Has anybody tried the new Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Card

[TurboRunner]

Hi,

I'm thinking of updating my ess1368 chipset sound card to a
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy but i would like to know how it performes with capturing analog video.

or would my ess1368 chipset sound card be enough for capturing

I will be capturing on an 1.4Ghz AMD with 256MB of Corsair Registered DDR-SDRam on the Abit KG7 Motherboard with a PCI BT878 Chipset Capture card.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks TurboRunner

[x2pacalypsehalx]

win xp doesnt support it i think i tried my sound card

[TurboRunner]

Why wouldn't xp support it.
It a new card just been released by creative.
has windows xp been officially release by microsoft.

If it has been released creative will definately release xp drivers for there new card unless they are an amatuer company that don't know what they are doing which they are obviously not since they have been around for a very long time and have seen sound card makers come and go.

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On 2001-09-29 23:15:18, x2pacalypsehalx wrote:
win xp doesnt support it i think i tried my sound card
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[ironwood321]

Don't use a creative card. You will have endless trouble capturing etc use something else like Yamaha.

[nickel]

I have been using the Audigy Platinum for a week. It's amazing. Just this past Saturday I got the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. It plugs into the FireWire port that COMES ON THE AUDIGY! No need to purchase a separate FireWire adapter. I've done some testing capturing analog Hi-8mm Camcorder videos with Premiere 6.0 and exporting back to a VHS tape... quality is superior. I've also tried converting the captured video to VCD format with TMPGEnc and it looks and sounds great!

No dropped frames or corrupted sound.

I'm using a socket 478 Pentium 4 1.7Ghz on an Abit TH7-II RAID at 256MB with Win2K SP2 with DX8.0a with patch for video and an IBM ATA100 7200RPM 40GB drive.

-nickel

[TIbrO]

I've always used a creative card. They're the best! And their XP drivers for the SBL! and SBA cards are coming out in late October, or so their site says.

[TIbrO]

Oh, I am perfectly happy with my Soundblaster Live! Platinum right now, and have been for more than a year. I want to upgrade to the Audigy. So how is it? How awesome does it perform with everything? Play any games on it yet? If I get the Audigy, it won't be until well after they release non-beta drivers for XP for the card. Then I will have a leftover SBL! Platinum to start building a gaming machine with.

[thxkid]

well I have been capturing so over 2 years now without a problem with audio and I use the Creative sound blaster live, creative is the only way to go, they are easy to install and most operating system reconized them right away.
I have tried the OTHER cards like turtle beach, yamaha, cheaper cards with cheaper sound, Oh you won't notice that much difference on most computer speakers but try them through a THX certified surround system you sure can.

[nickel]

T-
Heck yeah I've played some games. With the new Audigy and my new GeForce 2 Pro (64MB), I've fired up Unreal Tournament for the first time in months and it's great! The Audigy came with Deus Ex (Game of the Year edition... meaning it's patched) which I'm getting hooked on. Still need to try Half-Life/TFC and Diablo II/LOD. This also makes me want to re-install X-Wing: Alliance... good grief... I won't get any vid-capturing done with all the game playing I need to do.

It comes with some silly software to demonstrate its amazing 3D environmental sound... but this feature will largely go unused until software (gaming) developers start to use it. It is an impressive demo, though.

The thing that I really like is its ability to play multiple .wav files at the same time in the normal Win2K environment. (I can't remember the limit here, but it's at least 5 at once... not sure if Live! does that... I was using cheapo on board mobo AC '97 sound before this) So my incoming mail bell rings while listening to MP3s and such. That's cool.

I do some semi-professional audio applications, so I needed to get the workhorse of sound cards. It can do very high sampling rates (not sure of the actuals) like 96Khz. It comes with an Audigy drive and remote (similar to the Live drive). This puts all connections at the front of the PC, including the FireWire port (Creative calls it SB 1394, but it's fully compatible with current FireWire/i-link standards). So I plug the Dazzle Hollywood right into the front.

[nickel]

BTW, this is a major part of Creative's advertising, so I didn't mention it. But in case this is the first you're hearing of the Audigy, it uses a new processor that is 4 times as powerful as the next best thing on the market (the Live!). The possibilities for completely immersive 3D sound environments with realistic movement from one environment to another (like the way sound changes as you walk out of a tunnel or go from outside to inside or the way you can still kind of hear outside noises when you're inside) is very promising (as the included demo software shows). So I expect some great sounding games to come out in the next year. I think I read the titles of some games that are currently in development to support this advanced card... but I can't remember. Maybe they have that at the Creative site.

[DiViNeLeFT]

ok, a lot of people are creative fans... i am not!!... they release what looks like good hardware untill it conflicts with other hardware in your comp... and good luck finding updated drivers... ive had a dxr3 for almost a year now and their win2k drivers are still in beta... i have a live! 5.1 and that is sittin in an anti-static bag right next to the dxr3!! and when they do come out with updated drivers for any problems, they just disable the feature they were havin problems with!! get a santa cruz or a hercules... i got the santa cruz and my firend has a hercules, we are both very impressed with these two cards and their support.

[nickel]

A lot of my research before I buy hardware is related to compatibility issues. I was going to get the Hercules until I heard about the Audigy.

Part of the reason I chose Intel instead of AMD was because I wanted to maximize hardware compatibility. I was relatively sure that my Dazzle Hollywood bridge would work with the P4 (it doesn't work in a lot of AMD systems). Because I chose name brand components for my system (I'm not implying AMD is not a name brand... I'm mainly referring to the mobo and memory), I was comfortable that the Audigy would probably not have any problems with all my existing hardware. And, as it turns out, it didn't. I am not a brand loyalist, so if the Audigy gives me trouble and I can't get resolution from Creative, then you bet I'll switch to the Hercules.

I encourage people to research their hardware purchases before buying to look for possible compatibility issues and then choose a product because it will work for you, not because you like the brand or don't like a brand. That's part of the reason why I listed some of my system specs above... to help people understand the conditions that should prove compatible for using the Audigy. (for instance, Sony has a solution available for people that can't get the Dazzle Hollywood to work... who cares if you don't like Sony because one time their big screen TV exploded and killed your dog... get what works.) If the Live! didn't work for you, it doesn't mean that the Audigy won't work for you. You shouldn't eliminate it from consideration just because you're mad at Creative over your issue with the Live! (well, you can... but that wouldn't be logical).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nickel on 2001-10-03 16:23:23 ]</font>

[Darkbird]

Isn't anyone worried about the "Digital Rights Management" built into the audigy that was mentioned in all the early specification leaks ?

[Bullworth]

What's the hype around the Audigy? Been hearing alot about it.
If you want good card compatibility choose a Turtle Beach, Yamaha or Phillips. Creative sound cards are sometimes wild cards. Had a Platinum for a while and never had any problems with it but heard other people complain about no sound capture, compatibility, lock-ups, etc. I guess just make sure to remove all drivers, software, etc. before moving to the new card.

[Dragonsf]

Here is an ongoing discussion on Audigy:
http://pub29.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=2423118586

[DiViNeLeFT]

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On 2001-10-03 16:16:55, nickel wrote:
If the Live! didn't work for you, it doesn't mean that the Audigy won't work for you. You shouldn't eliminate it from consideration just because you're mad at Creative over your issue with the Live! (well, you can... but that wouldn't be logical).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nickel on 2001-10-03 16:23:23 ]</font>
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with my creative purchases i recieved quality product i assume... but the lack of easy driver updates to fix major compatibility issues... or the lack of releasing a driver alltogether!! (dxr3 under win2k) make me not trust creative products anymore... any company that has poor support, whether it be tech support or driver support i wont by their products... so yes, the live! didnt work for me, and yes the audigy may... but i wont buy it to find out, cause if it doesnt work i have one more card to throw in my creative anti-static bag of garbage that i hope to pawn off on ebay!!

[Sefy]

Although I'm not complaining about my Live! 5.1 DE card, I know how some people feel, i've got a friend that has the Live! card and the only thing he does is complain, I don't know if those that complain are just over doing it and making a small thing into a big issue, but it's not always the cards fault, sure, Creative should invest more into Compatibility, basicly the only reason I bought it is because I got it for cheap and it works on my OS/2, i'm gonna check out the latest Audigy to see if it works with my OS/2, if it does, for 40$ upgrade, i'll exchange the card, not because i'll be using any of the features, but mostly for the FireWire port! that's what makes it worth it.

Now, although I disagree with nickel about some things he said which I won't mention cause i dont want to go into arguments, I do agree with him about doing a research before you rush to buy things.