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**Dr Mordrid** · 9 April 2001, 05:38

Win2K:

Display = 5.35.011
Capture = 2.02.17

Win98SE:

Display = 6.25.011
Capture = 2.02.17

VideoStudio5 + patch I + GoDVD

Working fine with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz audio card.

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

**Elie** · 9 April 2001, 07:54

Hi Doc,

So you've got the Santa Cruz eh

How is it's digital perfromance, especially under Win2K. I know Turtle Beach has Win2K drivers but are they crippled in any way?

I want to replace my Montego II digital with the Santa Cruz, so any feedback (asside from the good stuff I've already heard) would be great, especially from you.

Thanks Doc.
Elie

**Dr Mordrid** · 9 April 2001, 08:09

Previous pre-release Win2K drivers were but the full release WDM drivers put out ~2 weeks ago aren't as far as I can tell. I don't have a decoder so I can't test that. Otherwise though it's sweet sounding. Much crisper than the SBLive and with ~94db snr.

IT'S ALSO GOT LOW LATENCY DRIVERS! 18% CPU vs. ~60% for the SBLive. Finally, a PCI card I can edit with. The RT-2000's Santa Cruz should arrive today by UPS

I'll let you know how that goes as soon as I can run some tests. The 50 transitions-in-100-seconds + titles & overlays torture test I set up for betaing should tell the tale.

Of course it's no Gina24 (got one of those on the audio workstation: 24 bit/96khz, 2 in/8 out + SPDIF + ADAT + BOB), but for a GP card the TBSC is very nice.

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

**elfredo** · 9 April 2001, 08:32

So the soundcard does matter ! Can anyone can give me a hint if I should replace my SB16 ISA with anything newer or does it work fine with capturing ? When capturing with Virtual Dub I have about 5 to 100 dropped frames per hour, couldn´t be the soundcard could it ?

sys.: Athlon 900,
viakx133 chipset,
256MB pc133
bt848 as capturing device,
picvideo mjpeg codec

Any tips ???

Friedrich

**Elie** · 9 April 2001, 09:00

Thanks DOC, I'm ordering one now!

I do have a DD 5.1/DTS decoder, once I get the card I'll test it under Win2K.

Regards and thanks again,
Elie

**Dr Mordrid** · 9 April 2001, 09:37

elfredo

The sound card and about a zillion other things. Try optimizing your Windows setup along the lines of this Matrox Win9x optimization page;

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/fa.../video4.cfm#33

As far as replacing the SB16, that depends on what you plan on for the future. If you're just doing 16 bit/44.1 khz stereo like most analog video uses then that SB16 may still have some life.

If, on the other hand, you plan on using DV some time soon then it would smart to get a card capable of 48khz but with low latency drivers. See above.

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

**AndrewDV** · 9 April 2001, 09:57

Hi,

If I could add one item about the Santa Cruz, this card has something called a 'versajack.' This is a very useful little port. You can use it for another analog out (giving a potential total of 6 speakers), analog in, or digital in.

I had my doubts it would do anything different to my system when replacing the SBLive. After installation and some tests, I am singing a different tune.

Thanks

**Dr Mordrid** · 9 April 2001, 10:01

YES!!

The VersaJack is one side affect of the Santa Cruz having a programmable Cirrus Logic CS4630 DSP instead of a more traditional chip. It can be reprogrammed on the fly to change the cards functionality to suit the task at hand, or in the case of the VersaJack, to turn an output into an input.

Hackers should have a ball with this thing.

Other examples include the chip changing its setups on the fly for gaming, MP3 playback and other specialty functions. Very cool indeed.

Also note the expansion header. More kewl stuff coming.....

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 09 April 2001).]

**elfredo** · 9 April 2001, 13:07

Sounds good to me. Thanks Doc

Friedrich

**Franky~** · 10 April 2001, 08:38

Well, thanks for all this nice info guys, but does anyone have any experience with the Hercules Game Theatre XP? One of my main complaints with the live platinum is its awful headphone output (i only rarely get abnormal sounds when using speakers, but with the headphones, ouch, i'm not sure i've managed to keep them on for over a half hour when plugged in the live and believe me... it's not the headphones fault... the are really nice).

One of the important things for me is to be able to output to speakers (even if in lower quality) WHILE using the headphones (don't ask...) and that the headphone output must be quite good.

From what i've seen everywhere else, the xp seems to deliver better than the santa cruz on this front (if i understood correctly, there's a dac for the speakers and another for the headphones, so, how could it get any better than this?) but, as i mentionned earlier, there aren't too many g400marvel owners out there. Anyone tried it?

F.

ps: did you know that sometime last summer, matrox stopped shipping g400marvels to their canadian (and probably also international) distributors and started selling them exclusively throught their online store? Before you ask, yes, i sell computers on the side, so that's how i know.

**Dr Mordrid** · 10 April 2001, 09:41

Yup. Known marketing weirdness. But remember: that's about the time the G400 chips were replaced by the G450's.

Perhaps they were operating off existing (and/or remaining) inventory? As in not enough chips for wide release?

Dr. Mordrid

**Franky~** · 10 April 2001, 09:56

I guess you must be right. After all, if memory serves me, the etv was supposed to be released a while ago. This might have been a transition move from one to the other. Oh well, i guess we'll never really know.

Anyway, getting back to the business at hand, do you have any experience with the xp? If i don't get any negative feedback by the end of the week i'll probably order one and try it myself. Hopefully, all will go well...

F.

**Dr Mordrid** · 10 April 2001, 10:10

None at all. Most of my systems are Marvels and eTV, and they only really *need* 16bit/44.1k. The RT-2000 has it's own built-in 48k audio, but an audio card is used for system events and other software like SoundForge, ACID etc.

So...for a long time I just used the old AWE64 Gold ISA cards. Low resource footprint etc.

I went with the Santa Cruz's because ISA audio is going the way of the Dinosaur in terms of finding new boards with it, but I held out for a card that wasn't a resource hawg. I found one.

Dr. Mordrid

[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 10 April 2001).]

**Sillyname** · 10 April 2001, 22:36

I got an Audio Excel MD-MATE for $49. It came with a digital optical in/out bracket and crappy manual but I soon found out that it was the same as the Zoltrix Nightingale, which has slightly better documentation.

I'm using it to input digitally from a MDS-JE510 minidisc deck. I have a portable MZ-R37 that I use for boom mic recordings and then slap the minidisc from it into the deck to transfer without "analog influence". I then synch it with camera mic audio by matching wave forms in Mediastudio Pro. Then filter and use camera sound for environmental stereo.

With a 3 camera setup I get 7 channels of audio. And we've still got a portable SONY TCD-D8 DAT to get connectors for!

I'm in heaven. Tweak, twitch, tweak...

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