News:  March 20-26, 2000

Sunday, March 26, 2000

X-Gamer and FPS2000 contest - Mikael @ 15:21 EST

Since I can't find any real news I could as well remind you once again about the banners that you see running from Creative Labs. Creative Labs is sponsoring a contest where (if you live in North America) you can win a Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer or a set of FPS2000 speakers depending on which banner you click on. Even if you already have another good sound card you might want to enter the Live contest as you can either run two sound card (e.g. Vortex 2 and Live) or take the excellent game bundle and give the card to a friend! Look for the Creative Labs banners and click on them to enter the contest. A good idea now for Vortex2 owners stuck with a soundcard that's extremely unlikely to see any future support. Following the banners you can also find some other info about Creative's products.

Having problems with LW2K? Try this. - Mikael @ 15:19 EST

I haven't bought Windows 2000 yet but I saw this post in the Live forum Justin which should be worth a try if Windows 2000 keeps rebooting after you installed the Liveware drivers

Like many of you, I had problems with the new release of Liveware 2K. I would encounter a KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED blue screen, in the module emu10k1f.sys, during startup.

To fix this problem, here is what I did:
1) Remove the directory \Program Files\Creative (Delete everything)
2) Reinstall Windows 2000 (Using the update feature, so that all of your settings etc are preserved)
3) Install LW2K.

Saturday, March 25, 2000

Aureal and drivers - Mikael @ 23:48 EST

According to Vortex of Sound Aureal will post the last build of the Windows 2000 drivers sometime this weekend. The Vortex2 drivers are expected to offer full support for DS3D and A3D 3.0 except reverb which also means no EAX or I3DL2 support. SPDIF will work but probably not AC3 pass-thru. Vortex 1 and Vortex Advantage drivers will also be released. The drivers is just beta and will of course not be supported. It's also most likely the last driver release we will ever see from Aureal.

Vortex of Sound also reports that according to rumours they've heard the rest of the staff is either resigning or has already left. As mentioned in Friday's press release the executives and senior staff have resigned, that is the entire management team. With no employees left in the company the chance is pretty much zero that someone will buy the company and continue to develop, market and sell the Vortex series or the A3D API. Someone may of course buy Aureal's IP, patents and/or 3D audio engine but most likely they just incorporate it into their own products or find the patents useful just in case they happen to infringe them (or use them to sue others). We probably will find out more already next week, who buys the IP could take a bit longer to find out though.
News Source: Vortex of Sound

eGo MP3 Player Review - Mikael @ 20:56 EST

3D-Unlimited has checked out i2Go MP3 Player, the eGo which in addition to standard MP3 playback features news, sports, weather and uses Microsoft Voice conversion system to read your e-mail to you. It's mostly intended to be used in a car but if you go with CompactFlash memory instead of Microdrives discs it can be used with batteries.
News Source: Anandtech

Thief 2 Tech-Support - Mikael @ 20:36 EST

Eidos has opened their tech support page for Thief 2: The Metal Age. When it comes to sound they just say mention the game supports 3D and environmental sound using EAX and A3D and that you should get the latest drivers. According to Vortex of Sound the Thief 2 box recommends "EAX 2.0 or A3D 2.0 supporting sound card" which may indicate it supports A3D 2.0 but it's also possible it's just A3D 1.0 and they just mean Vortex2 cards when they say A3D 2.0.

Sonic Mayhem Interview - Mikael @ 20:25 EST

Damaged Gaming posted a rather short interview with Sascha Dikiciyan, one of the guys behind Quake III's musical score.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Rally Masters demo - Mikael @ 20:20 EST

A demo of Rally Masters has been released. You can grab the demo from 3dfiles. Not sure about the demo but the full game is expected to support DS3D with EAX and A3D 2.0 with wavetracing. For more info check out the official site.

X-Gamer and FPS2000 contest - Mikael @ 09:25 EST

Just a reminder of the banners that you see running from Creative Labs. Creative Labs is sponsoring a contest where (if you live in North America) you can win a Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer or a set of FPS2000 speakers depending on which banner you click on. Even if you already have another good sound card you might want to enter the Live contest as you can either run two sound card (e.g. Vortex 2 and Live) or take the excellent game bundle and give the card to a friend! Look for the Creative Labs banners and click on them to enter the contest. A good idea now for Vortex2 owners stuck with a soundcard that's extremely unlikely to see any future support.

5.1 Entertainment Group announces their DVD Music plans - Mikael @ 06:04 EST

5.1 Entertainment Group, the worldwide leader in production and release of DVD Music Products, announces the formation of their Silverline and immergent record labels. Both will operate under the 5.1 Entertainment Group banner.

Catering to the thriving DVD-based "6-channel surround sound" music marketplace, Silverline Records will debut over 15 high end classical and jazz DVD Music titles on March 28, 2000, with immergent Records' initial pop reissue releases due Spring/Summer 2000. Discs will carry a suggested retail list price of $19.98.

The 5.1 Entertainment Group is at the forefront of developing the groundbreaking "5.1(five speakers, plus the sub-woofer) multi-channel format," also known as "6-channel surround sound." The DVD Music discs, which play on any and all DVD players (including today's DVD players and the soon to be released DVD Audio Format), offer more than twice the sound quality of traditional CDs, as well as compelling visuals. Every Silverline and immergent discs will contain AC3 and DTS formats and, in June 2000, DVD Audio will also be incorporated on all releases. 5.1 Entertainment Group is at the forefront in providing "6-channel sound" for the 12 million-plus (and rapidly growing number) of DVD and home theatre consumers.

Check out the full press release for more details where you also find the 15 DVD titles that will be launched March 28.

Aureal Announces Resignation of All Executive Officers and Senior Staff Members - Mikael @ 02:10 EST

Aureal late yesterday announced the resignation of all of its executive officers, including its President and CEO, Kip Kokinakis, its Chief Technical Officer, Scott Foster, its Chief Financial Officer, David Domeier, and its Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Brendan O'Flaherty, along with all senior staff members of Aureal. The Board of Aureal stated that it is seeking replacement or turnaround management and is considering all necessary actions to either sell the Company or its assets or wind down the Company.

When the executive and senior staff resigns (or are forced to resign) it's pretty much over. It's possible some parts of Aureal will survive but it certainly won't be the Aureal we know and I seriously doubt you will see any future drivers for the Vortex2. Maybe they will release the Win2k beta drivers but that's about it. It's also doubtful if we will see many more A3D games especially not games using wavetracing. Of course possible Aureal will sell the A3D SDK but I think it's unlikely they bother, better chance it goes open source.

Thanks to Steven Clayton and Skunky Punky for the pointer.

Optical Drive (CD/CDR/CDRW/DVD) Tweak Guide - Mikael @ 01:53 EST

Tweak3D have posted an Optical Drive Tweak Guide covering CD,CD-r,CDRW and DVD-ROM drives. The tweak includes getting new drivers, enabling Sync Data Transfer and Direct Memory Access (DMA), Cache setting, getting Winboost and CD-Quick Cache, IDE Channel Configuration, cleaning your drive and finally for CD-R/CD-RW drives they recommend getting audiograbber and Nero.
News Source: Anandtech

Creative Technology rallies as sound card demand stabilizes - Mikael @ 01:46 EST

That's the headline for an article at CNET Singapore that mentions the increase in the stock is because its sound card business has stabilized and its Internet ventures will start to pay of. The article mentions a 5% increase of the share Thursday. Could be interesting to know that the share has gone up more than 20% since Monday in the US market and hit an all time high 36 5/8 yesterday. That's an increase of more than 300% from the 52 week low of 8 7/8.
News Source: ALive

Utopia Live! SoundFont - Mikael @ 01:35 EST

ALive has posted a review of The Utopia Live! General MIDI SoundFont. The review covers several basic MIDI issues, and also takes a look at the complexity in creating SoundFonts.

They have also posted an interview with Roel de Wit from Utopia Sound Division which covers Roel de Wit from Utopia Sound Division. I've never tried this sound font but I know Mark thinks it offers fantastic midi quality.

DVD Genie 3.40 - Mikael @ 01:19 EST

Yet another version of this little tool that allows you to tweak your DVD player has been released. No major news but you can check out the list of new features/bug fixes here.
News Source: 3dfiles

Friday, March 24, 2000

BA4800 review - Mikael @ 17:41 EST

Vince has posted a review of the BA4800 in our forum.

A bit more on Indrema - Mikael @ 17:33 EST

As you may recall we mentioned a company named Indrema (=Dreamin') a week ago which talked about releasing a game console using Linux. They now have a press release where it more sounds like a set-top box than a new game console (just like I suggested btw). Nothing about 3D sound in this but they mention DVD, MP3, web browser, 3D graphics and few other bits. You can check it out if you are interested.

Aureal down 38% - Mikael @ 17:00 EST

According to Yahoo Aureal's stock closed 38% below yesterday's last trade. Certainly not great but it's actually just back where it was early February. With a $48 Million market Cap. it's obvious many investors still thinks someone will buy or make a major investment in Aureal. Let's hope that happens and that the investor will continue to develop and sell soundcards using Aureal's technology.

Napster takes steps to overcome network overload - Mikael @ 07:14 EST

Reuters has a report that says Napster found a solution for hundreds of universities that have had to ban the program. The solutions is a more intelligent computer searching techniques. You can check out the full story for more details.

Theatrix review - Mikael @ 07:02 EST

3DAI has posted a review of Best Data's 5.1 sound card, Theatrix. Could mention that I never found a software DVD player that support AC3 pass-thru on this card, not even sure if the drivers support SPDIF pass-thru. I would also say the compatibility of QSound reverb is behind Sensaura's since it doesn't support I3DL2 or EAX 2.0 but the quality is better to my ears. Finally I don't think the software decoding of AC-3 is mostly a CPU usage issue, it's mostly a quality issue. It doesn't have to be like that but for some reason none of the software DVD players I've tried offers the same decoding quality that the hardware DVD solutions I've tried. In this review when he say Dolby Digital "compatible" amplifier he means Dolby Digital ready.

Star Wars: Force Commander Patch - Mikael @ 06:51 EST

A new patch for Star Wars: Force Commander has been released. It mostly fixes multiplayer patch which improves issues like stability for Internet play and improves responsiveness of the interface in high-lag situations. You can grab it from 3dfiles. The game supports A3D 1.X and DS3D with EAX.

Counter Strike Beta 6.1 Released! - Mikael @ 06:41 EST

Version 6.1 of this excellent mod for Half-Life has been released addressing a few issues people have noticed. The patch is server side so mainly server ops need this only. You can grab it from 3dfiles where you can see the full list of fixes.

Thursday, March 23, 2000

Dirt Track Racing Patch - Mikael @ 18:20 EST

A new patch for the A3D 1.X and DS3D with EAX supporting Dirt Track Racing has been released. You can grab the patch at 3dfiles where you can also find some info what new features/fixes this patch includes

Aureal's 'financial resources are severely stretched' - Mikael @ 16:41 EST

Aureal today finally announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 1999 ended January 2, 2000. Pretty bad quarter with revenues for the quarter $8.5 million, down from $11.2 million in the third quarter and $10.8 million in the year-ago fourth quarter. The results was not very good either with a net loss of $9.5 million compared to a loss of $3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 1998. For the full year revenue was up 59% to $40.3 millions but loss was also up $26.9 million compared to $18.5 million for 1998. Aureal blamed the poor Q4 results on the court fight with Creative and the legal expenses for the full year exceeded $6.4 million.

Now on to the interesting bit in the press release:

"Our financial resources are severely stretched to the point that we must seek an immediate capital infusion to continue our business," continued Kokinakis. To that end, we have held discussions with multiple parties regarding a potential sale of our company or a significant capital infusion. Such discussions are continuing at this time, but there is no assurance that we will complete a transaction. Our largest shareholder has stepped in to provide interim funding through its acquisition from our prior lenders of, and funding under, our existing credit facility, although there is no assurance that this will continue."

You can find a few addition tidbits in the press release.

The World's Most Powerful Audio System - Mikael @ 14:24 EST

That's what AIWA claims when they introduce their new a new surround sound system Mega A/V XH-A1000 digital audio system which features 800 watts of total power. The system not only includes speakers and subwoofer but also include Dolby Prologic decoder, CD changer, tuner and auto-reverse cassette deck. I guess their world's most powerful only refers to other integrated systems. The suggested retail price of the XH-A1000 is $700.00. You can find a lot more details in the press release.

e.Digital Licenses Sony's Proprietary ATRAC3 Format - Mikael @ 14:15 EST

e.Digital Corp. today announced a licensing agreement to incorporate Sony's proprietary ATRAC3(TM) sound compression technology into e.Digital's portable Internet music player designs. In case you don't know ATRAC3 is the sound compression technology used in MiniDisc. It will be interesting to see if Sony will be able to make it a major format for Digital music in the future. You can check out the press release for more details.

Videologic Speaker interview - Mikael @ 13:49 EST

Update: I just listened to it and not much news if you read our review of the DigiTheatre and Crossfire. The only news is that VideoLogic confirms that the DigiTheatre is now available in US while the Crossfire will not be available until May 1 and will have a SRP of $449. You already know this if you visit our forums or checked out DigiTheatre.com. The AGNHardware crew also mention they think the Crossfire sounds better than the ProMedia. Mark should have a comparison up between these two when he gets back. It's pretty much already done (including written) he just need to do a quick check of the new low-gain preamp to see the hiss is reduced, quality the same and redo the SPL tests.

Last night's AGN Hardware Show featured an interview and product overview with Ray Wells, Colin Crawford, and David Harold from Videologic, where they discussed their new Crossfire and DigiTheatre home speaker systems. If you are interested check it out.

Soldier Of Fortune European Demo Patch - Mikael @ 13:45 EST

Raven has released a patch that enables the violence options for the European Low Violence Soldier of Fortune demo that some European magazines shipped. You can grab the 338 kb small patch from 3dfiles

Imagination Technologies buy Ensigma - Mikael @ 12:57 EST

Imagination Technologies has agreed to acquire Ensigma, a private company specialising in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms and technologies for entertainment, communication and speech applications, with acknowledged experience and intellectual property (IP) in audio and speech processing. Ensigma will become a new division of Imagination Technologies, joining existing divisions PowerVR Technologies and VideoLogic Systems. The newly established Ensigma Technologies division will focus its development resources on Digital Radio, Wireless and Internet Communication, Consumer Audio and Speech Technology. You can find more details in the press release.

Interview with Ion Storm's Audio Director - Mikael @ 01:01 EST

Ion Storm has posted an interview with their Audio Director and a song entitled "Face Rake". It's a rather short interview discussing what Music he did for Daikatana, what he's currently working on and this new death match song "Face Rake". Head over to Ion Storm's news page to download the song and read the interview.

News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Cambridge SoundWorks Digital 2.1 Reviewed!! - Mikael @ 00:39 EST

In this review will take a look at Cambridge Soundworks new 2.1 speaker system, the SoundWorks Digital. The system is an update (and replacement) to their classic SoundWorks three-piece system. The new system has been built around their highly successful FPS2000 system and as such also features design elements common with the DTT2500. This very affordable (99 dollar) system is targeted at the both the PC and home audio (for TVs, portable CD players, MP3 players, etc) market and offers two analog inputs and a COAX digital input!

Wednesday, March 22, 2000

Surround Sound Solutions - Mikael @ 19:08 EST

Thanks to Allan for the pointer to an article at IGN.com that discuss complete Surround Sound Solutions in the $300-750 price range. The system they list are Cambridge SoundWorks DeskTop Theater ($300), JVC MX-J70 ($400 and just ProLogic), NSX-DS11 ($525.00) and Panasonic SC-DK1 ($750.00). They give a very brief description/comment on each system.

In the intro they mention that games is just stereo now which isn't true, we have 3D sound and we have Dolby Surround. When it comes to games using AC-3/Dolby Digital don't expect this to be interactive surround sound, it will be used for soundtracks, movie clips and maybe ambient sound.

In their movie tips they suggest to not buy THX or DTS systems. I agree that DTS isn't worth a lot more but there are DTS/Dolby Digital systems available now that doesn't cost much more than those that only support Dolby Digital. When it comes to THX their For the THX enhancements to work is a bit misleading. THX is just (except THX-EX) a quality standard and non THX stuff can certainly be better than one that's THX certified. THX are just meant to make Lucas rich and give lazy shoppers a guarantee that the system performs well. Important to note there are now several different THX certifications so be sure. They also suggest that Surround EX is not that relevant, which is true now but the number of movies using it will increase and at least in movie theaters it offers a significant benefit IMO. It will certainly have less impact in your living room not to mention when you sit at your computer but I would still buy it if the price premium is 20% or less. So far I have not seen any Surround-EX system in the $300-700 price range. Could add that Surround EX are more like the Dolby Prologic mono surround channel than the Prologic Center channel since just like the Prologic surround channel the center rear channel has limited frequency response.

Sound Advance Debuts 'Invisible' Flat-Panel Speakers - Mikael @ 16:24 EST

Sound Advance Systems today introduced the first "invisible" flat-panel speakers for discerning homeowners who believe high-quality audio should be heard and not seen. Designed to replace traditional speaker boxes the new SA2 sound systems are built into the walls or ceilings and covered with common wall coverings such as wallpaper, plaster and paint so they are completely invisible when installed.

They claim the speakers will project the highest quality sound through the wall coverings at 180-degree angles, virtually eliminating the limited ``sweet spot'' required when listening to conventional boxed, cone-shaped speakers that must be carefully spaced in home entertainment settings. The speakers are already installed in the homes of several celebrities, including Bill Gates, Cher, Madonna and Placido Domingo, who said:
``I have probably heard most of the top-quality sound systems throughout the world. When it came to my own home, I chose the SA2s -- no boxes, no grills, just incredibly realistic and marvelous sound.''

Sounds pretty good but it will cost you $1000 for one pair of speakers with an additional $400 to hookup.
You can check out the press release for more details.

Play Digital Music on Audio Cassette Players - Mikael @ 16:23 EST

SmartDisk Corporation announced today that it has developed a FlashTrax that will extend digital music to users of traditional audio cassette players. It resembles a conventional audio cassette but has a slot that accepts a removable flash memory card on which digital audio files are stored. FlashTrax will enable traditional audio cassette players, particularly those installed in automobiles, to play music downloaded from the Internet or copied from an existing CD collection. You can check out the press release for more details.

MP3 Indexing Support for Web Sites - Mikael @ 16:22 EST

PicoSearch announced today its indexing support for the popular audio file format known as MP3. All PicoSearch users may now search for the songtitle, artist, album, and other tagged information commonly included in MP3 files by the ID3 tagging standard.
You can find more details in the press release.

Hitachi GD-5000 8X DVD Drive review - Mikael @ 16:22 EST

GamePC has posted a review of Hitachi 8X DVD-ROM drive, GD-500. When it comes to CD it will read at up to 40X. In the review you will find CD-ROM performance and CPU usage numbers but not any DVD numbers. The review also note that it has a digital CD output and use tray-loading instead of slot-loading.
News Source: Anandtech

New TerraTec products @ CeBIT 2000 - Mikael @ 12:59 EST

Yes Cebit ended a few weeks ago but Terratec just mailed us about a few other new products they demonstrated during Cebit in addition to DMX XFire 1024 and MP3 OnAir that we have already mentioned. First up is a brief overview of their EWS series of soundcards that targeted to home and project studios. When it comes to new products they announced:

1. New features for the EWS88 MT audio system. With 8 inputs and outputs for analog audio equipment, continuous audio data processing with 24bit at up to 96kHz frequency from the converters to the driver, MIDI I/O as well as digital interfaces in S/PDIF format, the PCI card once again sets the price/performance standard in the music market. The EWS88 MT now also has an ASIO 2.0 driver which can take up to four cards in one PC (ASIO with up to 40 inputs and 40 outputs at up to 24bit/96kHz, full-duplex). In addition, AC3 audio streams - for example for DVD - can now be sent through the digital output. And: the EWS88 MT now supports the NEMESYS Gigasampler interface GSIF. EWS88 MT owners can download the new software features on www.terratec.net
   
2. The new EWS88 D model which is based on the technology of the AudioSystem EWS88 MT and provides a total of 10 digital audio channels. The EWS88 D will be available in April 2000.
   
3. Synchronisation via EWS ClockWork. Cards with EWS-Connect* can be connected internally to the EWS ClockWork module to ensure perfect synchronization with the digital outside world. The module can either transfer the clock signal of a master EWS card to all external devices with a minimum of jitter, or it can follow an external clock. Up to 4 EWS cards with EWS-Connect* in the computer can be coupled in parallel to the WordClock signal using only a single EWS ClockWork module.

Live!Ware for Windows 2000 - Mikael @ 07:00 EST

Creative has just posted the long awaited Live!Ware for Windows 2000. Live!Ware for Windows 2000 is similar to LiveWare 1.0 but the drivers support EAX 2.0. For more details about these drivers check out Creative's Live!Ware for Windows 2000 FAQ. Thanks to Lee and Alex for the news.

Not sure anyone cares but Creative Labs have for some reason decided to kill SBLive.com and instead go with just the Soundblaster.com site.

Tuesday, March 21, 2000

Rollcage Stage II is shipping - Mikael @ 22:05 EST

Matrox Graphics and TAKE 2 Interactive today announced that Rollcage Stage II, the high-speed 3D car racing game, is shipping with integrated support for the Matrox Millennium G400's environment mapped bump mapping. More importantly the game supports DS3D with EAX according to Creative's EAX list. Not sure if it's shipping in both US or just Europe, it's not available at Gamestop anyway. For more about the game check out the official site.
News Source: Avault

QSound will buy StreamMagic for C$100 millions - Mikael @ 22:02 EST

QSound announced today that it has signed a letter of agreement to acquire 100% of Los Angeles based StreamMagic, Inc., a leading provider of Internet video streaming, in a stock-for-stock transaction valued today at approximately $100 million.

The combination of QSound's enhanced audio and StreamMagic's broadband video delivery solutions will enable content publishers to deliver rich media via the Internet in a cost effective manner.

Immediately prior to this transaction, the Company plans to spin off its non-Internet audio business segment and its e-commerce business segment to QSound shareholders in a new company that QSound intends to list publicly. More information regarding the spin-off will be forthcoming in a future press release. For more about this deal check out the press release. For more about QSound you can check out an article we posted about a year ago.

Extreme Biker patch 3 - Mikael @ 21:43 EST

A new patch for the DS3D supporting Edgar Torrenteras Extreme Biker has been released. It improves memory management, fixes display bugs, and also fixes the compatibility problem with Netscape and other web browsers where the dial-up and modem were activated before the game started. You can grab it from 3dfiles.

Fly3D 0.87 - Mikael @ 21:38 EST

Fly3D version 0.87 has just been released. Never heard of Fly3D? Here's a short description:

Fly3D is a game engine all written in C++. It supports OpenGL 1.1 as the 3D API, DirectInput for mouse and keyboard input, DirectSound for 3D sounds and DirectPlay for multiplayer. It runs on Win95/98/2000 and WinNT4.
Fly3D is full plugin directed. All you need to do to create a new game is build new plugins. A plugin wizard is available for VisualC++ that makes all the code required for a Fly3D plugin in a few mouse clicks.

Week in Review - Mikael @ 02:10 EST

We have posted our latest edition of the 3D Audio Week in Review covering March 13 - 19.

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.

Heavy Gear II patch - Mikael @ 01:44 EST

Activision has released a patch for the version of the IAS supporting Heavy Gear II that come bundled with 3Com US Robotics Game Modem edition. You can grab the 117 kb fix from 3dfiles

Sigma Designs Ships Sonic DVDit! LE with REALmagic DVR - Mark @ 00:46 EST

Sigma Designs Inc. and Sonic Solutions announced that Sigma Designs has begun shipping Sonic's DVDit! LE authoring software with Sigma's REALmagic DVR, a complete DVD/MPEG-2 encoding and playback card. REALmagic DVR enables Windows NT users to capture, edit, author and publish video on DVD as well as play DVD-Video content. To create a DVD title, video is captured and compressed into MPEG-2 using REALmagic DVR. Users then drag-and-drop their compressed video and audio clips, graphics, backgrounds and buttons into DVDit! LE to build an interactive DVD. With a single mouse click, all video and audio content is converted into DVD-Video format and written to DVD-R, CD-R using the new cDVD format, DVD-RAM or hard disk. The suggested retail price for the REALmagic DVR is $999 U.S. For more details check out the press release.

First Linux-based MPEG-2 Encoding Solution With Dolby Certification Announced by Zapex - Mark @ 00:42 EST

A new high performance Linux-based MPEG-2/Dolby encoder for satellite, video server, Digital Video Broadcast (DVB), and cable applications, priced considerably lower than other solutions, has been introduced by Zapex Technologies. All encode functions are performed by the ZL-330, achieving minimum utilization of the CPU and memory. The new product joins the other Zapex family of MPEG encoders which are designed for WindowsNT platforms. For more details check out the press release.

DVD International Inks Marketing Deal With 5.1 Entertainment Group - Mark @ 00:40 EST

DVD International, one of the industry's leading independent DVD suppliers, has signed a marketing agreement with 5.1 Entertainment Group, the worldwide leader in the production and release of DVD Music product, to release a series of six-channel surround sound DVD titles. The first 15 titles--to be released under the Silverline Records label--will be available on March 28th at a suggested retail price of $19.98 each. For more details check out the PR.

National Semiconductor Introduces Efficient High Power Class D Audio Power Amplifier - Mark @ 00:33 EST

National Semiconductor Corp. has announced the LM4651 and LM4652, a two-chip driver and quad MOSFET amplifier set for high-fidelity Class D subwoofer designs. This chipset provides up to 170 watts of audio power at an excellent 85% efficiency, with smaller space and lower cost. In comparison, Class AB amplifiers are only 50 to 60% efficient. This highly integrated LM4651 and LM4652 set eliminates the need for large power supplies, heat sinks and transformers to help achieve compact designs. For lots more details, check out the press release.

Monday, March 20, 2000

JHexen Version 0.99.3 Released - Mark @ 23:59 EST

A new version of the DS3D with EAX and A3D 3.0 supporting JHexen (OpenGL version of Hexen) has been released. This version features mostly bug fixes, for things like the automap background texture and some crashes with console commands like listbindings. There are no audio related changes mentioned. You can download it from the JHexen site where you can also find more details about this OpenGL port of Hexen.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Yepp' MP3 Player review - Mikael @ 15:41 EST

T-break has tested Samsung's MP3 Player Yepp and found it be a great MP3 player for the money. The player features 32 or 64MB memory, expansion slot, equalizer, stereo expansion, voice recording and a telephone directory.

Quadzilla Win2K drivers? - Mikael @ 15:03 EST

Cory Seaman passed on the following disappointing e-mail from Turtle Beach Tech Support

No promises can be made as to the future availability of Quadzilla specific Windows 2000 drivers. The Quadzilla is a gaming card, as such it is designed for use in consumer based operating systems, namely Windows95 and 98 (Millennium will,according to Microsoft, most likely be a minor update to Win98). Windows 2000, as Microsoft clearly states, is a business oriented Operating system, meant for running high end office and business applications, not for game playing.

Regards,
Dan
Turtle Beach Tech Support
Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc.
Ph. 914-966-2150
Fax.914-966-1093
tech@tbeach.com

Rune MP3 - Mikael @ 14:49 EST

3DAP has received a MP3 (2.3 MB) which should feature a demo of the music that the 3rd person adventure game Rune will feature when it's released. Rune is expected to support DS3D with EAX and A3D 2.0 when it ships later this year.
News Source: Anandtech

SQ2500 review - Mikael @ 14:47 EST

Tweaktown has posted a rather short reader submitted review of Aureal's SQ2500. The reviewer simply loves his SQ2500 and gives his best shot to convince you this is the card you should buy. Could add that you lose a lot more than 1-2 fps for enabling A3D 2.0 in half-life unless you are almost completely fillrate limited, A3D is currently broken in Quake3 (at least for me), A3D 2/3 works on DS3D/EAX cards but no reflections, the positional sound on the Vortex2 are just as great in A3D 1.0 game as in A3D 2.0 games IMO and finally I think the retail price for the SQ2500 is about the same as the X-Gamer/MP3+.
News Source: AGN Hardware

Guillemot's Maxi Sound Fortissimo review - Mikael @ 14:47 EST

Hot Hardware has posted a review of Guillemot's Maxi Sound Fortissimo. A bit odd review since they almost trash the 3D sound on it and then in the end give it 8 out of 10 score and say they recommend it. I guess they may have used the old drivers and the software bundle seems to the be old one so start to wonder if most boxes out there still has the old rather than the new software bundle. Anyway I disagree with this reviews impression of the 3D positional sound. You can check out our review of this card if you want to know more than that I simply disagree.
News Source: Anandtech

Summoner Composer/Sound Designer interview - Mikael @ 03:47 EST

RPG Vault has posted an interview with Wally Shaw, Composer and Sound Designer for the upcoming RPG Summoner. The interview is about Wally Shaw and doesn't reveal anything about Summoner except for a link to an MP3 from Volition's official site.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

DLink DMP-100 MP3 Player review - Mikael @ 03:18 EST

Sharky Extreme has put up their impressions of the DLink DMP-100 32MB MP3 Digital Audio Recorder which is what you usually refer to as a portable MP3 player. Just like the Pine D'Music portable player it retails for less than $160 and features 32 MB memory, smart media cards, voice recording, Parallel port connector, equalizer and according to the review offers great sound quality but it's not top notch.
News Source: Anandtech

DTT2500 review - Mikael @ 03:18 EST

ALive has posted a very detailed and positive review of Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater 5.1 DTT2500. In this review they mention an undocumented feature but considering what it does I think it's actually documented since the manual says you should disable all CMSS modes when you play Dolby Digital content. One thing this review doesn't bring up at all is that if you can use the Live and many other soundcards with SPDIF out (coaxial) to send AC-3 to the DTT2500 using a software decoder and in case of the Live also when using the Dxr3. A couple other points worth noting is that I don't think the music or movie CMSS mode offers much if any improvement to simply forcing Dolby Prologic on stereo content so I wouldn't consider those a reason to buy this speaker instead of some other Dolby Digital system. Finally in their conclusion they mention some improvements they like to see in the next system from Cambridge SoundWorks and one of them are In FourPoint mode, the center speaker should be used to provide better directionality and while that would be nice it's IMO not a good idea to enable it if the soundcard doesn't support a center output, otherwise it may mess up the 3D sound. For a second and rather similar opinion you can check out our review of the DTT2500.

Pine D'Music MP3 Player review - Mikael @ 03:17 EST

Anandtech continues their coverage of MP3 players by testing Pine's $160 MP3 Player, D'Music. It seems to be a rather standard portable MP3 player featuring 32 MB, SmartMedia Card slot, voice recording, equalizer, parallel port connection and according to review offers great sound quality.

News from March 13-19, 2000

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