Does anyone have the speakers that come with this ambient lightning, fan gadget. Would be interesting to here thoughts about the speakers and the product in general.
www.ambx.com
www.ambx.com
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Philips AMBX?
- Thread starter oqvist
- Start date
wow...
Thats gotta be the weirdest gimick i've ever seen. When im playing a game or watching movies the last thing i want is outside light distracting me, especially if they are next to your monitor like in that flash thing on their website. I HATE GLARE! And FANS?!?! well maybe in summer time lol.
And a wrist rumble pad, all I have to say to that is ......
Apparently you need patches for the specific game also (they do have a pretty large database of games that work tho, gotta give them that), so if they dont make one your stuck with 2 fancy room lamps stuck on a speaker, a normal wrist pad, and 2 fans to keep you cool.
Thats gotta be the weirdest gimick i've ever seen. When im playing a game or watching movies the last thing i want is outside light distracting me, especially if they are next to your monitor like in that flash thing on their website. I HATE GLARE! And FANS?!?! well maybe in summer time lol.
And a wrist rumble pad, all I have to say to that is ......
Apparently you need patches for the specific game also (they do have a pretty large database of games that work tho, gotta give them that), so if they dont make one your stuck with 2 fancy room lamps stuck on a speaker, a normal wrist pad, and 2 fans to keep you cool.
Sanitarium
[H]ard|Gawd
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Maximum PC trashed it in the review. It was also one of the worst products of the year in one of their last issues.
Not the maximum PC review I read... It said it has potential.
Anyway the support for more then the lightning is not that great so far. As for lightning I am not sure about movies... You put them behind your monitor so you don´t get glare. Coloured lightning mess with the colours on screen but I don´t write off that it can be useful for some movies for sure. For me it´s primarily about gaming and some music would be surprised if I use it for movies. If I fly I want to be surrounded by blue sky... If I get hurt I want my vision to flash red..
As for fans wouldn´t it be nice to feel bullets pass your head and feel the wind in your face when you drive your caterham in Race 07. Fans is actually what impressed most people reviewing it. That is except how loud they are wish they would have gone with bigger fans but then I do game with closed headphones most of the time
You can pretty much sum it up that they see great potential in it where games are fully supported so it isn´t being bashed overall more then for it´s extremely high price and limited game support. The actual speakers is good on all reviews. Mostly like the fans and the lightning however it´s the rumble wrist pad that get mixed reviews... Now I have the buttkicker so I will probably not use that but play console games with or without rumble you see why it´s in the package... Now since you don´t hold your controls the same way it may not work as good but will see.
Anyway the support for more then the lightning is not that great so far. As for lightning I am not sure about movies... You put them behind your monitor so you don´t get glare. Coloured lightning mess with the colours on screen but I don´t write off that it can be useful for some movies for sure. For me it´s primarily about gaming and some music would be surprised if I use it for movies. If I fly I want to be surrounded by blue sky... If I get hurt I want my vision to flash red..
As for fans wouldn´t it be nice to feel bullets pass your head and feel the wind in your face when you drive your caterham in Race 07. Fans is actually what impressed most people reviewing it. That is except how loud they are wish they would have gone with bigger fans but then I do game with closed headphones most of the time
You can pretty much sum it up that they see great potential in it where games are fully supported so it isn´t being bashed overall more then for it´s extremely high price and limited game support. The actual speakers is good on all reviews. Mostly like the fans and the lightning however it´s the rumble wrist pad that get mixed reviews... Now I have the buttkicker so I will probably not use that but play console games with or without rumble you see why it´s in the package... Now since you don´t hold your controls the same way it may not work as good but will see.
Pinipig523
[H]ard|Gawd
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Looks like a fad..
Not sure how it affects the gamer/listener though, I'd like to try it, but I don't think it will catch on.
Though I've secretly wanted their ambilight TVs for some time now.....
Not sure how it affects the gamer/listener though, I'd like to try it, but I don't think it will catch on.
Though I've secretly wanted their ambilight TVs for some time now....
.Yeah it´s to expensive to be really successful and it´s a luxury product nothing you really must have like a video card, television and stuff however the light effects is available for tons of games and seems easy to generate your own. They do have contracts with several publishers to deliver Ambx enabled games as well so it seems to have a brighter future then Ageia at least lol
If memory serves they gave it a 3. Whether they said it had potential or not they still trashed it. Many bad products have potential thats part of why their bad.
You are making the misstake not reading the review just looking at the score... They gave it a 3/10 mostly due to the very high price and limited game support and of course loud fans but they certainly didn´t trash it
I read the whole review its just been a while. What i remember reading was like you said limited game support and price. However i do remember they knocked it because the wall washer unit was weak and barely worked at all even after putting up white cardboard. They also pointed out a couple other shortcomings it seems you skipped the article and looked right at the summarized pros and cons in the score.
Now considering that review was almost a year ago and it was already mentioned the lack of games how far have they come in this time? Not very far at all they have a list of a whopping 12 games that support it.
No the unit is fine it all depend on your room size and you need to be able to totally darken the room of course. Also the wall washer unit can´t be right next to the wall. Either they didn´t managed to kill all ambient light or simply had a to big room to fill You can also run with several units if you would want costs a bit more of course. So it does work . The videos you see in youtube is often with two ambx starter kits actually.
As for games there is some more for sure. And you can calculate a bit which more will support it based on what publishers they have contracts with...
Will get back of a review but if you check the list that supports the "ambilight" feature it´s really quite impressive
There is other alternatives as well so not that much cheaper but maybe more powerful who knows.. www.a-r-e.nl I think.
. The videos you see in youtube is often with two ambx starter kits actually.As for games there is some more for sure. And you can calculate a bit which more will support it based on what publishers they have contracts with...
Will get back of a review but if you check the list that supports the "ambilight" feature it´s really quite impressive
There is other alternatives as well so not that much cheaper but maybe more powerful who knows.. www.a-r-e.nl I think.
Finally got mine... About as expected.
One problem is short cables. Since I have a 32" LCD TV and sit in a cockpit the fans and rumble pad can only be used if you sit with your nose at the screen. I have tried it a bit but still to far from the fans for them being effectful really. So they keep you cool lol The rumble pad for your wrist I am thinking of putting on ebay... It´s high and well the rumble I have seen is all but impressive... Seems to be either on or off quite a joke when you are used to a buttkicker... Even if I hadn´t a buttkicker or FFB wheel I don´t think I would ever use it.
The fans well haven´t really relaxed but they aren´t that loud and in most games they aren´t on all the time. Didn´t get them working in TOCA 3 yet but well for sure it´s nice in Broken Sword when you get out on a rainy day... Still they should have went for bigger fans so you don´t have to have them so close to you and reduce the noise of course...
Has potential though apart from the rumble pad.
As for the lightning wished ambx would have at least supplied a demo video or something. Some say they have got it working with VLC somehow haven´t got that working yet. There where complains about them being to weak but they are strong enough for my room definiatly of course with no external light. It´s really great running the light shows while listening to music really calming. As for gaming well I have to use it for a while until the initial wow factor lays down for a final review... The good news is that the support is actually quite good for the lightning effects. They have even recently announced a deal with Ubisoft with R6 Vegas 2, Far Cry, AC and what that may mean... At least Far Cry and Far Cry 2 is guaranteed. Speaking of that Crysis was one of the games that I tested and it was one that actually impressed me the most... To see how the lights dim when going into some bushes is really a nice touch... Would be really cool with say Splinter Cell 5 or even R6 Vegas if they would really use this as a measurement of how invisible you are to your enemies instead of the usual online gauges. The lightning here does enhance the experience.
Apart from that the view flashes red when you are hit which is a lot more effectful then when just the screen flashes red. Another game where the lightning was really cool was DefCon...
Otherwise with the FXgenerator I got every single game activated however in some it just seem to output a standard white backlight... Which is good of course if you don´t have any. I do have one so I rather use that because it´s the right colour temp.
One annoying thing is that it works so bloody awesome in the menues and intros of all games even those that are not directly supportedreally wished I could get movies working with this.
As for the speakers well they do about what I expected them too... Don´t expect them to compete with my 350$ headphones or even my 650$ 5.1 digitheatre platinum speakers but for surely they sound clean and a good amount of bass... Really Low bass below 20hz they lack completely though.
Anyway from my initial impression. Getting the starter kit is not at all a bad purchase I would say if you already have speakers you are happy with. If you don´t want the fans and the useless (trust me on that) rumble pad it´s hardly cheaper buying the speaker kit without them... If it where I would have
So definiatly game support was surprisingly good... You can get at least some use of it in most of your games regarding lightning.... Now of course they aren´t a necessity for gaming. From what I have seen of the fans I can live without them but the lightning I will probably use in most games...
Even if they give so little as a constant blue sky in IL 1946.
One problem is short cables. Since I have a 32" LCD TV and sit in a cockpit the fans and rumble pad can only be used if you sit with your nose at the screen. I have tried it a bit but still to far from the fans for them being effectful really. So they keep you cool lol The rumble pad for your wrist I am thinking of putting on ebay... It´s high and well the rumble I have seen is all but impressive... Seems to be either on or off quite a joke when you are used to a buttkicker... Even if I hadn´t a buttkicker or FFB wheel I don´t think I would ever use it.
The fans well haven´t really relaxed but they aren´t that loud and in most games they aren´t on all the time. Didn´t get them working in TOCA 3 yet but well for sure it´s nice in Broken Sword when you get out on a rainy day... Still they should have went for bigger fans so you don´t have to have them so close to you and reduce the noise of course...
Has potential though apart from the rumble pad.
As for the lightning wished ambx would have at least supplied a demo video or something. Some say they have got it working with VLC somehow haven´t got that working yet. There where complains about them being to weak but they are strong enough for my room definiatly of course with no external light. It´s really great running the light shows while listening to music really calming. As for gaming well I have to use it for a while until the initial wow factor lays down for a final review... The good news is that the support is actually quite good for the lightning effects. They have even recently announced a deal with Ubisoft with R6 Vegas 2, Far Cry, AC and what that may mean... At least Far Cry and Far Cry 2 is guaranteed. Speaking of that Crysis was one of the games that I tested and it was one that actually impressed me the most... To see how the lights dim when going into some bushes is really a nice touch... Would be really cool with say Splinter Cell 5 or even R6 Vegas if they would really use this as a measurement of how invisible you are to your enemies instead of the usual online gauges. The lightning here does enhance the experience.
Apart from that the view flashes red when you are hit which is a lot more effectful then when just the screen flashes red. Another game where the lightning was really cool was DefCon...
Otherwise with the FXgenerator I got every single game activated however in some it just seem to output a standard white backlight... Which is good of course if you don´t have any. I do have one so I rather use that because it´s the right colour temp.
One annoying thing is that it works so bloody awesome in the menues and intros of all games even those that are not directly supportedreally wished I could get movies working with this.
As for the speakers well they do about what I expected them too... Don´t expect them to compete with my 350$ headphones or even my 650$ 5.1 digitheatre platinum speakers but for surely they sound clean and a good amount of bass... Really Low bass below 20hz they lack completely though.
Anyway from my initial impression. Getting the starter kit is not at all a bad purchase I would say if you already have speakers you are happy with. If you don´t want the fans and the useless (trust me on that) rumble pad it´s hardly cheaper buying the speaker kit without them... If it where I would have
So definiatly game support was surprisingly good... You can get at least some use of it in most of your games regarding lightning.... Now of course they aren´t a necessity for gaming. From what I have seen of the fans I can live without them but the lightning I will probably use in most games...
Even if they give so little as a constant blue sky in IL 1946
.