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Fyre4ce · Jul 23, 2002, 12:41 PM

It's been over a year now since Creative Labs announced their SoundBlaster Live! card for Mac. I remember talking with a rep at the Creative Labs booth at last year's (2001) Macworld Expo, and he said that the card could theoretically support 5.1 channel sound, but neither OS 9 nor OS X could support it.

Now, I don't know any sales statistics on this card, but I rarely hear it even mentioned, and I'm sure it's been a flop. What's up here? I think it would be great for Apple to start supporting this card; they could even offer it as a BTO option, and maybe bundle it with a nice set of Klipsch speakers, say. But they haven't done this. Why??

echoes · Jul 23, 2002, 12:53 PM

I'd imagine until Apple's DVD Player software can output 5.1, Mac game developers take advantage of it in their ports and QT can playback media encoded with 6+ channels of audio there wouldn�t be much point to supporting such a feature.

Q: Creative never bothered to make any OS X drivers for their card, right?

Ken_F2 · Jul 23, 2002, 01:40 PM

Fyre,

I read a news item several days ago, I think it was on xlr8yourmac.com, that said some guys over at Creative were working on OSX drivers for the Soundblaster. I haven't heard much since..

As for why the card hasn't been better supported...the story is this: apparently Creative was pushing for Apple to make some kind of commitment, either bundling or BTO, and when they refused to do so, the management over at Creative cut off further/future funding to the Soundblaster and Audigy for OSX project.

Fyre4ce · Jul 23, 2002, 06:58 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Ken_F2:
Fyre,

I read a news item several days ago, I think it was on xlr8yourmac.com, that said some guys over at Creative were working on OSX drivers for the Soundblaster. I haven't heard much since..

As for why the card hasn't been better supported...the story is this: apparently Creative was pushing for Apple to make some kind of commitment, either bundling or BTO, and when they refused to do so, the management over at Creative cut off further/future funding to the Soundblaster and Audigy for OSX project.<hr /></blockquote>That really sucks. That's just one more advantage for PC's.

CheesePuff · Jul 23, 2002, 08:23 PM

Apparently the guy who works at Creative who is making his own OS X drivers for the card says he has input/output working, and expect a beta as soon as his .Mac web site gets up.

Evangellydonut · Jul 24, 2002, 01:13 PM

SoundBlaster Live for the Mac never had 5.1 support to my understanding...Creative was blaming it on timing issues with the Mac mobo when sending the signal over PCI or something along that line...but the DVD-decoder cards for the Mac never had such problems...(somewhere from Xlr8) So don't hold your breath waiting for anything from creative...it'll probably be faster for me to make something like that next year for my senior EE project

CheesePuff · Jul 24, 2002, 03:14 PM

You can buy the Sonica from M-Audio which won a MacWorld NY 2002 award and is OS X compatible for $89, and then the Klipsch DD-5.1 for $170 and then a 5.1 system.

davidflas · Jul 26, 2002, 06:52 AM

I for one hope that Apple changes its mind about the third party audio card issue. I bought one of the creative cards when it came out, now I feel like a dupe for doing so. Its good to hear that at least one person at creative is working on drivers for X. I would be happy to show support for him, even if it meant paying a nominal fee to get the drivers. I wonder why Apple resisted bundling these cards with new Macs. Perhaps the MacOS wasn't(and still isn't) really up to the task. Come on Apple, get with the progam! How can a digital hub not offer true surround sound for games and DVDs!!!!

Leonard · Jul 26, 2002, 02:29 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Fyre4ce:
It's been over a year now since Creative Labs announced their SoundBlaster Live! card for Mac. I remember talking with a rep at the Creative Labs booth at last year's (2001) Macworld Expo, and he said that the card could theoretically support 5.1 channel sound, but neither OS 9 nor OS X could support it.
<hr /></blockquote>Just one note, OS X does support 5.1 channel sound. I'm not sure if any applications support it (echoes mentioned DVD player doesn't).

And if Cheesepuff is right about the cards being announced, then I assume the hardware can handle it.

OverclockedHomoSapien · Jul 26, 2002, 04:31 PM

<a href="http://bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000506.html" target="_blank">http://bbs.xlr8yourmac.com/ubb/Forum12/HTML/000506.html</a>

Creative does not officially support OS X driver development, so if you don't already own a SB Live, then I would NEVER buy one.

The reason Apple didn't want to offer the SB Live as a BTO option is because the drivers sucked. In OS 9, with the Creative extensions on, system stability hit a new low...literally my system crashed every few minutes with the drivers enabled, and as soon as I ditched the Creative extensions, system stability returned to normal. Can you imagine Apple supporting such a shoddy product?

Creative basically said to Apple, "give us BTO support, and THEN we'll make decent drivers". Thankfully, Apple told them to go to hell.

LordRPI · Jul 26, 2002, 11:29 PM

Try Sonica from M-Audio, I saw it at MWNY. Visit m-audio at <a href="http://www.m-audio.com" target="_blank">www.m-audio.com</a>

Full support should be there by Jaguar's release.

CheesePuff · Jul 27, 2002, 09:50 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by LordRPI:
Try Sonica from M-Audio, I saw it at MWNY. Visit m-audio at <a href="http://www.m-audio.com" target="_blank">www.m-audio.com</a>

Full support should be there by Jaguar's release.<hr /></blockquote>And then what do I plug into that? It has the S/PDIF output from USB, so do I need a digital decoder to work with a 5.1 system? Bah, too much work and money were on the PC they give away 5.1 sound cards.

DaedalusDX · Jul 30, 2002, 01:39 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Fyre4ce:
It's been over a year now since Creative Labs announced their SoundBlaster Live! card for Mac. I remember talking with a rep at the Creative Labs booth at last year's (2001) Macworld Expo, and he said that the card could theoretically support 5.1 channel sound, but neither OS 9 nor OS X could support it.

Now, I don't know any sales statistics on this card, but I rarely hear it even mentioned, and I'm sure it's been a flop. What's up here? I think it would be great for Apple to start supporting this card; they could even offer it as a BTO option, and maybe bundle it with a nice set of Klipsch speakers, say. But they haven't done this. Why??<hr /></blockquote>Hey Chris, this is Benson, your roommate next year. Ya know what... last year i got suckered into buying one of those Creative Soundblasters for Mac at Macworld Expo. Most useless thing i've ever gotten for my computer. As you know, i've spent 98% of my time in OS X.

if you want 5.1 out for your computer in OS X, as other people have said, consider the Sonica. I saw it at macworld expo just 2 weeks ago. Really cool... in fact, Phil, the guy living next to us next year bought one for his TiBook.

And another thing... where the hell are we going to have room for 5.1 type speakers in our little dorm room?!