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Dell Allegedly Colludes with RIAA, Stereo Mix Disabled without Forewarning
Posted 07/09/08 at 06:57:38 PM | by Pulkit Chandna
(Ed Note:We're currently investigating the RIAA's alleged involvement with the audio problems users are facing on Dell laptops. An official Dell representative has stated that the omission of the Stereo Mix option is most likely an issue with Windows XP, and a driver has been released to fix the problem. We've contacted the RIAA and are awaiting their response. We'll follow up with this story when we have more information.)
Details of Dell’s surreptitious collusion with RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) have emerged. Apparently, the computer manufacturer disabled the Stereo Mix/Mono Mix/Wave Out sound recording function in certain computers to assuage the RIAA. The hardware functionality is being disabled without any prior notice and one blogger even alleges that he was asked by Dell’s customer support staff to shell out $99 if he desired the stereo mix option.
Gateway and Pac Bell are the other two manufacturers to have bowed to the RIAA at the expense of their customers’ satisfaction and disabled the stereo mix feature without warning.
The trade group, which comprises leading record labels, has a very controversial past. Although RIAA doesn’t favor home audio recording and file sharing in an effort to prevent piracy, this same, ostensibly prudish organization was all for depriving several musicians of their own musical works by supporting a controversial “work made for hire” clause in 1999 legislation, which unfairly transferred copyrights of musical works to record labels.
Image Credit: KasZeta
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DellSucks
Submitted by DellSucks on Wed, 2008-12-10 14:58
I just can say something: They Suck, And they're a Big, Full party of motherfuckers, in the full meaning of this word. I've never been so disappointed with a trademark PC, never have felt such impotence, this kind of, hate, against a company because what it did, it just not so right, and I sincerely thing, DELL's Marketing or Production Director should be judged in a court and all the affected users should be indemnified.
Submitted by Dell_no_more on Thu, 2008-11-27 08:45
See the post by Dell at en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/08/15/stereo-mix-record-functionality-and-dell.aspx claiming that their reason was a last minute pre-release change in Vista specs. I posted there to complain that they knew about the deficiency from the early 2007 Vista release date, yet the XPS 420 desktop I bought in October 2008 still has the same problem. I chastised them for selling me a machine that they new was broken.
Dell's response was to remove my post and block me from the forum.
In the above post they claim they will restore this function in NEW notebooks at the hardware level. So, no problem, you can fix this by merely buying a new Dell notebook.
Submitted by dlo21 on Sun, 2008-10-12 10:49
I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 and noticed this immediately after purchase. After getting on Dell Tech support dozens of times, not one single techie could help me. They must have known of this from thousands of people calling to complain, but could not help me. Thank god for the articles posted and Google, otherwise I wouldnt have found any solutions. They took away the stereo mix feature after the RIAA / Microsoft bullied Dell into doing so, even though it is a feature that can be used for non copyright infringment purposes. The RIAA continues to overstep itself and big brother this country down. The people must rise up against this and stop purchasing computers who puts 1984ish inflated government agencies over its customers.
Thats just my pov
Submitted by Grandpa on Mon, 2008-07-14 10:00
If this is true, aren't potentially thousands of people with computers that aren't computers? Isen't this the sort of thing that deserves a class action lawsuit? If I had paid good money for a computer that was "locked" like a cellphone I'd be mighty pissed off and asking for a full refund.
Only an idiot would buy a DELL........now.
Submitted by justaguy on Sat, 2008-07-12 16:36
Lenovo/IBM previous Thinkpad models supported this. Current
versions do not and it's not well documented for those doing research
before purchasing. Unhappy customers have been told it's a
hardware issue and can't be fixed by software. Discussion
is athttp://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=Special_Interest_General&thread.id=316&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
and
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=52527&highlight=stereo+mix
Submitted by Juanisan on Fri, 2008-07-11 01:20
How could the function be disabled? Cant you just use the ALSA mixer to turn the functionality back on? Are thexe new sound cards? I am VERY confused...
Submitted by 55555 on Thu, 2008-07-10 21:23
This has gone on far too long now. The beast known as the RIAA must be slayne.
At the risk of sounding
Submitted by TheMurph on Thu, 2008-07-10 20:36
At the risk of sounding like a devil's advocate, where's the proof that the RIAA had any involvement in this? I don't have a stereo mix on the very Dell-purchased, Sigmatel-based work computer I use, and this predates this article by who knows how many years.
I'm quite confident this is a driver issue if anything. Blame Dell or Sigmatel for being dumb, but the RIAA has absolutely nothing to do with this as far as I can gather. I see no proof whatsoever in any of the linked (or secondary-linked) posts that the RIAA is involved.
Wow
Submitted by ward99 on Thu, 2008-07-10 19:06
Amazing how low the RIAA will go... but even more amazing that Dell is just going along with this.
And it's all stupid anyway - there's other options to record, like Stationripper to record radio/Pandora.com/etc
Oh well, not getting a dell again I guess.
Submitted by dentaku on Thu, 2008-07-10 06:13
That's just insane. The RIAA has a history of going too far and that just ads another stupid move to a list of stupid moves.
The RIAA and MPAA bully the biggest companies into doing stuff like this and because the general public doesn't know it's caused by arm-twisting from the RIAA they blame the product manufacturer instead of the people who are actually to blame. Even more annoying is that most people would probably go along with the ridiculous trend to blame MS for everything instead of the RIAA (or MPAA when it comes to the ridiculous lengths MS and other software/hardware manufacturers have to go to to please these bullying organizations when it comes to video recording and playback) or even Dell in this case who could have at least refused and taken a stand.
It's bullies secretly getting their way while the unpopular geeks get the blame.
They've been doing this for awhile
Submitted by beef_wellington on Wed, 2008-07-09 20:09
My company bought a bunch of Dell optiplex desktops with realtek HD integrated sound a year ago and they've all got the stereo mix disabled. I did some searching on google for a solution and found what you need to do.
1. Download the SoundMax driver from Dell's website and extract it somewhere. Then open up ADIHDAUD.INF located in SMAXWDM folder in the driver folder.
2. Find the line HKR,AD1984\\Disable, OutR, 1, 01 ;; Disable Stereo Mix Capture Node
3. Change the "01" to 00 and save it
4. Run "setup" and select "uninstall" existing driver - reboot
5. Run "setup" and select "install" new driver - ignore the Windows XP auto install setting and ignore the "non certified" driver warning - reboot
6. Go to start menu > run > type: "regedit" [enter] (without quotes)
7. Click on "edit > search" and look for AD1984.
8. For each registry key/folder of AD1984, find the subfolder/key that says MicBP and OutR and change their associated binary values from 01 to 00. For some people, re-installing the driver in this fashion already produces a 00 while for others, the change must be made manually.
9. RebootThat should allow you to use Stereo Mix like normal.
Submitted by jakthebomb on Wed, 2008-07-09 19:33
I have a HP Pavilion DV 9000t and With Vista. I had to manualy re-enable mine.
right click Sound icon, then go to recording Devices. then right click the blank area, select "show disabled devices" then you will See "WaveOut Mix", right click it and select Enable. There you go,
Kiss My * RIAA, The greatest idea in the world, Lets Sue Our Customers!
Submitted by chris.peplin on Wed, 2008-07-09 17:55
This is like banning pencils because they can be used to copy a novel.
The Stereo Mix issue stinks the same as UAA/HDMI incompatibility
Submitted by Irritated User on Mon, 2009-05-11 21:05
I really am getting sick and tired of this hardware compatibility/interoperability nonsense. Once, this was for the want of proper engineering solutions--unwritten drivers, bugs, hardware limitations etc.--but now it's seemingly for surreptitious and nefarious reasons such as forcing users into accepting unwanted upgrades, or for more sinister reasons such as collusion between software and hardware manufacturer so that they can control PC users' habits.This 'Stereo Mix' issue smells to high heaven as if it's in same vein as others.
Recently, Dell has been selling PCs, especially laptops, that cannot be DOWNGRADED from Vista to XP as the Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio (SP33867) is not properly supported by Microsoft and no one supplies an appropriate replacement XP driver for the RealTek HD Audio chip.
Thus, we have the ludicrous and ridiculous situation of where XP installs AOK on these Dell laptops EXCEPT for the audio (of which there is none--forget High Definition audio, there's not even a whisper of low definition mono). Of course, this suits Microsoft who is very eager to sell you a Vista O/S [and you will have already bought one with the laptop anyway], but it begs the question of why it is only the audio as they could have crippled the downgrade in many other ways. At an earlier time--before HD audio and the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)--Microsoft would have been very keen to have its O/S work on as much hardware as was possible, so what has changed?
Seems to me that under cover of darkness a big repugnant rat comes out and urinates all over the delicate works, you mightn't catch him in the act but you can smell him everywhere.
Can anyone shed more light on this? What facts do we actually know about the RIAA's involvement and or why are hardware manufactures becoming so complicit in locking users out of their PCs or in forcing them to accepting certain hardware functionality only on their terms? (Not long ago the exact opposite would have been true, they would have wanted to offer as many functions as was possible and make them available to users in the most flexible way.)
What we need is a site or a hardware compatibility page here on this site that lists, and where possible, provides quick references or fixes for all of these artificially concocted aberrations, which collectively waste many thousands of users' hours not to mention forcing them into accepting unnecessary and expensive upgrades.
If nothing else, it would expose complicit hardware manufacturers such as the likes of Dell and the word would soon get around about what hardware NOT to buy.
Any ideas, anyone?
Submitted by Endo13 on Thu, 2008-07-10 21:31
Nothing the RIAA does surprises me any more. Not after seeing the items they wanted included in the new copyright law that's being worked on. One that I distinctly remember was having guards at border crossings search people for unauthorized music copies. Yes, really. Because you know, if you're coming over from Mexico it's really really important for the US that you don't bring back any illegal MP3s on your Ipod. Someone could get sick and die from that crap!!
They've gone so far off they deep end, they don't even pretend that their propositions/demands should be logical any more.
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