Announcement

**Wombat** · 14 December 2000, 03:35

Once again, another example of a person that should just hyperlink to their system specs.

**MultimediaMan** · 14 December 2000, 08:33

Oops...sorry, I hit my signature tag....so shoot me :-)

**Gurm** · 14 December 2000, 10:16

I want to know how it runs in Win2k. I couldn't find the correct support page on Philips' site, so when it arrives could you try it in your secondary system and let us know? I'd consider switching if it runs better than my crappy SBLive!.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

**MultimediaMan** · 14 December 2000, 10:32

You and me both, Gurm. Win2k support for the SBLive! has been abysmal, especially for the SMP crowd.

I haven't been able to get a straight answer to the Win2K driver question: when the Gamesdepot review was written, they said Win2K driver support was still pending but "Very close"...famous last words. Still, I am encouraged: this is the first truly high-end soundcard chipset since Windows 2000 hit the shelves, so writing good drivers should be less of a chore.

Rest assured Win2K support will be covered.

**Greebe** · 14 December 2000, 23:23

I to would like to hear any and all about this card )

M^3, please hyperlink your sig... you have a monster there!

**MultimediaMan** · 15 December 2000, 01:38

But Greeeeeeebe, I don't wanna use HTML tags...

No problem.

I am excited about this card. I just hope it lives up to half of the hype.

[This message has been edited by MultimediaMan (edited 15 December 2000).]

**MultimediaMan** · 18 December 2000, 18:30

Whaaaaaa! I want my soundcard: A flake of snow his the ground and UPS punts and DELAYS
!!!! Foul, Foul I say: Delay of Game, 5 yard penalty...death to all in brown... ARGGGHHHHHHHH!!!

You can tell I'm bored, right?

Tomorrow...I track it therefore it is...Oh yesssss.

On a more ominous note: Philips pulled ALL references to the Acoustic Edge from their website. I have no idea why.

**MultimediaMan** · 18 December 2000, 18:32

Never mind..the page is back up with the Acoustic Edge...probably a backup server was being used over the weekend. Whew!

**Galvin** · 18 December 2000, 20:09

Creative labs has the worlds slowest driver devolopment on the planet. I heard the phillips card is crap for win2K.

**MultimediaMan** · 19 December 2000, 14:49

It got it! It installed as advertised (Big Surprise).

So far so good...gotta play!

**Gurm** · 19 December 2000, 22:21

Win2k? Win2k?

*pant*pant*salivate*count potential christmas money*salivate*pant*pant*

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

**MultimediaMan** · 20 December 2000, 01:05

Patience....I AM going to a lot of trouble for you all (Really!). I spent most of yesterday cleaning up my primary system (inside and out), preening it for a clean install of Windows Millenium Edition, and also (today) with Win2K for Dual Boot. Not all of my existing hardware is going to work (Pout), but the drivers for the soundcard ARE THERE, and the instructions do not mention any limitations to functionality of the card...so here's hoping.

So far so good: My only letdown at this point is that the AC-3/DTS SPDIF Digital output only functions as such when playing a DVD (With the proper player, in this case Cyberlink's). The literature suggested that it might have an AC-3 output in realtime for Windows apps, but alas this does not appear to be the case, Curses! On the bright side, it does have 6 channel line level output, with a very nice setup screen and individual volume sliders for the Centre Channel and the Subwoofer/LFE Effects Channel. (I hope that they give us full control of each channel in a future software/driver release, and maybe a phase and distance adjustment for fine tuning the output.)

Line Level output signal strength is strong...about 2.1 Volts when my receiver gives up on distortion-free playback. Plenty of headroom, but this does make the computer volume applet quite sensitive to volume changes, particularly above 50% volume (Which is ear-splitting).

The card does support a 2 Channel 48kHz digital signal for those of us who like to use are Coaxial inputs on our receviers. A Nice touch is that you can specify WHICH channels these digital channels represent, in a sense (Left and Right, Left and Right Surround, Center Channel and LFE), so if you are running multiple amplifiers/decoders, you have some flexibility.

A real treat (to me at least) is the inclusion of Yamaha's XG MIDI Player/Mapper Direct Sound Driver/ Player. MIDI never sounded so good!

As I am writing this, I am popping Win2K setup floppy #2 in the disk drive...I'll get back to you later.

Cheers!

M^3

**dZeus** · 20 December 2000, 04:07

it's a good thing the drivers for the Philips card work well in Win2k.. maybe now the Creative driver team will release some drivers that do everything LiveWare3 drivers currently do, + AC3 passthrough and SMP support, without any nasty side-effects.

**MultimediaMan** · 20 December 2000, 14:32

There's an article taking shape. First off, the card is solid.

It needs some driver support right off though: None of my computers will wake up after being suspended with the card installed (Both in Win9X and Win2K). The Win9X setup interface does not integrate with the Yamaha XG Player controls like it should. Conversely, the XG player does not work properly under Win2K. The big flaw in Win2K is that there is no SPDIF AC-3/DTS output support: you still have native 6 channel splitting, though, onboard the card. I don't know if this is a hardware or driver limitation.

The Speaker and SPDIF outputs are solid enough as thay are, but they could be made better with minimal effort.

The Driver .inf files do not automatically install all of the related drivers for the card: On a clean install of the OS, you have to point the Hardware Manager at the driver files a second time to get the PCI Input Controller (Gameport Interface) to install. No big deal, but it is annoying to have to do.

The drivers appear stable, and the EAX effects are good, but tend to be harsh. Every article I've read on this card seems to have these same observations, and I think they are justified in saying that the drivers do not feel "finished".

I'm probably going to call Philips and see what the timetable is for a new driver release is, if possible.

Overall, I think this card has more potential than the SBLive! (Certainly from a connectivity standpoint), and for the money, it is a much better deal. But, like with other *Cough* Quality*Cough*Matrox*Cough* products, driver delevelopment is an ongoing task.

I'll get everything hammered out and rational and post a URL to the whole thing (Including Pictures, Greebe!) this weekend.

Announcement

Getting a new soundcard...

Getting a new soundcard...

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