My perfect SoundCard

[tish beta2]

Must be able to give me A3D, EAX and 5.1 channel DVD playback through a digital SP/DIF. Which in turn will be compatible with a fairly standard dolby digital amplifier/recivier.

I've looked at the Magic Sound Live! http://www.hardwarezone.com/reviews/...magic_live.htm

I guess that's what I want, but it don't have any Midi...

Also, can Matrox' DVDMax player get out 5.1 channel support through the sp/dif? (<--- the magical sentence that allows me to post this here)

So, does it exist? will it work? can I get nice A3D effects in four of those 5.1 speakers? etc etc.

I guess I can accept a SB live value with a Hoontec digital I/O add-on, if it can do that sp/dif thingie to my reciver.

[paulcs]

This is a fantasy, right?

My perfect soundcard would not support Soundblaster Emulation, in fact it would require only one IRQ, it would install properly the first time, not conflict with any of my other devices, not require driver upgrades to make less CPU dependant, it would power my headphones properly without the aid of speakers, and it would tell me a story before I went to sleep (with Kathleen Turner's voice).

Oh, it should probably sound good as well. I could live without the bedtime stories, although I think they would be a nice touch and a reasonable replacement for all that midi software I'll never use.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[WayneHu]

DVDMax uses Cinemaster engine...

You should be able to turn on S/PDIF output by editing the registry...

I have tried WinDVD 1.2.85, and it can use SB Live!'s SPDIF to output AC-3...

[tish beta2]

And it worked? you got surround effects in your rear speakers? I might go for the live value then...

[merchant2112]

the latest vortex 2 drivers 2040 support quad output in all modes. at least acording to the driver specs. as i have a doby digital sound system i havent tryed it althoue i do notice sound comeing out of the rear speakers on my pc when i play music cds now if a3d would get around to doinf the eax thing they have been promising it would be great.

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hey do you remember when it took your computer 10min to boot up into windows and we thought that was fast? or how about when you upgraded from a 486 dx33 to a dx2 66 and thought wow only 5 min to boot? those were the days now if it takes more than 1 min 30 sec we wonder what is wrong with our system.

[SteveC]

My perfect soundcard wouldn't use any IRQs....

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Cheers,
Steve

PS: Some or all of the above message may be wrong, or, just as likely, correct. Depends on what mood I'm in. And what you know. ;¬)

[Snake-Eyes]

Skip the Live!Value if you're looking to use SPDIF out. The SPDIF on this version is limited compared to the full Live!, or the new variations on it. I'd look for the Live!MP3+, which (according to the box I saw in CompUSA) supports SPDIF out. It was priced at $99 (the same as the Live!Value next to it on the shelf, LOL).

As a side note- all Live! cards support MIDI, through the drivers. In fact, they're very good at it.

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Ace


[This message has been edited by Ace (edited 10-01-1999).]

[Mark F]

Hey merchant,
Talk about being abused
and comeing back for more
I use to boot windows from 2 360K floppies
had a third disk for the bundled apps
That was on a machine with NO hardrive
640K and a 1MB (OHHH...AHHH) addon CARD
and proccessor speed was not something anyone talked about (well 4.77MHZ)
Of course Windows was 1.0x

Now you were saying something about boot up times?

Ah, the good old days
now what was so good about them?

Mark F.


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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[WayneHu]

I bought the daughter card of SB Live! value from http://www.hoontech.com

In fact, most functions of this daughter card are for Digital Recording ... And you only can use Coxial RCA to output SPDIF ...


I have a Amplifier with AC-3 decorder built-in, and it will show the audio format of the signal coming from SPDIF... AC-3 format doesn't mean it is 5.1 Ch. I have some movie clips, and they use 2 Ch audio encoding...

Unfornately, SB Live! only does AC-3 transparent output, it can't mix its sound signal with AC-3 format. Therefore, to get 4 speaker mode, I still have to use Analog output. (My Amplifier doesn't support separate SPDIF-in of Front and Rear CH)

Anyway, its SPDIF with AC-3 output works!



[This message has been edited by WayneHu (edited 10-02-1999).]

[MultimediaMan]

Creative is due to come out with yet ANOTHER daughter card (I've run out of bracket slots long ago...). Both hardware AC-3 Decode from DVD, and DirectX DirectSound 5.1 channel support via S/PDIF (Optical or Coaxial). Now when this thing is supposed to be released is anybody's guess.

[stevenscott]

There are 3rd party addon cards that can be used with creative live cards, I do not have the afddresses right now, but I think they are easy to find, you are not limited to only what creative and Diamond have to offer, as these other companies have products to add on your system and sound cards for very reasonable prices too.

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Home:
Server:
I run a Matrox Mystique G200 AGP with an:
Abit BE6
Win98
Adaptec CD Creator 4
Pentium III 450
128 MB Ram
SB Live
Maxtor 13 GIG HD
2 3com Nic cards
Wingate 3.05
1 Symbios SCSI for my HP Photo Scanner
Boca 56K Int. Modem
Mitsumi 4801-TE CD-R
MS Precision Pro Joystick
Surfboard SB1200 cable modem
Shamrock 17" Monitor
HP OfficeJet Pro 1175Cse 4/1 printer/Scanner/Fax/copier
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Client1:
AbitBX6 MB
Win98
Celeron 300a
Maxtor 6.4 GIG HD
128 MB Ram
Netsurf NIC
SB Live sound card
Teac CDRom
Hercules Thriller AGP Video Card
Boca 56K Int. Modem
MS Precision Pro Joystick
Shamrock 15" monitor
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[tish beta2]

TYVMFCTM.

This is what I will do:

buy a live! value and a <A TARGET="top" HREF="http://www.hoontech.com/product/digitalIObrakets/sbliveio.htm">hoontec digital i/o card</A> and connect the coaxial sp/dif to the digital input on the recivier. Then, for games and MP3, I use the analog inputs at the recivier for left right front and left right surround.

Then I get 4 channel sound in games, and 5.1 channel support for DVD-movies, right?

too bad about the A3D, but I read some reviews saying it wasn't that good after all...

[This message has been edited by tish beta2 (edited 10-03-1999).]

[IceStorm]

If you're getting a sound card and speakers at the same time, you may want to check out the SB Live! (full version) and the DeskTop Theater DTT2500.

I do full digital out to the DTT2500 with my Live! via the proprietary Digital DIN cable, AND run SP/DIF out from my Dxr3 in the second computer. Both come into the DTT2500 at the same time, and are output to the speakers at the same time - it automagically mixes the two feeds together.

I've not yet found a soft DVD player that does AC-3 properly. I'm still looking. I'm not a fan of the Matrox player - no bookmarks, and what seems to be limited playback functionality on the control panel.




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Primary System: PIII-540 (450@4.5x120), Soyo 6BA+ III, 256MB PC100 ECC SDRAM, G400 MAX in multi-monitor mode. V2 SLI rig. Two Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u monitors, 3Com 3C905, SoundBlaster Live!, DeskTop Theater DTT2500 DIGITAL Speaker System (Sweeeeeet!), 2nd Parallel Port, WD AC41800 18GB HD, WD AC310100 10GB HD, Toshiba SD-M1212 6x DVD-ROM, HP 8100i CD-RW, Epson Stylus Pro, Sharp JX-9400 LJ-II compatible, OptiUPS PowerES 650, MS SideWinder Precision Pro USB joystick, Logitech 3-button mouse, Mitsumi keyboard, Win98 SE, Belkin OmniCube 4-port KVM

Secondary System: PII-266, Asus P2B BIOS 1008, 128MB PC100 ECC SDRAM, Millennium II, 3Com 3C590, ADSL Modem 640kbit down/90kbit up, 3Com 3C509, Mylex BT-930 SCSI card, Seagate 2GB Hawk, NEC 6x CD-ROM, Linux distro S.u.S.E. 6.1 (IP Masquerade works!)

Tertiary System: DFI G568IPC Intel 430HX chipset, P200MMX, 96MB of non-parity RAM, Millennium II, Intel Pro/100+ client NIC, SoundBlaster 16 MCD, Fujitsu 3.5GB HD, WD 1.2GB HD, Creative Dxr3 DVD decoder card, Hitachi GD-2500 6x DVD-ROM, Win98 SE

All specs subject to change.

[Himself]

Hey, my perfect sound card wouldn't even be hooked up to the computer, it would just watch the monitor and spit out ooh and ahh sounds.

[WayneHu]

WinDVD 1.2.85 does work with SB Live! S/PDIF...

At least my amplifer shows me ...
(Sony DE-635)