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The Week in
Review: July 22-28, 2002
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
- Disappearing Live! Drive, Live! Drive IR, and
Optical Digital I/O Boards
If you are one of several users that after installing the latest Live!Driver pack no
longer can take advantage of your Live! Drive, Live! Drive IR, and/or Optical Digital I/O
Boards the following post from Creative Labs Harvey Fong (Technical Marketing Specialist)
maybe helpful::
For instances where the Live! DriverPack has resulted in the
Live!
Drive, Live! Drive IR, or Optical Digital I/O card not being recognized
after the software installation, our Technical Support department
recommends performing one or more of the following procedures for
recovery (but one at a time, don't do all six at once.)
-Change the speaker configurations in the Creative Surround Mixer,
toggle the option for "Digital Out Only".
-Reinstall the updated drivers over themselves.
-Power down the system, disconnect the Live! Drive or Digital I/O,
then
boot into Windows. Power down again, and reattach the Live! Drive.
Restart windows.
-RUN CTZAPXX to uninstall the new drivers update, then reinstall the
original drivers. Ensure that the Live! Drive is functional. Power
down and detach the Live! Drive or Digital I/O. Restart the computer
into Windows and reinstall the update. After the system has restarted
with the new drivers, power down and reconnect the Live! Drive or
Digital I/O.
-Move the Sound Blaster Live! to another PCI slot.
-Reinstall the updated Remote Center, available as a separate
download.
- PowerDVD XP 4.0 Patch
Jure Repinc let us know that Cyberlink just the other day released a patch
(1811)for PowerDVD XP 4.0. Here's what's new
- Minor technical performance improvements
- Enhancements to Dolby and SRS audio features
- Updated support for the latest hardware
- Fixes the following Error Codes: 89020003, f6f00001, f6f00024
According to Jure Repinc the patch also "*finally* fixed a
bug where subtitles where not shown if you enabled HW accel. on Radeon 8500 and using
latest drivers".
- TerraTec supports the MAC
Leading German sound card manufacturer TerraTec builds further upon its strong standing in
the sound and pro- audio market, by supporting from August all “4G Sound” cards
with drivers for both Macintosh’s operating systems, Os-X and Os 9. Drivers will be
online at that time. With 4th generation Terratec refers to
the soundcard that offers 24 bit/96 kHz resolution. That is EWX 24/96, DMX 6fire 24/96,
DMX 6fire LT, EWS88 D, EWS88 MT or EWS MIC2/8. You can find more details in the press release.
New games, demos, patches and bugs
Icewind Dale 2 will feature support for
EAX
Icewind Dale II will just like the original feature support for EAX according to a preview of
the game on Stratos Group. Here's the usual snip:
The sound was excellent (though there are obviously still bugs
to work out). Optionally supporting EAX, the ambient and world sounds were top-notch. The
voice acting was as good as any from the rest of the series, and there seemed to be more
spoken lines by important NPCs than in earlier games, with every dialogue choice voiced,
not just introductory remarks. I could not find any music credits for this game, but I do
not believe that Jeremy Soule (the composer for the previous titles) was involved. Still,
the music was excellent, symphonic, and had a great, thundering feel that fit right in
with the action.
New Doomsday engine released for jDoom/jHeretic/jHexen
Doomsday HQ has released
version 1.7.0 of the Doomsday engine as well as new versions of jDoom (1.14.0),
jHeretic (1.3.0) and jHexen (1.2.0). The most important change is completely re-written
sound code which no longer supports A3D (previously supported A3D 3.0). The DirectSound3D
with EAX 2.0 support is still available though. He also mentions plans of using OpenAL in
the future.
Reviews of soundcards, speakers,
headphones and MP3 players. The Trust 3000 Watt 5.1 surround Soundwave
speakers
Burnout PC has posted a review of The
Trust 3000 Watt 5.1 surround Soundwave speakers. The Watt rating is of course PMPO,
that is useless and misleading marketing. I guess that's what to be expected from a
company named Trust. According to the review the actual ratings of the speakers are 5 W
for the sats and 20W for the subwoofer. Burnout PC found it to perform fairly poorly or
about what you can expect from a sub €100 5.1 system.
- Abit Media XP in Video Review
3DGameman has posted a in video
review of Abit Media XP, which implements audio, USB, IEEE1394, IR remote control and
card readers in one small unit which fits into a 5 1/4" drive bay.
- Samsung Yepp YP-700H MP3 Player
Neoseeker has done a review of Samsung
Yepp YP-700H MP3 Player. It's a flash based portable MP3 player which features 128MB,
FM Tuner, voice recorder, expandable memory slot, equalizer presets and an extended
battery pack. The review is overall positive with a score of 77% but includes several
complaints with perhaps the lack of bass being the most significant.
Other sound news
SRS Labs Returns to Profitability for 2002
Q2
SRS Labs has reported financial results for the second fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2002,
and posted a profit for the first time in ten consecutive quarters. Excluding revenue from
the component distribution business, which the company is strategically exiting, second
quarter 2002 revenue increased $583,265 or 18 percent versus the second quarter of 2001.
You can find more
details in the press release.
- ESS Adds SRS Labs' TruSurround Technology To Vibratto Family
SRS Labs and ESS Technology have jointly announced that SRS Labs' TruSurround® is a new
feature on ESS's Vibratto(TM) family of DVD products. You can find more details in the press release including a link
to an online demonstration of TruSurround.
- GIGABYTE Motherboards to Upgrade Audio Experience
GIGABYTE Technology is pleased to announce the upgrade of audio experience from 4-channel
audio support to 6-channel audio support for motherboards. The current existing models
such as GA-8IEXP, GA-8IEX and GA-7VRXP that supports only 4-channel audio using the
Creative CT5880 hardware sound chip. Gigabyte will now replace that with a to 6-channel
AC97 sound chip. According to Tweakers Australia they will use the ALC650, available on
many other motherboards. You can find some additional details
in the press release posted in Tweakers Australia's forum.
For gamers more important than the 5.1 support is that using the latest drivers the
ALC650 now supports DS3D, EAX 1.0 and 2.0. Thanks to Gary Key for the news.
- Cirrus Logic Reports Fiscal Q1 2003
Cirrus Logic has announced financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2003, ended
June 29, 2002. Fiscal first quarter revenue was $76.0 million, down eight percent from
$82.8 million in the fiscal fourth quarter. As previously reported, the reduction in Q1
revenue was due primarily to decreased demand for Cirrus products used in DVD game
consoles. You can find more
details in the press release.
- Xbox Hits Major Sales Milestones
The NPD Group reported that Xbox posted a sales increase of approximately 131 percent in
the United States in the first two months following a $100 price cut in May. In addition,
"Project Gotham Racing(TM)" from Microsoft® Games Studios and "Dead or
Alive 3(TM)" from Tecmo each have sold more than a million units worldwide. According
to the International Development Group, this makes Xbox the first video game system ever
to have three million-unit-selling launch titles after just eight months on the market.
You can find more details
in the press release. You can also read this news article on CNET's News.com for
some analysis as well as details on the sales increase for Sony's PS2 and Nintendo's
GameCube since their price cuts in may.
- Logitech Continues Strong Growth
Logitech has announced its best first quarter ever, posting sales of $195 million, an
increase of 14 percent over the same quarter last year. Operating income was $12.6
million, an increase of 55 percent over the first quarter of the previous year. Net income
of $10.8 million was 71 percent higher. Retail sales grew by 16 percent and represent 81
percent of the total revenue in the quarter. You can find more details in the press release
- Creative Announces NOMAD MuVo
Creative has introduced its smallest and most radical MP3 player yet, the NOMAD®
MuVo(TM). Small enough to fit on a key chain yet so versatile that it slides apart to
become a USB storage device, the 128MB NOMAD MuVo holds two full hours of MP3 music at
128kbps and has an ESP of US$169.99. An lower cost NOMAD MuVo with the same cool styling
is priced at only US$129.99 and has 64MB. Both players will ship within the next month.
You can find more details in
the press release.
- e.Digital's Odyssey 1000 Portable Audio Player Announced
e.Digital Corporation has announced its new Odyssey 1000(TM) digital jukebox and data
storage device, its premier digital audio player. Powered by e.Digital's MicroOS® 2.0,
the Odyssey 1000 combines the best of e.Digital's digital audio technology into one
stellar, feature-packed unit. Jim Collier, President and COO of e.Digital, said,
"The Odyssey 1000 sets the standard by which all other portable entertainment
products will now be judged. It is the result of our first joint project with our
strategic development partner Digitalway. It combines an elegant, world class industrial
design from Digitalway's award-winning engineering team with e.Digital's state-of-the-art,
patented audio technology. There is nothing else available that matches its elegant looks,
full range of features, and cutting-edge Drag `n Rip(TM) technology." For details check out the full press release.
- ESS Technology Announces Digital Audio Product Line
ESS Technology has announced that the company has begun sampling its new high speed
digital audio decoder, the ES4008, to meet the demand for high-quality digital audio from
Audio Video Receivers (AVR) and TV systems. The new ES4008 product is a single chip
solution that provides 5.1 channels of high-quality audio output along with industry
standard digital audio decoding such as Dolby® Digital (AC-3), Dolby Pro Logic®, Dolby
Pro Logic II, and DTS Surround(TM). In addition the ES4008 supports the latest standards
like DTS ES(TM), Bass management, and MPEG Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). For two
speakers-only configurations, the ES4008 provides SRS TruSurround(TM) 3D-audio effect to
give listeners the realism of multi-speakers audio. You can find more details in the press release.
- Plextor Introduces Ultra-Portable CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive With USB
2.0
Plextor has announced the immediate release of the PlexCombo(TM) 8/8/24-8U optical disk
drive with Hi-Speed USB(TM) 2.0 interface. The new PlexCombo drive offers four different
functions in one ultra-portable package: 8X CD-Recording, 8X CD-Rewriting, 24X-max CD-ROM
playback, and 8X-max DVD-ROM playback. You can find more details in the full press release.
For more news from last week check out our news archive.
Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurgeReviews that we are currently working on:
Updated Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury and GameTheaterXP reviews
Hercules Fortissimo II
Terratec DMX Xfire 1024
CMedia CM8738 Reference Review
Full Audigy Review
Full Philips MMS305 Review
There are several other hardware reviews in the pipeline
including, but not limited to the following:
Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE
Terratec m3po
DigMedia MusicStore
Philips Seismic Edge
Lots of other stuff on the go in including several guides and major site revisions that we
will soon be releasing more details on.
As always if you have any ideas for products we should review or features we should do,
please let us know.
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