Forums > Social Chat > What do you recommend?

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
Post deleted by Dyke Boy

D.B.
X x X x X

Ship off the starboard! sound general quarters! noise and light discipline! man the cannons! GET ME THE RUM!

Master of the Free Hug Program

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
Post deleted by Dyke Boy

D.B.
X x X x X

Ship off the starboard! sound general quarters! noise and light discipline! man the cannons! GET ME THE RUM!

Master of the Free Hug Program

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
that's only three sound channels though.
it's not even dolby pro-logic which has four channels.

dolby 5.1 has five separate channels (l&r front, l&r back and the centre) and a subwoofer that does the sub for all channels - hence the '5.1'.

ebuyer are normally quite competitive.

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
each one is in stereo..

so therfore..


3x2=6 = 5.1sound????

Posted: 26th Nov 2003

Quote:

---

each one is in stereo..
so therfore..
3x2=6 = 5.1sound????

---

No sorry UCOF 5.1 means 5 independantly controlled speakers (different sound fed to each one) for the higher range and one speaker for the low range (Sub woofer) Stereo is only two independantly controlled speakers.

Let's relight this forum

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
For an AGP card I'm pretty happy w my Radeon AllInWonder 9800...

First intention, then enlightenment..
Ars Pyronomica

" Life is programmed. Whether death is programmed or not is yet to be determined."

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
yes..

but as each hole on the back of the sound card comes out in stereo..

one for back left/back right
one for front left/front right
one for centre/subwoofer.

whats wrong withthat?

the center speaker and sub cant be in stereo...

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
ok for sound id rekonmend one of these
Aureon 7.1 Universe and if not that one, the DM 6 by terra tec is really cool! (i love terra tec they are IMHO better that creative, less IRQ's needed, and better quality!)

and for grapihics

i say a standard rad card would do....cos

Dazzel stations are what i use to do my vid editing with, they are sooo nice it hurts and you can them for a steal at teh mo in some shops, if ur using a dv cam then the one above is teh best, if ur just doing it from and analouge source then try this dazzel 80 cos it cheeper and will do a lovelry job on sorting it out!

happy days

hmmm dazzel cards, terra tec sound, and rad all in wonder 900x card!!!!! DROOL!

Step (el-nombrie)

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
stereo is short for stereophonic which means to use two or more channels so that the sound has the effect of being distributed.
conventionally it is now used to mean an independant channel each for left and right speakers.

with dolby 5.1 there is a separate channel for the sub but it is not independent of the others (it is the sub frequencies added together from the other 5) hence it is labelled as 0.1 of a channel and not another proper one.
the others are all independent meaning you could for example play a different note separately in each.
the sub in this case would be emitting the bass frequencies of those notes amalgamated (like a bass chord if you like).

so those plugs on the back of 5.1 sound cards have two channels a piece (stereo jacks) but a dolby 5.1 encoder can only specify explicitly the signal for 5 of these.

anyway, for decent sound you really want a single connection for each speaker

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
the plan was to hook up the computer to my DVD player surround sound speakers and use those.

At the moment, i have a 3.5 mm plug coming out of the speaker port ont eh back of my computer. Then through an "audio doohickey" it splits the sound into a left and right channel and each channel goes to the corresponding one on the dvd surround spound speakers.

i can have stereo sound and simulated stereo (the front and back speakers playing exactlsy the smae thing) but i cant have surround sound.

Will this card support it?

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
make sure a rad card has mpeg4 capture support.
those pinnacle things only do this:

Capture Specifications

Format: PAL/SECAM
Compression: DVD-Quality MPEG-2 and VCD Quality MPEG-1
Maximum resolution: 720 x 576
Maximum frame rate: 25 frames/50 fields per second

if you want to use premiere rather than pinnacle studio 8 (and trust me, once you see premiere you won't want to go near studio), you must have your video in mpeg4 which the basic pinnacle cards/modules don't do.
i know cos i've got one and get very that i can't make a video the way i'd like.

mech - what vid editor do you use?

and i've asked this a few times before but does anyone know of a shareware/borrowable (;)) program that will take my mpeg2 captured video and make it into mpeg4 that i can use in premiere...?

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood

Posted: 26th Nov 2003
All Video Converter, cheap to reg

Mpegx.com has some decent programs there,

here's one

First intention, then enlightenment..
Ars Pyronomica

" Life is programmed. Whether death is programmed or not is yet to be determined."

Posted: 28th Nov 2003
depends on your budget and what you want to use them for. I have a Creative Audigy Platinum Ex and Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (overclocked to 4600) in my main machine, which cost about 150 in total.



I've yet to play a game which I can't play in a high res smoothly, Vice City runs at 1280x1024 with max detail settings no problems. Unless you plan to do 3d work then I can't recomend spending more than 70 quid on a graphics card and thus a Geforce 4 TI is a better purchase than a low end GeforceFX. I hafta admit i know little to nothing about Radeon cards, but Geforce cards seem to be the dominant ones in the market place these days and I've used them for years. If you buy a 150 quid gfx card then you'll hafta wait a couple of years before games require it/you can get max use out of it and by that time you can buy another for 70 quid, meaning in total you've spent 140 and you've always had a good spec (you can also sell your old one to a stupid person on ebay too!).



Until i bought my audigy card I'd never spent more than 15 quid on a soundcard. The reason I got it is that it has firewire, a remote control, an external breakout box, EAX, dolby 5.1 and is good enough quality to do amateur studio recording/midi work with. I believe I spent about 80 on it and I hafta say it was a very good buy. Combined with a set of 50 quid creative 5.1 speakers the sound quality won't win any audiophile awards, but for a bedroom mp3, divx, dvd and computer game setup the quality is stunning for the price. Using the remote control I can play dvds, divx and mp3 in media player without getting out of bed, which is nice. That said, if you don't plan to do any midi/studio stuff then you may as well get a cheap 5.1 card, which can be picked up for under 15 quid from a reputable company. If you look hard enough and don't plan on using it with a serious set of headphones/speakers then you should be able to find one for a fiver.



As for companies online, I always used to use ebuyer, but recently they've become a bit crap. Originally they had free delivery on all orders. Then free 3 day delivery on over 100, now free 5 day delivery on over 100. If you want your gear the following day then you pay quite a bit more in delivery charges and sometimes slightly more expensive companies with free delivery work out cheaper. For instance pcnextday.co.uk have quite competitive prices and nextday delivery.



Have fun