SRS Labs Debuts Circle Surround Interactive for Video Game Market - Mark @ 08:24 EST

SRS Labs and Sunsoft Company, a division of Sun Corporation, a leading developer of home video game software products, multimedia PC products, and coin operated arcade game machines, have announced a strategic alliance to market SRS Labs' Circle Surround Interactive (CS-I) technology. Through the alliance, Sunsoft will have marketing and distribution rights for the Circle Surround Interactive products and game encoding middleware.

Circle Surround Interactive will deliver real time, interactive multi-channel sound capability, when used in conjunction with existing and future game consoles such as Sony PlayStation2, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Dolphin or Microsoft X-box. Game developers can use the middleware from Sunsoft to encode real-time movement of sound locations; front, back, left and right, in accordance with the movement of game objects relative to the user. The first Circle Surround Interactive hardware product will be marketed under the product name of Sound Circle and is being demonstrated at the Entertainment Electronics Expo (E3) from May 11-13 in Los Angeles. Product launch is scheduled in September 2000 in anticipation of the roll out of the Sony PlayStation2 in the United States. For more details, including a description of Circle Surround Interactive, check out the full announcement.

Sega Dreamcast Operating System Supports Dolby Surround - Mark @ 08:20 EST

Sega of America will include support for Dolby Surround in the next version of the Sega Dreamcast operating system, Version r11, which is planned to be released this June. The Dolby Surround release libraries, which will accompany Version r11, will support up to eight channels of real-time positioning. Dolby's content licensing program stipulates that games that display the Dolby logo must contain both real-time surround effects, and linear content encoded with a certified Dolby Surround linear encoder. The Sega Dreamcast OS r11 will provide an easy way for developers to fulfill one of the primary requirements for producing a title in Dolby Surround. The Dolby Surround logo speaks to over 100 million customers worldwide who have access to a Surround decoder in their home or on their desk at work. For more details including some quotes and contact info for developers, check out the full announcement.

Turtle Beach Demonstrates its AudioTron Digital Music Appliance - Mark @ 08:17 EST

Turtle Beach took the wraps off its forthcoming AudioTron digital music appliance yesterday at E3 2000, previewing the product for the international news media and market analysts at this electronic entertainment industry trade show. The device - the company's first mass market, networked PC appliance - incorporates home networking technology to remotely play digital music stored on a user's personal computer, as well as audio originating on the Internet. For instance, an AudioTron in the living room can play WMA and MP3 files saved on a PC located in another part of the house. It is expected to ship this fall. You can get more details on the system in the press release. In a separate release, Cirrus Logic announced that its Maverick system-on-chip (SOC) Internet audio solution will be featured in the AudioTron Internet audio appliance. More details again can be found in the release.

SNK Entertainment Inc. Unveils NeoGeo Pocket MP3 Player, New Titles - Mark @ 08:12 EST

There is quite a bit to this press release but the interesting bit for us is SNK Entertainment Inc., a newly created division of SNK Japan, is displaying a new MP3 add-on for the NeoGeo Pocket Color handheld gaming system--the first of its kind in North America--at E3. The company is also announcing a number of new titles for the NeoGeo Pocket Color, Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation platforms which you can read about in the full press release.

Thursday, May 11, 2000

New Creative Labs EAX Site and a new vision for EAX - Mark @ 23:46 EST

As you might have picked on with some of today's announcements, Creative Labs is redefining what EAX means. Since the introduction of the Live, EAX has typically referred to the extension to the Microsoft Direct Sound 3D API. Its apparent that the term "EAX" is going to represent much more than the API extension. Its now described as "A collection of powerful, innovative audio technologies. Developed by Creative's world-class audio scientists and built into ground-breaking Personal Digital Entertainment products. EAX is changing the way you experience audio. We call it "Sound with vision". That was taken from the new Creative Labs EAX site - eax.creative.com

Creative also has a new EAX logo that incorporates the "Sound With Vision" phrase and also has a number of "EAX Certified" products including the entire 4.1 and 5.1 line of Cambridge SoundWorks multimedia systems and the EMU 10K1 line of sound cards. We will be checking with Creative to learn if this certification program will extend beyond Creative's own product line. Getting back to the new site, there is quite a bit of interesting reading and its well worth a visit. For example, you will find bits on their E3 presence, E.A.G.L.E. (Environmental Audio Graphical Librarian Editor - used to aid sound designers & programmers with EAX (the API) implementation), an interview with Tony Bennett (the programmer behind Messiah), and a whole lot more.
News Source: ALive!

Logitech Sounds Off At E3 With Preview Of Newest SoundMan Speakers - Mark @ 21:35 EST

We mentioned these speakers earlier today but did not have any details at the time. Logitech has now issued another press release announcing that it is previewing the new SoundManr multimedia speaker systems at E3 and there are a few more details on the systems. Three models -- SoundMan SR-30, SoundMan S-20 and SoundMan S-4, will be available this summer in retail outlets and at various Internet locations, including www.logitech.com. The flagship product, SoundManr Xtrusio DSR-100, will be available in September. The flagship SoundManr Xtrusio DSR-100 looks promising with a digital surround sound design, driven by 100 watts (RMS I assume). It also utilized patented LIMAD (Linear Magnetic Drive technology) to provide high-fidelity sound reproduction. Pricing and further details are not yet available but you can check out additional information and pricing on the other three systems in the full announcement.

Media Jukebox Becomes the World's First Universal Media Player - Mark @ 20:52 EST

That's what J. River says about the new version 4.0 of its Media Jukebox software. According to the release, the free Media Jukebox now plays more media files than any other jukebox. Media Jukebox organizes and plays all the popular music formats, including Real Media, mp3, QuickTime, Audible, Microsoft Windows Media, LiquidAudio as well as MusicEx files. Support for MusicEx files provides commercial capabilities for on-line music sales. MusicEx files are a secure file format for the digital delivery of music and other digital media.

New features in version 4.0 include WindowBlinds technology, which enables users to personalize their Jukebox with over 700 skins, or create their own. A new encoder makes it even faster to create MP3 or WMA files from audio CD's. The new encoder can harness the power of multiple processors for still greater speed. According to the release, this makes it the fastest jukebox available. You can download Media Jukebox 4.0 from their site and you can also check out the press release for additional details and some quotes.

Voyetra Turtle Beach To Sell Videologic Speaker Systems In USA - Mark @ 13:27 EST

VideoLogic Systems has today announced that five models from its range of award-winning speakers will be available in North America from Turtle Beach. The products will be available from the Turtle Beach e-commerce Web Site and customer service center (1-800-233-9377 or 914-966-0600) beginning June 2000. The five models include three members of the award-winning Sirocco family - Sirocco Crossfire, a 4.1 surround sound system for gamers, Sirocco Spirit, a high performance desktop mini-monitor set-up, Sirocco Pro, a powerful system for home musicians and studios and the award-winning DigiTheatre and DigiTheatre DTS all-in-one home cinema audio systems. For more details you can check out the full press release and for a lot more details and impressions on all of the systems, except the DigiTheater DTS, you can check out our extensive reviews and our Klipsch ProMedia - Videologic Sirocco Crossfire comparison article. We are currently testing the DigiTheater DTS so look for a review of that system in the near future.

Videologic Announces Six-Channel, DSP-Based Audio Accelerator - Mark @ 08:43 EST

Thats the title of the announcement, but its not quite a brand new card (even though its not yet on the market), and its still big news. VideoLogic today announced an agreement to produce next generation PC soundcards with US based audio company Voyetra Turtle Beach. The first card to be distributed under the agreement is of course what we know as the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

While the PR notes that full details and specifications are to be announced shortly, it contains information confirming what we have seen before from Turtle Beach. The card will provide six discrete output channels as well as dynamic resource reconfiguration. For instance, if a game demands 3D audio but not MIDI wavetable sound, the on board audio DSP will focus its processing power on accelerating the 3D streams. If the user instead decides to listen to MP3 files, the DSP will reconfigure itself to optimize the MP3 decoding process. The big news for people outside of North America is the new sound card will be available across Europe and in Australia this summer from VideoLogic. In North America, the card will also be available this summer, but will still be from Voyetra Turtle Beach. For quite a bit more detail on the various capabilities of the new card you can check out the full announcement. One thing that is clarified, at least for me, in this announcement is that AC3 decoding will be via software MPEG decoders and the card will allow for upto 6 analog outputs when used with supporting MPEG decoders. We have been testing out a reference board using the same chip as this new card (but with different connectivity) and will have some early impressions for you in the near future.

EAX to Enhance NOMAD Line and new speaker systems - Mikael @ 02:18 EST

Creative Technology yesterday announced it has taken EAX(TM) (Environmental Audio eXtensions) audio technologies beyond PC gaming. PDE products recently EAX-enabled include the NOMAD Jukebox, NOMAD II MG, as well as the Cambridge SoundWorksr PlayWorks(TM) DTT2500 Digital and the Cambridge SoundWorksr PlayWorks(TM) PS2000, designed to complement next-generation gaming consoles such as Sony's PlayStationr2.

When Creative talk about EAX now they don't just refer to the API for games that let developers choose a reverb effect. It now refers to anyway you can customize, shape and interact with audio. You can find more details about this in the press release.

Creative Introduces Speaker Systems for Playstation 2 - Mikael @ 02:18 EST

Creative Technology Ltd. yesterday announced two new speakers systems for the highly anticipated PlayStationr2, the Cambridge SoundWorksr PlayWorks(TM) DTT2500 Digital and the Cambridge SoundWorksr PlayWorks(TM) PS2000. The PlayWorks DTT2500 Digital and PlayWorks PS2000 are both equipped with an optical connection providing quick and easy connectivity to the PlayStation2 gaming console. The FS2000 offers virtual Dolby Digital while the Play Works DTT2500 offers the real thing. The PlayWorks DTT2500 can also be connected to the Live using the DIN connection, just like the current DTT2500.

Creative doesn't mention any spec for the systems but I would guess the DTT2500 will use the same speaker components that the current DTT2500 uses but with an optical input. One other difference is that the press release calls both these speakers EAX enabled. It's not clear if this refers to reverb effects, equalizer controls and/or other ways of changing/enhancing the audio. It may also simply mean it's an EAX certified product in the way that it can connect just fine to the Live cards. FPS1000 and FPS2000 are also EAX certified products. You can find more details in the press release including some translated quotes from Japanese reviews. For more about the EAX bit see the post above.

Sony Introduces the PlayStation 2 - Mikael @ 02:17 EST

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced yesterday its plans for the North American release of the PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 is scheduled to launch in North America on October 26, 2000 with a price tag of $299 and an unprecedented initial launch shipment of one million units, followed by an additional two million units through March 31, 2001. Supporting both the audio CD and DVD-Video formats, the PlayStation 2 leads the fusion of interactive entertainment with music and video.

When it comes to the DVD capabilities the PlayStation 2 features DVD-Video playback built into the hardware as standard, without the use of a Memory Card. It will support both DTS and Dolby Digital. The press release isn't exactly clear but I assume you will need an external DD 5.1 or DTS decoder connected to the optical digital output to get more than stereo/Dolby Surround. The features and functionality of the DVD player can also be enhanced in the future via firmware upgrade, simply by loading a new program from upgrade discs. More details can be found in the press release

VM Labs Signs Deals and Toshiba ship its first Nuon DVD - Mikael @ 02:17 EST

VM Labs yesterday announced an agreement with DVD International, one of the industry's leading independent DVD suppliers, for DVD International to distribute NUON(TM)-enhanced interactive DVD game software titles beginning later this year.

VM Labs yesterday also announced the signing of a multi-title agreement as part of a strategic initiative to bring Hasbro Interactive game properties to VM Labs' NUON(TM) platform. The deal re-affirms Hasbro's support for the NUON platform. The agreement also marks both companies' commitment to bringing games to mainstream audiences. You can find more details about Nuon and the deal in the press release

Another sign of Nuon starting to get some momentum is that Toshiba yesterday announced that it will enter the NUON-enhanced DVD player market and will publicly demonstrate a working prototype at VM Labs' E3 booth #5118 at the Concourse Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center, May 11-13. Toshiba plans to ship its first NUON-enhanced DVD player in the third quarter of 2000 in the U.S. NUON-enhanced DVD players offer all the functionality of a standard DVD player, plus an enhanced user interface, attractive playback features and the capability to play NUON interactive software. NUON software is expected to be more the main stream type of games (e..g Deer Hunter) rather than the so called hard-core type of games (e.g. Quake3 or UT).

Logitech will bundle MusicMatch with new SoundMan speakers - Mikael @ 01:00 EST

MusicMatch yesterday announced that the company's MusicMatch Jukebox will ship with the new SoundManr multimedia speaker line from Logitech. Logitech will introduce three SoundMan speaker models this summer -- SoundMan SR-30, SoundMan S-20 and SoundMan S-4, and its flagship SoundMan Xtrusio DSR-100 speakers will appear at retail in September. Logitech will preview its new SoundMan family at the E3 trade show beginning today in Los Angeles. I think this is the first press release where these new speakers are mentioned but no details about the spec. If I guess the MusicMatch they bundle is the same that you can download for free so really not a big deal unless you consider 30 minute download a big deal.

Windows 2000 update - Mikael @ 00:39 EST

Microsoft has released a new Windows 2000 update which should solve incompatibility issues with several apps. The only ones that support 3D sound on their list are Thief, Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition and Gabriel Knight 3. For the full list and to download the update head over to Microsoft's site
News Source: Anandtech

Yamaha Introduces SDK for DirectMusic - Mikael @ 00:39 EST

Yamaha Corporation yesterday announced the availability of a Software Developer's Kit for the company's new high quality multi-function DirectMusic-compatible XG SoftSynthesizer. Will be interesting to see if many games will use it or not. The first game that used the DirectMusic-compatible XG SoftSynthesizer was Final Fantasy VIII and there are plenty of user that was unimpressed with what they heard. If you want to know more about this SDK check out the press release

S3 and Nike Form Strategic Partnership - Mikael @ 00:39 EST

S3r's Diamond Multimedia announced yesterday that it has partnered with Nike to develop the new Nike PSA(Play 120. The PSA(Play 120 is designed specifically to meet the needs of the athletic community and includes the following features:

1. Rio Audio -- Built on S3's Rio Audio technology, the PSA(Play 120 will provide consumers with a digital music experience consistent with S3's market-leading Rio players.
   
2. Embedded Flash Memory -- 64 MB of built-in memory will provide 120 minutes of Rio Audio-quality digital music.
   
3. Nike Simplified Logic - The PSA(Play 120 was built with a refined feature set and ergonomic design for ease of use and sport utility.
   
4. Solid-State Design -- No moving parts mean music and spoken audio does not skip.
   
5. Remote Control -- A fully functional, wearable remote control with a dot matrix LCD display improves the player's usability while streamlining it for comfort.
   
6. Corresponding Apparel -- Nike is building a line of athletic apparel to accommodate the PSA(Play 120, including pockets specifically designed to carry the players.

MP3.com Disables Major Label Content From MY.MP3.com - Mikael @ 00:38 EST

MP3.com announced that it will disable access to all major record label content from its MY.MP3.com service while negotiations to settle its copyright infringement lawsuit continue. As you probably know on January 21, 2000, the major record labels filed a complaint in New York Federal Court against MP3.com for copyright infringement relating to its My.MP3.com services. On April 28, 2000, U.S. District Court Judge Rakoff granted the major record labels' motion of partial summary judgement. For more about why MP3.com take this step check out the press release

Wednesday, May 10, 2000

Heavy Metal Heavyweights K.O. Fans - Mark @ 19:16 EST

Napster Inc. today announced that at the request of the heavy metal band Metallica, they have blocked access to more than 300,000 of the band's fans.
When Metallica sued Napster in April, Napster stated that it wished to seek a peaceful resolution to the band's demands. However, on May 3, Metallica delivered a sworn accusation of infringement by users and thirteen boxes of documents containing the usernames of people who had allegedly made certain Metallica MP3 files available for sharing with other Napster users. Metallica effectively restricted the free-exchange of any music by these users, including so-called ``bootleg'' recordings authorized by Metallica for free distribution, when Napster received final confirmation yesterday afternoon that all users cited in the band's notice should be blocked.

For some additional details, including links to Napster's stance on the block and subsequent takedown and policies regarding the report of copyright violations and its terms of use, you can check out the full press release. For more analysis on these happenings, including why Napster blocked the names, you can head over to CNet News. In their coverage they report that more trouble is on the way for Napster. Los Angeles attorney Howard King, who represents Metallica and rap artist Dr. Dre, said that Napster's service is still being scanned for people who might be pirating the rapper's music, and that a new list of usernames will be sent to Napster next week!

X-Box Audio - Mark @ 17:56 EST

You may recall the various bits and pieces on the sound capabilities that we posted subsequent to the Microsoft X-Box announcement. If so, you will know that in all of them the X-Box was reported to have 64 voice audio capability. Well, in an article posted on Daily Radar, Microsoft's Audio manager, Chanel Summers, indicated that the X-Box will now have 256 stereo channel capability! To me its unclear if that also means 256 3D channel capability but either way, MS is paying attention to audio, not to mention going for bragging rights that their console has more voices than anyone else's. Early reports also mentioned I3DL2 support but must likely that will come as part of DirectX8 (I3DL2 is very close to EAX 2.0 in functionality) which will then include both reverb and 3D audio positional info. For details and comments on the 256 stereo channel bit, including more from Chanel Summers, check out the Daily Radar article. Thanks goes out to Golem from Consoles.org for the pointer!

Diamond Rio 600 Technical Data - Mark @ 17:38 EST

RioSource has posted some technical specifications for the upcoming $169 Rio 600 "MP3" player. If you are interested head over to www.riosource.com

Altec Lansing ACS54 Contest - Mark @ 12:55 EST

The Game Den is giving away an Altec Lansing ACS54 4.1 system. For details, check out their contest page.

Tribute to PC loudspeakers - Mikael @ 03:35 EST

That's the name of an editorial at 3DWorkshop.net. They discuss the many different aspects of reviewing a speaker system and why you should take what we reviewers say with half a grain of salt. The major problem is that it's practically impossible to explain how a speaker system sounds that everyone will understand.

Pro Media V.2-400 review - Mikael @ 02:25 EST

Nukewinter has posted a review of Klipsch $250 4-speaker system, Pro Media V.2-400. They found them to offer loud sound of excellent quality like most but not all reviews. About the hiss this reviewer said he didn't hear, it's possible he got one of the new low gain preamps that doesn't hiss much. All ProMedia's that shipped for the last few months comes with the low gain preamp or as Klipsch wants to call it gain modified preamp. For a second and also positive opinion check out Mark's review or Mark's Crossfire vs ProMedia comparison

Die Hard Trilogy 2 patch - Mikael @ 02:12 EST

FOX has released a new patch for the A3D2.0 and EAX supporting Die Hard Trilogy 2. You can download the patch from Avault where you also find a list of the major issues it fix. For more about the game or to buy it you can check out Gamestop's Die Hard Trilogy 2 page.

DTT2500 review - Mikael @ 00:50 EST

Thomas McGuire from 3D Spotlight has listened to Cambridge SoundWorks' DTT2500 and he was pleased with the sound quality. Not surprising considering the previous speaker system he used was the FPS1000, which is significantly behind the DTT2500 in sound quality and price. While there are certainly other specialized systems that sound better, if you want a system that supports both 4-speaker gaming and DD 5.1 there is still nothing that can beat the DTT2500 for the price. For more details about our impression of the system check out our review of the DTT2500.

Sound Forger XP 4.5 Review - Mikael @ 00:48 EST

Gaming In 3d took a break from both gaming and 3D and put the SoundForge XP 4.5 to the test. Here's a bit from the intro

Bottom Line: What the hell is Sound Forge and why am I wasting my time reading this review when I could be overclocking my computer. Answer: Sound Forge XP 4.5 is professional digital audio editor that lets you do a whole bunch of stuff such as enhancing audio files, editing audio files, and cutting and pasting. Also, the reason your reading this is because you just love us handsome devils here at G3D. :-) Here are some quick features and specs.

Lucent Licenses ePAC Music Coder to ClickRadio - Mikael @ 00:20 EST

Lucent Technologies announced yesterday that it has licensed the Lucent Enhanced Perceptual Audio Coder (ePAC(TM)) to ClickRadio for the company's free, personalized Internet-enhanced digital radio service. The ePAC system will enable ClickRadio to encode its wide range of music programming - including rock, hip-hop, jazz, blues, eclectic, alternative, country, dance, and many others - in a secure format that will deliver listeners the highest quality audio whether they are offline or online. The ePAC coder is based on patented technology developed at Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies. According to the press release ePAC has won wide acclaim in music circles over the past 3 years for its superior audio quality, which has been designated as the best 11-1 audio compression system by leading ``golden ears'' in the recording industry, and has been licensed to leading Internet music technology companies. You can find more details about ePAC and ClickRadio in the press release

Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM review - Mikael @ 00:19 EST

A new review of this 16x DVD-ROM drive has been posted on GamePC. The review covers how the Pioneer 16x drive performs compared to the Pioneer 6x drive when it comes to read speed, DAE and CPU utilization.
News Source: Anandtech

New Rio site and Rio 600 pictures - Mikael @ 00:19 EST

A new MP3 site focusing on Diamond's Rio line up was launched a few days ago. It's called RioSource.com and today it has managed to get some pictures of the upcoming Rio 600.

Windows Media Player 7.0b review - Mikael @ 00:18 EST

CPU-bURN has checked out the new beta version of the Windows Media Player and slapped up 4 pages with their impressions. One feature they didn't cover is that it now has a digital CD mode which doesn't require a digital CD cable. Not checked it out myself but according to forum posts it works fine but increase the CPU utilization slightly. There is a plugin available that support this for Winamp as well.

Tuesday, May 09, 2000

Pine D'music Portable MP3 Player - Mikael @ 12:45 EST

Speedy3D has posted a review of Pine's MP3 Player, D'music. The $150 player features 32MB internal, memory expansion slot (16 or 32MB), LCD display, bitrates of 24Kbps ~ 256Kbps, voice recording, equalizer presets, parallel port interface and supports Windows 95/98/NT4. Speedy3D found it to offer good sound quality and only complained about lack of USB connection and only 32MB internal memory.
News Source: AGN Hardware

Hitachi Delivers Ultimate Home Theater Experience in 2000 - Mikael @ 12:45 EST

That's what Hitachi claimed when they introduced their complete 2000 product line featuring a wide selection of digital television, DVD and advanced home theater products during its annual Dealer Meeting. Highlighting the new line-up is the world's first interactive high definition television, the DVD-RAM Camcorder and the unique DVD Player / CD Recorder Dual Deck. Additionally, Hitachi will offer a complete line-up of high definition and high definition capable television sets, DVD players, camcorders and VCRs for the ultimate digital home theater experience. You can check out the press release for more details
News Source: AGN Hardware

Week in Review - Mikael @ 03:03 EST

We have posted our latest edition of the 3D Audio Week in Review covering May 1-7.

This weekly newsletter covers new driver releases, games, patches and demos that support 3D sound including information on any new bugs, bug fixes and other tips. The newsletter now also includes links to all sound related hardware reviews on the web as well as updates on what we did and what we plan to do in the coming week. The 3D Audio Week in Review is a great way for busy people to be right on top of all latest in the PC audio world.

New Napster 2.0 Beta 6 - Mikael @ 02:44 EST

A new Napster 2.0 Beta 6 (1.5MB) for Win9X/NT has been released. For more about this MP3 tool check out the official site
News Source: AGN

NOMAD II update - Mikael @ 02:38 EST

Yet again an update released only on Creative's Singapore server. The update released May 5 is a new stand-alone firmware (v1.03) for Creative NOMAD II (DAP0001 card), for users running on Windows 98 and Windows 2000 (in English only). It should offering the following improvements

1. Improved Indoor/outdoor recording gain when DSP is selected in Voice Recording mode
   
2. 48Khz support for MP3 (128kbps/48Khz)
   
3. Improved display and autoscan for FM tuner

Creative invests 100 mln rgt in facilities - Mikael @ 02:24 EST

Making Music with Computers - Mikael @ 02:18 EST

Sharky Extreme has posted an article about what's important to know if you intend to create music on your computer. The focus of the article is on latency and the different APIs (MME, DirectSound, EASI, ASIO and AudioX). No details about any specific soundcard but it's a very nice overview of the different APIs (often called music drivers).
News Source: AGN Hardware

Vortex Linux drivers - Mikael @ 02:07 EST

Nope Aureal hasn't released new Linux drivers but you can now download the Linux drivers from Vortex of Sound. Just mentioning this because Aureal's Linux site has down for at least a couple of days now. The main Aureal and A3D site are both still up.

Nascar 2000 1.01 Patch - Mark @ 00:11 EST

EA has released a patch for Nascar 2000. I am not positive of 3D sound in this one, but Nascar Revolution from EA did support DS3D with EAX so it seem logical to expect at least the same for NASCAR 2000. The game uses the revised Stacatto sound system that models the engine sounds and I do recall the Stacatto demo from Nascar Revolution sounding very good. You can grab the version 1.01 patch from 3Dfiles where you can also read about what it fixes (nothing sound related). You can also grab a 26.3 MB demo of Nascar 2000 from 3Dfiles.

Monday, May 08, 2000

Napster to face trial on music piracy claims - Mark @ 23:31 EST

A federal judge has ordered the controversial Napster music-swapping company to stand trial for copyright infringement, handing the start-up a setback in its wide-ranging legal battle with the recording industry. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel late Friday found that Napster is not a "mere conduit" for information, rejecting arguments that the case should be thrown out because the company is not directly responsible for copyright infringement on its network.

In court papers, Napster has argued it is entitled to some of the same protections from copyright liability as Internet service providers are afforded under recently enacted digital copyright laws. ISPs that respond appropriately to complaints of infringement on their systems cannot be ordered to pay damages under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

For the full story head over to CNet News.

Pioneer DVD-115 Review - Mark @ 12:42 EST

The TechZone has posted a review of the Pioneer DVD-115, reported to the fastest DVD drive on the market with 16X DVD playback speed! This is the same drive they recently announced, nicknaming it, "Sweet Sixteen". The one apparent downside is, according to the review, if you want one you will have to buy a brand new system with it installed, as Pioneer is only selling the unit to OEMs. The review does note that Pioneer plans to ship a slot loaded version later this month. For details, check out the review.
News Source: AGNHardware

Audiophiles: An Endangered Species? - Mark @ 07:40 EST

According to this editorial, high-end audio manufacturers have lamented that the pure audiophiles are fading away, and that no new audiophiles are being created. The article notes that this isn't entirely true -- the identity of the new generation of audio lovers has just changed. So what does a member of Generation Y think? Find out in "Audiophiles: An Endangered Species?" over at Gadget Squad. I can add that I think our forum has a number of audiophiles as regulars who are working diligently to pass on their knowledge to any budding audiophiles who happen to drop by. You might also want to check out a thread in our forum entitled "Altec Lansing ADA880 Dolby Digital System Reviewed - Mikael @ 01:19 EST

In this review we take a close look at the Altec Lansing ADA880 Dolby Digital speaker system. This system uses a virtual center channel, which allowed Altec Lansing to put more emphasis into a more powerful amplifier and better quality speakers, including an 8" subwoofer driver powered by 40 Watts RMS. If you check out the review you will learn that this subwoofer delivers deep and powerful bass that can really shake your room! Of course, there's lots more to a good system than bass and this review looks at all of the key criteria and compares the ADA880 against other popular systems such as the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2500 and VideoLogic DigiTheater and also looks at how it compares with WinDVD 4-speaker down-mixing. You will even learn about a surprisingly effective special feature offered by the ADA880 in the form of its optional rear channel virtualization! For all the details check out the full review.

Audiosphere v2.0 released - Mikael @ 03:28 EST

Thanks to Pascal for letting us know that Svetlana Software has released a new version (2.0) of Audiosphere. AudioSphere is audio control package including volume, balance, tone controls and presets. Here's a bit on what's:

This release features a very aesthetic analog clock, smoothly integrated into main window design. Also, there are several other enhancements to make AudioSphere even more usable and convenient for you.

For example, now you have more built-in color schemes and system tray icons to choose from. The random colors generator was advanced with the "Harmonize" option, which allows you to get a very balanced and elegant color schemes with just one mouse click.