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The Week in
Review: April 29 - May 5, 2002
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
- New Audigy and Live 5.1 WindowsXP drivers from
Compaq
Warp2Search has spotted new Audigy and Live 5.1 Windows XP drivers from Compaq. It's of
course only intended for people that got a Live 5.1 or Audigy card with their Compaq
systems, even worse is that it's a 377MB download so for most not really possible to get
it. It's likely Creative will offer a much smaller release in the not too distant future.
If you still want to give it a shot you can find
download links and some details on Warp2Search. Words on the newsgroups so far is it
does (at least for Audigy users) include the OpenAL support and it (the OpenAL support)
does deliver on the promise of noticeable faster performance in Jedi Knight 2. Not seen
any mention of any other major features or performance improvements.
New games, demos, patches and bugs
- Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone
Campaigns Has Gone Gold
LucasArts has announced that the expansion pack for its 3D sound supporting RTS Star Wars
Galactic Battlegrounds, Clone Campaigns has gone gold. It will be available the week of
May 13th. Check out the official site
for all the details.
- EAX Advanced HD Games Update
Creative Labs latest newsletter includes an updated list of released and upcoming games
featuring EAX Advanced HD. The already released games includes as previously mentioned
Paris Dakar Rally, Secret Service and Shadow Force: Razor Units. New to this list is New
York Race. When it comes to upcoming games we find the already known Soldier of Fortune
II: Double Helix and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin but also two new games Mafia and Grand
Theft Auto 3. Still absent from this list are the released Jedi Knight II which does takes
advantage of EAX Advanced HD, perhaps Creative/Lucas Arts don't mention it since it
requires a bit of hack to enable it (today editing a text file with notepad can be
considered a hack :-). For more details
check our news archive
Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3
players.
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Player
IceHardware has posted
a review of Creative's Audigy Player. It's the edition Creative sells in Europe
without any of the the Audigy Drives. Hardware wize it's identical to the Audigy Gamer and
MP3 editions sold in US. The review is overall very positive but still question if it's
really worth it if you already own one of the other 5.1 soundcards. One error that may
have effected that conclusion is they state no EAX Advanced HD games are available. That's
not correct as we mentioned before, the most famous one being Star Wars Jedi Knight II:
Jedi Outcast which is topping sales chart at most places right now.
- AOpen Titanium GT 360 Surround Sound Speaker
CDR Labs has posted a review of AOpen Titanium GT
360 Surround Sound Speaker. It's an $80 2.1 speaker system with a rather unusual
design using 2 Aluminum Stick Speakers. The 360 Surround name refers to these sticks
ability to send the sound in all directions, not exactly ideal for effective 3D imaging
for gaming. CDR Labs found the system to perform very well despite complaints of the
subwoofer having to handle part of the midrange frequencies.
- Cambridge Soundworks' Playworks PS2000
Music For Games has posted
a review of Cambridge Soundworks' Playworks PS2000. It's 2.1 speaker system that
offers virtual surround sound, mostly intended for console systems. The review includes
some complaints but ends on a positive note and give it a score of 8 out of 10.
Other sound news
- Gateway PCs will feature Creative Labs
SoundBlaster Audigy
Creative Technology hhas announced that Gateway will equip its Gateway® 700 series PCs
with the award-winning Sound Blaster® Audigy(TM) sound card. Gateway will also offer the
Sound Blaster Audigy as an upgrade option on its Gateway 500 series PCs. The Gateway 700
series is specifically designed for the most demanding applications such as gaming,
digital audio and digital video production. You can find more details in the press release
- QSound Labs and Philips Enter Into Joint
Development Agreement
QSound Labs and Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands has announced they have
entered into a joint development agreement to produce innovative digital audio solutions
targeted for the multi-channel soundcard market and other consumer electronics products.
For all the details check
out the press release
- Hercules First with PowerDVD's certified Dolby
Digital EX Support
PowerDVD with Dolby Digital EX certification as well as a patch to add that support for
owners of Hercules GameTheater XP has been available for several months now. What appears
new now is that PowerDVD and Cyberlink now got Dolby Digital EX certification and that
Hercules will bundle the PowerDVD version with Dolby Digital EX support. Previously they
only offered the patch for a cost. They named this new PowerDVD edition PowerDVD 6.1 Pro
and it's based on PowerDVD 3.0 not the new PowerDVD XP (which also offer Dolby Digital EX
support). It's not quite clear to me if they intend to change the name now to Game Theater
XP 6.1 or stick to GameTheater XP. They previously indicated a name change when the driver
offering 6.1 support was introduced but later decided to stick with GameTheater XP. You
can find more details in
the press release.
- Cirrus Logic Reports 9 Percent Revenue Growth in
Fiscal Q4
Cirrus Logic Inc. has announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year
2002, ended March 30, 2002. Fiscal fourth quarter revenue was $83.6 million, up nine
percent over the $77.0 million reported for the prior quarter. Pro forma net loss for fiscal Q4 was $10.0 million, versus the pro forma net
loss of $15.1 million in the prior quarter. Pro forma loss per share was $0.12 on 83
million shares outstanding, compared with a pro forma loss per share of $0.19 on 79
million shares outstanding in the prior quarter. Fourth quarter pro forma gross margins
were 47 percent, up 600 basis points from the 41 percent gross margins the company
reported in the third fiscal quarter. The significantly higher margins were primarily a
result of improved wafer costs as well as a favorable product mix. Fourth quarter pro
forma operating expenses were $50.7 million versus $49.1 million in Q3.
Lots more detail is available in the full press release.
- Creative Introduces Cambridge SoundWorks
MegaWorks 510D
Not exactly news since Creative already reported about it in its newsletter back in early
March and it was soon after available on their website. However it's first now Creative
Labs Americas has issues the official press release announcing that the MegaWorks(TM) 510D
are now shipping with an estimated street price of $349.99. For all the details check out the press release
- Creative Unveils Creative Prodikeys
Creative Technology has unveiled the Creative Prodikeys(TM), the industry's first
synergistic music and PC keyboard, targeting a broad base of music lovers from the novice
to the professional musicians who wish to interact with music in an exciting new way. This unique and revolutionary interactive keyboard comes with the standard
QWERTY keyboard functions and 37 touch sensitive MIDI keys. Together with the Creative
Prodikeys(TM) application software, users can use the different modes to produce music
quickly and easily to impress listeners within minutes. You can also choose to learn to
play a song with 5 easy steps -- even without having to learn music theory beforehand!
With the Intelligent Chord mode, a novice user can play a simple tune with orchestra-like
accompaniment on the Creative Prodikeys(TM) using just one hand. It will carry a SRP of
$99. Check out the full
press release for more details
- Pioneer Ships Combination DVD/CD Recordable Drive
Pioneer Electronics has announced the DVD-R7322, a DVD/CD recordable, re-recordable drive
available as the next generation of DVD/CD recording for the existing DRM-7000, 720-disc
DVD-R/RW jukebox. Beginning today, customers can utilize
features such as an enhanced DVD-Recording speed of 2X, new DVD-RW (re-recordable)
capabilities and a slimmer, half-height form factor. In addition, the drive offers CD-R
write capabilities, as well as DVD-ROM read support. The DVD-R7322 will be available
through the Pioneer authorized distribution network at a manufacturer's suggested retail
price (MSRP) of $4,995. You can find more details in the full press release
- ALi Announces Advanced DVD Player Single-chip
Solution
Acer Laboratories has announces a single-chip solution for the next generation consumer
electronics market with advanced integration of DVD Servo and Audio/Video (A/V)
Decoder-M3351. M3351's audio algorithms decode MPEG-1 layers 1 and 2, MP3, MPEG-2
multi-channel, Dolby ProLogic II(TM), Dolby Digital(TM), Digital Theater System (DTS(TM)),
High Definition CD (HDCD) and Microsoft® Windows® Media Audio(TM) (WMA). In addition to
hosting a set of professional Karaoke functions, the audio post-processing of M3351 has
the power to propel cinema sound effects and virtual surround for down mixed multi-channel
source through a fixed 2-channel speaker environment. You can find more details in the full press release
- Expanding Variety of Players and Software Fuel
Momentum of DVD Sales
With a wide variety of players and more than 15,000 DVD movies and music videos available,
DVD continues its impressive growth rate for both hardware and software. According to
figures compiled by Ernst & Young on behalf of the DVD Entertainment Group, more than
120 million DVD movies and music videos shipped in the first three months of 2002, a 74
percent increase over the same quarter last year. Since the
inception of the format in 1997, software shipments have reached more than 790 million
units, according to the DVD Entertainment Group.
Moving on to hardware 3.6 million DVD players shipped to retail in
the first quarter 2002, a 29 percent gain over the same period last year, according to the
DVD Entertainment Group (DEG). Total units shipped since the format's launch has exceeded
35 million. The DEG estimates that 20 million DVD players will ship to retail this year.
According to figures compiled by the DEG based on retail and
manufacturer data, DVD players sold through to U.S. consumers have reached nearly 35
million units and the current installed base is approximately 27.4 million homes
(adjusting for homes owning two or more DVD players). You can find more details in the full press release
- TIGA Sounds Investment Conference 2002 Report
Music For Games has posted
their report from the the TIGA (The Independent Games Developers Trade Organization)
conference. It's of course focusing on the audio presentations during the conference.
TIGA are a trade organization created in 2001, for and by independent games development
companies.
- delaydots.com releases Spektral VST PC version
The VST version of Spektral plug-in collection released. Spektral plug-ins contains three
DSP plug-ins, available in DirectX media and VST PC formats for use in the hosts such as
Sound Forge v5 and Cool Edit Pro v2, Sonar v2, Nuendo v1.5, Wavelab v4, Cubase v5.1,
Fruity Loops v3 and Logic Audio v5. Fot details on what is featured in this package of
audio processing plug-ins you can check out the full press release.
- Die Hard: Nakatomi Feature Soundmax SPX
"Animated Audio"
Analog Devices has announced that its advanced audio rendering technology, SoundMAX(R)
SPX, has been incorporated into Fox Interactive's new PC game Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza,
developed by Piranha Games of Vancouver, Canada. SoundMAX SPX is a cross-platform audio
rendering solution that provides highly realistic interactive audio for game titles. Based
on both physical and event modeling technologies, SoundMAX SPX alleviates the repetitive
nature of sound-effects processing by using advanced audio rendering and manipulation
techniques. This results in more organic sound effects that reflect user input in real
time. Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza shipped to stores last week. You can find more details in the press release
For more news from last week check out our news archive.
Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurge
- Reviews 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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