I realize this is a very old problem to reply to, however I believe I may have a fix for you if you are still interested. I was fiddling around with my system this evening.. I installed a new sound card to resolve my inability to record internet radio and now It works as it should with the new soundcard.
In the process of getting everything set up I ran across the same problem you had. Playing a music CD with Media Center I was getting static in the audio over my speakers. Not a lot but lots more than I would be happy with, enough to spoil the music. I started tinkering around and found out the following.
I have an older CD rom drive. I have an analog audio cable that runs from the drive to my soundcard.
I also do not use auto insert notification (so my cd's do not start automatically).
I discovered if you press the button on the front of the cd drive to start the cd playing, the drive starts and analog audio is fed to the sound card and then out to your speaker. and this is done without the use of any sort of player software. Master volume control works and to change tracks you press the button on the front of the drive.
If you play a cd by starting it in Media Center the cd is played in digital. That is to say a bit stream from the cd drive is turned into music by Media Center. I was able to figure this out by using the various volume controls in the mixer for my soundcard. If Media center is doing the playing the Wave/Mp3 volume control effects the volume, IF you are playing a cd in analog mode the CD volume control is active.
So here is what I found. I started playing a cd in Media Center which is a digital bit stream being processed into music. Then for the heck of it (simulteanously) I also pressed the button on the front of the cd drive to simulate playing the cd in analog mode. In the volume controls for my sound card I discovered I now had both wave/mp3 and CD audio volume controls working. If I turned both controls to minimum, no sound was heard, but if I turned either control up I got music. If I turned both controls up I got the static.
I would bet that if you have auto insert notification enabled in windows so your cd's start automatically and you have an analog audio cable feeding your sound card, you have two entities trying to play your cd at the same time.
If you disable auto insert notification, you will eliminate the playing of your cd in analog mode while Media Center is playing it in digital mode.
Just thought I would relate my experience with this in case it might help anyone. IF any of this needs clarification just reply back and I will try to amplify on what I have discovered.
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Topic: Playing Audio CDs (Read 843 times)