PCI Dolby Digital Live Card on the market?! [Archive]

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SilverMK3

01-03-2005, 01:50 AM

So after reading this thread on AVS Forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=473651&perpage=20&pagenumber=1) I decided to do some reasearch on the HiTec HDA Digital X Mystique 7.1 Gold (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20448)

Use BabelFish (http://world.altavista.com/) to translate the Korean language specs on this site for more information: http://hardware.bomul.com/bomul/product/detail.asp?pno=1110120142&ctg=001&ctg_1=001005 [direct link (http://hardware.bomul.com/bomul/product/detail.asp?pno=1110120142&ctg=001&ctg_1=001005)]

Link re: Dolby Digital Live: http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/dolby_live.html

Apparently this card is already on the market in Korea and will eventually make it to North America. w00t!

crappy Babelfish translation of text from site:

http://www3.telus.net/dnunez/forums/0.gif

HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 GOLD introduction

* High theyk the HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1GOLD the nose which is real-time stone monument digital 5.1 Channel ting is the world-wide initial product which embodies a function in PCI card type. Use of the high-class parts and stabilization circuit in addition quality 24bit/96kHz until the digital signal transmission is possible, all board same axle (COAXIAL) the digital output terminal/storehouse (OPTICAL) the digital output terminal it is a loading one model.

HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 GOLD explanation
http://www3.telus.net/dnunez/forums/1.gif

* With the maximum 7.1 Channel support Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 and DD-EX/DTS-ES output confrontation
The PowerDVD it uses the overview multimedia player software of WinDVD back up-to-date software Dvd program and the KMPlayer back or and it connects with 5.1 Channel and 6.1/7.1 Channel analog groove Sea U sprouting speaker and the outside eldest brother DD/DTS decoder without the inner room theater the realization is possible.
* All board same axle (COAXIAL) digital output terminal/storehouse (OPTICAL) digital output terminal loading
* 44.1kHz/48kHz/96kHz Digital input support [ Digital I/O (SPDIF-IN #2) ]
Only digital output the bay it knows it will be able to apply a digital input, in order description below high theyk it will be able to connect a Digital I/O HDA-X10 digital input-output module (XM7.1 and option star every) in order, header SPDIF_EXT and all board it raised an expandability. The maximum 24bit/96kHz the storehouse digital and Coaxial digital input unite possibly and digital input processing the signal "to output without like that with the external digital machinery and tools they support a S/PDIF input loopback" (S/PDIF input with output bypass) and the application is possible with the use which is various.
http://www3.telus.net/dnunez/forums/2.gif

*

The CD digital input support [ CD_SPDIF (S/PDIF-IN#1) for a quality hour D music appreciation and DTS CD BYPASS ]
2 pin CD_SPDIF terminals which it connects with 2 pin digital audio output terminals of the CD-ROM and the Dvd-ROM ROM becoming all board in the Maine card, provides 2 pin -2 pin CD digital cables with CD analog connection or the sound question CD music appreciation which Digital Audio (CD-DA) compared to is more superior Extraction is possible. The CD digital input "with S/PDIF input loopback" (S/PDIF input with output Bypass) function general audio hour D and the digital output Bypass for grade DTS audio hour D is possible.
* Hardware interface of efficient independent input-output terminal composition/user center
The MD it recorded, in the outside market decoder connection back basic to affix the essential storehouse output TOSLINK terminal, with the care for the digital audio machinery and tools which supports a same axle digital input until the COAXIAL output terminal basic it affixed. Also 15PIN it separates the midi pot and expansion header a separate way all board MIDI_IO and in order for the connection with the outside market midi machinery and tools to be possible, it prepares, line input and microphone input, phu Ron thu /SIDE from round/the center - from pu right it ladles and and /Back from it becomes independent with the AUX_IN to make affix and the CD_IN and the CD_SPDIF the same inside the neck it sprouts big and and and it is complete and and and and it supports all input-output terminal of round and and and.
http://www3.telus.net/dnunez/forums/3.gif

Manufacture company : High theyk
Product life : HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 GOLD
Processor : C-Media CMI8768/PCI-8ch+ PCI chip three
Storehouse output terminal : 24bit/96kHz The high-class TOSLINK terminal and the storehouse (OPTICAL) for a storehouse output the digital output terminal
Speaker support : 7.1/5.1/4/2 speaker output supports
Shipping expenses guidance
- General Taeg boat: 3,000 won/the Box (tightly non: 4,000 won)
- Books area and Cheju-Do: 7,000 won/the Box (tightly non: 8,000 won)
- Motorcycle khwik service: After addressee charging non/capital region area

The day boat Song guidance
- 1st boat Song : 12:00 a.m. the product which is sent out with previously payment confirmation hour day boat Song 7:00 p.m. order day ~8 generally the boat cluster it becomes by a road situation or a weather condition in small quantity lately the case which becomes boat Song is understanding does as a favor in poem and it wishes.

- 2 Cha Bae Song (Saturday exclusion) : 3:00 p.m. the product which is sent out with previously payment confirmation hour day boat Song 8:00 p.m. order day ~ generally the boat cluster it becomes by a road situation or a weather condition in small quantity lately the case which becomes boat Song is understanding does as a favor at 10:00 and it wishes.
Early the case of the company which leaves office khwik to use a service, it wishes.

- Fare: Seoul change of air reverse 3,000 won, 4,000 won capital region part areas

After ordering boat Song situation the E will be able to confirm from order inquiry of page a possibility of trying to receive a SMS letter message with the hand phone which it inputs, order hour there is.

The free Taeg boat service which corresponds to the part product means and the day or general Taeg boat service khwik it charges it does a conversion hour fare with service and.

Taeg boat and khwik the service will follow in uncontrollable natural disaster and or road situation the water service which will delay more or less it is and advantage to understand it wishes.
(Week) the all productions which it sells from the Haiti computer there is a possibility which a guarantee service the above will occur in quality and it will receive gratuitous irrigation guarantee duration manufacture company or the all productions which except the case which see clearly the duration of separate way from income company from the purchase straight road are 1 year for.

After product purchasing the exchange and returned goods of the case (7th at once) product which will be above the product to early stage are possible. (only, packing and contents water of returned goods hour product soundly do.)

To the case where the damage of the product due to the consumer fruit occurs will become the compensatory A/S control and it will follow in case and there is a water service where the A/S will be wrong.

Exchange or exchange non this the case which is wrong
- In the user in the private ownership which is responsibility the re-anger back myel the thread or the case which is damaged. Only, in order to confirm the contents of the re-anger back it excepts the case which damages the packing back.
- By the use or part consuming of the user the case which the value of the re-anger back diminishes remarkably
- By the lapse of hour justice sale price the case which the value of the re-anger back diminishes remarkably at the degree which will be difficult
- The re-anger (software and consuming width) where the reproduction is possible the case which damages the packing of the back
- For the immediacy of the only transactions the case which Presidential Order decides

The customer it charges the case shipping expenses of the exchange which is caused by with simple change of mind of the customer/returned goods and.

Is flaw to the product and the case which requests a service
- 10th at once: (Week) the Haiti computer charges the reciprocation total amount.
- 30th at once: Each one dispatch lyo the bay it charges. Namely, the amount of money which it sends with the company the customer, the amount of money which is returned the company charges in the customer.
- 30th after: The customer charges the reciprocation total amount.
Within case 10th there is not a flaw to the product the customer charges the reciprocation total amount.

When while product using the problem occurs, us (week) the customer support thread of the Haiti computer (the person in charge: It will bloom really and kyu the division chief/(02) 712-2973) with it gives it wishes a liaison and. The many case telephone brazier solution becomes easily, it is not like that, follow-on action description below the situation grasp for comes to be easy and the effect which shortens an hour gets.

BO(V)BZ

01-03-2005, 04:44 PM

Well, looks like a card based on that Cmedia chip I've heard about before. I know that there's some other card based on it, but they haven't actually finished the drivers for the DDL encoding yet :rolleyes:

It'll be interesting to see what this can do.

GodsMadClown

01-03-2005, 04:46 PM

Is it me, or is that text only barely readable? Boat song? Haiti? WTF?

Donnie27

01-03-2005, 08:29 PM

Is it me, or is that text only barely readable? Boat song? Haiti? WTF?

w0000t, if it's anything like the old Hoontechs, it will be well worth the wait!

"to output without like that with the external digital machinery"

"All your Dolby are belong to us"

Donnie

ajm786

01-03-2005, 09:33 PM

Nah. This sounds just fine, thank you.

After product purchasing the exchange and returned goods of the case (7th at once) product which will be above the product to early stage are possible. (only, packing and contents water of returned goods hour product soundly do.)

Donnie27

01-03-2005, 11:09 PM

bboynitrous

01-04-2005, 05:41 AM

bananaman

01-04-2005, 10:32 AM

yay! i really hope the DDL works well and this card is good for gaming :D

Hope it doesn't take too long to make it to the UK!!

NANA

jamesrb

01-04-2005, 12:06 PM

aug1516

01-04-2005, 02:27 PM

uh, tell me again why you would want to compress every signal coming out of your computer to an AC3 signal?

It's simply more convenient for people with home theater setups to run a single digital optical/coax cable to their receiver than running 6 analog outputs. There are also many receivers that do not have analog inputs for 5.1 audio so a digital input is their only option.

jamesrb

01-04-2005, 02:53 PM

It's simply more convenient for people with home theater setups to run a single digital optical/coax cable to their receiver than running 6 analog outputs. There are also many receivers that do not have analog inputs for 5.1 audio so a digital input is their only option.

I guess I could see for the ones that do not have analog inputs, but most receivers sold today do have it.

The convenience I really do not understand. People are too lazy to turn around the receiver and plug in six wires? Its not like it has to be done every timeyou turn on the computer. I think I could sacrifice 30 seconds now to keep better sound quality for as long as I have it set up.

I think many people are under the misconception that digital = better

Mister X

01-04-2005, 03:03 PM

Ever ran a 20' analog cable from your computer to your audio system?

Now you know another one of the advantages the "convenient" digital transport method has. :D

SilverMK3

01-04-2005, 04:18 PM

uh, tell me again why you would want to compress every signal coming out of your computer to an AC3 signal?

Say you would want to play an Mp3.
Click play: decompresses song, sends it through waveout or direct sound or something
Recompresses it into AC-3...
Finally, outputs it to a DD decoder... Where it is decompressed again..

I am no expert but all of this cannot be good on sound quality.

There were huge sound quality issues with the Soundstorm, and while many of those were the fault of Nvidia cutting corners, the inherent nature of the technology will degrade the sound quality, since AC-3 is a lossy compression scheme...

Well, here are the advantages I see to using SPDIF rather than analog cables:
The DSP and DACs on my receiver are MUCH better than the Realtek codec on my motherboard, and many consumer-level soundcards
Less cable clutter and longer run lengths, especially with the mess of cables I have behind there already, I'd like to avoid the interference.
If 384-448Kbps AC3 sounds amazing at the theater and on DVDs, I'm sure the Dolby Digital Live and Dolby Interactive Content Encoder's 640Kbps AC3 will be more than 'Acceptable', despite being lossy. In fact, I'm sure you'd be more likely to hear distortion from noisy analog cables and you soundcard DSP's internal downsampling/upsampling to add crappy EAX effects than from lossy (though very high bitrate & sample rate) AC3 compression.
I like the flexibility of having a digital connection. When listening to music, for example, I can disable the content encoder and send an uncompressed 2ch PCM stream to the receiver and listen to my music like that, or play with the receiver's matrix modes - DTS Neo6:Music kicks ass, btw.
When I finish building my HTPC, the integration into my home theater will be dead simple. Again, without clutter or perceptible loss in quality.

The quality issues you've brought up with Soundstorm all relate to the crap-tastic Realtek codec and analog performance. The only digital performance issue that I'm aware of is a sharp frequency response roll-off at 17KHz+, but I understand that this was a decision made by Dolby Labs when they designed the DICE; it was made in favor of keeping the extremely low compression ratio. Read this article for more info if you're interested: clicky (http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/nForce/nForce-p5.html)

enraged78

01-04-2005, 04:34 PM

Well, here are the advantages I see to using SPDIF rather than analog cables:
The DSP and DACs on my receiver are MUCH better than the Realtek codec on my motherboard, and many consumer-level soundcards
Less cable clutter and longer run lengths, especially with the mess of cables I have behind there already, I'd like to avoid the interference.
If 384-448Kbps AC3 sounds amazing at the theater and on DVDs, I'm sure the Dolby Digital Live and Dolby Interactive Content Encoder's 640Kbps AC3 will be more than 'Acceptable', despite being lossy. In fact, I'm sure you'd be more likely to hear distortion from noisy analog cables and you soundcard DSP's internal downsampling/upsampling to add crappy EAX effects than from lossy (though very high bitrate & sample rate) AC3 compression.
I like the flexibility of having a digital connection. When listening to music, for example, I can disable the content encoder and send an uncompressed 2ch PCM stream to the receiver and listen to my music like that, or play with the receiver's matrix modes - DTS Neo6:Music kicks ass, btw.
When I finish building my HTPC, the integration into my home theater will be dead simple. Again, without clutter or perceptible loss in quality.

The quality issues you've brought up with Soundstorm all relate to the crap-tastic Realtek codec and analog performance. The only digital performance issue that I'm aware of is a sharp frequency response roll-off at 17KHz+, but I understand that this was a decision made by Dolby Labs when they designed the DICE; it was made in favor of keeping the extremely low compression ratio. Read this article for more info if you're interested: clicky (http://www.3dsoundsurge.com/reviews/nForce/nForce-p5.html)

Dead on. Good reply. My Sage HTPC was running of off an A7N8X with a digital coax feed into my 6.1 receiver. MP3's sounded awesome. So did games, and movies. Shows recorded with Sage would be rebroadcasted in 6.1 Awesome.

Fast forward four months. Sold the A7N8X, dropped an FX-51 on a SK8N into the HTPC rig. Sound is fucking awful. Any Sound Blaster sounds like shit as far as I'm concerned, and I can't find a good sound card that pleases my ears to save my life. I've tried Audigy, Audigy 2, Live, AD1985, AD8xx. I hate them all.

I will buy this card as soon as CES is over, which is supposedly when it is on sale.

Matt.

kent

01-04-2005, 04:36 PM

I'm the proud owner of all this:

Klipsch 5.1 Ultra's with RSX-5's as the front sats and RCX-4 as the center channel, using the stock Ultra satellites as the rears, and a Dayton powered 100w subwoofer on the LFE out

A7N8X DLX board with SoundStorm on coaxial out

DDTS-100 decoder.

I'll tell you, MP3s (well, OGG for me. OGG files the equivalent of 256Kbps MP3s) sound great. Deep rich textures, deep bass, high highs.

There's a lot of FUD about AC-3 encoding and SoundStorm

thomase

01-04-2005, 07:35 PM

I think many people are under the misconception that digital = better

He has a point.

Remember the guy who couldn't be convinced that you can get "discrete surround" from analog outputs?

BO(V)BZ

01-04-2005, 09:25 PM

I guess I could see for the ones that do not have analog inputs, but most receivers sold today do have it.

The convenience I really do not understand. People are too lazy to turn around the receiver and plug in six wires? Its not like it has to be done every timeyou turn on the computer. I think I could sacrifice 30 seconds now to keep better sound quality for as long as I have it set up.

I think many people are under the misconception that digital = better

The problem with analog out rears its head if you plan on using a DVD-A/SACD player, as very few of those do digital out [SACD, IIRC, cannot be passed digitally by anything yet] so that means changing 6 wires every time you want to game/listen to some multichannel tunes. Either that, or buy 3 switchers, or a Pre-pro with 2 sets of analog in's, which would probably run you about 3k, from what I've seen.

Also, Audigy two's have shit for bass management, and my receiver works only in analog bypass using the 7.1 in's, so I can't use my reciever to cull out the low frequencies and send them to my sub. So basically, I've got two good reasons for going digital, besides the already mentioned better DAC's in my fully-shielded receiver.

jamesrb

01-05-2005, 08:35 PM

This is fun :D
I guess, I hadnt completely thought about some of this stuff that would give some reasons to consider a digital connection. I guess you have convinced me to give it a second look, although I think that I would still go with analog for gaming.

Anyways, as far as cable length, some decent gauge cables should be fine for runs of 20' although I guess 40 or 50 feet would be a different story. Signal degradation will also occur on any type of copper, including Coaxial digital cables (although digital signals may have some sort of error correction?). Optical connections would be void of this problem though.

About interference on the cables, this really is not likely on all but the cheapest of cables. If there is that much interference, I think the cables will be the least of your worries.

Also, it is not fair to compare AC3 on DVD's and theaters as they have much more sophisticated encoders/decoders, and are creating the tracks from ultra high quality studio masters.

As far as noise from the analog cables, again decent cables are not going to be subject to noise on all but the longest of runs, or some extreme interference.

Also, I definitely would run a digital connection anyways for 2 channel stuff, the PCM connection would be the best quality, like was mentioned.

The only point would be for gaming, as PCM digital would be recommended for 2ch and for DVD's direct passthrough would be recommended.

As far as the analog in's being in use, wow, I have purchased one or two DVD-A's, but I do not think too many people are going ot have that problem.. The formats seem to have fallen on their face.. I guess if you use one of these two formats on a regular basis, there's not a good solution ofher than a digital signal (which I still dont necessarily consider good)...

As far as better DAC's and such in your receiver's, you are comparing to the current sound cards (or the guy that mentioned onboard sound), which is not the issue here. I was simply referring to the fact that digital is not always better than analog. I think if you have better DAC's in your receiver i think it would be wise to listen to both and see if the better DAC's is a good tradeoff for a compressed signal. Probably unique for each setup and set of ears.

BO(V)BZ

01-06-2005, 05:50 PM

Long audio cables cost of lot of scratch if you want to get some of decent quality. I bought a 6ft set of 7.1 cables from www.bluejeanscable.com and that ran me about 110. If I wanted to get 20 feet of the same, it would have been another 50, and so on. Now, if I only had to run a single 6' cable, that would have been 14$, roughly a tenth of the cost.

Complexity is another matter. My bundle of cables is over an inch in diameter. If I had to run that through the wall, or around corners and furniture, that would be a huge pain, while a single cable would greatly simplify things.

Interference is certainly a room by room, house by house case. Some people suffer from ungodly amounts of RF interference, so long runs of cable might be totally out of the question. A single optical cable would fix that problem though.

I'll certainly agree that DVD-A and SACD are dying... or more accurately, never lived in the first place =] I don't own any, but certainly people do, so it's a problem for all of them.

One last point: There's certainly a possibility for a soundcard passing something like DTS:ES, which would get you higher bitrates and depths, along with 6.1, which would definitely negate any sound quality issues, not that I think that there are too many. The best of games still don't have sound that is totally lifelike in every way, so I think it's a compromise that is easy to make. If it involved CD audio, that might be different, but for games, I see no problem with going digital.

bananaman

01-07-2005, 04:57 AM

anyone heard any news about his card from CES?

bananaman

01-11-2005, 08:11 AM

anyone heard any more info on this. Have scoured using google, but not found anything...

NANA

Donnie27

01-11-2005, 11:23 PM

Well I'm excited and can't wait til' this card goes on sale here.

Donnie

cageymaru

01-14-2005, 02:44 AM

Hmmm I saw this translation while googling. That breakout box looks promising also! Check it out here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ko&u=http://www.technoa.co.kr/community/MFBoard.asp%3FpParam%3D43:27053599:2::%26VIEW&prev=/search%3Fq%3DHDA%2BDigital%2BX%2BMystique%2B7.1%2Bgold%26hl% 3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official_s%26sa%3DG

Kel

ImJacksAmygdala

01-16-2005, 01:19 PM

I want DDL, but what are the chances this card will support 64bit drivers when XP64 comes out in a couple months. I want to run the 64bit clients of games like Farcry, HL2, and UT2004.

kent

01-16-2005, 01:38 PM

Sure looks promising.

I guess I need to get some ProMedia Ultra 2.0's to setup for 7.1x2 (7 speakers, 2 subs getting the same information)

Edit: Looks like it might cost an arm and a leg.. I sure as hell don't need another decoder, especially one without DTS and DTS:NEO6.

Konowl

01-16-2005, 10:50 PM

The convenience I really do not understand. People are too lazy to turn around the receiver and plug in six wires? Its not like it has to be done every timeyou turn on the computer. I think I could sacrifice 30 seconds now to keep better sound quality for as long as I have it set up.

I think many people are under the misconception that digital = better

Come on. I have enough wires in my home theatre setup as it is. XBOX, Gamecube, high res audio player with 6 analog wires, 5.1 setup (wires wires wires). You really think it's because of LAZYNESS I refuse to run 6 wires from my frigging computer to my receiver?

It's aesthetics. It's the fact that I don't have another 6 analog inputs on my receiver. Not lazyness. *slap*

Laforge

01-19-2005, 03:32 AM

....

Mister X

01-19-2005, 03:39 AM

Wanna delete that post as well or would you like me to do it?

(16) No BUYING, TRADING, or SELLING anywhere with the exception of the For Sale / Trade forum. The FS/T forum has it's own set of specific rules. Please read their rules before posting in that forum. [H]ard|Forum is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any loss due to any sale or exchange of any item in the For Sale / Trade forum. Caveat Emptor!!

Talonz

01-19-2005, 10:57 AM

Those opamps are in sockets. If the DAC is good.. ;)

ImJacksAmygdala

01-24-2005, 03:32 PM

CES is over... So where the hell is this card?

GodsMadClown

01-24-2005, 04:19 PM

Geez. They also had like 100+ inch LCD tvs on display at CES. You don't see those in retail channels today now, do you? These things take time.

Laforge

01-24-2005, 04:32 PM

CES is over... So where the hell is this card?

they should be available to sub-distributors like me in ~ 30 days, at least that's the last info I got direct from manufacturer.

note : this is not an offer to sell them. This is an informative post stating their anticipated arrival :-)

gorby

01-29-2005, 09:33 AM

I cant wait to get one of these, is there any indication on price?

Laforge

01-30-2005, 07:36 PM

Here's my question.

Wouldn't ANY sound card based on the CMI8768 (CMEDIA) therefore be an Encoding card? I ask because my hercules card just took a nosedive and they are ~$100 whereas I can find a 7.1 channel CMI8768 based card for ~$40

bananaman

01-31-2005, 03:59 AM

my main concen about this card is driver support and games compatability

just so hope this card gives creative some good competition

NANA

gorby

01-31-2005, 10:28 AM

Why is this the only forum where people have heard of this card :D .
My brain is telling me that some how, by reapeatadly checking this thread i may get the card sooner....
:p

Laforge

01-31-2005, 12:31 PM

my main concen about this card is driver support and games compatability

just so hope this card gives creative some good competition

NANA

Cmedia chips haven't had much report of game incompatibilities.. seeing as how creative labs themselves have even used cmedia chips before, and all.

Laforge

01-31-2005, 12:35 PM

Why is this the only forum where people have heard of this card :D .
My brain is telling me that some how, by reapeatadly checking this thread i may get the card sooner....
:p
Because you don't know what you are talking about?

forums.hardwarezoom.com
theinquirer.net [which has forums, unless they are closed now?]
techspot.com

and that's just off the top of my head...

google gives *205* results when I type "hda x-mystique" .. so I think it's not 'never heard of'

gorby

02-02-2005, 09:42 AM

Because you don't know what you are talking about?

forums.hardwarezoom.com
theinquirer.net [which has forums, unless they are closed now?]
techspot.com

and that's just off the top of my head...

google gives *205* results when I type "hda x-mystique" .. so I think it's not 'never heard of'

you sure told me. Thanks
Next time when im trying guage interest / general knowledge about a paticular product ill google for it then use the number of hits i get as a benchmark.
What surprised me was the lack of competition on the market and not being able to get a straight answer from many places about wether surround sound gameing is possible with an av reciever and digi coax connector.

GodsMadClown

02-02-2005, 12:19 PM

Well, around here, the answer to that question has always been no.

SilverMK3

02-02-2005, 12:56 PM

you sure told me. Thanks
Next time when im trying guage interest / general knowledge about a paticular product ill google for it then use the number of hits i get as a benchmark.
What surprised me was the lack of competition on the market and not being able to get a straight answer from many places about wether surround sound gameing is possible with an av reciever and digi coax connector.

The lack of competition IS surprising, and I hope it changes soon. The only other options right now are a handful of aging nForce2 motherboards, and a few of the new Intel HDA boards. There are no other PCI-based solutions to speak of, though.

Yes, surround-sound gaming is possible with an AV receiver via SPDIF... I do it all the time with my NF7-S and it sounds in-fucking-credible through my HT speakers. This is one of the reasons why I haven't upgraded to an A64 platform yet...

mpeg4v3

02-02-2005, 09:08 PM

there's a few of them on ebay right now

gorby

02-03-2005, 11:05 AM

If i see any of yas trying to outbid me ill be commin for yas :)

Laforge

02-04-2005, 03:14 AM

If i see any of yas trying to outbid me ill be commin for yas :)

I love it..

I just drove three retards bids up to over $100 each on these cards..

These same cards that are going to be $69.00

These cards are coming out.. "in about a month"

Mister X

02-04-2005, 03:47 AM

I love it..

I just drove three retards bids up to over $100 each on these cards..

These same cards that are going to be $69.00

These cards are coming out.. "in about a month"

Tagged

Edwood

02-04-2005, 04:09 AM

coughban[h]ammercough.

:rolleyes:

-Ed

gorby

02-04-2005, 10:01 AM

they will probably end up that much in pounds sterlling so up to around 150 usd is fine for me...

Laforge

02-04-2005, 10:16 AM

they will probably end up that much in pounds sterlling so up to around 150 usd is fine for me...

No..

1) These cards have been selling for several weeks (just not in the US)

2) Hardware Zoom.com got a mass order completed for 13 of these cards for $69 each. - Shipping INCLUDED.

3) $69 *is* the set price. It's a few $ more than what the korean won price converts to.

4) If you were actually *in* korea, you could buy as many of these as you wanted. Just by going over to their offices and asking charles to sell you some.

gorby

02-04-2005, 10:12 PM

your funny....
dont worry about my money mate, i dont.

Laforge

02-07-2005, 10:21 AM

your funny....
dont worry about my money mate, i dont.
cheers for the heads up tho, their at 170 or something silly on ebay now.

Care to buy some p4 3.0 processors for $500 ? How about some dvd burners for $180?

I mean, since money is no object and all.

Laforge

02-07-2005, 10:22 AM

coughban[h]ammercough.

:rolleyes:

-Ed

For?

hybridamp

02-07-2005, 11:39 PM

gorby, you should trash his feedback for that ebay nazi crap. :eek: :D

Laforge

02-08-2005, 08:57 AM

gorby, you should trash his feedback for that ebay nazi crap. :eek: :D

And how would he do that, exactly?

1) You'd have to know which user I am.

2) You'd have to have BEEN IN AN AUCTION WITH ME ( ya know, him selling, me buying, not us both buying) to be eligible to leave me feedback.

3) Besides, some other people drove the bids up to over 150.. so, my 'efforts' did nothing anyhow.. since people feel like paying 100% to 200% more than the cards are worth.

(Selling prices are $185, $202.50, $212.50, $217.50, $227.50) . 2 of which were one by "laurent2897" -- he paid $412.50 for $138 worth of cards.. or 290% more than they will cost soon when they are available for purchase directly.

4) I've got 20 on order from HDA as we speak : (over the haiti tug boat, I'm betting) and you know what I paid for them? $69.00

'tard

gorby

02-11-2005, 06:57 AM

And how would he do that, exactly?

1) You'd have to know which user I am.

2) You'd have to have BEEN IN AN AUCTION WITH ME ( ya know, him selling, me buying, not us both buying) to be eligible to leave me feedback.

3) Besides, some other people drove the bids up to over 150.. so, my 'efforts' did nothing anyhow.. since people feel like paying 100% to 200% more than the cards are worth.

(Selling prices are $185, $202.50, $212.50, $217.50, $227.50) . 2 of which were one by "laurent2897" -- he paid $412.50 for $138 worth of cards.. or 290% more than they will cost soon when they are available for purchase directly.

4) I've got 20 on order from HDA as we speak : (over the haiti tug boat, I'm betting) and you know what I paid for them? $69.00

'tard

I dont have lots of money. Im just stupid and flippant with it. Which to be honest, judging by how easily you are wound up, is a traight you could benefit from. :D :D :eek: :eek:

FingerSlut

02-18-2005, 05:14 PM

anyone get one yet?

mustang_steve

02-19-2005, 12:55 AM

I got a blister on my heel, it improved my performance in counterstrike by 10%.

/got nothin`

taz291819

02-19-2005, 09:48 PM

Focker

02-20-2005, 04:23 PM

Is the packaging/software all in english?

Focker

02-22-2005, 01:16 PM

bump, more reviews would be nice, thinking about ordering one. :D

H-street

02-25-2005, 05:55 PM

I have to admit i am very interested in how this card behaves in games and the like..

don't get me wrong.. i love my audigy2 but the lack of true digital sound cards is disappointing to say the least (its the year 2k5 already)...

Shapeshifter

02-25-2005, 08:29 PM

Looking good for a soundcard..

But im wondering what creative will bring to the table with the Zenith on Pci-e (probably more of the same old crap as always)

Mabye Nvidia will release a soundforce 2 on Pci-e (dobut it)

:(

Donnie27

02-26-2005, 12:13 AM

I bought one off ebay, came in Thursday, just installed it yesterday.

It indeed does exactly what it claims. I played the T2-Extreme WMV-HD version and it encoded it on the fly to DD5.1 with the correct speaker placement.

All PC sounds were encoded to DD5.1.

I tried 3 games: Doom 3, HL2, and Far Cry.

Doom 3 and HL2 were encoded to DD5.1 with correct speaker placement (sounds great!).

Far Cry was only encoded to stereo even though I tried various configurations in the in-game settings (and it lit up DD5.1 on my receiver, though on the mains were active). I believe it is an EAX-issue, even though the card is supposed to be EAX 2.0 compatible.

My framerates in the games were identical to before, so the card is consuming barely any CPU cycles.

ASIO support is coming soon.

Card works like a dream, two thumbs up from me....

btw....They shipped the card from Korea on Monday and I received it Thursday...That's pretty fast international shipping!

I was waiting for MisterX to jump in but don't you mean Decode where you're saying Encode? As in Playback = Decode and Record = Encode. The DVD or whatever you're playing back should have been Encoded when it was Mastered or Recorded. Then Games and everything else is reproduced through DTS, Dolby Neo-6 and Prologic 2. Unless like Half Life 2, it supports Discrete 5.1. If a Game doesn't support 5.1, you can't make it 5.1=P At best you can do Simulated Surround where certain echos are delayed, filtered or etc., to the rear channel. You'd have to Rewrite a game to encode otherwise.

Encodes of 5.1 needs a 5.1 or 6 channel source, either in Hardware or Software. With the Audigy 2 ZS I can make 5.1 copies (wave) and turn 2 CH into Pro-Logic, or DTS/Neo6, can't make 2CH into true discrete 5.1. Power DVD6 Delux and do DVD Audio in software for example. The Audigy 2 ZS can record this in real-time.

Donnie

SilverMK3

02-26-2005, 12:35 PM

I was waiting for MisterX to jump in but don't you mean Decode where you're saying Encode? As in Playback = Decode and Record = Encode. The DVD or whatever you're playing back should have been Encoded when it was Mastered or Recorded. Then Games and everything else is reproduced through DTS, Dolby Neo-6 and Prologic 2. Unless like Half Life 2, it supports Discrete 5.1. If a Game doesn't support 5.1, you can't make it 5.1=P At best you can do Simulated Surround where certain echos are delayed, filtered or etc., to the rear channel. You'd have to Rewrite a game to encode otherwise.

Encodes of 5.1 needs a 5.1 or 6 channel source, either in Hardware or Software. With the Audigy 2 ZS I can make 5.1 copies (wave) and turn 2 CH into Pro-Logic, or DTS/Neo6, can't make 2CH into true discrete 5.1. Power DVD6 Delux and do DVD Audio in software for example. The Audigy 2 ZS can record this in real-time.

Donnie

I guess the correct term in all of these cases would be to transcode the existing multichannel audio stream to Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3). In the WMV-HD case, the Mystique card is transcoding from 5.1 channel WMA-Pro to AC3 and outputting it through SPDIF in real time. In the case of all the games, its grabbing the multichannel DirectSound information and transcoding it to AC3 in real-time. The games are still generating discreet multichannel sounds - this information is just being translated into something a digital receiver can understand. In this case, there is no matrixing going on, though I'm sure the card can handle it (but I'd still prefer to let my receiver do the matrixing if it is absolutely necessary).

Laforge

02-26-2005, 12:58 PM

Not trying to "sour-grapes" or anything, but, I just installed *MY* x-mystique 7.1, and my RECEIVER shows the EXACT SAME THING my old card used to show, when everyone told me I was "crazy" for saying that my card was doing 5.1.

I see the ][DIGITAL indicator, the words "DOLBY DIGITAL" and my L, C, R, SL, SR, LFE indicators are on (I only have a 5.1/6.1 receiver, so one of my "lights" never gets lit.. - Sure, I'm not getting 7.1, but in my little office, I don't need it. - especially since i don't feel like buying a new 7.1 receiver as I just bought this one three -> 4 months ago.

But.. back to my point.
This card does what it says it does.
My old card SHOWED the same thing, and the 'sound-seperation tests' performed the same way.. so, what is different about this card than my old one [I only replaced it because it DIED on me]

This is for all those who basically called me a liar in the other thread.

Laforge

02-26-2005, 12:58 PM

Is the packaging/software all in english?

The software is.. THe manual is in korean.

Donnie27

02-26-2005, 10:30 PM

I guess the correct term in all of these cases would be to transcode the existing multichannel audio stream to Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3). In the WMV-HD case, the Mystique card is transcoding from 5.1 channel WMA-Pro to AC3 and outputting it through SPDIF in real time. In the case of all the games, its grabbing the multichannel DirectSound information and transcoding it to AC3 in real-time. The games are still generating discreet multichannel sounds - this information is just being translated into something a digital receiver can understand. In this case, there is no matrixing going on, though I'm sure the card can handle it (but I'd still prefer to let my receiver do the matrixing if it is absolutely necessary).

Maybe! I agree for the most part.

But we know it is NOT encoding. It takes a lot of work to turn 2ch to any kind of realistic 5.1 of any kind. My Pioneer and many receivers can decode Computer's PCM signals and it's almost two years old. But DRM blocks, not card limitations, see below***?

Keep in mind, I'm not talking about 5.1 or better source material. I'm talking about some games that don't support or have very weak 5.1 support. Nothing is going to then turn that into to AC3 Dolby Digital=P Again, it can do pretty good Neo-6, DTS EX and ES, these aren't bad. My card fooled the hell out of me. UT2k3/4 support Dolby Digital for example and Half Life 2 will play 5.1 through almost any system, and dam good at that. Now that's before this Sound Card reaches our shores.

***Many Sound Cards sold here have DRM and if this card can Bypass DRM, it is just a matter of time before it's outlawed and some types of software will treat it just like Vitual Drive and etc..

Donnie

Mister X

02-27-2005, 07:19 AM

The big question here is .... what is the performance hit in games?

Laforge

02-27-2005, 06:13 PM

The big question here is .... what is the performance hit in games?

Tell me what benchie you would like, and i'll run it.

Mister X

02-27-2005, 07:57 PM

Anything.... the more the better. :)

BO(V)BZ

02-28-2005, 12:47 AM

Tell me what benchie you would like, and i'll run it.

Make sure you compare HL2 and UT2004 for me, if you wouldn't terribly mind :D

SilverMK3

03-04-2005, 02:21 AM

Wow....
It looks like HDA (HiTec Digital Audio) has also developed a daughtercard for the SoundBlaster Live, Audigy, and Audigy2 cards. I wonder if its just a SPDIF in/out extension, or if does DDLive encoding? :eek:

http://www.ihda.co.kr/skin/ihda/goods/productView.php?goo_code=030000006243

canislupy

03-04-2005, 11:55 AM

Just SP/DIF coax/optical in/out. Thats it.

On a further not, I'm sorry to see they raised the price on this from $35 to $50. I'd never have bought it for $50... they must be crazy.

Celeryman

03-04-2005, 12:31 PM

Ordered one of these bad boy's last night with the daughter card off of ebay. There were only two X-Mystiques listed last night, and only one came with the daughter card. I really didn't want an Audigy because of the size of the drivers (personal preference), and I realized after getting my A64 that I was going to miss my soundstorm too much (I loved the DD encoding). The onboard sound of my new epox board is abysmal compared to my NF7-S. So we will see what happens. I still have some overclocking to do, becuase I haven't had much time to play with it this week. Maybe I can find some time to run a few benches myself. :eek:

magnetik

03-04-2005, 05:05 PM

is Dolby Digital supported with anything that has the C-Media 8768/8ch chip? If so I noticed it was available in some soltek sff's and this card that I found for $23 (but it's oos)

[..:: magnetik ::..]

http://www.cputopia.com/cputopia-c-media-8-channel-pci-sound-card-spdif.html

Model: C-Media CMI8768 8-Channel PCI Sound (RETAIL)
Item No: C5177
General Features:
• C-Media CMI8768/PCI-8ch+ Chipset
• HRTF-based 3D positional audio (C3DX) for 8-CH output
• PCI Rev. 2.2 compliant with bus mastering modes
• Microphone echo and Karaoke ascending/descending key effects
• Plug and Play
• Built-in 32-ohm earphone buffer
• Full duplex playback and recording
• Supports DirectSound 3D and A3d interfaces
• Supports Direct Music
• Fully compatible with MPU-401 MIDI UART
• Supports Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES DV audio format
• Supports real-time DVD Digital Live 7.1 output

Focker

03-05-2005, 03:45 AM

Notice it says dvd digital live and not dolby digital.. so I'd be wary.

IdiotInCharge

03-05-2005, 08:56 AM

maybe that's a typo- but if not, well, ANY soundcard with a digital out nowadays supports 'DVD 7.1 Digital Output.' But only $23... now if only they had some in stock.

IdiotInCharge

03-05-2005, 09:01 AM

Well, I went froogling, and found these:

C-Media CMI8768 PCI 8-Channel Sound Card (http://www.imagestore.us/product.asp?pf_id=8768%2Dsound)
C-Media CMI8768 PCI 8-Channel Sound Card (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?sourceid=qIbAQim7iDKLAmvvWylx&invtid=A-8768-8C-N)

Not at all sure about these store's reputations, and I'm personally not in a position to test such a toy right now- anyone out there willing to give one of these a try?

wtiger

03-06-2005, 04:09 PM

canislupy

03-07-2005, 05:51 PM

I was just wondering if anyone has been able to get ahold of this card yet? I saw that someone on e-bay was selling it. Can you buy this card anywhere else?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3701&item=5170670510&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Got mine off of ebay, the very same user. That user is for the company that makes them. Be patient when bidding, and don't go to high, some of th bidding has gone to rediculous levels which just isn't worth it. Got my card for $62. Shipping was very fast from Korea. Couldn't be happier.

canislupy

03-07-2005, 05:56 PM

Notice it says dvd digital live and not dolby digital.. so I'd be wary.

Umm, no. DDL = good, DD = not gonna do what u want it to.

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/dolby_live.html

Also, as to the links to cards that claim "support" for Dolby Digital Live, don't bite! Sure, the chipset supports it, but it has to be enabled (read: licensed) in order to use. The $22-27 price being quoted would seem to me to be too little to include the license fee for DDL. So, on that account, be wary of these cards.

canislupy

03-07-2005, 06:00 PM

maybe that's a typo- but if not, well, ANY soundcard with a digital out nowadays supports 'DVD 7.1 Digital Output.' But only $23... now if only they had some in stock.

Exactly right, anything with SP/DIF out will output DD/DTS x.x as pass-through. What the DDL gets you, is a card that will hardware encode non-DD audio into a DD stream. So, if you were playing a game w/ 4-way positional audio, you could output this to a DD receiver that would decode the 4ch DD (encoded/output by the DDL card) to its LR-F and LR-R speakers.

wtiger

03-07-2005, 06:08 PM

thanks for the info.

magnetik

03-07-2005, 07:12 PM

Exactly right, anything with SP/DIF out will output DD/DTS x.x as pass-through. What the DDL gets you, is a card that will hardware encode non-DD audio into a DD stream. So, if you were playing a game w/ 4-way positional audio, you could output this to a DD receiver that would decode the 4ch DD (encoded/output by the DDL card) to its LR-F and LR-R speakers.

So is the X-Mistique one of these DDL cards? Or will it do the same thing? or are we talking about the Intel implementation?

pduan87

03-07-2005, 09:58 PM

so how does this card sound? how does it affect framerate?

canislupy

03-08-2005, 01:32 AM

I took a run of the RightMark 3DSound benchmark.

CPU: 5.6509%
DS 2D: 7.2099%
DS 3D: 8.6860%
DS 3D EAX2: 10.8439%

44.1Hz / 16 Buffers

See AT for comparison: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2358&p=19

canislupy

03-08-2005, 01:37 AM

Also, just ran a UT2004 timedemo comparison using CTF-Colossus. 12 bots, 800x600, no AA/AF, default detail (normal). Used UMark.

Audio Disabled: 182.66 fps
3D HW+EAX: 144.1 fps

Hmm. Maybe I should put the Audigy2 back in for comparison? Meh, maybe after I switch out my Asus for the DFI.

Oh, graphics cards were 2x BFG 6800GT OC. :D

canislupy

03-08-2005, 01:47 AM

So, just for fun, ran 1600x1200 4xAA/16xAF (real world for me).

No audio was .3 fps faster on average. Max framerate was higher by 10fps vs H/W 3D + EAX. No big deal to me....

pduan87

03-08-2005, 07:37 AM

What processor and chipset are you guys using? I'm going to be using an overclocked amd64 so I dont think it will give as much of a perf hit as on say my old 2700xp. Thanks, I really appreciate help! Keep it [H]

canislupy

03-08-2005, 09:16 AM

FX-55 on an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (soon to be DFI SLI-DR). :D

canislupy

03-08-2005, 09:18 AM

Also, anyone know of a way to disable sound in HL2? Might try some more benching tonight. Do D3 and Far Cry support disabling the sound like UT2004 does?

IdiotInCharge

03-08-2005, 10:08 AM

No idea- but thanks for the benches canislupy, pretty much explains what we already assumed- that there was little or no hardware acceleration going on here. Still, not a bad card for what it does- 7.1 encoding is nice no matter how you look at it (especially considering that that's 8 analog lines to reciever vs. one cable, certainly something to think about for quick-and-easy-cheap HTPC solutions).

canislupy

03-08-2005, 11:52 AM

BO(V)BZ

03-08-2005, 01:48 PM

FYI, none of my benches are with DDL encoding enabled. I don't yet have this hooked up to a receiver, so its just set to use analog outs (it seems to matter based on the driver options). I really need to get this hooked up and using DDL sometime, I wonder if there is a difference.

Canis,

Just enable the DDL encoding and run the tests again. Although you won't be doing anything with the DD stream, the sound card won't know the difference and the performance hit will still be there [if there is one]

Anyways, if you could try that, I'd be much abliged =]

canislupy

03-08-2005, 03:17 PM

OK, will do. I'll try to get those benches run tonight.

BO(V)BZ

03-08-2005, 04:06 PM

Wonderful, thanks a lot :D

pduan87

03-08-2005, 05:23 PM

cyberman

03-08-2005, 07:28 PM

o yeaahhh. Cant wait to see those benches. I talked to the guy selling them on ebay and he gave me an american based website that has them. They dont have any actual online ordering or anything but they have an email I got into contact with them with. The guy asked if I wanted to buy just one or alot to resell. I told him one about 12 today and waiting for a response. If all else fails I'l get it from the guy on ebay.

OOOHH!!! What's the guys email address!!?? I want one of these!! And the price on ebay is up to $110+shipping!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3701&item=5170670510&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

magnetik

03-08-2005, 07:38 PM

OOOHH!!! What's the guys email address!!?? I want one of these!! And the price on ebay is up to $110+shipping!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3701&item=5170670510&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

lol. probably because it was posted in this thread...

pduan87

03-08-2005, 07:46 PM

wait for him to get back to me to let me know if he sells individual ones. Believe me, I'l post as soon as I get an email back with any info you will need to get one.

canislupy

03-08-2005, 08:30 PM

First off...

RightMark 3DSound benchmark:
CPU: 4.9822%
DS 2D: 11.3233%
DS 3D HW: 12.2499%
DS 3D+EAX: 14.3245%

UT2004 is up next....

canislupy

03-08-2005, 08:45 PM

I'm going to have to skip the UT2004 benches... I didn't notice last night, but UMark seems to be running differently between audio and no audio... the audio path seems to follow a bot more closely, thus dropping the framrate vs the non-audio run. Weird. Anyone have an explanation for this? I'll have to look to bench something else....

BO(V)BZ

03-09-2005, 12:41 AM

First off...

RightMark 3DSound benchmark:
CPU: 4.9822%
DS 2D: 11.3233%
DS 3D HW: 12.2499%
DS 3D+EAX: 14.3245%

UT2004 is up next....

14% CPU usage certainly isn't bad... how many voices is that? I'm not familiar at all with that benchmark.

canislupy

03-09-2005, 12:50 AM

16 buffer, 44.1Hz

Haven't tried over 16.

clarkkent333

03-09-2005, 09:24 AM

I wish I would have found this thread when the card was first available. People were getting them for around $75 shipped. Now its up to $140. Hopefully the price will come back down soon. Hopefully.

pduan87

03-09-2005, 10:00 AM

We appreciate your interest in our product. We are now setting up our account with etailers in the US and the product will be available to end users from early April. I will forward you the link and date of the product availabiltiy as soon as I have them.

Again, we appreciate your support.

Thanks & B.Rgds,

Steven B.
BlueGears, Inc. (www.bluegears.com)
46560 Fremont Blvd. #204
Fremont, CA 94538 USA

this is what I got back from their american half. So it looks like from korea it will come for me!

Celeryman

03-09-2005, 10:21 AM

I should be getting mine today. I can't wait to see how it sounds.

pduan87

03-09-2005, 11:00 AM

be sure to let us all know what you think and give comparisons to other sound cards you have used.

wtiger

03-09-2005, 12:28 PM

Guess I kind of boned myself posting that link. I wasn't thinking :) Now I have to wait for it to go back down before I buy.

Celeryman

03-09-2005, 12:48 PM

Ok, I will try to find the time to write a short review tonight. If you will let me know how, I can run benches for UT2004, Doom 3, and HL2. Is there a special utility I can measure CPU usage with?

canislupy

03-09-2005, 12:54 PM

Google UMark for UT2004 benchamrking... its what I used anyway... though it may have issues... not sure yet.

HL2 has timedemos, but you'd have to disable sound in the OS it appears to give a comparison. Anandtech has some good hl2 timedemos you can use to compare.

Not sure about D3. Haven't tried yet.

Google RightMark 3DSound to get the sound benching software I am using.

Celeryman

03-09-2005, 11:59 PM

I just barely had time to put the card in the box tonight, so I will have to hold off on the benchmarks. I will try tomorrow. Initial impressions are very favorable for at least the surround sound and quality so far (quickly checked out some dvd's). I would have to say it sounds a bit better than even my NF7-S soundstorm.

uzor

03-10-2005, 12:40 AM

Guess I kind of boned myself posting that link. I wasn't thinking :) Now I have to wait for it to go back down before I buy.

No, you didn't. The price was at that before you posted the link. And, besides it's a Dutch Auction (http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/g-dutch-auction.html). They work different. It looks like the auction expires in a few hours, though, so we'll have to see what it re-lists at...

http://www.mentallyretired.com/h3/index.cfm/u_125984 (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?u=125984)

Celeryman

03-12-2005, 01:11 PM

Man this past week was full of distractions. I took the time to run a couple of benchmarks in Doom 3 for comparison:

Doom 3 (1.1 patch) timedemo demo1, 1024 x 768 High Detail
Encoding enabled and Surround Sound set in the Doom 3 system panel:

First Run: 78.8fps
Second Run: 92.7fps

Stereo Sound set in both card control panel and Doom 3 system panel:

First Run: 83.8fps
Second Run: 97.8fps

I also downloaded Rightmark to see if I could get some CPU utilization data but the test didn't run all the way through for some reason. I am still trying to figure it out. Here is a picture for you to drool over :

http://s94592125.onlinehome.us/hdamystique.jpg

magnetik

03-12-2005, 03:11 PM

has anyone tried hooking this up digitally to a reciever and tried to play some games that have dolby digital support? If so.. does your reciever recognize it as dolby digital like my soundstorm did?

Celeryman

03-12-2005, 04:27 PM

It will pass through already encoded content. I tried some DVD's and confirmed this. It does basically act just like soundstorm did with my 5.1 reciever.

canislupy

03-13-2005, 03:03 AM

Just got my system all hooked up today. This card will encode everything to DD. Thankfully it doesn't try to mix everything to 5.1, but just encodes what is fed to it. Anyone try passing through DTS? I'll have to give it a try.

My setup:
Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS 100Wx5
4x NHT SuperZero's
NHT SA-2 Amp and Subwoofer

Just played a few hours of CS:S, awesome. Also tried some Doom 3, and damn was that shit scary with full surround sound. :eek: :D

iggygdi

03-15-2005, 10:54 PM

i just got this card this morning.... now having owned a soundstorm board and wanting to have the dd features..... this card delivers... why isnt this card becoming big news?? people have been wanting a card like this for ever and its here... it works... real time dolby encoding in windows... playing world of war craft never sounded soooooo goood. some of you are all about bench marks... screw that.. im about sound quality. im just amazed. :-) worth every penny. sound blaster can go... :-P

scott

Turd Furguson

03-15-2005, 11:35 PM

I have been looking at the first post with the digital out box. I am curious how well Klipsch Promedia speakers would sound on that box. I have the 4.1 series but what makes me wonder is the sub out if I would be able to get too audio out on that.

H-street

03-16-2005, 01:30 AM

patiently... patiently.. waiting for this to make it to the US...

cccc

03-16-2005, 03:46 AM

Now, if they only could make a PCMCIA version for laptops... Obviously they'd need to throw out the analog connectors to make it fit but that would be fine with me...

Kingofl337

03-16-2005, 08:06 AM

just so everyone understand with the cheap cards.

C-Media CMI8768/PCI-8ch+ Does not encode DD
C-Media CMI8768+/PCI-8ch+ Does encode DD

The "+" after the model number shows the encoding.

CmdrVimes

03-16-2005, 10:41 AM

I have the C-Media "Azalia" codec (CMI9880/8CH) installed on my motherboard (Gigabyte Duo Pro). It doesn't have the + in the designation but does DD encoding (through software though).
I guess they alter the way they mark things between codecs and pci chips.

IdiotInCharge

03-16-2005, 04:15 PM

pretty sure the 'azalia' coding is done by intel's stuff, not cmedia's, in your case. we did come to the conclusion that cmedia's encoding is done in hardware right?

doodman

03-16-2005, 04:19 PM

all of c-media's DD encoding is done by the driver using software I believe. None of them does it in real hardware like soundstorm. However, it appears that only those two chips can do this encoding as well, so it might have special hardware circuits for doing so?

klee1359

03-16-2005, 08:09 PM

I got in when the guy had them on ebay. I will get my logitech 5500 Thursday. Then I will see just how good this card is. As for now am using headphones. :D

Apophis

03-19-2005, 02:10 PM

So, any word on these...I'm getting impatient. They don't seem to be on EBAY at the moment. Any online vendors for US distributors on the forum..?

And of the folks who got in...Still happy with em...?

iggygdi

03-19-2005, 07:00 PM

no complaints yet. everything went smothly... tooo smoothly.

H-street

03-25-2005, 03:33 PM

any word yet?

i heard mid march thrown around as a time frame for US retailers getting their hands on them...

here we are almost to april :-)..

Relentence

03-28-2005, 11:42 AM

Encoding enabled and Surround Sound set in the Doom 3 system panel:
...
Stereo Sound set in both card control panel and Doom 3 system panel:

Could you rerun these tests without changing the Doom 3 surround settings? It's possible that Doom 3 itself uses more CPU when set to 5.1 sound and what we'd like to see is if the DDL on this card itself causes a performance hit. Ideally it would be good to test with:

"Encoding enabled and Surround Sound set in the Doom 3 system panel"
and
"Encoding disabled and Surround Sound set in the Doom 3 system panel"

Celeryman

03-28-2005, 12:33 PM

Yes, I will try to get those numbers for you tonight. For any of you thinking about buying this card, I would totally recommend trying to find one. This is a great card. I am so thankful somebody finally put out a add-in card that does DD. I would have switched to an A64 platform a while back if it had not been for this. The quality is very good, and I have yet to have any problems with it. I would also recommend trying to find the daughterboard as it offers more io ports and could be useful especially if you do some recording from an external device (yes I know, there are better cards out there for recording purposes but if you want a nice all around solution get this card .)

H-street

03-29-2005, 01:41 PM

getting closer...

We would like to thank you for your interest in our product. We are
preparing the launch of this product thru our online distribution channel
and we expect to be able to ship out to them starting from early April.

We will contact you back with the link to the product of where you can
purchase it as soon as it is available.

stay on target...

BeeIzebub

03-29-2005, 07:42 PM

they still have not emailed me with a link.

Apophis

03-30-2005, 08:00 PM

Sweet...keep us up to date...especially if you get a link where we can buy these bad boys... :cool:

H-street

04-01-2005, 05:13 PM

is the 1st of april considered early april :-)

magnetik

04-05-2005, 11:55 AM

Are these things coming out or what?! I may hold off and wait for more competition if it doesn't come available soon to local distributors. But oh well... what's a few more months.. haha

BeeIzebub

04-05-2005, 11:23 PM

sorry man, no email from them yet. I'l have to bugger them again.

Apophis

04-06-2005, 06:30 AM

I just received this reply on Tuesday from their (bluegears) sales dept...

We appreciate your interest in our product. We are actually preparing the launch of this product and targeting shippment by mid-end April.

Prob be able to buy from retailers by May (fingers crossed). :cool:

Focker

04-11-2005, 12:23 PM

bump

BeeIzebub

04-13-2005, 10:27 AM

well, you can buy em online now..... just still not in the US. How the heck did AUSTRALIA get them before us? Damn Kangaroos!!! http://store.yahoo.com/davidandkarma/hdadigxmys71.html

H-street

04-13-2005, 01:17 PM

hopefully that is a good sign that blue gears is getting close too..

it is almost mid-april now...

GodsMadClown

04-13-2005, 02:28 PM

well, you can buy em online now..... just still not in the US. How the heck did AUSTRALIA get them before us? Damn Kangaroos!!! http://store.yahoo.com/davidandkarma/hdadigxmys71.html

Australia is in the same market as Japan. They get everything before us. DansData.com in on my list of sites to check everyday.

PsySabreW

04-13-2005, 04:14 PM

Just a quick Q for anyone that owns this card. Anyone else have extremely low recording levels using a microphone? I have it turned up full blast with mic boost enabled and at best I when I talk into my mic it only lights up 1/4 of the recording bar. I've tried 3 different mics so that isn't the problem.

H-street

04-15-2005, 04:12 PM

has anyone heard anything about the online vendors it will be available through in the US?

Syndicated_Death

04-21-2005, 12:05 PM

Hey gang, I was wondering if anyone had heard any more about the release of this in the US. last I had heard from Steve B of bluegears he siad early April... as it is we are nearing the end of April.

EchoMatrix

04-21-2005, 12:40 PM

so how is this card better than Creative SB? i heard it has all that stuff also

Syndicated_Death

04-21-2005, 01:33 PM

can a creative sound blaster encode dolby digital on the fly from games (not movies) to your reciever? nope it sure can't and to me that is what makes it better.

xonik

04-21-2005, 02:14 PM

No need to be rude; it didn't sound like he was accusing anyone.

Another way to explain it is that the SoundBlaster can only play pre-recorded Dolby Digital content, whereas the card explained in this thread can create Dolby Digital content on the fly.

Syndicated_Death

04-21-2005, 02:44 PM

wasn't trying to be rude.. just to the point... not as if he couldn't have read the rest of the posts that already pretty much explained it... so I was brief and ot the point

BO(V)BZ

04-21-2005, 06:17 PM

can a creative sound blaster encode dolby digital on the fly from games (not movies) to your reciever? nope it sure can't and to me that is what makes it better.

I fail to see how having to string 6 cables instead of one is an advantage.

Syndicated_Death

04-21-2005, 06:24 PM

I fail to see how having to string 6 cables instead of one is an advantage.

well for one have cats who climb behind my desk when I'm not home and unplug things taking the time to figure which plug is which is a pain, one is better. When I goto lan parties one is better to plug back in when I get home. using multichannel input on my receiver actually limits how I output things on my reciever. it is my preferance there for better for ME. these cards aren't for everyone... I also have had enough of creative... haven't owned one since my sb16.

call me lazy or what ever you want I don't care.

H-street

04-21-2005, 08:01 PM

I fail to see how having to string 6 cables instead of one is an advantage.

lets not forget the options for receivers that don't support analogue 6channel is a lot higher than those that do have analogue 6channel input..

EchoMatrix

04-21-2005, 11:06 PM

ahh i see. So sound blaster just makes good sound, but it doesnt do all that DD crap.

looks like im in the market for a new card...
as long as it sounds good...

IdiotInCharge

04-21-2005, 11:42 PM

Makes games sound good, yes. I hear there are better options for music in particular.

EchoMatrix

04-22-2005, 12:47 AM

be funny to see Sb's reaction to this. Since they refused to do anything while at the top, and all of a sudden they have good competition. Im sure the next think SB puts out will be better, but I just know that my next card isnt going to be a SB

uzor

04-22-2005, 01:46 AM

May be to their detriment (and our benefit), but I honestly don't think that Creative would waste a sneeze on Mystique right now. Doesn't have anywhere enough recognition to be worth the effort. Why compete when you don't have to? Most people don't know enough about what DDL is to not be distracted when Creative goes "Look!! Shiny!!!" about their next, ever-so-slightly-better-on-paper soundcard. `Course, I've got a Game Theater XP, and an Aureal 3D card in my boxen, but no creative cards in sight, so I'm not exctly to be trusted...

http://www.mentallyretired.com/h3/index.cfm/u_125984 (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?u=125984)

Hvatum

04-22-2005, 02:18 AM

Does anyone know how this card performs for Music reproduction compared to... say the Terratec Aureal Universe 7.1 or ? (Paired up with a decent set of Grado/Sennheisers of course :D)

If it can match a good EMU chip in sound production then I would cream myself!! A card that does real 7.1 dolby digital, EAX... OMG OMG.

Syndicated_Death

04-22-2005, 09:21 AM

ok so all this discussion about the card is groovy and all but no one has answered my question about the market date. has anyone else heard from steve b from bluegear?

EchoMatrix

04-22-2005, 12:12 PM

Syndicated_Death

04-22-2005, 12:20 PM

yes the end product your speakers recieve is analog... but when you couple the dacs in my reciever compared to the on board dacs of most sounds cards it's not as good of a conversion. not to mention you ge the conveince of one cable outputing multichannel sound instead of 6 cables required for multichannel sound in games with an audigy

BO(V)BZ

04-22-2005, 12:24 PM

lets not forget the options for receivers that don't support analogue 6channel is a lot higher than those that do have analogue 6channel input..

Yea, that was implied =]

BO(V)BZ

04-22-2005, 12:26 PM

nope, srry dude

but heres a question about DD. If your sound card puts out DD, and even if your reciever accepts DD, doesnt it just change it to analog anyway and distribute them to the speakers? So at one point in the chain, around the last part in any of that chain, the sound does go Analog. (unless speakers accept digital signals)

or am i missing something here. Cuz by this definition, oyu might as well just use the Audigy 2 cuz eventually everythings goin analog anyway

Echo, just so you know, no speaker can accept a digital signal without first processing it to analog. Digital amplification would probably be one of the best routes to go, where the actual signal conversion is done during the amp stages, preserving the signal up til then.

EchoMatrix

04-22-2005, 12:29 PM

so it looks like i was tricked by the Sound Blaster corporations evil marketing. they are not as good as they say for the uBer best.

Auric

04-22-2005, 12:58 PM

Syndicated_Death

04-22-2005, 01:05 PM

I e-mailed BlueGears last week and got back the following response:

"We would like to thank you for your interest in our product. We are
preparing the launch of this product thru our online distribution channel
and we expect to be able to ship out to them starting from end April.

We will contact you back with the link to the product of where you can
purchase it as soon as it is available."

here is what I got back in march

Thanks for your interest in our product. We are preparing the launch of this product thru our online distribution channel and we expect to be able to ship out to them starting from early April.

We will contact you back with the link to the product of where you can purchase it as soon as it is available.

Thanks again & B.Rgds,"

H-street

04-22-2005, 01:13 PM

looks like the distro has slipped a little bit..

good thing the end of april is only 8 days away..

i still haven't heard anything about even the online vendors you'll be able to buy them from..

clarkkent333

04-22-2005, 04:22 PM

I don't even see these on fleabay any longer.

Hvatum

04-22-2005, 04:41 PM

I don't even see these on fleabay any longer.

Yeah I'd like to buy one of these badboys. Who can argue with a $50 DD live soundcard?

SLee

04-23-2005, 12:48 AM

yes the end product your speakers recieve is analog... but when you couple the dacs in my reciever compared to the on board dacs of most sounds cards it's not as good of a conversion.
A soundcard like a A2 value has DACs that matches up well with most mid-range receivers. DD also causes a quality loss due its lossy compression scheme.

EchoMatrix

04-23-2005, 12:55 AM

whut bout EAX? new card got that?

H-street

04-23-2005, 02:55 AM

Echo..

EAX2

georgegeorge

04-23-2005, 01:44 PM

Will these types of boards take advantage of dual cores so that there is negligible hit on performance? For example, in a game situation where the game would use only one of the cores.

BO(V)BZ

04-23-2005, 03:12 PM

Assuming it's a software implementation, of course. The DD encoding would be a separate thread initiated by the driver, so would be handled on the other core. However, I'm sure that it's a hardware implementation.

EchoMatrix

04-23-2005, 03:54 PM

Hvatum

04-23-2005, 04:45 PM

i dont think it would need another core.

The whole point of having a seperate sound card is to have specific hardware to take off the load. Plus, it would probally have to be software. Also, if you had a game that used both of the cores, you would be stuck in the same boat.

I'd have to disagree. Dual cores are perfect for offloading driver related work from the Primary CPU. I'm not sure of the efficiency of the Windows SMP code but when I was dong testing with Linux software RAID (The most CPU intensive driver work possible) the performance boost gained by enabling SMP was awesome. Actually, it made such an impression on me that I decided I would need to test it myself. I wrote a simple shell script which extracted and deleted the full kernel sources into the software RAID array.

Without the game running the kernel would happily use around 30-60 percent of the CPU executing only my script. If I started up Quake III I would get an inconsistent 50 fps where I would normally get 90. By enabling the second CPU performance returned to a solid 90 fps even while the Kernel thrashed my IDE drive array. I think the performance boost would be the same for Dual Cores.

Also, offloading work from the CPU is not the only reason for a seperate soundcard. Having a seperate soundcard also makes it easier to electrically isolate it which gives cleaner sound I think.

EchoMatrix

04-23-2005, 04:50 PM

Hvatum

04-23-2005, 05:03 PM

yeah thats true. I had an on board sound card once and it was always hissing.

Now heres a question that i dont think anyone else has brought up. Why is a web development company selling these sound cards in the US? BlueGear does web templates...

LOL good point i didn't notice that...

Maybe that's why it's taking them so long to distribute them in the US. They sent Bluegears 10,000 soundcards and Bluegears said "what the hell are we supposed to do with this stuff!"

EchoMatrix

04-25-2005, 12:51 AM

anyone hear anything yet? its almost time!

Hvatum

04-25-2005, 01:55 AM

anyone hear anything yet? its almost time!

I'm putting my money on an early-mid May release date based upon emails people have been getting recently. Just hold out a little bit longer with whatever integrated sound you have...

Syndicated_Death

04-25-2005, 10:40 AM

We are really sorry for the delay. The product is ready, but we wanted to fully localize the product for the US market. That took longer than expected. We have your name contact in our list of customers to contact once the product is available thru our partner retailers.

Sorry again for the delay, and we really appreciate your patience and re-checking with us.

Thanks again & B.Rgds,

Steven

that's what I got today

madmike

04-25-2005, 11:11 AM

LOL its actually funny that we are all kinda panting and waiting desperately for this card. When we get it we will play with it for a week and then forget we have it as it becomes just another part of our systems. I am definetly getting one though. Its like having a really really hot GF. To you she is just another chick but to everyone else she is godly. After awhile the only time you appreciate her is when you spend the time to tune her bells and whistles and forget the money she cost you :p

uzor

04-25-2005, 12:10 PM

That's the funniest thing I have read in a good long time...

http://www.mentallyretired.com/h3/index.cfm/u_125984 (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?u=125984)

Stanley Pain

04-25-2005, 03:08 PM

I'd have to disagree. Dual cores are perfect for offloading driver related work from the Primary CPU. I'm not sure of the efficiency of the Windows SMP code but when I was dong testing with Linux software RAID (The most CPU intensive driver work possible) the performance boost gained by enabling SMP was awesome. Actually, it made such an impression on me that I decided I would need to test it myself. I wrote a simple shell script which extracted and deleted the full kernel sources into the software RAID array.

Without the game running the kernel would happily use around 30-60 percent of the CPU executing only my script. If I started up Quake III I would get an inconsistent 50 fps where I would normally get 90. By enabling the second CPU performance returned to a solid 90 fps even while the Kernel thrashed my IDE drive array. I think the performance boost would be the same for Dual Cores.

Also, offloading work from the CPU is not the only reason for a seperate soundcard. Having a seperate soundcard also makes it easier to electrically isolate it which gives cleaner sound I think.

There's one thing you're missing out here. The linux software RAID driver is multithreaded, and SMP aware, where as games under windows are NOT multithreaded or SMP aware (at least not many, actually, none that I know of).

So no, you probably wounldn't notice a performance increase with a dual core system within games. This will change once games become multithreaded and SMP aware. Checkout Firing Squad's preview of dual cores (specifically the game benchies) to further illustrate my point

H-street

04-25-2005, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by STEVEN B
We are really sorry for the delay. The product is ready, but we wanted to fully localize the product for the US market. That took longer than expected. We have your name contact in our list of customers to contact once the product is available thru our partner retailers.

Sorry again for the delay, and we really appreciate your patience and re-checking with us.

Thanks again & B.Rgds,

Steven

bah, we don't need no stinking localization...

magnetik

04-25-2005, 04:19 PM

what's that mean? Making the manual and box in English or something?

Hvatum

04-25-2005, 05:38 PM

There's one thing you're missing out here. The linux software RAID driver is multithreaded, and SMP aware, where as games under windows are NOT multithreaded or SMP aware (at least not many, actually, none that I know of).

So no, you probably wounldn't notice a performance increase with a dual core system within games. This will change once games become multithreaded and SMP aware. Checkout Firing Squad's preview of dual cores (specifically the game benchies) to further illustrate my point

Good point, the game by itself won't be helped performance wise. But when one considers all of the software running on the computer, including the somewhat CPU intensive driver for the Mystique, there might be an overall gain in FPS. This is a factor Firingsquad actually mentioned at the end of their review but did not have time to benchmark.

WIth a daul core system the Mystique driver could happily take 60% of one core's processing power while still leaving an entire core for the game. So even though a daul core chip will not increase the maximum framerate (yet :D) it will increase the performance of the computer while under load or stress by multiple processes.

EchoMatrix

04-25-2005, 05:52 PM

but I want both cores on the game :(

it means that they want it to be released everywhere at once, athat means everyones gotta have it at the same time before they say "sell"

H-street

04-25-2005, 05:59 PM

i thought there was an interview not too long ago from Tim Sweeney or someone like that basically saying for games to take advantange of multiple processers the technique that games are programmed in would have to fundamentally change..

Hvatum

04-25-2005, 06:45 PM

but I want both cores on the game :(

it means that they want it to be released everywhere at once, athat means everyones gotta have it at the same time before they say "sell"

I wouldn't worry about it, the driver would use no more than 15% of one core. You won't see games which actually need all of both cores for a years anyway.

Game programing for dual core chips will be a huge pain in the ass. Threads need to be synched and work devided evenly - if it isn't then you've got one thread stalling waiting for the output of the other which implies huge inefficiency. In some cases synchronization problems can become so great you would have been better never making it dual core aware in the first place.

To get any significant benefit things need to be programmed from the ground up. No current games can get a "dual core" patch. I suppose a few things like OpenAL could be dumped off onto the second CPU but that's probably not worth the programming effort.

EchoMatrix

04-25-2005, 08:38 PM

grr.

tick tock tick tock

BO(V)BZ

04-26-2005, 01:52 AM

I.

Game programing for dual core chips will be a huge pain in the ass. Threads need to be synched and work devided evenly - if it isn't then you've got one thread stalling waiting for the output of the other which implies huge inefficiency. In some cases synchronization problems can become so great you would have been better never making it dual core aware in the first place.

Exactly the issue there...load balancing. Sure, you could simply make one thread process just AI, and one just physics and sound, but what happens if you can run the physics+sound 2 times faster than the AI? You're back to square one, and the dual-core chip isn't getting you any benefit. In fact, if the load balancing is poor, you could get some serious cache thrashing if competing thread keep having to flush the pipelines of the proc[s].

magnetik

04-27-2005, 03:03 PM

Did anyone notice that HDA has linked to [H] and numerous other forums? If you can't provide us the cards.. then why are you using us as advertisement? That sounds kind of messed up. At least get us some cards first. ;)

http://www.hdaudiovisual.com.au/mcpc/xmgold71.htm

So you know that they know there is a big market for this card.

If they are reading this... I am going to wait for PCIe cards if this one doesn't come out VERY SOON. Especially if PCIe are just around the corner and I need to upgrade anyways. Not that my opinion matters much tho. :p

HDA YOUR TAKING TOO LONG! DON'T LET THE MARKET PASS YOU UP :) (since we know ur looking)

H-street

04-27-2005, 03:34 PM

lol..

end of april is only 4 days away..

Syndicated_Death

04-27-2005, 03:36 PM

lol..

end of april is only 4 days away..

yup I'm still just waiting... and waiting..............................and waiting.............................yup uh huh waiting

magnetik

04-29-2005, 05:35 PM

ok.. one more day... anyone want to make dibs on it NOT being released to the US tomorrow? :p

Syndicated_Death

04-29-2005, 05:44 PM

ok.. one more day... anyone want to make dibs on it NOT being released to the US tomorrow? :p

all my money is on it not being out next month either... which sux cuz I just got paid I need something to blow my cash on besides the new fone I got hahaha

EchoMatrix

04-29-2005, 07:23 PM

oohhhhh my god, when the fudge is it comming out!!!!!!

BeeIzebub

04-30-2005, 08:42 AM

bluegears suck, hda should fire their ass

magnetik

04-30-2005, 03:33 PM

bluegears suck, hda should fire their ass

no shit.. by the time bluegears releases the soundcards.. we will just be plugging digitally to the interface in the back of our necks and listen with a brainwave interface powered by dilithium crystals. :mad: I think they are taking cues from 3D Realms... might as well call it HDA X-Mystique Forever... or even ATI for that matter.. release it to a few people.. let all the reviews come out hyping it.. then link all the reviews on their own website.. vaporware I tell you! If they were smart.. they would realize this is the perfect time to corner the market... but.. if for some reason.. Creative Labs comes out with their version at the same time... I AM BUYING CL INSTEAD JUST BECAUSE THEY TOYED WITH MY EMOTIONS!! OH THE HUMANITY! :)

Today is the last day of April.. someone want to call and ask them what's up? I would.. but I am afraid they are going to tell me what I don't want to hear. haha

EchoMatrix

04-30-2005, 05:10 PM

haha they have a link to this page also. Well im buying a new computer within a month, so if i built it and it aint here, im not buying it

H-street

05-01-2005, 02:31 AM

and so april came and went.. and still computer audio remains in 1995..

Hvatum

05-01-2005, 03:23 AM

yup... *waits*

Those two deleted posts were a late April fools joke some mod didn't like :p

I'm putting my money on late May.

Apophis

05-01-2005, 07:37 PM

magnetik

05-01-2005, 07:42 PM

Hey...this is just almost funny...product delays... Who wants to bet some lawyers got involved... I bet they can't sell the product on EBAY because bluegears owns the rights to US distribution...maybe we should help them out by posting links to the competitors products in all these threads they are linking to...Now that would be funny... :rolleyes:

Like this...

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards/catalina/producthome.asp

Pretty much everything here but the ddlive...

You are killing us here HDA/Bluegears...

yeah.. but the only advantage to the other cards is the feature that we want the most! I bet if someone else comes out with a cmedia card with the same features... HDA will somehow figure out a way to release their cards asap. if I have to wait 2 more weeks.. I am waiting for the pcie version from Creative Labs to come out.. heck.. they probably will come out at the same time. lol.

BeeIzebub

05-01-2005, 10:44 PM

I just emailed bluegears. This is what I wrote and I will post the reply I get back as soon as I get it.

"Hi, me and many other people(Hardforums) have been emailing you guys for a while and you keep pushing back the date for when they will be available for purchase. Please stop being vague and let us know what is really going on. Many of us who are active in the thread in the Hardforums(which you actually have a link to on your site) are about to forget this card and move on. I feel that if you can answer a few questions, the patience of the people of the HardForums will be restored. So please, reply to this email with the answers to the following questions.
1:Have any of the HDA Mystique sound cards been shipped as of this date May 1st, 2005 to any retailer in the United States from BlueGears.com? If not by this date, when is the most accurate estimated time at which they will be shipped.
2:Will BlueGears ever sell the HDA Mystique sound cards directly to the consumer?
3:Have BlueGears.com contacted websites such as www.newegg.com, www.zipzoomfly.com about destributing the HDA Mystique soundcard? If so, have any of them agreed to stock the HDA Mystique sound card?
4:What retailers in the United States have agreed to stock the HDA Mystique Sound Card.

Thank you for your time and information.

A possible future customer and active member of the HardForums,

Christopher"

magnetik

05-01-2005, 11:48 PM

awesome. thanks from all of us! you basically said exactly what I feel too.. they should either cut us a discount (for using [H] as advertisement) or have a group buy setup so we can just bypass Bluegears if we can't get it soon. Heck Bluegears doesn't even look like they have an online store setup yet! Are we going to have to wait for that too? Heck I am Korean and wish I spoke the language so I could just call some relatives and have them slap some people around with some tae kwon do. shungnama gaesekea! (sp?) :p

EchoMatrix

05-02-2005, 12:16 AM

which brings the question that why is a web template company selling sound cards

Apophis

05-02-2005, 06:34 AM

Hehe...thanks BeeIzebub... Someone should just email C-media and see if any other cards with that chip (ddlive) are coming out soon...

EchoMatrix

05-02-2005, 11:09 AM

anyone have any links to a forign site that has them in stock that send them overseas?

unhappy_mage

05-02-2005, 11:38 AM

magnetik

05-02-2005, 12:01 PM

http://store.yahoo.com/davidandkarma/hdadigxmys71.html

Anyone else notice this? They don't say pre-order or anything... $125 for the card.
http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/153.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=153)

yeah .. I saw that one too.. but it's in Australia...

WTF! Check the bottom of the order page. Even foreign stores are pimping the [H] around! AND WE CAN'T EVEN GET THE DAMN CARD. :mad:

can we change the link to this thread to another one so that a big sign that says "if your going to use [H] as advertisement at least get us some damn cards" pops up instead? I am sure that would get some attention. Or maybe the original thread starter can change the original post.

Mister X

05-02-2005, 01:45 PM

http://store.yahoo.com/davidandkarma/hdadigxmys71.html

Anyone else notice this? They don't say pre-order or anything... $125 for the card.

AUD$125.00 that equals about $97.3773 USD

BoogerBomb

05-03-2005, 12:00 AM

PSSST I think they meant to say that it would be ready next week or week after.
;)

magnetik

05-03-2005, 12:18 AM

PSSST I think they meant to say that it would be ready next week or week after.
;)

was that 4 to 6 weeks or 46 weeks? ;)

Syndicated_Death

05-03-2005, 12:15 PM

was that 4 to 6 weeks or 46 weeks? ;)

At 46 weeks I better put my cash into a CD or something since I can t spend it on what I want

EchoMatrix

05-03-2005, 01:12 PM

we need to contact the [h]ard people and let them know if they are gonan give us the shaft, then they cannot use the [h]ard linkage

magnetik

05-03-2005, 02:26 PM

we need to contact the [h]ard people and let them know if they are gonan give us the shaft, then they cannot use the [h]ard linkage

I still think we should change the linkage to another page with something on it to that affect.... or some goat se. haha

Apophis

05-03-2005, 03:17 PM

Holy Crap... Received this yesterday...(May 2)...

How are you doing today? This is ___. I am dealing with sales and marketing for BlueGears.

I know you’ve waited too long for the HAD Digital X mystique 7.1 Gold. I really appreciate your patient. The shipping of this sound card will come tomorrow (May 3rd). I will give you more information about this sound card pretty soon. If you have any question, feel free to email me or call me.

Thank you for your time.

I can almost taste it... :cool:

EchoMatrix

05-03-2005, 03:26 PM

yey!

says you can call him too! give us his number... muhahahahaha

H-street

05-03-2005, 04:08 PM

Ship to where though?

do we have any idea the retailers who are selling it?

magnetik

05-03-2005, 04:27 PM

:eek: :eek: :eek:

ask him where we can purchase them and how much!

I hope it doesn't mean they are shipping them to distributors and we have to wait until the distributors release the cards.

Syndicated_Death

05-03-2005, 06:14 PM

Hvatum

05-03-2005, 08:27 PM

:eek: :eek: :eek:

ask him where we can purchase them and how much!

I hope it doesn't mean they are shipping them to distributors and we have to wait until the distributors release the cards.

Well, they're not shipping them to us so I'd guess that's where they must be shipping them.

They probably just loaded the cards onto one of those gigantic container ships which then has to cross the Pacific ocean from Korea which takes about nine days. Then they unload them in California and the cards go onto trucks to the various warehouses of companies such as Newegg and ZipZoomFly. That will take another two days or so.

I'm betting they'll be available for purchase by the end of May. Just two or three weeks at most. :D

Hvatum

05-03-2005, 09:27 PM

LOL - You didn't even bother to cut out the part about the email being confidential... not that anyone cares :D. Thanks for the update!

magnetik

05-03-2005, 09:30 PM

I can see it now.. once they get to newegg and zzf... they are gonna sell out quick and I am not going to get one.. lol. Thanks for privileged and confidential info Beelzebub. :) Since they said they "discussed" it with newegg and zzf, I am assuming that they haven't made the agreement yet.. I wonder which resellers are going to have them first?

Mister X

05-03-2005, 09:51 PM

LOL - You didn't even bother to cut out the part about the email being confidential... not that anyone cares :D. Thanks for the update!

Someone does care.........

BoogerBomb

05-03-2005, 11:09 PM

They told me press release is this coming Monday. I believe they were still working on the retailers and such and that the card should be shipping the following week.

BeeIzebub

05-04-2005, 09:39 AM

well since my post got deleted, heres what it said. The Press release is targeted for May 6, 2005. The soundcards are now stocked in BlueGears website. They said that the cards are shipping this week and next week to online retailers. They said they have talked to Newegg and Zipzoom about stocking the card but did not say if they agreed to it and are actually going to stock them. BlueGears also said that they will not sell directly to the customer. Finally, they said that there will be no more delays.

Also, I dont understand why my post was deleted, everyone else who posted their replies from bluegears had the same confidential bs underneith the message.

Syndicated_Death

05-04-2005, 11:02 AM

Actually what we should do is send these guys emails telling them that we want to be removed from the list. since it is taking so long we are just gonna buy creative products instead

Apophis

05-04-2005, 12:03 PM

Anyone get any idea of price point on this card...? Retail that is...

Malogato

05-04-2005, 01:57 PM

BeeIzebub

05-04-2005, 02:24 PM

X notes:
(16) No BUYING, TRADING, or SELLING anywhere with the exception of the For Sale / Trade forum. The FS/T forum has it's own set of specific rules. Please read their rules before posting in that forum. [H]ard|Forum is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any loss due to any sale or exchange of any item in the For Sale / Trade forum. Caveat Emptor!!

ummm... there is noone on this thread talking about buying trading or selling from another forum member. I'm pretty sure we can talk about prices that would be seen at newegg in almost any thread. In the case mod forums, people write how much they spent on paint and where they got their mod stuff. So I'm pretty sure we are allowed to speculate what the price of a card will be in US currency once it is stocked in US online retailers.

Mister X

05-04-2005, 02:26 PM

Ummmmmmmmmmmm, did you read the reply that was edited?

Syndicated_Death

05-04-2005, 02:36 PM

Ummmmmmmmmmmm, did you read the reply that was edited?

unless you are implying that the edit you made was to someone offering to sell thier sound card I don't see what the edit is driving at? no one is selling, no one is buying (from the forum), and no one is trading.

BoogerBomb

05-04-2005, 02:47 PM

Hemore thanlikely was offering to seel a card which would not be allowed in theis forum. The reply you quted was what MisterX put in its place.

magnetik

05-04-2005, 02:50 PM

damn.. I only wish SOMEONE would sell the card. LOL.

Looks like it won't be available for another 2 or 3 weeks to the consumer.

Mister X

05-04-2005, 02:53 PM

unless you are implying that the edit you made was to someone offering to sell thier sound card I don't see what the edit is driving at?

What other conclusion could you draw from that edit/post?

If that person had posted something like this-------> I paid $134 for my card at such and such site.......It would still be there. ;)
no one is selling, no one is buying (from the forum), and no one is trading.
Let me ask you the same question.........Did you read the original post before I edited it?

Wait.... that is a dumb question because if you had we would not be discussing it's contents right now

Syndicated_Death

05-04-2005, 02:58 PM

What other conclusion could you draw from that edit/post?

If that person had posted something like this-------> I paid $134 for my card at such and such site.......It would still be there. ;)

Let me ask you the same question.........Did you read the original post before I edited it?

Wait.... that is a dumb question because if you had we would not be discussing it's contents right now

no, which is exactly why I asked. DURP!

BeeIzebub

05-04-2005, 02:59 PM

when I saw the quote in the post that you edited, it looked like the post was a response to the quote it had in it.

Mister X

05-04-2005, 03:08 PM

when I saw the quote in the post that you edited, it looked like the post was a response to the quote it had in it.

I removed that part as well so......

Mister X

05-04-2005, 03:11 PM

no, which is exactly why I asked. DURP!
DURP is exactly right.
If you never read the original post how can you suggest that "no one is selling, no one is buying (from the forum), and no one is trading" ?

Syndicated_Death

05-04-2005, 03:13 PM

DURP is exactly right.
If you never read the original post how can you suggest that "no one is selling, no one is buying (from the forum), and no one is trading" ?

because based on what I COULD see none of the above activity was occuring there for leaving me puzzled

Edit\ Nevermind the point is moot

BeeIzebub

05-04-2005, 03:20 PM

I removed that part as well so......

you JUST removed that part right after I made my last post in this thread.

to prove my point, look at the post time of my post and then look at the time of your last edit of that guys post.

Mister X

05-04-2005, 03:30 PM

you JUST removed that part right after I made my last post in this thread.
DUDE!
Do you think that is what I meant when I said I removed that part as well? :p

Here let me put a end to all of this nonsense right now.