Re: Simple 3D mixer confusion
Re: Simple 3D mixer confusion
- Subject: Re: Simple 3D mixer confusion
- From: Jeff Moore <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 15:37:17 -0700
On May 5, 2004, at 2:33 PM, John Stiles wrote:
From everything I've read at this point, it looks like the Sonica
Theater can only input stereo or DTS/Dolby Digital (which is great for
DVDs, but unhelpful for CoreAudio).
This is true. The Sonica is a stereo device. Multi-channel data needs
to be encoded to be transmitted using that device.
I have a Revolution 7.1 at my disposal, but last I tried it, I had
terrible results--static/dropouts, system instability, and just
all-around badness. Has it improved? Will I experience problems
plugging it into my G5?
I can't really say. I don't have one on hand to test. I have heard good
things about this device anecdotally though.
What other products could a developer use to test real surround-sound
output? Are the choices on the Mac really this limited? I know emagic
makes a $300 surround-sound box, but most end users don't want to make
that kind of investment ($300 plus speakers sold separately) to make a
$50 game sound slightly better. I'd hate to think that M-Audio
completely controlled the consumer space for surround-sound audio
hardware.
The low end multi-channel audio IO box situation is indeed pretty grim.
Off the top of my head, I only know of a handful of IO boxes that do
more than two channels of output and cost around $300 or less: the EMI
2|6 and the Revolution 7.1. There are probably others, including a few
other M-audio boxes. It would seem like a market opportunity to me.
What a shame that the optical out on the G5 is going to waste.
I don't know if it's being wasted or not being fully utilized by
applications. For instance, what's stopping you from putting an AC-3
encoder in your games to encode the mixed audio prior to handing it to
the HAL?
--
Jeff Moore
Core Audio
Apple
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