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Encore 6X - Mikael Hagén - Last updated February 12, 2001
Important Info:
DVD Kit By :Creative Labs Price : $250 ERP. Rated:95/100 Award :Surge of Approval
Bundled
software (North America only, except for the DVD player):
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC®: The 90's on DVD-ROM
Every page, every issue… Follow Jane Goodall's 35-year
odyssey dedicated to understanding the ways of chimpanzees in the wild. Examine the state
of our most critical resource - water. Learn the mystery behind Peru's Ice Maiden mummy.
Follow the fight to save the earth's disappearing wildlife through the Endangered Species
Act. And experience many more captivating moments from the 1990's.
Riven™ - The Sequel to Myst®
Enter a deceptively beautiful world torn apart by age-old
conflicts. You must summon every spark of intellect and intuition to learn the truth about
this troubled land and its inhabitants. You must let Riven become your world before an
entire world is lost. Contains "The Making of Riven" movie in MPEG-2 video with
Dolby® Digital Surround Sound.
Compton's® Interactive Encyclopedia™ 1998 Deluxe
Edition on DVD
So much more than an ordinary multimedia encyclopedia,
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition is your vast library of knowledge. This
DVD is packed with more than 38,000 articles, brilliant multimedia, an atlas, a
dictionary, a thesaurus, and more. Quickly find in-depth coverage of art, science,
history, literature, music, sports, technology, and more.
Creative PC-DVD™ Player
Control the playing of DVDs and CDs on your PC and customize
settings. The easy-to-use control panel features a directional pad, status display,
playback buttons, volume control, and menus for customizing settings such as audio, color,
display mode, parental control, languages, and captions. (Availability of some features
are title-dependent.)
DynamicXtended Resolution™ (Dxr3) picture-enhancement
technology for playback of high-definition video with smoother full-screen video images
6-tap filtering and scaling techniques virtually eliminates
combing effects and artifacts
Onboard connectors for audio output to sound card and audio
input from PC-DVD drive
Back panel connectors for AC-3® coaxial S/PDIF out, Dolby®
surround Line Out, VGA output, VGA input, and S-Video output
Output MPEG and DVD 1.0 video at up to 30 frames/second
(NTSC) or 24 frames/second (PAL)
Playback Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1 channel audio*; stereo
audio (downmixed from 5.1 channel, Dolby Digital audio), linear PCM audio, and MPEG audio
(Video CD)
TV output includes support for:
NTSC at 640x400 and 600x400 at 60Hz
PAL at 640x480 and 800x600 at 50Hz
Composite and S-video signals
Supports Windows resolution setting of up to 1600 x 1200 at
32-bit color and 85Hz refresh rate
Video overlay implementation
Creative PC-DVD 6X drive:
Maximum transfer rate of 8.1MB/second (6x) for DVD-ROM data
and 3,600KB/second (24x) for CD-ROM data
Average access times of 120ms (CD) and 180ms (DVD)
512KB integrated buffer memory
Supports DVD-ROM, DVD-R, CD-Audio, CD-I, CD Extra, CD-ROM,
CD-ROM/XA, Photo CD®, CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-Video
Front panel controls for stereo headphone jack, volume, and
eject/stop
Front-loading tray mechanism
Horizontal and vertical installation and operation
Internal design
CD-ROM data capacity of 748MB (mode 2) and 656MB (mode 1)
DVD-ROM data capacity of:
1-layer disc: 4.7GB per side
2-layer disc: 8.5GB per side
Minimum/Recommended System
Requirements
166MHz Pentium® processor
16MB RAM (32MB recommended)
170MB available hard disk space
SVGA graphics adapter (256 colors, 640x480)
3.5-inch, 1.44 MB floppy drive
Mouse
Microsoft® Windows 95 or Windows 98
Available PCI rev.2.1 expansion slot for Dxr3 decoder board
Available Enhanced IDE connector on motherboard for PC-DVD drive (Bus
Mastering IDE connector recommended)
Available half-height drive bay for Creative PC-DVD drive
(drive rails may be required for some systems and are not included)
Sound Blaster® 16 or above audio card
Speakers or headphones
Overview
Update: Creative Labs ever now and then upgrades the Encore
package with a faster DVD-ROM drive but the Dxr3 card still remains the same so that part
of this review is still relevant.
The Encore 6X kit is Creative’s most recent offer to allow
computer owners to play DVD games and watch DVD movies using their computer and either
display the movie on the monitor or the TV. The box includes Creative Labs Dxr3 decoder
card, the 6X DVD-ROM drive, a variety of cables, a 50 page instruction manual, driver
diskette and an Installation CD. If you buy the kit in North America you will also get a
bundle including NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC®: The 90's on DVD-ROM, Riven™ - The Sequel to
Myst® and Compton's® Interactive Encyclopedia™ 1998 Deluxe Edition on DVD. In
Europe you don't get any bundle and I think the same is true for ASIA.
The drive works as a 6X-DVD ROM drive transferring 8.1MB/second with
an average access time of 180 ms and as a 24x CD-ROM drive transferring 3,6 MB second with
an average access time of 120ms. The drive feature all the standard function such as IDE
connector, eject button, eject hole (used incase of power failure), headphone jack with
volume control, a busy indicator (irritating thing that flashes all the time) and a CD
audio connector that you connect to the soundcard or the Dxr3 card. The drive also has a
digital audio connector (internal) that you can connect to any DAT player or soundcard
that supports it, like the Live and LiveValue soundcard.
The Dxr3 card decodes Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 video and supports DVD video
playback at resolution as high as 1600x1200 at refresh rates of up to 85 Hz and framerates
of up to 30 frames/second. The card uses a VGA loopback cable to display the DVD movie on
your monitor and a TV out jack for your TV but unlike the Dxr2 card the Dxr3 can't display
a movie on the TV and the monitor at the same time.
For the ultimate DVD experience the card has a S/PDIF out to which
you can connect your AC-3 decoder.
The cables included are a CD audio cable (MPC connector), Dual
connector audio cable (both MPC and JST connector), VGA loopback cable, IDE DATA cable and
a S-Video To Composite converter cable.
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