General PlayCenter Information and Troubleshooting

PlayCenter: Allgemeine Informationen und Troubleshooting

PlayCenter: ist ein persönlicher digitaler Musik-Center für den PC. Mit den verschiedenen Versionen von PlayCenter können Sie sich digitale Musik anhören, diese mit EAX erweitern, sowie Ihre Audio-CD’s rippen. PlayCenter ermöglicht Ihnen, Ihre Musikbibliothek zu organisieren und auf Ihren Creative D.A.P. zu transferieren (ein vollständiges DAP Jukebox Tutorial finden Sie unter Start - Programme - Creative - Creative PlayCenter 2/Playcenter 3- NOMAD Jukebox tutorial.)

There are three versions of Creative PlayCenter shipped with various Creative products. To verify the version of PlayCenter in your computer, open your PlayCenter, then click on Click on PlayCenter 2 or PlayCenter 3 in the top left of the program window as you can see in the image below.

From the drop down menu select About Creative PlayCenter

The version number in the image above is the version installed with the original CD for many Jukeboxes. (This is a valid version of PlayCenter 2 or PlayCenter 3 not PlayCenter 1 )

If you have any version of Creative PlayCenter 1.x, you will need to purchase an updated Sound Blaster CD from Creative to upgrade your software. Click the Shop link above to order.

You can download and install a Creative PlayCenter update from our regional download site here . The download, PlayCenter3_02_52.exe will upgrade all versions of PlayCenter 2/3 from Version 1.01.xx and above.

PlayCenter Version 2.x comes with the original installation CD of the following Products. Therefore, to upgrade to the latest version please follow the instructions within the PlayCenter3_02_52.exe download.

Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1
Sound Blaster Live! Player 5.1
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital
D.A.P Jukebox/Jukebox 20GB
Nomad IIc

PlayCenter Version 3.x comes with the original installation CD of the following Products. To upgrade to the latest version please follow the instructions within the PlayCenter3_02_52.exe download.

Sound Blaster Extigy
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX
Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum
Sound Blaster Audigy Player
Creative Jukebox 3

If you experience any of the following symptoms with Creative PlayCenter software, you can try to completely uninstall and reinstall the Creative PlayCenter.

CDDB registration and connection issues
PlayCenter crashes when an Audio CD is inserted
PlayCenter crashes on startup (ctplay2 errors)
Nomad products reportedly not being detected
PC music library errors

Detach any portable MP3 players such as NOMAD Jukebox, NOMAD Jukebox Zen, etc from your computer, and log in as the System Administrator if you are using Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
Go to Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove program. Highlight Creative PlayCenter, and click on Add/Remove to uninstall it, when prompted to restart the computer, select "No". If you have a Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen, the Creative Playcenter is installed as part of the Zen installation, remove the Zen applications as well.
Double click on My Computer, then on the hard drive that PlayCenter was installed on (default is C: ). Click on the Program Files folder, then the Creative folder. Delete the following folders, and the NOMAD Jukebox Zen folder if applicable. If you have a Sound Blaster Audigy card installed, go to the Sound Blaster Audigy folder and delete the Creative PlayCenter folder if present.
Delete the Media Database and Media Manager folder from Windows or Documents and Settings folder depending on your operating system.

If you are using Windows 2000 or Windows XP
If you are using Windows 95/98/ME
Click on Start, Find, Files and Folders. (Start, Search, Files and Folders if using Windows ME or later). In the named box, type oasisusb.* It should find 2 files: OASISUSB.INF and OASISUSB.DRV, delete both of them.
Empty your recycle bin, and restart the computer.
Disable any Virus/registry/system scanning software and firewalls.
Insert the PlayCenter installation CD and begin installation. If during the installation you are prompted to (Modify .. Repair .. Remove) Select REMOVE, restart the computer when prompted, and repeat the procedure Step 6, then reinstall the Creative PlayCenter.
After installation is complete, restart the computer, disable any firewall applications, configure PlayCenter and re-register to the CDDB.
At this time you can check which version of Playcenter was included on your product installation cd by clicking on the Playcenter Icon at the top left corner of the Playcenter application and choosing 'about Creative PlayCenter'. The newest version of PlayCenter can be found at us.creative.com or www.nomadworld.com. If your version is older than the current update available for download, you can update the player at this time.

If you can not register CDDB or if there is not any response from CDDB service, it is possible that the files cddbcontrol.dll,cddbui.dll, and ctcddb.dll are not properly registered, or there is a version conflict with files employed by other 3rd party player/encoders installed in your system. In addition, the difficulty may also be related to network settings.

You can try to register the CDDB related files first. If the difficulty persists, and if there are 3rd party MP3 player/encoder installed, try to unintall them along with Creative MediaSource. Then reinstall the Creative applications first before reintalling other 3rd party applications.

To rule out network related issues, you can try WinAMP 2.78 or later, if this version of WinAmp's CDDB does not work either, it is likely that the difficulty is related to your network.

To unregister and register these files under Windows 2000 and Windows XP:

Go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, then Command Prompt.
Type CD C:\Program Files\Creative\CTCDDB, press Enter after each line, and click on the OK button when prompted
Type the following command, then press Enter after each line. Click on the OK button when prompted:

regsvr32.exe /u CDDBControl.dll
regsvr32.exe /u CDDBui.dll
regsvr32.exe /u CTCDDB.dll

This process above will unregister these files.

regsvr32.exe CDDBControl.dll
regsvr32.exe CDDBui.dll
regsvr32.exe CTCDDB.dll

This process above will register these files.

To unregister and register these files under Windows 98, Windows ME:

Go to Start, Programs, Windows Explorer, then browse into the following directory: C:\Program Files\Creative\CTCDDB.
Go to Start, Programs, then Command Prompt. It should display the following line at the Command prompt: C:\Program Files\Creative\CTCDDB .
Type the following command, then press Enter after each line. Click on the OK button when prompted:

regsvr32.exe /u CDDBControl.dll
regsvr32.exe /u CDDBui.dll
regsvr32.exe /u CTCDDB.dll

This process above will unregister these files.

regsvr32.exe CDDBControl.dll
regsvr32.exe CDDBui.dll
regsvr32.exe CTCDDB.dll

This process above will register these files.

To stop the Playcenter 3 Splash Screen from displaying for a few seconds when Playcenter loads, first open Playcenter by clicking the Start button and then go to Programs - Creative - Creative Playcenter and click on the icon for Playcenter.

You will need to be in the jukebox mode. If you are not already in this mode, you can change to this mode by clicking on the resize buttons at the very top right corner of the Player next to the X that closes PlayCenter.

If you are using PlayCenter 3.x, in the jukebox mode you will see a Settings button towards the bottom left. Click this button and a new window will open up, labeled Creative Playcenter. Go to the Playcenter tab if it does not open to that. There, towards the lower left hand corner of the screen will be a checkbox labeled Enable Splash Screen. Uncheck that, and then click on OK. That will stop the Playcenter Splash Screen from displaying every time PlayCenter loads.

If you are using PlayCenter 2.x, in the jukebox mode, you will see a Settings button towards the bottom left. Click this button and a new window will open up, labeled Creative Playcenter 2. Go to the Playcenter 2 tab if it does not open to that. There, towards the lower left hand corner of the screen will be a checkbox labeled Enable Splash Screen. Uncheck that, and then click on Ok. That will stop the Playcenter 2 Splash Screen from displaying every time Playcenter loads.

If you receive the error Could not initialize digital audio com object when opening the Playcenter 2, please update the PlayCenter to a newer version available at http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/.

Should the error reoccur after installing the update, the ASPI layer may have been damaged. To correct this error in Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME and Windows 2000 please go to How to extract the ASPI layer to resolve the conflict.

If you receive an error about "Player is busy or not detected" in Creative PlayCenter, or unable to transfer large amount of files through subfolders from My Computer to PC Music Library using PlayCenter, you can completely uninstall Creative PlayCenter and reinstall it. For more information, please refer to the section on "How to completely uninstall Creative PlayCenter".

PlayCenter and Surround Mixer generating errors in module CTDPROXY.DLL is normally caused by another mixer device in the system, such as a second sound card, USB speakers, USB microphone, or Webcam with a microphone. Certain USB devices that behave as mixer devices can also cause it. To resolve the issue, follow the steps below:

Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Sounds and Multimedia for Windows 2000. Depending on the Category or Classic View you have chosen for Windows XP either Start - Control Panel - Sounds and Audio or Start - Control Panel - Sounds - Speech and Audio Devices - Sounds and Audio. Click on the Hardware tab and note the hardware listings here. You should have the following listings:

All CD-ROM Devices
Creative SB Audigy
Creative Game Port
Audio Codecs
Legacy Audio Codecs
Media Control Devices
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Video Codecs

If you have more listings than these, highlight each extra listing one at a time and click the Properties button. Click on the + (plus) sign next to the listing Mixer Devices. Click on the mixer device listed, and then click on Properties. Select the radio button option Do not use mixer features on this device. If there is not a Mixer Devices listing then move on to the next item.

Try to open Surround Mixer and PlayCenter 3 again.

Accessing CDDB

CDDB (Compact Disc Data Base) is both a database and a service to retrieve CD track/title/artist information from the Internet.

Connect to the Internet prior to attempting to access CDDB
The first time that CDDB is used, it will prompt for the registration of an account. (user name and a password)
Then, the CDDB service will search its database for information about an audio CD whenever a new audio CD is played through Play Center (or other CDDB-supporting CD players), based on the number and length of the tracks on the audio CD, artist, etc. Should it find a match, it will bring up a screen showing the artist, album, song titles, etc. before saving this information on the computer.
Should CDDB not be able to find a match on the server(s), users can type the information about the CD and submit it to the CDDB database. To do so, click on View/Submit button in PlayCenter, while it is Jukebox view.
Firewall programs will tend to limit and/or forbid the access of CDDB to its servers. (Firewall programs monitor the activity that a system is having with the Internet to prevent any type of illegal data passing onto the system. Should any errors arise when CDDB is trying to access the Internet to search for the audio CD information, find out if the system has any firewall programs on it. You may need to contact system/network administrator for more information.)
Users connecting to the Internet through a proxy server, CDDB may not work , as proxies will sometimes have access only to certain parts of the Internet, not the entirety. (For further information and troubleshooting, your service provider or the system/network administrator should be contacted.)

If you have problems accessing CDDB information with PlayCenter while connecting via ADSL:

Check which software application you are using to access CDDB information other than PlayCenter
Uninstall this software application
Reinstall PlayCenter
Reinstall 3rd party software again.

Show all files

By default, PlayCenter will only show media (MP3, WMA etc.) files on your PC. To change this:

Open PlayCenter by selecting Start - Programs - Creative - Creative PlayCenter and click on the icon for PlayCenter.
Go into Jukebox mode by clicking on the resize buttons at the very top right corner of the player next to the X that closes PlayCenter.
Click on the Settings button towards the bottom left and a new window will open up, labeled Creative PlayCenter
Go to the My Computer tab
Select show all Files

Now, in the My Computer window, PlayCenter will display all files in the current folder.

How do I convert songs to different audio formats using PlayCenter?

To revert to showing only media files, choose Show Media Files instead in the My Computer tab of the Creative PlayCenter settings section.

PlayCenter will allow ripping files to one of three standard audio formats: WAV, MP3, or WMA. PlayCenter will also allow conversion between these file formats.

To do so, open Creative PlayCenter in the Jukebox view. When in Jukebox view, there should be a series of icons down the left side. These may include PC Music Library, Audio CD, and My Computer. (If these buttons are not there, PlayCenter may be in Player view.)

To open the PlayCenter in Jukebox view, click the Jukebox view button located next to the Close button (X) in the upper, right-hand corner.

Browse to the audio file to be converted and right click on it. Here will be a menu of options available based on the format of the file in question. If it is already a WAV file, it may be converted to either MP3 or WMA. If the file is either WMA or MP3, it can only be converted to WAV. The new file will be saved with the same filename but with the new extension in the folder of the source file.

My song only plays the first 10 seconds

If you are not already in the Player View, you can just click on the button and change to the Player View.
Do ensure that you have selected the Play Center skin to be the PC2-Blue (default)
After which, you should be seeing the following screen.
Click on the Intro button to de-activate that option during music playback.

Playcenter 3 cannot start/save recordings when installed in Windows 2K or XP

This may occur when the Simplified Chinese version of Creative Recorder 2 or PlayCenter 3 is installed in Windows XP or Windows 2000. To fix this, the Chinese Language Pack needs to be installed.

In Windows XP:

Go to the Control Panel and select Regional and Language Options.
Select the Languages Tab and select the option Install files for East Asian languages. Click on Apply and follow the onscreen instructions.
Do not restart the system yet.
Go to the Advanced Tab, in the Language for non unicode programs section, select the country to Chinese(PRC).
Restart System.

In Windows 2000 systems:

Go to the Control Panel and select Regional Options.
In the Language settings for the system section, select Simplified Chinese.
Click the Set default… button to open the Select System Locale dialogbox and change the system locale to Chinese (PRC).
Click Ok to close the Select System Locale dialogbox
Click the Apply button on the Regional Options page and restart the computer.