Well, does anyone know if Apple will finally be upgrading DVD Player so it decodes DTS and Dolby Digital and outputs multi channel sound? I'm buying a 5.1 powered system and only a few systems offer hardware decoding built in, and not the one's I want. PC's have Soundblaster Audigy 2 in PCI cards and USB devices for laptops, which do hardware decoding, and they have WinDVD which does decoding in software. There are few options in Macland, and none of them from Apple with it's characteristic user friendliness.
There is the M-Audio Sonica Theater which can pass through encoded sound (from Mac and PC) or pass through decoded 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 sound (only PC at present). VLC was an option, but M-Audio no longer supports VLC.
Sure you can argue that I can buy a set-top DVD player and home theater system, but I don't own a TV and have little room for a home theater system in my one room flat. Besides, I'll buy a projector before I buy a TV. There are a few powered speaker systems that offer built in hardware decoding but they are few and the choice is limited. There is an external decoder from Creative but this would be unnecessary if DVD Player decoded in software. If VLC was able to do this, why can't Apple's DVD Player?
And what about games? Many games feature EAX 5.1 surround sound, but will 10.4 support this?
I use my PowerBook for work and entertainment and it should be as capable to do both as PC's. I suppose this is a continuation of
this discussion...
Top
