News:  July 17-23, 2000

Sunday, July 23, 2000

Diamond Multimedia/S3 RIO 500 Review - Mark @ 22:18 EST

3D Audio Immersion has posted a review of the RIO 500 portable MP3 player. The RIO 500 come with 64 MB of memory and according to 3DAI can be found on-line for as low as $199.

KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child - Mark @ 20:39 EST

A bunch of reviews of KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child for you. As you may know, the game uses the Miles Sound System and is supposed to support A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX. When I tried the demo, there was an option to enable DS3D but it would not stay enabled with any sound card I tried. So with that intro on to the reviews. The first review is from 3DRage. There they are not too impressed with the overall game with shallow game play, poor AI and poor graphics just some of the complaints that resulted in a 65/100 verdict. In terms of sound they had the following to say:

There really wasn't much to the sound of Kiss Psycho Circus, but the sound effects I was privied to were satisfactory. The only real voice acting was the old gypsy lady whose actress did an excellent job of portraying the mysterious woman. The music fit the atmosphere well with a sort of twisted version of typical circus music at startup to a more dark and gothic style during gameplay. I have to mention that you'll get the chance to listen to some classic KISS songs throughout the game, some of which require the player to activate a jukebox, others play in the background.

Napster Users Are 45 Percent More Likely to Increase Music Spending - Mark @ 17:11 EST

Thats what a study by Jupiter Communications, Inc. determined. The results of the study indicate that users of networked music-sharing technologies, such as Napster, are 45 percent more likely to have increased their overall music purchasing than nonusers are.

``Because Napster users are music enthusiasts, it's logical to believe that they are more likely to purchase now, and increase their music spending in the future,'' explained Aram Sinnreich, an analyst with Jupiter. ``But when we conducted our consumer survey, controlled for key music purchasing factors -- such as existing spending level, age, income, gender, and online tenure -- we still found that Napster usage is one of the strongest determinants of increased music buying.''

According to Jupiter's research, if the music industry were to let players like Napster stand, it would drive incremental sales. But, if the industry partnered with networked music-sharing technology companies, the benefit would be exponentially greater. For additional details you can check out the full press release and for additional analysis you can check out an article on C/Net.

Applied Microsystems to Develop Xbox 'XDK' DVD Emulation Technology - Mark @ 10:15 EST

Applied Microsystems Corporation has signed a letter of intent with Microsoft Corporation to develop and manufacture DVD-emulation technology for inclusion in Microsoft's XDK (Xbox Development Kit), the development platform that allows game designers to optimize games for Xbox, Microsoft's future-generation video game machine. According to Steve Verleye, president and CEO of Applied Microsystems, the letter of intent specifies that Applied provide both emulation hardware and software applications. Complete terms and conditions of a final agreement are being negotiated. For some additional details you can check out the full press release.

Creative Announces Shipment of Stylish NOMAD II MG at Macworld Expo - Mark @ 10:12 EST

Creative announced it has begun shipping the NOMADr II MG portable digital audio player to selected retail and e-tail outlets in the United States. The NOMAD II MG features a unique professional lifestyle design offering MP3 support with reprogrammable firmware to support future digital audio formats, software extensions, and standards. It offers consumers digital audio in style -- anytime, anywhere. The NOMAD II MG is the first digital audio player on the market that allows users to do real-time recording from any FM station. It also features voice-recording capabilities and on-board memory for both the PC and Macintoshr (iMac and G3) platforms. For a lot more details, including a full list of features and software you can check out the full announcement.

VST and Casady & Greene to Provide MP3 Portable FireWire ''Pocket Jukebox'' - Mark @ 10:09 EST

SmartDisk Personal Storage Systems, formerly VST Technologies, announced an agreement with Casady & Greene (C&G) to distribute C&G's award-winning MP3 Player/encoder software, SoundJam MP Free, preloaded on VST's high performance portable FireWire hard drives. The combination of VST portable FireWire drives and SoundJam MP software allows music lovers to carry up to 500 CDs on a single device that measures only 3 by 5.5 in and weighs just 8 ounces. For additional details you can check out the full press release.

Optimize your PC's Audio ! - Mark @ 09:57 EST

Optimize your PC's Audio is the title of an article at Hardware Extreme. One bit I would add, especially when it comes to the front speakers is height makes a huge difference with placement at ear height being ideal. Most people don't do that which is why many PC satellites go for the compromise and have bases or stands that angle the drivers upwards. The other comment is their recommend rear speaker positioning is somewhat unusual - its not what is commonly accepted as correct for movies, and its definitely not ideal for games or multichannel music. For those media, you typically do want to be able to pin-point rear channel effects and are not aiming for a diffuse sound field. All in all a nicely done article worth checking out.
News Source: AGNHardware

Saturday, July 22, 2000

Chronicle Director Version 1.2 - Mark @ 09:47 EST

Planet Vampire has news that Tom Smallwood has released Version 1.2 of Chronicle Director for that A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX supporting Vampire. This program allows you to edit your chronicle files and link your Vampire levels without having to open the chronicle files in text programs and manually edit them. They only have a direct link to the file and the server is reporting as "busy" so check Planet Vampire if you are interesting in grabbing the Chronicle Director.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Diamond Rio 500 Review - Mark @ 09:21 EST

BoomGames has posted a review of the Diamond Rio 500. Overall they found it has very good playback quality, and a nice feature set but disliked the headphones, carrying case, and software. For details check out the full review.

Boston Acoustics, Cirrus Logic and ESS Technology Financial Results - Mark @ 03:18 EST

Boston Acoustics, Cirrus Logic and ESS Technology has all issued press releases announcing financial results. In the case of Boston Acoustics and Cirrus Logic, it's Q1 results and for ESS its Q2.

Boston Acoustics announced that net sales for the quarter increased approximately 5%, to $22.8 million from $21.8 million for the same period a year ago, while net income remained relatively stable. Diluted earnings per share increased 9.5% to $.23 per share compared to $.21 per share for the same period a year ago. Increased sales were attributed to both the Core and Multimedia segments of their and they anticipate that these trends will continue through the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2001. They now anticipate that their Multimedia OEM sales will increase in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2001, based on the latest information available from their customer (Gateway). In addition, quarterly sales to their Multimedia retail customers exceeded $1 million for the first time (likely thanks to the strong showing of the BA4800).

Cirrus Logic announced that its fiscal first quarter net revenues were $181.4 million, up 50 percent from the $120.6 million reported in the first fiscal quarter a year ago. The $181.4 million includes a one-time increase in sales of $10.6 million from accounting changes that took effect in the quarter. Excluding the accounting changes, revenues from the company's continuing businesses increased 17 percent over the fiscal 2000 fourth quarter. Net income for the first quarter grew 59 percent to $98.9 million, or earnings of $1.27 per diluted share outstanding, compared with $62.1 million, or earnings of $0.82 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000. Most significant growth was in their Internet Solutions businesses that grew revenues sequentially by more than 50 percent, driven primarily by their Maverick(tm) line of Internet audio processors, which began ramping into volume production. They anticipate a strong second quarter and I would imagine that the retail sound cards using Cirrus Logic chips will play notable role in Q2.

ESS Technology, Inc. reported net revenues of $79.6 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2000, an 18 percent increase above the $67.2 million in revenue reported for the same quarter in the prior year. Net income for the second quarter was a record $8.5 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to $7.9 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. The strong second quarter is attributed strong sales in their DVD products and their new SuperLink V.90 softmodem communications products. They also secured design wins for their new web-DVD products which began shipping in July.

Condensed consolidated financial summaries from all three companies can be found in the announcements linked above.

Plug & Play MP3 In the Car with AIWA Car Stereo Receivers - Mark @ 02:57 EST

AIWA has announced that their car stereo receivers provide a quick, easy connection for portable digital audio players. According to the release, every AIWA car stereo receiver - both CD and cassette - features a front panel input into which a portable MP3 player can be plugged to play digital music files through the car stereo system. For more details on the AIWA systems, check out the full press release.

Remote Solution's Next-Generation Portable MP3 Player with 6GB of Storage - Mark @ 02:53 EST

Remote Solution, the manufacturer of the highly portable Personal JukeBox PJB 100 (4.86GB) MP3 player, announced today the delivery of its next generation PJB 100-6GB MP3 Player. The Personal JukeBox can be upgraded to process multiple, new, and secure digital audio standards. Originally developed by Compaq's Corporate Research Laboratories; Remote Solution's PJB 100-6GB stores over 100 playback hours (1500 songs), and incorporates an IBM 6GB, 2.5 inch hard drive. For more details on the upcoming unit you can check out the press release.

Deus Ex Mission 2 Demo - Mark @ 01:24 EST

In this thrilling roleplaying adventure, you play the part of a powerful, nano-technologically augmented anti-terrorist agent. It's up to you to stop the conspirators from achieving their goals. Mission #2 has been added. This requires the original demo installed. You can find both the original demo and the mission 2 update at 3Dfiles. Deus Ex supports DS3D with EAX and A3D 2.0 with wavetracing.

Friday, July 21, 2000

Guillemot wants to buy Aureal - Mark @ 20:04 EST

This has been one of the ongoing rumors and based on a post over a Vortex of Sound it seems to be a definite case of where there's smoke, there's fire. Here's a bit taken straight off Vortex of Sound:

While this deal seems to have been on and off for a while now, confirmation was obtained today via a letter from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Oakland Division. The letter states:

Please take notice that Aureal, Inc., d/b/a Silo.com, f/k/a Aureal Semiconductor, Inc. f/k/a Media Vision Technology, Inc., the debtor and debtor in possession in the above-captioned cases (the "Debtor"), has filed a "Motion For Order (1) Approving Sale Of Certain Assets Of The Estate, Free And Clear Of Liens Asserted By OCM Administrative Services II, As Agent For Secured Lenders, Caesar Technology, Circle International (Holland) B.V. And UMC Group, (2) Authorizing Assumption And Assignment Of Specified Executory Contracts" (the "Sale Motion). In the Sale Motion, the Debtor seeks authority, among other things, to sell, either to Guillemot Corporation (the "Buyer") for the sum of $8 million or to the prevailing bidder at an auction to be held for the Assets, certain identified assets of its bankruptcy estate (the "Assets").

Diamond Audio Technology ProMedia Summer Sale! - Mark @ 19:48 EST

I just got an email from Diamond Audio Technology asking me to let you know about their huge sale on their ProMedia speaker line. While the sale is on you can get their excellent ProMedia 3025 system for just $49.95. You will be pretty hard pressed to pick up a better 2.1 system than the 3025 for $49.95. For why I feel that way you can check out our review of the 3025 system. They also have the other two ProMedia systems on sale. Again, its a great deal, especially the 2012 2 piece system for only $29.99. If you are looking for decent sound for very little money, it a great option at that price as I thought it was a good deal even at its full price. Lastly, their entry level 2010 system is going for $19.99, and like the other two you get more than your moneys worth. You can get all the details by heading over to the Diamond Audio Technology ProMedia overview page.

Launch Of Pro Creation, The Pro Tools Music Library System - Mark @ 19:36 EST

Pro Creation Inc., a recently signed Digidesign Development Partner, has now released Volume One of what promises to be a very different music library. The library is called Pro Creation, the Pro Tools Music Library, and has been available since the 1st of June 2000. Pro Creation is a software based digital music library system which introduces control through the separation of elements within Pro Tools sessions in which the elements are pre-edited, looped and cut to tempo, and formatted with the end user in mind. The announcement also notes that Pro Creation is a breakthrough for surround sound capabilities and has been quoted to be an industry first which will set new standards within the post production environment.

According to the announcement, what the library offers is high quality, royalty-free, limited edition library music in the form of Pro Tools sessions. Each unique genre based track on the 5 CD Boxset comes in 3 durations of 5, 30 and 60 seconds. The library is also very limited and only a total of 3000 units will be sold worldwide. Once a volume is sold out, is no longer available, ensuring exclusivity for the end user. A new volume is released ever 3 months and pre-orders can enjoy an early order discount. All the individual tracks that are on Volume 1 can be previewed on the web site. The product also offers a 30-day money back guarantee. For additional details, check out the announcement and the Pro Creation web site.

Vortex Tuner V0.2 - more features and bugfixes! - Mark @ 11:23 EST

According to a post in our forum by the programs author (Pavel Voronov) version 0.2 of the Vortex Tuner has been released. The Vortex Tuner is a configuration utility for people using the 2048 drivers. Pavel reports that this version has tons of bugfixes and improvements! If you have a Vortex 2 board and are interesting in testing it out you can download directly from http://dac.hardware.ru/a3d/download/vortextuner.exe and you can check out the home site at http://dac.hardware.ru/a3d/english. If you try it please report your results to voron@ixbt.com.

MEDIA JUKEBOX rated number one jukebox player at CNET and ZDNet - Mark @ 11:15 EST

J. River, a Digital Rights Management solution provider, has reported that its popular MEDIA JUKEBOX software is now the #1 rated jukebox player at CNet.com and ZDNet.com, based on both reviewers' and users' opinions. At ZDNet, MEDIA JUKEBOX is the only jukebox player rated 5 stars by both ZDNet staff and its readers. At CNet, it leads its competitors in ratings established by both CNet reviewers and users -- 96% currently recommend MEDIA JUKEBOX, compared to 84% for MusicMatch and 75% for RealJukebox. For more details check out the full press release.

Thursday, July 20, 2000

Martian Gothic patch - Mark @ 18:08 EST

Action Trip has gotten a hold of a new patch for Martian Gothic. The game is on Aureal's A3D list as an A3D 1.x title and Talon Soft's Martian Gothic page mentions 3D sound and EAX. Action Trip also has posted cheat codes in their news for the game that will only work with the new patch.
News Source: Blue's News

Star Trek: Klingon Academy Review - Mark @ 17:50 EST

Avault has posted an overall positive review of Star Trek: Klingon Academy. No mention of 3D sound in the review but very positive comments on sound effects and music. Here is the bit on sound effect:

The voice acting in Klingon Academy is wonderful. Christopher Plummer plays General Chang and David Warner is once again Chancellor Gorkon. Many of the mission briefings and orders are given by Thok Mak, played by Michael Dorn, giving the title's sounds believability and class. One of the most easily recognized sounds is that of another ship ramming into you -- neither you or your crew will ever forget it. Torpedoes and photons sound just like they do on TV or in the movies. Some of the neatest things are the responses you receive from crew members after you give them orders. In all, the thousands of sounds and wonderful voice acting would make any aspiring Klingon proud.

HanGo 6.4GB Personal JukeBox MP3 Player - Mark @ 17:37 EST

3D Accelerated has posted a review of the HanGo 6.4GB Personal JukeBox MP3 Player. Just one comment - they note that sound quality is "very close if not identical to a CD player". No matter how good the unit is, its still limited to the MP3 compression quality so it technically can't be as good as a good quality CD player. However, as they note, unlike CD players, it will not skip and can holds 100 times the amount of music a CD can hold. For details on this highly rated, but expensive (~$750) portable player check out the full review. You can also read more above the unit in the press release from last October.
News Source: AGNHardware

Altec Lansing Demonstrates Speakers At MacWorld 2000 - Mark @ 09:44 EST

Altec Lansing Technologies is showcasing its newest audio products that significantly enhance audio and communications for Macintosh computers in the corporate and home environments at MacWorld 2000 (July 19-21 in New York, NY.). Ed Anchel, President of Altec Lansing Technologies, Inc. notes that "The ACS66i and the ADA70 truly maximize the audio capabilities of Apple computers bringing the latest quality audio to the consumer". Also being demonstrated at the company's booth is the current line Altec Lansing audio and communications products." For details on the featured system you can check out the press release.

Creative NOMAD II and NOMAD II MG Firmware - Mark @ 08:45 EST

Creative has released new firmware for their NOMAD II products. In the case of the NOMAD II MG, the firmware adds WMA support, long filename support (250 unicode characters maximum, support for EAX at 48 kHz sampling rate and it allows MP3 files to be transferred between NOMAD II players using Media Player Version 7.0. In the case of the NOMAD II, this release includes support for Media Player Version 7.0 DRM WMA playback, long filename (250 unicode characters maximum), a wider sampling rate, eg. 32kbps at 22.05 kHz to 192 kbps at 44.10 kHz and it also allows MP3 files to be transferred between NOMAD II players using Media Player Version 7.0. You can grab the firmware from both the Americas and Singapore servers.

Cyber Acoustics CA-3440 Speaker System Reviewed - Mark @ 08:22 EST

Chick's Hardware has posted a review of the Cyber Acoustics CA-3440 speaker system. This is a $69.99 2.1 system with a subwoofer that sports a 6.5" carbon, high excursion woofer powered by 22 watts RMS and satellites that have 3" dynamic mid/high frequency drivers each powered by 11 watts RMS, so not bad specs on paper. No word on what systems they were compared against for context but overall positive comments with emphasis on the subwoofer and not as positive for the satellites.
News Source: AGNHardware

VideoLogic Launches SonicFuryT - Mark @ 00:05 EST

VideoLogic Systems yesterday launched the next-generation of PC audio accelerators with the SonicFury DSP-based sound card. SonicFury is available from VideoLogic at just œ79.99 (inc. VAT) / 269 DM. This is the announcement we were waiting for (after VideoLogic and Voyetra Turtle Beach co-distribution announcements several weeks ago) to confirm pricing, name and bundle. The SonicFury is the same hardware as the upcoming Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, but I assume the Santa Cruz will come with a different software bundle. As such, the SonicFury features up to six discrete output channels for Dolbyr Digital (using a software MPEG decoder), music and games; a powerful MIDI engine with high-quality 8MB sample set; 64 hardware voices and up to 1024 software voices; support for most of popular audio standards, including DLS, DS, DS3D, EAX 2.0, I3DL2,A3D 1.x and Sensaura's MacroFXT and MultiDriveT. The card will come bundled with a large selection of full-featured software applications for music creation and playback, MP3 music, power gaming and more. From a gaming and 3D audio perspective, the bundle will include Sensaura VirtualEarT (as does the Santa Cruz). Sensaura's new VirtualEar technology allows individual gamers to 'tweak' the synthesized 3D hearing cues of gaming environments to be as close as possible to the natural 3D listening cues that are created by their own ears. For a LOT more detail on the features of the SonicFury you can check out the two press release. The first press release focuses more on the hardware features and the second press release focuses on the impressive software bundle. For those of you in Europe, the card can be ordered from Videologic. People in North America will, as noted above, have access to the similar Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.

Wednesday, July 19, 2000

Liveware 3.0 for Win2K Bug List (unofficial) - Mark @ 23:40 EST

Thanks goes out to Kieran Ferris for sending in a list of bugs for Liveware 3.0 for Win2K that was compiled off Creative's SB Live newsgroup. If you are experiencing problems you can check out the list in our forum to see if its one of the known issues and/or add your own comments.

I/OMagic Releases Industry's First 16X DVD Drive Into the Retail Marketplace - Mark @ 22:57 EST

I/OMagic Corp. has announced that it recently released the industry's first 16X DVD-ROM drive into the retail marketplace. The MagicDVD 16X reads all popular DVD and CD formats and features transfer rates of up to 21.6MB/sec for DVD-ROM data and up to 6MB/s for CD data. Note that they key to this announcement is "into the retail marketplace" as both AOpen and Pioneer have 16x DVD Drives that are already in the OEM marketplace.

Harman Multimedia Introduces High Performance Audio System for Mac Users - Mark @ 22:49 EST

Harman Multimedia has introduced SoundSticks, a three-piece speaker system optimized for iMac, iBook, PowerBook and Power Mac G4s. Jointly developed with Apple's design team, SoundSticks are immediately available in limited quantities through the Apple Store for $199. The SoundSticks system is comprised of two 10-watt satellite speakers and a 20-watt subwoofer, (iSub), which produces stunning bass response down to 44 Hz. The system will be available in mass quantities in retail stores in the next few months. For further details check out the press release.

X-Tension Preview - Mark @ 22:24 EST

Eurogamer has posted a preview of X-Tension, the upcoming add-on for the DS3D supporting X: Beyond the Frontier. No mention of audio but if you are considering the add-on then you will be familiar with what the original has to offer.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Napster Pioneers Announce New Company, AppleSoup - Mark @ 19:16 EST

Early Napster founder and investors, Bill Bales and Adrian Scott, today announced the formation of AppleSoup (www.applesoup.com), a next generation peer-to-peer network that lets content owners distribute ``anything digital'' via the Internet while giving them a way to control and monetize their intellectual property. Due to the viral nature of peer-to-peer networks, content distribution is more efficient and cost effective, providing a safe way for content owners to give consumers desktop access to the content they want to consume, share and distribute.

According to the announcement, AppleSoup will give consumers broad access to material currently not available on the Internet -- without endangering intellectual property rights -- by technically assigning rights management rules and procedures to copyrighted content. These technical advances allow content owners to control, distribute and even sell their content via AppleSoup's extremely scalable and viral peer-to-peer network. Its worth noting that For more details check out the full announcement. For more analysis of the announcement you can check out an article at TheStandard.com. You may also be interesting in their article on Blockbuster's announcement that it has struck an exclusive 20-year partnership with Enron to deliver "video on demand," the holy grail of broadband services, by early next year.

CPX Multimedia Ports Review - Mark @ 18:55 EST

Tech Extreme has posted a review of the CPX Multimedia Ports. The CPX Multimedia Ports is a new product designed to relocate the basic soundcard ports from the back of the computer to the front of your computer via a unit that fits into a free drive bay. These connections include Earphone, Microphone, Audio-In and Game Ports with upgrades for USB, Serial, Parallel and Video available at a added price. For details check out the full review but in the end they conclude that the product doesn't do much, but it does what its supposed to well.
News Source: AGNHardware

Clusterball Updated - Mark @ 18:48 EST

Some bugs were encountered and the A3D supporting Clusterball has been updated. Clusterball is an online sport, designed to invoke the same adrenaline rush as Quake and Unreal, but replacing the spatter and gore with pure gameplay. By combining the feel and gaming experience from ball, flight and racing games, Clusterball is unlike anything you've ever seen before. The base version of Clusterball and membership are free! While my net connection was down today I was playing a the training mode a fair bit and I so far find it quite a blast - A3D support is working too! I have not tried it with a non-Vortex 2 card yet to see if 3D sound works for them too. You can grab the updated 14.1 MB base game from 3Dfiles or from the official Clusterball site.

News - Mark @ 18:25 EST

Just a quick note to apologize for the lack of news updates thus far today. My internet connection has been down all day and just came back up. Assuming it stays up long enough, I will be check for and updating the news over the next hour or so.

Tuesday, July 18, 2000

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption Patch Version 1.1 - Mark @ 22:40 EST

As above, the version 1.1 patch for Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption has been released. Weighing in at only 2.6 MB, the patch adds the save anywhere feature that many people asked for. It also applies numerous other bug fixes and enhancements, all of which are listed on the download page linked above. Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption supports A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX.

Aureal closing down? (updated) - Mikael @ 17:51 EST

Sool Pigeon let us know that Steve Mitchell, current COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Aureal, has sent in his resume to hotjobs.com with the following interesting bit:

CURRENTLY: Appointed Chief Operating Officer in April 2000 after all other officers and senior management resigned and company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Sole officer representing corporation and leading company through partial asset sale. Full responsibility for closing company and asset liquidation.

On one Aureal investment forum people says the two major shareholders are still buying stocks which if true indicates they believe they could get something from the company some way or another. Worth noting Aureal isn't listed anymore on the stock exchange so not that easy to buy or sell shares anymore.

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force Audio - Mark @ 16:43 EST

Just a little more from on the audio in the Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force demo. Given the way A3D support turned out in Q3A I don't think its a bad idea to let Raven know that you care about 3D audio. That's just what XCLTempesT is asking in the following bit taken from our forum referencing his post on the Raven forum.

I would like Raven to give a reply on my post about A3D, but it seems nobody posting on their Elite force support demo forum is interested A3D support in the game.

Could any A3D-fans give my post some support on their support forum? http://eliteforce.ravensoft.com/

my post: http://www2.ravensoft.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000236.html

I would love for the voices to be 3D positioned also and A3D support in multiplayer

Monster Cable Announces PS2 Products - Mark @ 16:25 EST

A little off topic but...Avault is reporting that Monster Cable Products has announced a line of gaming accessories customized for the PS2 console. The products will be timed to coincide with the release of the first PS2s in the U.S. This includes an AV cable with composite video features, 24K gold contact connectors and eight-cut turbine RCAs that will be sold in eight and 15-foot lengths. A second version will offer sharper, crisper video than the standard composite cable. A component video cable will also be released. A fourth product, the Lightwave 100, will enable gamers to use the PS2's digital sound and DTS capabilities using a polished fiber optic connector and optimized optical fiber. Last, the PowerStation 600 will feature six color-coded outlets labeled for a home entertainment center and featuring 700 joules of surge protection.
News Source: Avault

The Open Source of MP3s - Mark @ 16:14 EST

The Open Source of MP3s is the title of an article over at Wired News. Here's a snip from the intro that will set the stage:

The Ogg project started the way lots of open source projects get started -- someone wanted to try to improve technology.

When Chris Montgomery was at MIT, he was trying to create a better compression technology for delivering media content over the Internet. There were already technologies out there that could deliver that media, but Montgomery wanted to do it better. The first part of his project, Vorbis, was an open source alternative to the popular music codec MP3.

"Vorbis is going to continue what MP3 was all about, which is opening things up for everybody," Montgomery said. "Getting your music out in the world now is going to be absolutely free. It has to be open from both sides, it can't just be the free distribution, the technology itself has to be free or it will never realize what the whole MP3 movement is about."

Digital 5 Ships 1st Vertical Market Windows Media Portable Audio Device - Mark @ 15:45 EST

Digital 5, Inc. has announced shipment of its Symphony 802 digital audio entertainment platform, the first vertical market portable audio device enabled with Windows Media Audio. Digital 5, Inc. is a privately held, leading supplier of DSP technology. Digital 5 provides application-specific software intellectual property, systems integration and product design for large OEMs needing digital voice, audio and data DSP system solutions. The Symphony platform builds on work Digital 5 did for Microsoft to bring Windows Media to digital signal processors (DSPs). For additional details check out the full press release.

NOMAD II Users Get Windows Media Format Support - Mark @ 15:42 EST

Creative Technology Ltd. has announced a working relationship with Microsoft Corp. that provides NOMAD II users with Windows Media Format support. NOMAD II owners can take advantage of their player's reprogrammability by downloading Windows Media Format support at www.nomadworld.com. With Windows Media support installed, NOMAD II owners also can utilize the one-click music transfer capabilities of the new Windows Media Player 7. For more details check out the full press release.

Windows Media Technologies 7 Released - Mark @ 15:37 EST

Microsoft Corp. yesterday released Windows Media Technologies 7 which was previously out in beta. The final release of Windows Media Technologies 7, includes Windows Media Player 7, Windows Media Rights Manager 7 and Windows Media 7 SDK. Windows Media Services is included in Windows 2000 Server. The Windows Media Encoder 7 beta version also is available now, with the final release expected later this summer. You can download the software and find more info at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/. You will also find lots more detail in yesterday's announcement. You can find additional analysis of the release in a Reuters article entitled "Microsoft Media Player to Challenge Realnetworks".

Micronas Audio Box Provides Easy Consumer Link to PC's Digital Music - Mark @ 15:30 EST

Micronas, a leading European manufacturer of semiconductor chips for consumer and multimedia applications, has announced the Audio Box, an audio device for the convergent markets of home computers and digital audio systems. This device is a reference design based on Micronas' USB Audio DAC, UAC 3552A. The company said it paves the way for a new generation of interactive, flexible, easy-to-use and cost-effective products connecting PCs with home stereo equipment, mini stereo components and new audio products such as MP3 players and home audio servers.

According to Kai Scheffer, multimedia marketing manager for Micronas, using the PC processor as a ``backbone'' will significantly reduce costs to the consumer and also make the device easy to use without being computer-knowledgeable. The Audio Box requires no microcontroller, networking interfaces, memories, local hard disk drives or special operating systems. It can, therefore, be manufactured very cost-effectively, offering a significant, market-enabling price reduction compared to existing systems, Scheffer said. The Audio Box supports all audio compression formats handled by the PC such as MP3, AAC, WMA and Real Audio as well as Internet radio standards and integrates seamlessly into the computer's operating system. For quite a few more details you can check out the full announcement.

What is THX? - Mark @ 11:01 EST

What is THX is the title of a nice article over at Etown. It has a Hi-Fi focus which means it does not get into the new THX Multimedia Speaker certification but addresses many other aspects of THX. Here's a snip from their intro:

With the possible exception of Dolby Digital, no development in audio-for-video has attracted more attention -- or generated more confusion -- than THX.

This installment in the "Explain This!" series will show you exactly what THX is. I'll explain why some parts of the total THX package may bemore useful than others, and what kind of sonic improvements you can reasonably expect when you spring for a THX-certified component. I'll also cover the differences between THX Ultra and the more affordable THX Select.

I'll even tackle the question: "Is THX worthwhile?"

eCoustics.com - Mark @ 10:52 EST

We just got an email from Brian Mitchell, Chairman & CEO of eCoustics.com pointing out their site. Its a very nice collection of links to reviews, buying guides, and articles on consumer electronics and hi-fi audio/video products. It's well worth a look if you are searching for H-Fi related info.

AOpen 16x DVD-ROM Review - Mark @ 08:57 EST

Techextreme has posted a review of the AOpen 16x DVD-ROM. As you will get from the name, the drive does upto 16X for DVD and its rated for upto 40X for CD. The drive comes bundled with PowerDVD and has a street price of around $119. Overall they were impressed with the performance with only some minor knocks on the overall package for lack of bundled cables.
News Source: AGNHardware

Dark Reign 2 Review - Mark @ 08:40 EST

Avault has posted a review of Dark Reign 2 Aureal announced last year it would support A3D 2.0 but there is no mention of that DS3D or EAX on Activision or Pandemic sites. We have seen one review mention in the specs that the game supports DS3D but no specific mention of how (or if) it worked. There is no mention of 3D sound in the Avault review either but they had the following to say about sound:

The dialogue of the mission briefings and cutscenes helps the storyline to progress, and is delivered with quality and professionalism. The in-game sound effects spoken by the individual units, however, is a little less polished. Attempts to be humorous aren't and some of the acknowledgments to directives can get repetitive. As for the rest of the sounds, such as weapons and explosions, it's all pretty standard stuff.

Icewind Dale Review - Mark @ 08:31 EST

Firing Squad has posted an overall positive review of the DS3D with EAX supporting sequel to Baldur's Gate called Icewind Dale. Here is what they though of the various sound aspects of the game:

The sound effects are stock Baldur's Gate. They were pretty good back then and have aged gracefully, not losing much over time. You can hear your characters walking, doors open, weapons clang and spells being cast. Ambient sound effects seem significantly improved and keep the believability up the few times you're outside of a dungeon.

Speech is passable. The voices are sometimes comically over the top, but generally they're just overdone. The female voices in particular feel amateur and childish - they take away from the mood a lot more than they bring it. Still, at least none of them are dull.

The music is fantastic. It pulls you in, helps set the tempo, and accompanies settings and fights like in no other RPG before it. The tunes only come in when necessary and do so without disturbing the mood. It is, predictably, orchestral music with a classical bent, but manages to be quite suitable even in the barbaric Dale.

Monday, July 17, 2000

Working A3D for ST Voyager: Elite Force Demo - Mark @ 21:38 EST

Thanks to XCLTempesT for his detailed post in our forum explaining how to get A3D working in Elite Force. This works for both Vortex 2 cards as well as non-Vortex 2 DS3D supporting cards when they are matched with Aureal's A2D drivers (243 kb). As with Q3A when it was first released, the enable A3D button is not working in the single play mode. What you need to do is start the game, bring down the console (with the ~) and enter (with no / and no ") "s_enable_a3d". Its also worth noting the occlusions are disabled by default so if you want to enable them you need to type "s_occlude 1" at the console. For more details on both single play and multiplayer modes, as well as issues you can check out the post in the forum. If you don't have the demo and have the bandwidth for a 115 MB download then you can grab it from 3Dfiles.

KISS: Psycho Circus and ST Voyager: Elite Force Demo Reports - Mark @ 13:34 EST

A couple of quick updates for you. I have installed both of the above noted demos and the bad news is I unfortunately can't get 3D sound working in either of them trying Aureal's SQ2500, Creative's SB Live and Diamond's MX400, all using the latest drivers, as well as Aureal's A2D drivers with the Live and MX400 in Elite Force. The silver lining is both demos have menu options for 3D sound. In the case of the Q3A engine based Voyager: Elite Force, the option is A3D which should be A3D 3.0. In the case of Kiss Psycho Circus, the game is using the Miles Sound System so it could offer a wide range of options and based an the latest info we heard the game should support A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX. As it stands in the demo, its just offering a choice between stereo and DS3D and no matter what I do with any card installed, the option for DS3D will not stay selected. I also tried manually editing the config files but when I did that I got no sound at all. The other bit worth noting is in the Kiss Psycho Circus demo I got a lot of crackling and distortion using the MX400 (in stereo mode). I did not both trying do disable hardware acceleration to see if it "fixed" the problem. No problems with the stereo audio in the Elite Force demo though. I have not played the demos long enough to comment on the actual sound quality but so far what I have heard is good. If you have tried either of these demos and want to share your experience, please post them in the games forum or drop us a line.

Clusterball Released - Mark @ 10:57 EST

Daydream has released the full version of their 3D accelerated first-person game, Clusterball. According to the info on the official website "ClusterballT is an online sport, designed to invoke the same adrenaline rush as Quake and Unreal, but replacing the spatter and gore with pure gameplay. By combining the feel and gaming experience from ball, flight and racing games, ClusterballT is totally unlike anything you've ever seen before. The base version of ClusterballT and your membership are free!" Here's a bit on the sound from the official site:

The A3D sound API is fully utilized to create a stunning audio environment. The engine sounds from the aircraft are modeled with 3D positional sound including Doppler effects. Many sounds are physically modeled and directly linked to the dynamics engine to create, for example, collision sounds as realistic as possible.

Xitel MD-Port AN1 Review - Mark @ 10:46 EST

Neoseeker has posted a review of Xitel's MD-Port AN1. The MD-Port AN1 is a device that allows you to send MP3s and CD tracks to your MD recorder analog connection via the PC's USB bus.
News Source: 3DHardware.net

MidiLand S4 8200 5.1 Speaker System Review - Mark @ 09:58 EST

3Dhardware.net has posted a very positive review of MidiLand's S4 8200 5.1 Speaker System. A couple of comments. One is just to point out that the S4-8200 uses a G9 (DIN) connection from the ADS-2000 to the amplifier so is not suited for connections for 4 channel gaming offered by cards like the SB Live. The other is despite not having heard the system, I want to caution you to not expect S2-4100 quality when it comes to music, especially when it come to the satellites. That's my 2-cents worth based on my experience with the 4100s, 7100s and knowledge of the 8200s design. Its really comparing apples to oranges as the 8200 is offering a whole different feature set than the 4100 on reading the review IMO its possible to come away with the impression that you will get or surpass 4100 quality for music.
News Source: Blue's News

NASCAR Racing 3 Craftsman Truck Series Expansion Pack Patch - Mark @ 01:59 EST

Papyrus has released a new patch for their Nascar 3 expansion set - NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Given that Nascar 3 has A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and 3D audio on non-Vortex 2 cards I would expect more of the same from the expansion pack. If you already have it then you will know if an I right and you will also want to download the 2.6 MB patch from 3Dfiles. A full list of fixes is on the downloads page.

KISS: Psycho Circus Demo - Mark @ 01:54 EST

KISS: Psycho Circus The Nightmare Child straps 3D gamers into a high-paced trip through a twisted world of horror inspired by the KISS legacy, conceived by the imagination of Todd McFarlane and brought to digital life by Third Law Interactive. Powered by a highly modified Lithtech 1.5, the Psycho Circus holds some 25 twisted freaks, 12 bone-smashing weapons, 16 ancient artifacts, scripted in-game cinematics, a slew of boss and mini-boss encounters, high voltage deathmatch and four playable characters. To go from stranded mortal to all-powerful Elder you must attain six progressive levels of power and master each character's unique set of challenges and abilities. But beware, the path to the Nightmare Child's lair is lined with more monsters on-screen than any previous first-person shooter. When it comes to audio, the game should support A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX. Not sure about the demo but I am downloading it now and will try it out later in the day. You can download the 75.1 MB demo from 3Dfiles.

AC97 Mixer and Vortex Tuner - Mark @ 01:25 EST

Thanks to Pavel Voronov for pointing us to his first public release of a test version of a configuration utility called Vortex Tuner. Its for Vortex 2 cards running the 2048 drivers and includes experimental features, such as A3D. I don't have a Vortex 2 board installed right now so can't test to offer comments in this post. If you test it out Pavel is asking that you send him feedback, especially on the experimental switched, to voron@ixbt.com The file is only 104 kb if you want to download it and check it out.

The download also includes a copy of version 1.5 of a program called "AC97 Mixer". According to the readme, the mixer, for Win9x and NT, allow direct access to AC97 compatible audio codec present on supported PCI sound cards. Chips currently supported are the Yamaha YMF724, YMF740, YMF744, YMF754; Aureal AU8830 (Vortex 2, MX300); VIA integrated VT82C686A; Creative EMU10K1; Intel 8x0, MX440; Ensoniq ES1371/ES1373; ESS Maestro 1/2/2E; Cirrus Logic CS461x. The AC97 Mixer can display codec specific information, including vendor, model and DAC/ADC resolution. Also it can be used to change codec specific controls, not available in standard Windows mixer driver. You can find out more about the AC97 mixer and get a straight download of just the mixer from the author's (Alex Mina) Home Page.
News Source: Our forum

Star Trek: Klingon Academy Reviewed - Mark @ 00:59 EST

Game Pro has posted a review of Star Trek: Klingon Academy. They review is mostly positive (but not glowing) but they were very impressed with sound summing it up by saying that the game has "an awesome operatic soundtrack accompanies excellent sound effects and top-notch, professional voice-acting." While there is no mention of 3D sound in the review, we do know that last fall Aureal announced it would support A3D 3.0 but later said "it may be released with just A3D 1.0 because of time constraints". That was more than 6 months ago. Checking a couple of previews/reviews and the official site there is no mention of any support for A3D or 3D sound so maybe there is no 3D sound at all. If you have the game and let us know if you get 3D sound it would be appreciated.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

MP3 Player for Dark Reign 2 - Mark @ 00:49 EST

Pandemic Studios has released an add-on for Dark Reign 2 that allows you to easily access and play your MP3s while playing Dark Reign 2. Its only a 158 K download so well worth checking out if you have the game. We have seen one review mention in the specs that the game supports DS3D but no specific mention of how (or if) it worked. If you have the game and can confirm the status of audio support please let us know.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

New Creative Drivers from Chaintech - Mark @ 00:41 EST

Not for the Live and in fact I am not even sure for what OS but if you have a Chaintech motherboard that uses either the Creative ES1373 or CT5880 chips you may want to check out Chaintech's sound driver download page to grab new drivers. Thanks goes out to Kiril 'Dreamer' Georgiev of Savage News for the pointer.

News from July 10-16, 2000

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