually couldn’t hear. What frequency did you use? 20 KHz? Is it possible to use a higher one (and maybe also a lower volume)? Thanks in advance.
RTonietto
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:16 pmpermalink
Hi, Can you try the test version, it has some options for output type. If it’s still not working I’ll dig the code out and have a look
Rhys
June 24th, 2009 at 9:57 ampermalink
That’s the same version I was trying. I’ve noticed the 3 options: test, inaudible and silence. Obviosly, only the first 2 keep the output busy. But I can listen to both tones, even the high frequency of the inaudible one. I know it’s not common for humans to listen to frequencies above 16 KHz, but unfortunately that’s my case. I remember once when I made a step motor drive to use in a device and followed the component’s datasheet recommendation to use a frequency of 20 KHz, which would be inaudible for humans. The funny thing is that I was the only one who could listen to the high pitch buzz the machine emitted.
RTonietto
June 26th, 2009 at 4:51 pmpermalink
Okey, I’ll put up a new version soon with a new audio file. Maybe an option to specify your own .wav file so you can experiment.
Rhys
June 27th, 2009 at 1:32 pmpermalink
Ok new version (1.1) available now. New inaudible tone and option to select a custom wav file
Rhys
June 27th, 2009 at 5:58 pmpermalink
New version tested and it’s perfect now (for my ears at least ;D). I couldn’t hear the inaudible tone and any sound I play on my computer now is heard on the HT’s speakers without any delay. Thank you.
RTonietto
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:30 pmpermalink
Downloading new version! Just reinstalled windows Glad I could find this website again.
THANK YOU
Vampyre
July 4th, 2009 at 11:53 ampermalink
Well only thing with 1.1 is that it wont auto start when then the startup menu.
On the previous ones I would place it to start with windows. This one starts but you have to open it and then click start to get it going.
If you could make a option to start what ever sound you choose when lauched I think it would be perfect!
Vampyre
July 4th, 2009 at 4:31 pmpermalink
Hmmm…Yeah good point. I’ll sort that out soon.
Rhys
July 4th, 2009 at 6:37 pmpermalink
Could the executable capture the parameters of output options so that the inaudible tone starts automatically at Windows start up?
Eric
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 pmpermalink
Yeah sorry about this, I was meant to fix this ages ago. I’ll get to it soon. I’ll make sure it starts playing as soon as it starts. That’s how it used to work but I broke it in the last version!
Rhys
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:22 pmpermalink
In Vista and above, you can have the audible tone running but set the mixer to reduce the volume output specifically by this program to zero. You won’t hear anything but the connection is still kept alive, and you can check on it anytime but raising the program’s volume output.
Rhys – thanks btw for this excellent tool.
Marcus
October 25th, 2009 at 1:27 pmpermalink
“Yeah sorry about this, I was meant to fix this ages ago. I’ll get to it soon. I’ll make sure it starts playing as soon as it starts. That’s how it used to work but I broke it in the last version!”
Any update? Program would then be perfect
Vampyre
October 26th, 2009 at 1:49 pmpermalink
Ok I’ve updated and finally fixed the startup problem!
Version 1.2 now available
Rhys
January 15th, 2010 at 10:54 ampermalink
[...] can download the new version at the bottom of the SPDIFKeepAlive Post Tags: Keepalive , sony unlock , SPDIF , spdif [...]
SPDIFKeepAlive 1.2 :: Rhys Goodwin’s Weblog
January 15th, 2010 at 11:21 ampermalink
Thank you, this saved me much frustration. However I found my receiver would still go to sleep at even the tiniest interval of silence with all of the settings except for “Test Tone”. The solution for me was to create a 20KHz wav file and use it as a custom file. Apparently my receiver has a lower end limit but not a higher end one. Thought this might help someone.
Alessandro
March 1st, 2010 at 7:15 pmpermalink
Juats wanted to say thank you! I was just about to code the same thing when I found your tool. Don’t have to do that now
markus
June 19th, 2010 at 12:57 pmpermalink
Thanks for this! Also thanks to Marcus for the tip, that works perfectly!
It was a bit worse than described on my Xonar DX and Logitch Z-680′s in that it would pop or crackle each time the optical stream started up again… Yikes
Benghis
August 25th, 2010 at 2:21 pmpermalink