News:  January 24-30, 2000

Sunday, January 30, 2000

Final Fantasy VIII supports EAX - Mikael @ 19:27 EST

Update: Thanks to Joeah in our forum for confirming that it supports EAX and to Mark Tannert for sending in box art that shows the Environmental Audio logo.
A post in our forum today mentioned that Finaly Fantasy VIII supports EAX while complaining about Microsofts MIDI synthesizer. It's not on Creative's EAX list but that list now says not updated since December 8. You can grab the demo from 3dfiles or pick up a copy from Gamestop for $35. Let us know if the demo or full game supports 3Dsound or EAX and if so how well it works.

SQ2500 review - Mikael @ 19:07 EST

Mark Tannert let us know that DansData has now posted a review of the SQ2500 and as usual they also included a bunch of explaining of what the various buzz words means, in this case DS3D, EAX, A3D 1.X, A3D 2.0, 5.1 channels, 7.1 channels, AC-3, Dolby Digital, DMA, IRQ, PC99,S/PDIF, MPU-401, MPC2 and MIDI. I agree with all their explanations of these terms except for the "The general consensus is that 448 kBps AC-3 sounds as good as any other 5.1 channel system, including the much heftier DTS" Still not tried it enough to say DTS is superior or not but if there is any concensus out there then it's that DTS is slightly better even though some disagree (especially Dolby).

Back to the review, it's one of the better SQ2500 reviews I have read. Just one comment I don't think the Vortex1 can be qualified as general purpose DSPs, the earlier Monstersound cards were though but they unlike the Vortex1 didn't need the CPU to do much of the 3D audio processing. Could also be worth noting that if you buy an OEM card be sure it's really is a SQ2500 they sell and not the older SuperQuad reference board in case you think any of the unique SQ2500 features is important, that is the slightly optmized chip, SPDIF Coax out instead of SPDIF Optical or hope Aureal will release the S3500 daughtercard as an upgrade.

Pioneer 10X DVD-104S IDE Drive - Mikael @ 19:07 EST

TargetPC has just posted a review of Pioneer's 10X DVD drive, DVD-104S, which according to the review can be found for about $100 at retail. Here's an interesting snip about the DVD testing using 2 layer DVD disc

This was a surprise. Not only did the 10X'er not come anywhere near 10X, introducing the second DVD layer caused to hiccup near the layer change. The "hump" is caused by the laser reading the outer track, then switching focus to read the second layer-but still on the outer portion of the disc, then moving inwards toward the end of the media. Also, the minimum read speed dropped from 4.05X using a single 3.85GB disc to 2.92X using a multi-layered disc. The 91mS seek time jibes with the expected specs of 90mS. The CPU utilization is very good at only 8%. As noted previously, this doesn't represent CPU usage when decoding a surround sound movie.

Soldier of Fortune support FAQ - Mikael @ 11:39 EST

A new version of the Soldier of Fortune FAQ has been slapped up on the Raven Software's official site. Here's the sound issues

Sound issues

1. EAX 3.0
SBLive! 3.0 is currently in beta testing and because of that, unexpected errors may occur. If you are using SBLive! 3.0 and are experiencing problems we recommend that you run the game using the default sound.dll.

2. A3D and EAX problems
If you have an A3D sound card or a card that supports EAX and Soldier of Fortune is "hanging" or "crashing," try adding "+set snd_dll defsnd.dll" to your command line (note: for more information on adding to the command line see section III, number 1, "Enabling the console").

3. Various glitches/problems
First, make sure you have the newest drivers for your sound card; you can see a list of newest sound card drivers at: http://www.voodooextreme.com/hw/Binaries/drivers.html (Only Live and A3D products). If that doesn't solve the problem, turn down the sound options to 8 bit and 11 hertz. Also disable the DS Buffer (note: all of this can be done in-game in the options menu). If all else fails, add "+set snd_dll defsnd.dll" to your SoF command line, (note: for more information on adding to the command line see section III, number 1, "Enabling the console").

4. Yamaha sound card problems
Try going into your settings/control panel and double click on "Yamaha DS-XG Audio Config." Click on the "DirectSound" tab. Check the "Disable 3D" box and click apply.

You can pre order Soldier of Fortune from Gamestop where they claim a ship date of mid March. According to this FAQ they don't know when it will be released.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Disney's Tarzan Action Game Supports DS3D with EAX! - Mark @ 08:45 EST

I bet you won't find this one popping up on too many gaming sites! I have had had the pleasure of looking after two of my nieces for the weekend (which is the reason why there are almost no posts from me) and one of the first things I had to do was install Disney's Tarzan Action game. Not having kids of my own these types of games are not something I typically check out so imagine my surprise to learn that the game not only supports D3D and glide but also DS3D with EAX! The game is an action slide scroller from what I have seen so far. Its actually quite a blast and apparently has my brother just as captivated as his daughter! You can learn more about the game from Disney Interactive and they even have a 14 MB demo that you can download. Based on the info on their site the demo looks to at least have the same graphics support as the full game. You can order the game for $25 from Gamestop where you will also find a nice feature list and short summary about the game.

Music in Games - Mikael @ 04:40 EST

Damage Gaming has posted an article taking a look at the music in video games and what music is appropriate for each type of game. Here's the intro

When the atmosphere of a game is judged, one of the most important aspects is the music that is behind everything you are doing. Music can be one of the most important factors in setting the mood in a video game, and at the same time you may not realize that. In our recent Quake III Arena: Noise contest, we asked gamers what their favorite video game music was, and have filled this article with their opinions as well.

Live! Platinum review - Mikael @ 04:40 EST

ALive (Live "fan" site) has posted a review of the Live!Platinum. It covers both the US and European version. A couple of comments: I don't think the headphone out has any more power than the Line out, I didn't test it with a volume meter but I didn't notice any significant audible difference. Mark didn't get any DIN bracket with his US Live!Platinum but it's possible they changed the package later, I got one with the European Platinum anyway. The Live!Platinum US version doesn't just contain most of the MP3+ and X-Gamer software it includes all of it. Via Voice isn't included in the Platinum Europe version I got. For more about the Platinum you could check out our reviews of Live!Platinum Americas Edition or Live!Platinum Europe Edition.

ALive also posted and "in-depth look at the Sound Blaster Live!" where he explains the features and specifications. Again some comments: Only the analog sources that needs to be processed (recorded or adding an effect) will be converted to digital. Being converted to digital and then back to analog will only reduce the quality but may not be audible difference.

A3D was available for other chips than the Vortex1 most importantly the Diamond Monstersound serie before the MX300 all used a DSP chip that used Aureal's A3D algorithms, the original Monstersound was also the first 4-speaker gaming board on market. A3D 1.0 is just an api and the 3D sound engine it access can support as many speakers it likes. The first A3D engine supported headphones, 2 and 4-speakers but only panning when using 4-speakers. In the review he says that the Live can "can handle up to 4 effects simultaneously." which I've heard isn't true not if he means 4 different environmental audio presets. It's not supported in EAX 1.0 anyway.

Sirocco Spirit review - Mikael @ 03:22 EST

Gamespot has posted a review of VL's Sirocco Spirit 2-piece speaker system which they found to be pretty good speaker system except for lacking when it comes to low frequencies and too expensive. Here's a bit from the intro

The Sirocco Spirits are a pair of near-field speakers suitable for light studio-monitor use or in a gaming environment where there's no room for a subwoofer. The speakers feature a 4-inch cone midrange/bass driver and a 10mm (1/2 inch) polymer dome tweeter. It's a fairly standard bass reflex (ported) design with sufficient power to play pretty darned loud. The overall amplifier output is 50W per channel RMS (25W per speaker). If you should decide to add a powered subwoofer later, there's a subwoofer output jack available.

Saturday, January 29, 2000

Top selling games at Gamestop - Mikael @ 08:57 EST

We fogot to post this earlier in the week but here's the top selling games at Gamestop last week that support some form of 3D sound and/or EAX

1. Unreal Tournament (A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
2. Quake III Arena Elite Edition(A3D 2.0 with wavetracing)
   
3. Rainbow Six Rogue Spear (DS3D with EAX 2.0)
   
4. Planescape Torment (EAX)
   
5. Rainbow Six Gold Edition(DS3D)
   
6. Half Life Oppocing Force (A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
7. Half-Life Adrenaline Pack (A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
8. Half Life Game of the Year Edition(A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
9. SimCity 3000 (DS3D with EAX)
   
10. Ultima 9: Ascension(DS3D with EAX)

TOP PREBOOKS

1. Diablo 2(A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX)
   
2. Team Fortress 2 (A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
3. Soldier of Fortune (A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
4. Messiah(A3D 3.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
5. Duke Nukem Forever (A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
6. Daikatana(A3D 2.0 with wavetracing and DS3D with EAX)
   
7. Vampire the Masquerade(A3D 2.0 and DS3D with EAX)

Creative's response to 'EAX is a crock' - Mikael @ 08:52 EST

Creative yesterday sent us the following response to the statement on 3DSL's site about EAX being a crock

Thanks for offering us the opportunity to respond to the comments on EAX that you had posted yesterday (from the 3DSL web site).

For any company to say EAX is "a crock", simply because they are not able to meet the challenges of engineering support into their drivers, sounds like a weak excuse for failure. You are right to point out that Sensaura and QSound have succeeded in implementing support for EAX, so it can be done. However, it's just not that simple a task to render EAX well, especially if you do not have dedicated DSP to run it on. It's precisely because of this that Creative licensed Microsoft a software version of the algorithm used on the Sound Blaster Live! for rendering EAX calls. We wanted to ensure that developers had an industry standard platform, with a reliable fallback to software, in the absence of hardware supporting environmental effects. In addition, Creative has worked hard with standards bodies to agree upon and publish a standard set of guidelines for environmental effects. The good news, for developers and gamers alike, is that Microsoft has said the algorithm will be incorporated into Direct X, and will be employed in accordance with the guidelines. Naturally we will offer full support for hardware acceleration of this in our Sound Blaster Live! drivers.

George Thorn,
Director, Audio Marketing / Developer Relations

When it comes to Aureal's EAX drivers we all know that they are extremely delayed compared to several statements they have done about EAX support since the Vortex2 release late 98 so in that aspect their driver development definitely failed to deliver on promises made. Having said that I do expect their EAX drivers once released will work with most if not all EAX games and offer good quality. We will have a full report about the quality, performance and compatibility soon after their release.

Deus Ex Chat Log - Mark @ 00:51 EST

Deus Ex Incarnate has posted an unedited chat log with a bunch of the Deus Ex team. I have tried to glean some useful audio stuff out:

[Psycho] What about the enemy reactions? Realistic, or just based on polygonal distance from sounds, etc.?
[Witchboy] we started with "realistic" then have tuned to "fun and realistic"
[Scott_M] Reactions vary based on the event an NPC hears...If an NPC hears footsteps, he'll start looking around. If he hears gunfire, he launches into combat mode. So it's somewhat realistic...

[Kyote] How much speech will there be in Deus Ex? Does the main character talk a great deal? Are most lines spoken or will there be a lot of text? On a related note, how many CDs are we likely to see?
[Crowind] There is TONS of speech.
[Alchemy] Kyote: The plan is to have all the dialog spoken and there is *quite a bit of it*.

[Durandal] Will the NPc's engage in nonscripted conversation with each other?
[Bob_White] Yes you can eavesdrop on convos
[Witchboy] our npc's do talk to one another
[lastman] NPCs talk to each other -- you can overhear them -- but as for "nonscripted", well, somebody has to write it. They won't be making stuff up that we don't know about.

[KeithV] EAX or A3D?
[Alchemy] 3D sound is awesome. :) I've heard EAX on Chris' machine and it sounds great, don't have rear speakers in my office, though (Hmmmmmm must take care of that!)

[ShihTzu] What thoughts are being given to in-game sound and music? I know this game wouldn't work with a Suikoden-type score, but are there plans for an ambient soundtrack like Thief's, or just pure "environment" sounds?
[Warren] The music is being composed right now. it won't be John Williams rip-off stuff or techno. Unique. Exotic...(it)is going to be a combination of ambient sound and environmental sound. Audio is so important to figuring out how the world is responding to you that we can't afford to drown it out with a classic game or movie score.

Temporary SoF Yamaha DX-SG Fix - Mark @ 00:07 EST

Raven's Kenn Hoekstra updated his .plan with a temporary 'fix' that will allow Yamaha DX-SG card owners to play the Soldier of Fortune demo. There's his update which also includes a call from in house beta testers for SofF

We have a temporary workaround for the Yamaha DX-SG Sound Card error I mentioned yesterday. Try this:

Go to your start menu...settings...control panel and double click on "Yamaha DS-XG Audio Config." Click on the "DirectSound" Tab. Check the "Disable 3D" box and hit Apply. This should disable the 3D sound and fix the gray screen hang for the demo. Give it a try! It seems to work for most people who've tried it so far. We are continuing to search for a more permanent solution for the full version of SoF.

One more thing. If you live in the Madison area and you would like to come in and Beta Test Soldier of Fortune, please send me an e-mail. We're looking for a small group (5-10) people to come in and hammer the game for awhile.

The testing will be next week sometime in the evening...probably Wednesday or Thursday night around 7pm. The conditions are:

1. You must be over 18
2. You can't have tested Soldier of Fortune at Raven before. (We need new blood so we can get honest reactions from new people)
3. This is by invite only, so don't just show up. E-mail me if you want to be considered and I'll help you get set up.

Friday, January 28, 2000

GP500 Patch - Mark @ 23:52 EST

This patch apparently fixes a few problems with A3D & EAX in the motorcycle racing game GP500. It also fixes problems with miscalculated time statistics in races and a few other minor quirks. For more on the game, which is apparently not for sale in the US, you can check out the Hasbro website. The patch is for all languages, so if you do have the game, grab the patch from 3Dfiles.

Some Boston Acoustics Info - Mark @ 23:38 EST

Thanks to Josh for pointing us to the Boston Acoustic's Store where you can find some info on the BA4800, BA7500G, and others listed with pdfs. I would post the direct PDF links if I could be they are hiding behind some java script. In case you don't know, the BA4800 is there new high end quad speaker system and the BA7500 is the new quad flat panel with Dolby Digital decoder system. Right now their site shows the BA7500 as just for Gateway but we know its also coming to retail and we will have reviews of both the BA7500 and BA4800 in the coming weeks.

AKM introduces a 24-bit D-to-A Converter - Mikael @ 16:03 EST

AKM Semiconductor today introduced the AK4380, a new 24-bit stereo audio DAC for higher performance but still cost sensitive consumer and professional electronics systems. Ideal applications are Studio Effects Processors, DVD players and AC3 amplifiers. You can check out the press release if you want to know the details.

New Emu10k1 Linux mailing list - Mikael @ 15:56 EST

Just saw on Creative's Open source site that they created a new mailing list meant for discussions of all the non-driver issues (mixer apps, user space library, DSP compiler, effects language, patch manager, etc) for the Emu10k1. If you interested head over to Creative's Open Source site.

Hollywood Plus comments and tip - Mikael @ 13:08 EST

When I posted the review link to Sharky Extreme's review of the Hollywood Plus card I mentioned I didn't think the image quality was superior using the Dxr3 compared to software DVD players and I found their CPU utilization of 35% using a PII300 quite high. Mark Tannert offered his experience opinion on this issue and also tips for those that have lock up problems.

I own a Hollywood Plus decoder card... and a Pioneer DVD-104S Slot load 10x/40x DVD drive.

On the DVD review note, I own a Creative Labs Annihilator Pro and while Software decoding looks great on it (450 cpu) I will never rip out my decoder card. Why? I find NO problem with video quality at rezolutions up to 1280x1024... though I see some at 1600x1200... I will never give up my TV-out... I only pull like 10-15 percent cpu usage during decoding with the card... goes to my TV... I sit back and do whatever I want on my computer meanwhile :-) It's great.

Creative BlasterKey MP3 Reviewed - Mark @ 13:07 EST

Sonic Control has posted a review of the Creative BlasterKey MP3. This is the second review we have seen of Creative Labs' upcoming MIDI keyboard controller. The keyboard features 49 full-sized and touch sensitive keys. Included is software that transforms the BlasterKey into a full auto-accompaniment keyboard and piano tutor. You can easily record all your work as .mp3 files. The BlasterKey will apparently be available in March for $99 or $199 bundled with the MP3+. For a second look at this system you can check out the review at Live Center
News Source: AGNHardware

Sigma Designs going to support Linux? - Mikael @ 12:46 EST

CDR info caught the following post in a newsgroup about Sigma Designs plans for support of Linux

"..Over the past several months, we have received hundreds of e-mails from Linux users who have asked us to support DVD under Linux. We're happy to announce that very soon, Linux users will be able to play DVD's using the new REALmagic NetStream 2000 card.

We have created this newsgroup so that Linux enthusiasts can share ideas and learn with us as we begin the process of testing and shipping our Linux DVD products. While we have ten years of Linux experience behind us, Linux is something very new for us. This newsgroup will be the source of official support from Sigma Designs for Linux. We hope to work with many of you over the coming months.

Marshall Goldberg
Director of Marketing
Sigma Designs, Inc..

CES 2000 Part 3 @ FiringSquad - Mikael @ 11:37 EST

FiringSquad has just posted the third and final installment of their CES 2000 coverage. This part covers DSL, home networking, HDTV, DVD recorders, PVRs, and digital radio. No major news but a good read. Here's a bit about Digital Radio

There are currently two competitors in the digital radio arena, Sirius Satellite Radio (formerly CD Radio) and XM Satellite Radio. Digital radio isn't going to be free. Both Sirius and XM plan on charging $9.95 a month for subscriptions, and you'll also have to buy special receivers to get the signals. Sirius and XM will compete for users through strategic OEM partnerships and with content.

MX400 Review #2 - Mark @ 10:33 EST

Our thanks goes out to Tedman Eng for pointing out MX400 review #2. Just a couple of comments/questions. Why is a minimalist control panel a negative? I.e. tell me what's missing so I know what its an issue.Next one is with respect to the UT benchmarks where they first note that "Nonetheless, the MX400 clearly has a greater impact on game performance than the Sound Blaster Live." and then go on to say that "On the other hand, you also get more. While the MX400 doesn't sound quite as robust with 3D audio through two speakers as a Vortex2 board, it's quite good with four speakers - certainly on a par with an SQ2500 or Sound Blaster Live. So is it just me or does someone out there understand how a greater impact on performance with 4 speaker audio that's "on par" with the competition amounts to getting more? For the record, we do think that the MultiDrive 4 speaker positioning is right up at the top with the exception of some A3D 2.0 racing games where I think the Vortex 2 still leads. When it comes to reverb quality we think its behind the competition but still a positive enhancment.

MX400 Review #1 - Mark @ 10:30 EST

Anandtech has posted what I believe is the very first Diamond Monster Sound MX400 Review. I have no idea when we will do one of these as Diamond is as usual ignoring us! Just like usual, I have a few comments . The reviewer notes that Aureal OEM partners like Xitel, Terratec, Videologic, etc were all effectively out of the market with the launch of Aureal's own retail line but when we checked with Aureal and the OEMs around the time of the SQ2500 launch all of them told us that it was business as usual. Next up, and a minor point, the MX300 is very close to Aureal's reference board in the way it counts most, that is you can use the reference drivers with no issues. An interesting bit is the MX400 has a header for Diamond's hardware MP3 DSP. Given Diamond's track record with the MX25 we will take a wait and see attitude and keep our fingers crossed that it ships before 2000 is over!

Looking at the two speaker implementation its worth noting that both the MX400 and Aureal's cards and many others will position in the vertical and well as horizontal plane. Its worth noting at this point that other than the Virtual Ear, MultiDrive and to a lesser extent ZoomFX, Sensaura's technology is completely based on the open APIs (DS3D, EAX, EAX 2.0 and I3DL2). Some interesting stuff in the benchmarks. The Q3A benchmark was done using Aureal's A2D drivers for cards other than the SQ2500. What's interesting is seeing the big hit the non-vortex 2 cards take using the A2D files and that's without the benefit of wavetracing! The UT numbers are very odd and there must be a problem somewhere with the particular benchmark they are using as all three cards show no performance impact for enabling 3d sound. Enabling 3d sound should have in turn enabled EAX on the MX400 and Live and A3D 2.0 with wavetracing on the SQ2500 which in turn does have an impact on all of the cards according our testing and others. You can see our own UT demo benchmark numbers to see what we mean and you can also check out our MX400 driver preview (using a DMX). I emailed back and forth with the author and he agreed that it was indeed odd. For more on what we think of Sensaura's technology you can check out our Digital-XG review as it uses the same build of Sensaura's technology that the MX400 is using.

Thursday, January 27, 2000

Windows Media vs MP3 - Mark @ 23:44 EST

There is a very nice reader comparison of Windows Media vs MP3 in our forum that well worth a read. Check it out! For even more comparisons you can check out this PR from MS from a few days ago.

TB Montego II Quadzilla Review - Mark @ 22:57 EST

Speedy3D has posted a review of Turtle Beach's Vortex 2 based Quadzilla. Right of the bat I again have comments. Why would you open a review by saying "...while it is much better than a card with just a reference design from Aureal..." Its the start of the review, how can you know its better? For the record, we don't think its better. Next comment, the bundled X-Wing Alliance is an OEM demo not a full version of the game and it sports A3D 1.x support and not A3D 2.0 support. Moving along, I have no idea what the Live!Platinum's LiveDrive has to do with 3D audio quality and equally confused as to how the Quadzilla can cost "a few hundred dollars less" than a Live!Platinum. Given that the Live Platinum retails for $199.99 Turtle Beach must be paying people to use the Quadzilla in order to get that kind of price spread! Next, its worth noting that the SPDIF output is typically used for sending the digital stream from software DVD players and not for music on your PC. Since the Quadzilla can't use reference drivers and it's drivers have not been updated since the day the card was shipped you may have trouble finding a software DVD player that works fully supports it for that reason. The lack of ability to use reference drivers is now my big issue with this card. That fact in itself is not a big issue but Turtle Beach not releasing new drivers since the card was launched has made it into an issue. The drivers are still based on the 2016 reference drivers and the rest of the Vortex 2 world is on 2041 with 2048 reverb drivers soon to come...For more on what we think of this card and much more detailed testing you can check out our own review but keep in mind when we wrote the conclusion we expected better driver support than what has been delivered.

Chia Chin Lee on 3D audio and Sound Mixing - Mark @ 22:23 EST

Raven's Sound Designer on SofF, Chia Chin Lee has updated his .plan file today with lots of info on 3D audio and overall mix balance. Here it is:

When implemented correctly, 3D audio adds a new dimension to the players' perception of the game world. The graphics combined with spatialized audio add realism and immerse the gamers. It is currently one of the most powerful tools for the sound designer.

Over the course of Soldier of Fortune, I've dealt with mixing for both A3D and EAX, as well as the default sound settings in the game. The future of 3D audio is promising, but like any technology in its infancy, it contains a few quirks. Many of these problems are due to divergence of features and standards found in different soundcards and drivers. This divergence can make the sound designer's job difficult in achieving a good mix balance between all the soundcard chipsets.

I would love to talk to other developers to discuss your experience with 3D audio.

The problem is that I tweak all the audio under the Default sound settings, making sure that the attenuation, volume, EQ, etc, gel together as a whole. Added on top of the mix is music. This process can be quite arduous, especially in a non-linear medium such as games.

After spending time to make sure the audio is perfect under Default sound, I switch to other 3D audio settings only to find the volume, attenuation, sound quality, etc, out of wack. Although some of these issues are fixable, there are instances when changes in one area negatively alters other sounds. In the end, I sometimes feel like I'm trying to make the "least broken" mix rather than the "best sounding" one.

Basically, 3D audio throws in a whole new dimension to the overall balance that "distorts" the raw sonic material I provide. The only way to ensure the perfect mix is to design sounds that specifically cater to each unique type of audio implementation. This is not currently a practical solution, unfortunately.

I would love to hear your thoughts concerning this issue, and how you overcame these setbacks...or if you even encountered these problems. :)

I must also take a moment to thank Keith Charley (and his excellent Eagle tool for EAX) at Creative and Micah at Aureal for all their help in implementing the 3D audio in Soldier of Fortune. They are working hard to cater to our needs and constantly solving problems for us. Thank you guys!

Soldier of Fortune Demo and Yamaha DX-SG Problems - Mark @ 22:17 EST

Kenn Hoekstra of Raven has updated his .plan with the following bit on the Soldier of Fortune demo:

I'm continuing to lead the tech support charge on our message boards and we seem to have most problems nailed down. The biggest one that I'm aware of is the fact that the demo hangs on a blue/gray screen for users who have a YAMAHA DX-SG sound card or similar YAMAHA model. The problem is with the demo's auto-detect features looking for A3D support. These YAMAHA cards have limited A3D support (1.0) and Soldier's auto-detect code is looking for 2.0 or 3.0. This is what's causing the hang. Adding "+set snd_dll defsnd.dll" to your command line shortcut has fixed the problem for some users, but most YAMAHA owners are pretty much out of luck at this point. Jake "The Gent" Simpson is talking to his sources now to see about fixing the problem. As soon as we know something, you'll know something. According to Rick, future Soldier of Fortune releases are going to start up with default sound to avoid these sound support issues. Amen to that... =)

Ultimate DVD Collection' complete - Mikael @ 19:08 EST

Henninger Interactive Media (HIM), the multimedia arm of the Henninger Media Services network, today announced the completion of the Ultimate DVD Collection - the sequel to the all-time best-selling special interest DVD -- for Unapix Entertainment. The press release is mostly about the fact that they used the DVDMaestro system from Spruce Technologies but also had the following feature list

1. Access to Segments Using Full Motion Video Icons, Animated Menus and Graphics.
   
2. 100% System Compatible. No Region Coding / No CSS Encryption / No Macrovision.
   
3. PCM, Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 & DTS Digital Surround Comparisons.
   
4. Multi-Angle - Test / Demonstration - Switch Between 7 Angles on the Fly.
   
5. Multi-Language - Test / Demonstration - Listen to IMAX Films in up to 8 Languages.
   
6. Aspect Ratio - Test / Demonstration - View Widescreen, Anamorphic or Letterbox.
   
7. Parent Lock - Test / Demonstration - Set Options to Eliminate Inappropriate Content.
   
8. DVD Audio (96-K / 24 Bit) Demonstration - Featuring High Resolution DVD Audio.
   
9. DTS Digital Surround and Dolby Digital 5.1 Music Demonstrations
   
10. Lots of Innovative & Entertaining Content Just For Fun.

New RaveMP Models - Mikael @ 18:59 EST

Sensory Science Corporation today announced plans to extend its product line through the introduction of new RaveMP models. The RaveMP 2100 model will continue to be the lead model in the new line up, but will be joined by a variety of additional models and MP3 products that allow retailers to address the broadest possible spectrum of buyers. More specifically two new models will be introduced the 2200 and 2300 which will be available in late spring.

RaveMP 2200 Features USB Interface For Fast Downloads, FM Tuner And Smart Media. The unit will initially retail for about $279.

RaveMP 2300 Clik! Drive Model Takes MP3 To New Levels Of Performance For Emerging New Market Segments. The RaveMP 2300 will initially retail for about $299.

You can check out the press release if you want to all the details.

More about Self-Destructing DVDs - Mikael @ 18:50 EST

We mentioned last week that Wired Magazine had an article about this upcoming technology but now you can also check out SpectraDisc's press release. In case you missed the Wired article you should know that this Spectra developed a technology that can be used to give DVDs a time limit from 3 minutes up to 3 days. This will work on all existing DVD players and is of course intended as alternative/competition to rentals of DVD movies. They also mention could be used for games. Unlike several other sites I don't really see the harm here other than a threat to DVD rental places. It's nothing like DIVX where you have a competing format or any risk of studios using it to prevent anyone from actually owning their movie.

Creative Posts Better Than Expected Earnings - Mikael @ 18:39 EST

Creative today announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2000, ended December 31, 1999. Sales for the second quarter were a record US$436.8 million -- the highest quarterly revenue ever reported by Creative. This compares to US$428.7 million for the same quarter last year. Net income was US$44.5 million dollars and earnings per share were US$0.52, including investment gains of US$9.2 million or US$0.11 per share. This compares to net income of US$60.6 million and earnings per share of US$0.64 for the same quarter last year. You can find a lot more numbers in the press release.

Planescape: Torment Patch - Mark @ 18:26 EST

Black Isle and Interplay have now released the official version 1.1 patch for the DS3D with EAX supporting Planescape: Torment (as opposed to the beta patch awhile ago). The 3.3 MB download fixes a number of issues with the game, most notably the recurring slowdown problems. You can order Planescape Torment from GameStop where you will get free 2nd Day FedEx shipping for all new orders including in-stock, backordered and pre-release products until January 31 at 11:59 pm! Note that the free shipping offer is good in the US only.
News Source: Blue's News

Messiah Sound Programmer Interview - Mark @ 18:07 EST

Aureal's webzine has been updated with an interview with Shiny's Sound Programmer for MESSIAH, Tony Bennett. If you don't already know it, Messiah will support A3D 3.0 (yes 3.0!) as well as DS3D with EAX. Here's a snip from this interesting interview

What difficulties do you encounter when integrating the audio content into the game?

We currently have over 200MB (ouch) of audio in Messiah, a large chunk of which is speech. This does lead to a few problems, especially when deciding which files to preload, when to flush, which to keep around in memory permanently, which benefit the most from true 3D sound, etc. As usual you find yourself wanting more channels and more memory... maybe next year. :) Actually scripting the audio into the game is a real no-brainer, lucky for us, being as we have over 2000 different samples in Messiah!

FPS2000 Review - Mark @ 12:59 EST

3DWars has posted a review of Cambridge Soundwork's FPS2000 system. There's just a little too much hype in their intro if you ask me, since the many other companies now deliver the same or better quality as the FPS2000. Next up, while I agree with their surround sound comments I think its also fair to note that sound cards with good 2 speaker and especially headphone 3d algorithms will do a nice job of giving you surround without 4 speakers. Next comment is on the Digital DIN connector where they state that "..for better quality, it's recommended that you use the Digital connector enclosed with the package. That adds effects that are already located on the SB Live!" As you may know from our own reviews, we don't think the DIN connector makes a big difference in quality and more importantly, there are NO effects that you get from the SB Live via the DIN connector that you would not also get from the analog connector! Next up, they say the system produces a high volume compared to the other FPS systems out there. The system does in fact produce a more than adequate volume for typical usage but the truth is there are several FPS systems that produce much higher volumes, examples being the somewhat more expensive ProMedia from Klipsch, the much more expensive Crossfire from Videologic, and even one priced somewhat lower with the ACS56) from Altec Lansing. Last, and least significant, of my comments is I don't know what 7 satellite speaker system they refer to in the review. Now don't take all of this the wrong way as I do think the FPS2000 is a nice system. For all the reasons why you can check out our own review.

Songs for Deathmatch Vol. 2 Review - Mark @ 12:21 EST

Ear on Games has posted a review of Songs for Deathmatch Volume 2. According to EOG, "this album is alot like the first, but as one might expect, it's got some interesting new progressions". For more check out the review!

InterTrust Teams with Dolby Labs and Fraunhofer - Frank @ 12:02 EST

InterTrust Technologies Corporation, the MetaTrust Utility(TM), Dolby Labs and Fraunhofer IIS announced today a technology licensing partnership for MPEG-2 standard AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) use in MetaTrust Certified audio applications such as Internet music and Internet radio players. MetaTrust partners may now use AAC to build InterTrust-based, SDMI-compliant, authoring tools and music player products.

Fortissimo Review - Mark @ 08:14 EST

I have to start this out with a rant. If you are going to review a product, you have to understand the product and you really should know everything about the core aspects of the product. If you start with that base knowledge you likely won't make the mistakes that we are seeing in too many sound card reviews these days. People should stick to what they know or take the time to learn before presuming to tell other people about a product! The review that Tacsim has done of the Fortissimo from Guillemot is a good example but the comments above are directed much more widely as we have seen a rash of reviews full of factually incorrect statements.

Move specifically to the Tacsim review where right of the bat they flounder by stating that the Fortissimo and MX400 are based on yet another new audio API. I know I am preaching to the converted here so you know its just not so! Yes, the YMF744 based cards (like the Fortissimo) and the Canyon3D based cards (like the MX400 and Terratec DMX) are based on Sensaura's 3D audio technology but that technology is based on Microsoft's Direct Sound and Direct Sound 3D. There are no special calls required to get 3D sound on these cards and no special calls to get EAX to work! Sensaura is developing an extension to DS3D called ZoomFX but that's a whole different kettle of fish. Its odd that Tacsim starts and finishes the review with this error given that somewhere in the middle of their review they do note that the card supports all the open APIs. It's a example of not understanding what you write as all open APIs with the shipping drivers means Direct Sound, Direct Sound 3D, EAX and translation of A3D 1.x calls to DS3D. My next comment is pretty minor as everyone has a right to their own subjective opinion, which is all their optical output comments amount to. However, its worth noting that many Dolby Digital / DTS receivers have an optical output which means you can connect the Fortissimo to them and use a supported software DVD player with the Fortissimo and send the digital stream from your DVDs to your receiver. It's also worth noting that the Videologic DigiTheatre 5.1 system has both COAX and optical inputs. Next up, and they can blame the Fortissimo packaging on this one, according to our information the 2 MB of XG-MIDI sample are in fact stored in system memory. Its also worth noting that the card uses Yamaha's own XG format for enhanced MIDI quality. Moving along, I agree with the comments on the Media Station, its neat but just too small at higher resolutions. Next I have no idea what they are talking about here with this statement ".the Fortissimo's drivers and Yamaha engine fall short of the 32-bit calculations of EMU10K1. Using Windows 98's resource meter I watched it eat more CPU power than the EMU10K1." I also don't share their tonal impressions. Approaching the end now, they note that they can't compare headphone support because of different API support and then note that "...the Fortissimo's headphone output is nice to say the least. But with the lack of support for its API there may not be a chance.". As I have noted before that's utter rubbish. In fact on top of the support I noted earlier, later drivers for the YMF744 support 32 3D streams, I3DL2 and EAX 2.0. You can check out our review of the Digital-XG to know how the Maxi-Sound Fortissimo will sound when/if this driver upgrade is available from Guillemot. If you don't care about support from Guillemot you can download the YMF744 reference drivers.
News Source: Anandtech

EAX is a crock? - Mikael @ 05:33 EST

That's what Aureal's European marketing arm/partner says. So what do they mean with that well here's their full post

Thanks to the VP of operations at Aureal, Brendan O'Flaherty, we now understand the delay with the 2048 drivers incorporating EAX support.

Basically EAX is a crock and its been implemented into different games in different ways. For every 5 games where the EAX support in 2048 is perfect there is another one where it will not work.

Thanks to Master Yoda for the pointer. He also pointed out that you can now grab the 2041 drivers from 3dsl site in case you have faster access to that one than A3D.com

Nintendo's (Dolphin) Sound Capabilites? - Frank @ 03:41 EST

Ign64 Reported a few days ago that Nintendo Of America is looking for an Audio Software Engineer. Nintendo listed the requirement fields:

* C++ under embedded systems.
* Knowledge of audio/video compression techniques ADPCM, MP3, MPEG2, general MIDI and MIDI sequences.
* Knowledge of Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital, DLS, MPEG4, Direct Sound and DSP).

Nintendo's next generation system codenamed (Dolphin) may perhaps support these capabilities. IGN64 also reported announcements regarding the sound hardware are expected soon.

Vortex2 and SMP systems (NT4)? - Mikael @ 03:06 EST

As you may know the current Vortex2 drivers for Vortex2 doesn't work well on some (most?) dual proccesor machines. So do Aureal intend to fix it? Well yesterday's Q&A on A3D.com should give you some hope

We are currently attempting to fix the Vortex2 Windows NT driver issue that affects users running on some dual proccesor machines. The next Windows NT driver release should feature that fix, though no official date is available for its release. Hardware acceleration and reflections are not supported under Windows NT 4.0, and will not be due to the limitations of the OS. Windows 2000 does support hardware acceleration through its WDM architecture, and full A3D support will be available

QSound To Provide IQ To RealJukeBox/Plus Users - Frank @ 03:03 EST

QSound Labs announced yesterday the availability of iQ for RealNetworks'RealJukebox and RealJukebox Plus users. When added to the RealJukebox or RealJukebox Plus, iQ brings a bigger, bolder sound environment to your desktop, using your existing sound equipment. iQ is available immediately and can be purchased directly from www.qsound.com and www.realstore.com.

Audio CDs To Have Copy Protection - Mikael @ 02:56 EST

Firingsquad reports that BMG Entertainment has decided to use a new copy protection system on two new audio CDs. This should prevent ripping the tracks to create MP3 files and maybe even worse it won't work on CD-ROM drives or some real CD players.
News Source: Anandtech

Electronic Arts Licenses Quake III Arena Engine - Mikael @ 02:56 EST

Electronic Arts has announced that it has licensed the Quake III Arena engine from id Software. They will use the engine to develop several games, including the upcoming James Bond title The World is Not Enough, and American McGee's Alice. Both titles is expected to be released later this year. EA will also use it for other games that will be announced at a later date. Now the interesting question is of course if they will rip out the A3D 2/3 code or if they will keep it. EA has never officially said they won't support A3D but most of us got the impression they are EAX exclusive but there are some exceptions though when the game engine used already had A3D support, System Shock 2 comes to mind and in one case, Dungeon Keeper II, the game even supports A3D 2.0 with a patch so maybe they just won't use the A3D logo on the boxes but keep the code.

Wednesday, January 26, 2000

Flatland Update - Mark @ 22:37 EST

I just got the latest Flatland newsletter which tells of another new Rover release, Rover 1.5.1! Flatland Rover is a free browser extension software for Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer that allows you to explore immersive 3D worlds on the WEB created with Flatland's easy-to-author 3DML (Three Dimensional Markup Language). 3DML is a markup language (much like HTML, the language that regular 2D web pages are written in) that describes 3D websites. Websites created with 3DML, called "spots", are fully navigable (meaning that you can move and look around in all directions), and fully customizable (meaning you can build anything you want, using whatever textures, animations, or sounds that you want). Building environments with 3DML is very much like building with the wooden blocks you had as a child. There are premade blocks that you simply stack together to make entire worlds. And with 3DML, you can "paint" the blocks with different patterns, and add sounds and animations to your creations as well.

Rover supports A3D 2.0 audio technology. With A3D 2.0, objects in a spot will reflect and absorb sounds and position them in 3D. This new release has 3 new features, in addition to the usual back end improvements:

The tags have been finalized for streaming media!

There is also a new TRIGGER="proximity" option for the ACTION tag.

There is a new VERSION parameter in the SPOT tag.

Thief 2 to Support EAX 2.0! - Mark @ 22:21 EST

The Vault Network has posted an in-depth interview with Steve Pearsall of Looking Glass Studios taking about Thief 2: The Metal Age. Here is the really interesting bit on audio:

Jonric: Will sound be a critical factor again? What sound format are you using? Will you support 3D sound?

Steve Pearsall: All of our sound is recorded as wave files. Our engine has had support for DS3D, A3D, and EAX since we issued a patch for Thief 1. We have done some work on the sound subsystem and it now supports EAX 2.0.

We are also recording a lot of new speech, sound effects and music for Thief 2 so the audio environment will be richer than ever. Just one example is that our AI characters have over 4,000 distinct things they could say.

Chia Chin Lee on Soldier of Fortune Demo - Mark @ 22:12 EST

Raven's Sound Designer Chia Chin Lee has updated his .plan with the following tips for people having audio problems with the recently released Soldier of Fortune demo:

For the users who have reported problems with the audio in the Soldier of Fortune demo (game crashing with certain sound cards, "muffled sound", weird audio attenuation issues, etc...), please follow these two guidelines for a quick fix:

1) Make sure you have the *latest* drivers for your soundcard.

2) If problem persists, go into the audio configuration menu and change the sound setting from
"Auto Detect", "EAX", or "A3D" to "Default". Please make sure to press "Apply Changes" after making the re-adjustment.

Thanks for your time. I appreciate all your feedback concerning the demo.

Ultima IX: Ascension Patch - Mark @ 21:52 EST

Origin has completed a rigorous testing cycle on their third patch for the DS3D with EAX supporting Ultima IX: Ascension, and it is now available for download! Once installed, the patch is cumulative, meaning that it will include all fixes from the previous patches. It has apparently addressed many crucial issues, and they believe that players will see an improvement in performance as well as gameplay. It does not look like they fixed the DS3D in Win95 bug that was reported in December. You can see the large list of what was fixed and you can grab it from 3Dfiles.

Nocturne Patch 2 - Mark @ 15:01 EST

Terminal Reality has released a new patch for the DS3D with EAX supporting horror game, Nocturne. A very significant fix from a sound perspective is this version fixes problems with hardware mixing and SoundBlaster Live cards. I have not played too much of this game yet (still on Act 1) but I have played enough to know that EAX effects are so far none existent for me using the Live and using cards using Sensaura's and Qsound's reverb engines. Given that the PR for this game made such a big deal about EAX support it makes me wonder if the hardware mixing fix has an impact on EAX and if it is actually for more than the Live. I would really appreciate some feedback on the EAX effects in this game if you have it. The other significant audio fix is the ambient sound for Act 1 will now play, but only if you have done a complete install. Other non-sound related fixes are:

It allows 2MB ATI 3D Expression cards to start Nocturne.

This version fixes various script anomalies that could prevent Nocturne from operating correctly under unusual circumstances. An example is little Tommy will start his dialog in the church even if he has somehow gotten stuck on a pew.

This patch version includes a fix that allows Voodoo3 cards running the 1.03.00 drivers (or later) from 3Dfx to run at full speed with hardware acceleration.

wHeretic 0.5a Build 6 Now Available! - Mark @ 13:39 EST

Thats right, thanks to Robin for letting us know that the latest build of wHeretic 0.5a is now available for public consumption! Here's what's new:

overhauled the sound engine.

fixed a bug in the network code which prevented it from working with more than 3 players (oops).

tweaked the video handling for improved speed.

converted the last of the column drawing funcs to ASM.

added the option to use MMX in the drawing funcs.

tweaked the keyboard code to work properly on Win9X.

disable artifact skipping when "always run" is enabled.

AutoPC With REALmagic-Based DVD - Mark @ 13:27 EST

Using Sigma Designsr, Inc. DVD technology, Clarion Corporation of America (CCA) received the prestigious Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovations 2000 Award in the Mobile Electronics category for its second-generation AutoPC(TM) 320DV. The first product of its kind, AutoPC 320DV incorporates Sigma's REALmagicr EM8400 DVD playback silicon designed into the product's DVD-Video subsystem. Clarion's second-generation AutoPC 320DV offers hands-free, voice-activated control of in-car entertainment, computing, GPS satellite navigation, and vehicle diagnostics, as well as hands-free telephony for the driver. To provide rear-seat passengers with theater-quality video and audio, the company designed Sigma's REALmagic EM8400 decoder into the AutoPC DVD-Video playback and viewing subsystem. For more info check out the press release. There is no mention if it has AC3 or DTS decoding to 2, 4 or 5.1 speakers.

DISH Network Broadcast of SHOWTIME in HDTV with Dolby Digital Sound - Mark @ 13:23 EST

EchoStar Communications Corp. announced that DISH Network will launch SHOWTIME HDTV beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 26, with SHOWTIME's exclusive hit THE TRUMAN SHOW at 9:35 p.m. EST. Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Communications, stated: ``The availability of SHOWTIME programming in high definition, which offers the highest quality picture and Dolby Digital(TM) 5.1 audio, will allow SHOWTIME UNLIMITED viewers to enjoy the ultimate entertainment experience while watching their favorite movies and other programs.'' For more details check out the press release.

MGI's DVD Applications to use Dolby Headphone Technology - Mark @ 09:48 EST

Good news for PC home theater fans! MGI Software Corp., and Dolby Laboratories yesterday announced a licensing agreement allowing MGI Software to become the first software developer to incorporate the Dolby Headphone technology in its current and future DVD applications, including MGI Pure DIVA and MGI SoftDVD MAX.

Dolby Headphone, which was developed by Lake Technology and Dolby and debuted for the public earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2000) in Las Vegas, "lets users experience the rich, full, multichannel surround sound they get in a cinema or a fine home theater on conventional headphones." Another way to put it is people will now be able to get DVD headphone support similar to what gamers have been experiencing with A3D and DS3D applications on quality 3d sound cards. In fact, according to one of our readers who has heard the Lake Technology algorithms on a DSP, the quality is superior to what we have been experiencing via sound cards. I believe this was because they were offering a range of HRTFs so you could tailor the HRTF performance to your own head and ear shape vs. current sound cards which offer one generic HRTF. It will be interesting to learn if the MGI's applications will go with a generic HRTF or also offer custom HRTFs. My guess would be they will keep it simple and go with one or a limited range of HRTFs but its only a guess so we will work at digging up additional details.

You may already know that customizable HRTFs are an area where soundcards are also headed with Aureal's A3D 3.0 API for their Vortex 2 boards including their upcoming SQ3500 and Sensaura's Virtual Ear technology that will be in cards like Canyon3D based products like the DMX, MX400 as well as Turtle Beach's upcoming Santa Cruz. For more on other applications for Dolby Headphone including MiniDiscs, CDs and MP3 files, whether they are encoded in Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital, PCM, MLP-packed PCM, or MPEG, you can check out the whole press release.

WildTangent Launches Beta of its 3D Audio Driver Plug-In for Sonique And Winamp Players - Mark @ 09:36 EST

WildTangent announced yesterday the beta release of its latest product, the WildTangent audio driver, a visual plug-in for the popular Sonique and Winamp audio players. Consumers can download the free 900K plug-in, complete with four visualizations, from the WildTangent Web site. Visualizations authored for the WildTangent audio driver are compatible with both Sonique and Winamp players as well as others to be announced. The WildTangent Audio Driver takes the audio stream and analyzes the music data, breaking it down into frequency information. That information is made available to the developer to assign data, using Java, JavaScript or VB Script, to the various objects and textures creating a three-dimensional and interactive graphic experience.

Popular audio players such as Sonique and WinAmp are well-known for the broad range of graphics, ``visualizations,'' available for download off the web, however visualizations can only be created by experienced Windows developers, limiting the number of developers who can create them. The WildTangent Audio Driver software development kit (SDK) enables anyone with a little scripting experience (JavaScript, Java, J++, Visual Basic, VB Script) to create their own graphic visualizations for the Web that work with both Sonique and Winamp players. Complete with online tutorials, references, sample visualizations, and extensive documentation, the free WildTangent SDK offers musicians and avid music fans a simpler way to customize visualizations and build their own graphic environment for their Sonique or Winamp audio players. Developers can download the free Audio Driver SDK from WildTangent's Web site WildTangent will be announcing support for additional streaming audio players in the future. Now do you think the profile of Creative Labs' LAVA has anything to do with the new music visualization software that we are seeing of late?

Sales of the Imeron's Intensor LX Triple Expectations - Mark @ 09:35 EST

Imeron has announced that sales of their Intensor LX sensory entertainment chairs have far exceeded expectations. When the chair was released in September, sales began strong and continued to be brisk through the holiday season, tripling sales forecasts. The LX is currently available in a variety of US retail outlets, including Comp USA, J&R Music World, Fry's Electronics, Sam's Clubs, and Costco, as well as online at www.intensor.com In addition, Imeron recently announced their expansion into the European market. Beginning February 15th, Imeron will be able to ship their immersive audio products to European customers within 48 hours from warehouses in Lautzenhausen, Germany and Glasgow, Scotland. In addition, The Expert Stores, a Swedish electronics chain, will be carrying Imeron's Intensor LX in over 100 stores. For lots more on the US$179 Intensor LX you can check out our own in-depth review<.a>.

Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder and Remote Review - Mikael @ 05:01 EST

Quite a few of these just the last couple of weeks. Sharky Extrem choose to not test only the Hollywood Plus DVD decoder card but also the Remote control you can get for another $20. I completely disagree with their impression that image quality from a DVD hardware decoder vs Software DVD player is like with or without a 3D graphics card. I don't think the hardware DVD decoders looks superior on the screen in fact in some cases they look worse since you they have more compatability issues with the various graphic cards, resolutions and refresh rates you can have. The software DVD player works fine except maybe a bit slow if you have too high resolution.

One interesting bit in this review is that they claim the infamous image degradation for those that run their monitors above 1024x768, especially on 19+ monitors, can be reduced if you have the Hollywood Plus card far away from your AGP card. I found their CPU utilization number of up to 35% on a PII300 very high, wonder if they enabled DMA mode on the DVD-rom drive.
News Source: Anandtech

Plextor PlexWriter 8/4/32 review - Mikael @ 05:00 EST

We have seen several of these and now it's time for another, this time it's Gamespot that has tested Plextor's $300 IDE CDRW drive, Plexwriter 8/4/32. They found the software to be great and performance was impressive except the read speed of only 20x and DAE of just 8x, not that bad for an IDE drive but really slow compared to Plextor's SCSI drives.
News Source: Anandtech

SB Live! Platinum review - Mikael @ 03:08 EST

I think it was awhile since we last saw one of these but now you can read a review of Creative's SB Live!Platinum at 3D Spotlight. It's the Americas edition with Live!Drive I they have listened to. In this review they mention encoding to MP3 with "no loss of quality" which isn't really true. MP3 will never be identical to the source so there is some loss, may not be audible though. One other error is that they mention Diamond's previous Monstersound cards have all used chips from Aureal which isn't exactly true, except for the MX300, only the 3D audio technology come from Aureal. Not that important except when it comes to drivers since you were stuck with Diamond's driver support. The MX300 as you probably know can be used with Aureal's Vortex2 reference drivers.

One more interesting bit in the review is that they found the biggest difference between the Live and Vortex2 in games to be when you use 4-speakers when they found the Vortex2 to be superior, this the exact opposite to our impression except some A3D 2.0 racing games. For more about that check out our Platinum review.

Tuesday, January 25, 2000

Wireless DVD without the Hassle - Mark @ 22:54 EST

X-10 sent out a press release yesterday describing their DVD Anywhere 2000 kit. This is basically the same kit I reviewed earlier this month but with a new remote and an updated software interface (that still does not work great with DVD players IMO). A couple of days ago they also announced the new MP3 Anywhere 2000 kit. Its the same hardware as the DVD Anywhere kit, just a different way to use it. For lots more on these kits you can read our in-depth review where I conclude that its a great way to stretch value out of that PC DVD system or send MP3's to your home stereo.

Programmer Arrested as DVD Encryption Suits Fly - Mark @ 22:41 EST

Norwegian police arrested a 16-year-old student who sent the U.S. movie industry into a frenzy when he helped create a program that breaks the encryption on DVDs that spread like wildfire on the Net.

In an interview today, Jon Johansen said that police raided his house yesterday to collect evidence stemming from allegations that he violated trade secrets to create a program called DeCSS, which cracks the security code in the DVD Content Scrambling System. That, in turn, allows people to view digital movies through unauthorized players, such as computers running the Linux operating system.

Police seized several computers, a Nokia cellular phone and some CDs and then charged Johansen with breaking security to gain unauthorized access to data or software. He and his father, whose company's Web site was used to post the program, also were charged with copyright infringement. For lots more on this story and several others around the DVD encryption issue check out C/NET.

1999's Top PC 20 Games Announced - Mikael @ 19:28 EST

PC Data has released the 20 best selling retail games list for all of 1999. I assume just US but not sure. Here's the 3D sound titles that managed to be on this list

2. SimCity 3000 (DS3D with EAX)
6. Half-Life (DS3D with EAX and A3D 2.0 with wavetracing)
10. Baldur's Gate(EAX)
13. Rainbow Six Gold Edition (DS3D)
15. Need for Speed 3(DS3D with EAX)
17. Deer Hunter 3(A3D 1.X)
18. Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace (DS3D with EAX and A3D 1.0)
20. Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear(DS3D with EAX 2.0)

Juster vs Sony SRS-Z750PC speakers - Mikael @ 19:08 EST

Dans Data has done a speaker round-up including four three-piece systems from Juster and Sony's 2-piece system, the SRS-Z750PC, that cost more than all the system from Juster. The review not only mention how each system sound but they also opened the speakers and have some picture showing you that and comments on how they are designed. In the end the review draw the conclusion that a subwoofer is a must for great bass in this price range (sub $AUD200).

In this review you will also learn about resonance and PMPO, which are useless. The review for some reason doesn't mention RMS that should be more accurate but still can mislead you on how loud the system really is.
News Source: AGN Hardware

Video review of Midiland S4/7100 Speakers - Mikael @ 18:38 EST

AGN Hardware have now posted their video review of Midiland's S4/7100 5.1 speaker system. It's just 7 minutes long but I haven't checked it out yet. From the MidiLand interview from last week I know Jeremy didn't find the bass response to be good and was unable to connect the system to his 5.1 soundcard but otherwise found it to be a good system. Mark has watched the review and says its gives a good overview of the system. According to Jeremy the volume is a little lacking (about 95 dB) but sound quality is good. He also notes that while Jeremy is fairly clear about the speakers not having a Dolby Digital decoder he does mention that they have AC3 support. What he should say is they have 5.1 support via the 6 analog inputs as AC3 support would mean they have a decoder.

Benwin Flat Panel Speakers - Mikael @ 18:37 EST

If you haven't read enough reviews of Benwin's BW2000 flat panel system you could check out Damage Gaming's review of it. It's very short and I found their subwoofer comments a bit confusing

On the other hand, the sub-woofer does leave a little to be desired. Weighing in at only 6 watts it is a little weak. We found that when turned up all the way that it gave us what we were looking for but a little more power would be good. Overall the sub-woofer provides a strong bass, we were satisfied.

ProMedia review - Mikael @ 18:36 EST

Atomic Geek has posted their review of this system 5 piece system from Klipsch and just like everyone else they found it to offer excellent quality. I disagree with some of their comments in this review where they make the impression that the only other company in this market producing high quality speakers is Cambridge SoundWorks. I also think statements like "After listening to them for a couple of hours, I came to the conclusion that these are the best sounding PC/Multimedia speakers you can buy for the money." is a bit silly unless he actually tried most other PC/Multimedia speakers in this price range which I doubt. He may very well be correct though.

When it comes to power many (including this review) make too big deal of the Watts (RMS) since it doesn't automatically translate to much louder, it will depend on the effeciency of the drivers. They also make it sounds like wood cabinet enclosure for the subwoofer is proof of high quality, while it certainly is better than plastic most other subwoofers on the market uses wood. It could also be worth noting that Klipsch now ships all the ProMedia with the low gain pre-amp and I don't think that this problem is more noticeable on the Live, it's just more noticeable from the rear speakers and the Live is probably the most common soundcard among those that buy this system.

You can check out our (Mark's) review of this system for a second opinion.
News Source: AGN Hardware

Dolby Digital 2.0 CD and DVD disc with both DTS and DD 5.1 - Mikael @ 17:34 EST

Orbison Records will release a fully remastered Dolby Digital 2.0 version of Roy Orbison's acclaimed ``Black & White Night'' CD which they claim will be sonically superior to the original release. You can check out the press release for more details about this CD. This remastered CD follows the November release of the ``Black & White Night'' special edition DVD which is offers both Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio and DTS 5.1 which could be interesting for those that want to check out the difference between these two formats when it comes to music. You can check out the November press release for more details about this DVD.

Week in Review - Mikael @ 17:17 EST

We have posted our latest edition of the 3D Audio Week in Review covering January 17-23. 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.

Worldwide Standard for Digital AM Radio - Mikael @ 16:42 EST

USA Digital Radio Inc and Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), a global consortium from the broadcasting industry, yesterday announced plans to work together in developing and promoting a worldwide standard for digital AM broadcasting. Not sure exactly what quality this will offer but here's what the press release say about DAB

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a digital method of transmitting virtual CD-quality audio signals to radio receivers. iDAB is a broadcasting technology developed by USA Digital Radio that uses the current radio spectrum to transmit existing AM and FM analog simultaneously with new high-quality digital signals. This technology provides a unique opportunity for broadcasters and listeners to convert from analog to digital radio without service disruption while maintaining current dial positions of existing stations. Listeners who purchase digital radios would receive their favorite radio stations with superior sound quality free from static, hiss and noise, and with reduced interference. Additionally, listeners would have the capability to receive expanded auxiliary data services, such as station and program content, stock and news information, local traffic and weather, email and Internet access and much more.

Seat-Top Rear-Seat Entertainment System - Mikael @ 16:25 EST

Delphi Automotive Systems demonstrated its Communiportr Seat-top Rear-Seat Audio/Video System at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention this week. The Delphi Delco Electronics Systems entertainment application fits on the top of a rear bench seat system allows rear-seat passengers to play DVD movies or plug in game platforms. The entertainment system can be installed in seconds by securing the console unit with a seat belt in the middle seat position of the rear seat and plugging a power cable into the cigarette lighter power source. A seven-inch diagonal color display flips up from the console to show movies or games.

The system, which can be used in or out of the vehicle, will be marketed through OEM and dealer distribution channels. There's a couple additional bits in the press release.

RCA Lyra Review - Mikael @ 16:05 EST

Wicked PC has posted a review of this portable MP3 player from RCA called Lyra. They found it to offer great sound quality and other than the standard features like 32 or 64 MB memory and parallel port interface it have an equalizer with a few presets and it can be expanded to support new sound encoding formats.

DTT2500 review - Mikael @ 15:10 EST

Tech-Review has posted their impressions of Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2500 speaker system and they were overall very pleased with the features and sound quality even though they think the subwoofer was slightly lacking. They mention the subwoofer is rated down to 22 Hz which I doubt is correct. As I recall it's frequency response is 50-20 kHz for this system and our testing showed that to be accurate, maybe slightly better or about 45 Hz volume was still good. You can check out our review for more of our impression of this system.
News Source: Anandtech

Thief 2 interview - Mikael @ 15:05 EST

Game Arena has posted an interview with Steve Pearsall, the Project Director of Thief II: The Metal Age. The game is expected to support DS3D with EAX and A3D 1.X when it ships a couple of months from now. Not much about specific audio details in this interview but a lot of other interesting info. Here's a bit about the gameplay

5. Can you describe the major changes in gameplay compared to Thief 1?

I don't know if I'd classify the gameplay changes we have in store for Thief 2 as major. Thief 1 was an experimental title for us and we've learned a lot about designing for the stealth gameplay experience. In Thief 2 we are applying the lessons we've learned with Thief 1 and trying to come us with a design that takes the foundations of stealth gameplay that we laid down in Thief 1 to a whole new level.

So the gameplay in Thief 2 is focused a lot more exclusively on stealth and a little bit less on exploration and jumping/climbing puzzles.

The improvements we've made the AI in particular will making sneaking and stealthy gameplay more important than it was in Thief 1.

Analog Devices, Staccato and Sensaura offer SoundMAXr v2.0 - Mark @ 08:38 EST

Analog Devices, Inc. has announced that, in a joint initiative with Staccato Systems and Sensaura, it has developed a PC audio solution that they claim gives the average PC user the most realistic and feature-rich sound quality available on the market today. The system is called SoundMAXr v2.0 and its not designed to replace your high end sound card. What it is targeted is sub-$500 PCs where they hope it will make low cost OEM sound cards that you find in inexpensive PCs a thing of the past. One thing that is not clear from the announcement is just what advanced audio features it actually brings to the market as there is mention of Sensaura but no mention of DS3D, EAX or I3DL2.

Analog Devices says that this new software-based motherboard sound system is poised for rapid market adoption as the second generation in ADI's SoundMAX family. SoundMAX v1.0 is currently shipping in one-third of the PCs on the market today. Based on Analog Devices' AD1885 CODEC (COder/DECoder) and Windowsr software drivers, SoundMAX v2.0 owes its hardware success to a new PC motherboard architecture that is built into Intelr 810e, 815, 820 and 440MX core logic chipsets. According to the release, the design inherently provides 50 percent lower cost, size and power consumption than even the cheapest PCI alternatives.

MusicMatch First Jukebox Software to Integrate Internet Radio Tuner - Mark @ 08:24 EST

MusicMatch, Inc. has announced that the award-winning MusicMatch Jukebox is now the first personal jukebox software available with an integrated Internet radio tuner, offering consumers the most complete jukebox solution for discovering and experiencing streamed and downloadable digital music. Powered by Hiwire (formerly known as Rocketradio), the new fully integrated Net Radio feature in MusicMatch Jukebox gives users access to more than 3,000 Internet radio stations and audio streams in all major formats from within the MusicMatch Jukebox player interface.

With the addition of the Net Radio feature, users can now take advantage of the powerful search and storage capabilities of MusicMatch Jukebox to access the largest number of Internet radio stations on the Web. Users receive detailed descriptions of the stations available, from a constantly refreshed list of Internet radio stations in nearly 40 genres. The feature adds to robust existing support for MP3, Windows Media Audio, Icecast and Shoutcast streaming audio in the jukebox. They also announced that MusicMatch now offers users worldwide the option to download the MusicMatch Jukebox software in four additional languages - French, German, Italian and Spanish. Getting back to the integrated radio announcement, depending on just what you consider to be a personal jukebox they may be the first widely available integrated player but not really be first as Aureal's Vortex Player (for their Vortex sound cards) and the Soleo software (no longer available) that Vortex of Sound was working on both offer MP3 playback with integrated internet radio functionality.

Intel to Include Lucent Audio Coder Technology - Mark @ 08:03 EST

Intel Corporation has announced that the Intelr Software Integrity System will feature audio compression technology from Lucent Technologies, a move that will offer the developers of e-commerce music distribution platforms a one-stop source for content protection and CD-quality sound. Under a non-exclusive agreement, Lucent will license its Enhanced Perceptual Audio Coder(TM) (ePAC(TM)) to Intel for incorporation into its Intel Software Integrity System, a solution that features Intel's patented tamper-resistant software technology, which hides critical code, keys and other secrets from observation and detects attempts to break security mechanisms. For more on this announcement you can read the press release.

Windows Media to be Intergrated with Liquid Audio Products - Mark @ 08:00 EST

Microsoft and Liquid Audio have announced they are working together to add support for Microsoftr Windows Media(TM) Technologies to Liquid Audio's open, multiformat music distribution system and services. According to the announcement, these efforts respond to the growing demand for Windows Media among consumers and the music industry, and reinforce Liquid Audio's commitment to offering a wide range of music delivery technologies in its distribution system. For much more details on just how, when and where it will be integrated you can read the full announcement.

Get Game Commander SE with Live! - Mark @ 07:55 EST

Mindmaker today announced that the SE version of its award-winning Game Commander software is bundled with Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live! Platinum sound card. Game Commander SE offers exceptional voice command recognition allowing gamers to say commands instead of using awkward and hard to remember keystrokes. According to the release, Game Commander provides an enormous benefit to gamers who want to use a robust and reliable voice command system instead of tiresome and complex keystrokes. Now if only Creative would bundle a better microphone with the Platinum!

Lynnfield VR-M50 Loudspeaker - Mark @ 07:51 EST

Not really PC related but interesting none the less as we tend to see the trickle effect from the high end down to the multimedia products with companies such as Cambridge Soundworks and Boston Acoustics who cover a wide market range. In this case it's Boston Acoustics whose Lynnfield VR-M50 Loudspeaker won the 1999 Award for Design Excellence Gold Award from Design Journal Magazine. For more on the award and the speakers you can check out the announcement.

Labtec LCS-2514 5-Point Speakers Review - Mikael @ 06:23 EST

Gamespot has also posted a review of Labtec's 5-piece speaker system . Again very short review and a score of 6.5 out of 10. They don't think it offers excellent quality but found sound quality to be surprisingly good. Just like their DigiTheatre review no mention of how it compares to anything else and almost no specs.
News Source: Aureal A3D Central

2041 reference drivers for the Vortex2 - Mikael @ 06:23 EST

Terratec and VideoLogic has already released these Windows95/98 drivers but I don't think they have been available on Aureal's site until now. Nothing major in these but if you had crashing problems could be worth to try them out otherwise I suggest you wait until the 2048 release. Thanks to MajorGaines for the pointer.

DigiTheatre review - Mikael @ 06:23 EST

Gamespot has posted a very short and rather negative review of VideoLogic's DigiTheatre with a score of 6.5 of 10. I'm not sure exactly what they compare with they mention that the Teac PowerMax 2000 is even cheaper but not if the sound quality is better or not. Almost get the impression they think all these sub $500 all-in-one DD 5.1 system sounds about the same and you should just get the cheapest or pay more for great quality. If you read my review of the DigiTheatre you know I think they sound a lot better than DTT2500 when it comes to DVD movies and also find think the front satellites where you have both a bass-mid range driver and a tweeter to be better than t