Enable or disable digital CD audio

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To enable or disable digital CD audio

Open Device Manager.
Double-click DVD/CD-ROM drives, right-click the CD-ROM drive, and then click Properties.
On the Properties tab, select or clear the Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM device check box.

This check box enables some CD-ROM drives to read the audio data from an audio CD digitally and send it to either a sound card or a pair of universal serial bus (USB) speakers.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
To open Device Manager, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Device Manager.
It might be necessary to restart your computer after changing this setting.
Enabling this feature can improve audio quality because Windows reads the CD directly, bypassing the CD-ROM drive's digital-to-analog converters. Directly accessing the CD improves quality because it eliminates extraneous electrical interference that can leak through the shielding on the cable that connects the CD-ROM drive to the sound card.

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