Dolby Digital Live on the Creative Xi-Fi ??
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xarous far I can tell the new Xi-Fi cards can't do Dolby Digital Encoding base on the info we have rigth now and only way to do this is with the DTS-610 but the real question that come to mind is did CL post all card spec or are they holding back on us for last min big surprise so I guest we have wait in tell Aug 26 for the final bit of info to be posted if there is any thing.
miketech the Turtle Beach Montego is very very old product did you mean Turtle Beach Montego DDL.
miketech the Turtle Beach Montego is very very old product did you mean Turtle Beach Montego DDL.
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Review sample from Creative.
Due to whatever reason us editors can talk/write about it but we cannot publish a fully fledged review until later this month.
Here's a pic of it:
http://www.nordichardware.se/image3.php?id=615
| Originally Posted by SHS UndaC where get your card at?. |
Due to whatever reason us editors can talk/write about it but we cannot publish a fully fledged review until later this month.
Here's a pic of it:
http://www.nordichardware.se/image3.php?id=615
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Unda, can you tell us about the driver features of the the new X-fi card? Which one did you get. Bass management, THX console, speaker distances, 10' interface, volume control, equalizer on each channel, 7.1 upmix of stereo etc.
Thanks.
samsontie
Thanks.
samsontie
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Arrghh.. Still no RCA connectors?
| Originally Posted by UndaC Here's a pic of it: http://www.nordichardware.se/image3.php?id=615 |
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I'd rather steer clear of general observations 'til I publish my review. But if you have any specific questions I can probably answer them. 
As SHS said I got the Elite Pro, I also have the Extreme Music version.
@ Defiler
The breakoutbox has RCA inputs on the backside that serve as Line In or Phono In.
Or perhaps you were referring to the outputs of the soundcard itself?
| Originally Posted by BradSwanson Unda, can you tell us about the driver features of the the new X-fi card? Which one did you get. Bass management, THX console, speaker distances, 10' interface, volume control, equalizer on each channel, 7.1 upmix of stereo etc. Thanks. samsontie |
As SHS said I got the Elite Pro, I also have the Extreme Music version.
@ Defiler
The breakoutbox has RCA inputs on the backside that serve as Line In or Phono In.
Or perhaps you were referring to the outputs of the soundcard itself?
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As far as Home theater DVD watching, what kind of driver settings does this card have that the old audigy 2 ZS did not have? It looked like the real missing link with the audigy cards was the inability to equalize all 8 channels separately. For a long shot, i'd love to see auto speaker setup with a mic and maybe even crude room corrections with parametric equalizers and convolvers. Ha! Thanks.
Samsonite
Samsonite
UndaC I have a few specific questions
1: What odd look black box on top backside of the card with word X-Fi stamp on it for.
2: How do you hook that breakoutbox up sure it dosen't hook up the Joystick/MIDI port or dose it?.
Also you screenshot is way diff then on CL own web site
which can all see here.
http://www.soundblaster.com/products...troduction.asp
1: What odd look black box on top backside of the card with word X-Fi stamp on it for.
2: How do you hook that breakoutbox up sure it dosen't hook up the Joystick/MIDI port or dose it?.
Also you screenshot is way diff then on CL own web site
which can all see here.
http://www.soundblaster.com/products...troduction.asp
Quote:
There's no room correction if that's what you mean. I remember that we bugged Creative about this when some of us went on a factory tour/X-Fi introduction last year. Their reason for this was price (of SW development and the mic), which in hindsight seems kind of akward since the Lite Pro is 400 USD.
There are no seperate EQ settings for individual channels.
"1: What odd look black box on top backside of the card with word X-Fi stamp on it for."
To be honest I haven't figured out yet. Inside of the boc there's a blue LED that shines through the letters X-Fi. Other than that (judging by the lack of tracing on the PCB) I don't think it really does anything.
"2: How do you hook that breakoutbox up sure it dosen't hook up the Joystick/MIDI port or dose it?."
Creatives high end boards haven't had MIDI/Gameport for some time now. They use a bracket for that. It seems however that the connectors on the board just aren't there on the Elite Pro. On the Extreme Music they are present though.
As for MIDI you have that on the breakout.
The breakout box connects via a 25 pin D-Sub in both ends.
On anothe rnote they skipped firewire this time around.
"Pretty dissappointing that Creative still haven't realised that this would be a big hit with us."
They have realized this but they want to steer the market in a nother direction.
I do kind of understand them. They want to deliver audio in 24/96 and 7.1 without lossy compression. DD Live is kind of the opposite of that.
As you've seen they've launched the DTS610 which uses DTS Interactive but as forum members quickly pointed out the AD/DA chain is kind of messed up when using it.
Last time I spoke to them (or rather one of their employees since this isn't the official standpoint of creative) about it they said that want to deliver a similar function of their boards but when they do the bare minimum should be DTS ES 6.1 in full bitrate.
Personally I think it was a fairly dumb move not to incorporate DTS Interactive on at least one of their boards. I mean they could tailor one specific board for this purpose and just skip the dacs (or just leave s single stereo dac there etc.).
| Originally Posted by BradSwanson As far as Home theater DVD watching, what kind of driver settings does this card have that the old audigy 2 ZS did not have? It looked like the real missing link with the audigy cards was the inability to equalize all 8 channels separately. For a long shot, i'd love to see auto speaker setup with a mic and maybe even crude room corrections with parametric equalizers and convolvers. Ha! Thanks. Samsonite |
There are no seperate EQ settings for individual channels.
"1: What odd look black box on top backside of the card with word X-Fi stamp on it for."
To be honest I haven't figured out yet. Inside of the boc there's a blue LED that shines through the letters X-Fi. Other than that (judging by the lack of tracing on the PCB) I don't think it really does anything.
"2: How do you hook that breakoutbox up sure it dosen't hook up the Joystick/MIDI port or dose it?."
Creatives high end boards haven't had MIDI/Gameport for some time now. They use a bracket for that. It seems however that the connectors on the board just aren't there on the Elite Pro. On the Extreme Music they are present though.
As for MIDI you have that on the breakout.
The breakout box connects via a 25 pin D-Sub in both ends.
On anothe rnote they skipped firewire this time around.
"Pretty dissappointing that Creative still haven't realised that this would be a big hit with us."
They have realized this but they want to steer the market in a nother direction.
I do kind of understand them. They want to deliver audio in 24/96 and 7.1 without lossy compression. DD Live is kind of the opposite of that.
As you've seen they've launched the DTS610 which uses DTS Interactive but as forum members quickly pointed out the AD/DA chain is kind of messed up when using it.
Last time I spoke to them (or rather one of their employees since this isn't the official standpoint of creative) about it they said that want to deliver a similar function of their boards but when they do the bare minimum should be DTS ES 6.1 in full bitrate.
Personally I think it was a fairly dumb move not to incorporate DTS Interactive on at least one of their boards. I mean they could tailor one specific board for this purpose and just skip the dacs (or just leave s single stereo dac there etc.).
Check me if I'm wrong UndaC but Dolby Digital Live is just Real-Time Encoding Technology which can done one or two ways Hardware or Software which basic Transforms all decode Digital PCM audio signals into a Dolby Digital signal so how they even fig that lossy compression.
I to think it was to a fairly dumb move not to incorporate Dolby Digital to dut I like see go full bore with hardware decoder/encoder.
I to think it was to a fairly dumb move not to incorporate Dolby Digital to dut I like see go full bore with hardware decoder/encoder.
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I'm not quite sure I follow.
DD is lossy in it's nature, it's lossy compression. Just like MP3.
You have to do bit depth down/up sampling, sample rate conversion and then you have to compress it in a lossy format with a low bitrate in a maximum of 6 channels.
Creatives intent is rather going the opposite direction. They want to upsample/upconvert, leave compression out of the picture and utilize as many speakers as possible.
Now while I understand their viewpoint, and I think that it's boiring that so many computer related "enhancements" involve degrading audio rather than upgrading audio and therefore welcome their initiative, I still think it's fairly dumb not to bring consumers what they want.
My guess is that they try to see this from a larger perspective. If everyone is just fine with lossy compression, 5.1 channels and sample rate conversion all day long then Creative will run out of business since there wouldn't be anything to strive for in terms of increased quality.
| Originally Posted by SHS Check me if I'm wrong UndaC but Dolby Digital Live is just Real-Time Encoding Technology which can done one or two ways Hardware or Software which basic Transforms all decode PCM audio signals into a Dolby Digital signal so how they even fig that lossy compression. I to think it was to a fairly dumb move not to incorporate Dolby Digital to dut I like see go full bore with hardware decoder/encoder. |
DD is lossy in it's nature, it's lossy compression. Just like MP3.
You have to do bit depth down/up sampling, sample rate conversion and then you have to compress it in a lossy format with a low bitrate in a maximum of 6 channels.
Creatives intent is rather going the opposite direction. They want to upsample/upconvert, leave compression out of the picture and utilize as many speakers as possible.
Now while I understand their viewpoint, and I think that it's boiring that so many computer related "enhancements" involve degrading audio rather than upgrading audio and therefore welcome their initiative, I still think it's fairly dumb not to bring consumers what they want.
My guess is that they try to see this from a larger perspective. If everyone is just fine with lossy compression, 5.1 channels and sample rate conversion all day long then Creative will run out of business since there wouldn't be anything to strive for in terms of increased quality.
Dolby Digital Live encoding is a great feature but the demand is small compared to say, gaming. As far as Creative is concerned, they see it as a profit loss to pay for Dolby rights.
It would be nice to have CL include hardware encoding but they always seem to invest in some technology marketing scheme that mostly results in cheap PC speaker output.
(still hanging on to my soundstrorm setup)
It would be nice to have CL include hardware encoding but they always seem to invest in some technology marketing scheme that mostly results in cheap PC speaker output.
(still hanging on to my soundstrorm setup)
If was that was the case miketech then the HiTeC HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold would be at much higher cost then curret prices of $100 which still $30 less then the Creative X-Fi.
Why do say cheap PC speaker output when the key thing is a good build amp and a good set of speaker.
Why do say cheap PC speaker output when the key thing is a good build amp and a good set of speaker.
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