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Keep in mind before upgrading that if you're running ReiserFS (as you should be =) ), the latest 2.2.17 won't patch correctly, be it 2.2.18 + patch or 2.2.17 + patch + 2.2.18 patch. These should be out imminently, however, so keep an eye on their web site. Also, be sure to check out opensource.creative.com for the latest EMU10K1, as the drivers are far more recent than the ones included in 2.2.18, and a great bit better, I've found. This is definitely worth the upgrade, for no other reason than the USB backporting, as well as the AGPgart and DRI drivers.

EAX is not like A3D. EAX is reverb. A3D was a proprietary API and hardware for 3D positional audio. In computer games. Implemented on sound cards. It makes me feel like a rebel to cheer for the underdog, too, but I think we should be fighting for open standards, not just turnover among proprietary corporate initiatives. PS: I could have sworn we were talking about MP3 players anyway. Chris Owens
San Carlos, CA

...another comment from Michael Tandy.

There are DVD authoring tools available. Three companies spring to mind, Sonic, Diakin and Spruce. I can't tell you off hand how much their software costs, it could be quite dear (talk to them about discounts?) I'm sure that they will allow you to author region 0 (all regions) DVDs. I'm also not sure where you would go to get the DVD's burnt... I presume the equipment is too expensive. Another, alternative option might be something like Creative Lab's DVD-RAM drive, but I don't know what it comes with, or whether it will fulfill you needs.

I work for InterActual Technologies, Inc. I've been working on a piece of software that integrates into third-party tools (DVD Authoring tools to be precise). This allows DVD Authoring tools to integrate web content with DVDs. Sonic are (still planning?) shipping their low end product which allows you to create a DVD utilising PCFriendly. In the near future, more companies will be offering DVD Authoring tools that integrate with the as yet unreleased InterActual Player 2.0.

But I got this message...

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers

error '80040e07'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]

The conversion of a char data type to a datetime data type resulted in an out-of-range datetime value.

/global/inc/banner.asp, line 192

Is this yet another case of /. misrepresentation?

.. got to Creative's site instead and help out with the DXR2 drivers.

Actually, Creative is sponsoring some work on drivers for their oldish (but still very nice) DXR2 decoder board. Check it out here.
--
Violence is necessary, it is as American as cherry pie.
H. Rap Brown

umm... as far as your sblive goes, you can download the source from http://opensource.creative.com/. Most every new distro already comes with the module already there anyway. It's called emu10k1.

Now, if you're talking about the horribly incompabtible binary "enhanced" driver Creative provides, then your Redhat argument carries some weight, but I don't think a kernel module that you compile yourself can be in any way related to Redhat.

I'm sure if Creative would/could make a DVD player for linux it would.

Interesting example - Creative is, AFAIK, the ONLY DVD decoder card manufacturer that DOES support Linux. I have a Creative Dxr2 decoder card, which works great with Creative's own GPL'ed drivers. Picture quality is equal to that of the Windows drivers, and TV-output even works.
--

Actually, I thought Creative's dxr3 did decoding in software ... the dxr2 does decoding in hardware, though.

As others have mentioned, see the Creative open source page for info on linux driver development of the dxr2-series card.

http://opensource.creative.com

They've been doing a very good job with the SB Live! drivers, and you can also find Dxr2 sources here as well (though I don't have one, so I don't know how mature they are)

There currently *is* a driver for the DXR2 which is Creative Labs' own card. After the DXR2 5x Kit they sold, they decided to use Sigma's card which Sigma *refuses* to release specs to.

The DXR2 Project is pretty mature now sporting DVD/VCD playing with video Overlay.

One of the only benefits the DXR3 card has over the DXR2 is that it can play DTS out with the windows software.

Here's the DXR2/Soundblaster Live OSS stuff

- Ed Spidre

The H+ is probably the best DVD/MPEG decoder board out there for the PC today. If you have a Creative DXR3 board (which is basically a rebranded H+), you'd probably be covered by these drivers as well.

I see, so in other words free software needs to
compromise in order to fit with your view.
Bullshit Jack
First off if you want proprietary Unix, "sarcasm"
I'm sure you can find someone to sell it to you"/sarcasm".
Second, if you you have a need for a peice of hardware
Thats not supported under Linux and you insist on using Linux,
you have _extremely_poor_judgement_.
Third, the whole open/proprietary thing is like a
stare down contest, you blink, you lose

Also where is it written that it's anybodies god given right to use _any_ of this stuff?
You talk about supporting companies that "get it",
what _you_ don't seem to get is is that
by compromising on issues like this you get the worst outcome of each method.

You're in such a hurry to do their work for them?

What do you give a shit if somebody wants to spend
some of their own time writing a driver?
You complain its takes developers away from improving existing software.
I don't know about the planet you live on, but where I live free software improves every day.
Take a look at drivers for emu10k1 chipset soundcards as an example.
Then look at a feature comparison.
Creative says a release quality proprietary driver is due out "summer 2000".
I requested a feature on the open driver
and it was implemented in less than two weeks.
Let's see a vendor do _that_

Creative has had this going since before December on their DXR2 cards, take a look at opensource.creative.com I also think ATI announced that they were releasing the specs for their DVD stuff or something for developers. Don't hold me to this.

THERE IS AN OPEN SOURCE DVD PLAYER THAT IT LEGAL TO USE

Go to:

Creative's opensource page

You'll an open source driver/player for creative dxr2 decoder cards. Even better, the player ignores region codes.

There is a driver/player using the Creative dxr2 card that works well under Linux. Since the CSS decoding is done in hardware, all the code is both legal and open source.

You can find it at

http://opensource.creative.com/

http://opensource.creative.com
Or even:
http://www.alsa-project.org if ALSA is more your thing.

Nick

According to the OpenAL page they are implementing the IASIG guidelines. Aureal is a member of IASIG as is about every other audio manufaturer. Also accor ding to Jon Taylor of creative, they are planning on setting up an ARB for spec development.

Yes, wavetracing is nifty, but it is a serious CPU hit, and honestly it is not that much greater than 3D audio with EAX.

Maybe you do not trust Creative, but right now this is all we have, Aureal would be much worse frankly, they are going to release A3D for Linux, it is going to be closed, who wants that? Aureal is free to write their own OpenAL drivers for their soundcards, just as they are free to write their own EAX drivers (did they ever release these, they have been promising them for a year now).

Where have you been? Creative has an opensource DVD player that is hardware accelerated (The dxr2 card). I have been using it to watch the Matrix under Linux for some time. There is a small binary, and CSS decoding is done on the card. Everything else is opensource.

CSS is handled legally by the drivers - they just call the ZivaDS (the descrambler chip) and say "unlock the drive, unlock the title, decode the data". The driver code has no knowledge of CSS secrets - they're all contained within the hardware.

Right now, the support is good - VGA overlay is working for the most part, and IFO parsing (with the exception of selecting multiple camera angles) is done, so movies like The Matrix and Tomorrow Never Dies play correctly. Chapter searching works to a certain extent as well. There's a graphical frontend (gdxr2) available.

Unfortunately, there's no support yet for Creative's newest card, the DxR3 - it has some functions in software, which have not been released by Sigma (who manufactures the decoder hardware). Maybe ATi's release of binaries for the restricted materials will spur them along...

check out opensource.creative.com

it works OK, although still in beta.

-Jon

Now if only Creative would come out with SBLive Linux.

I have to ask - what would the point of this be? Creative have been working on their SBLive Linux drivers for quite a while, and they are almost at the stage where they can get the driver included in the kernel. I forsee that they will get included before 2.4 comes out. Until then, you can download the kernel module source code at Creative's Open Source web site.

More companies should take an example from Creative and their drivers for dxr2 (regardless of the fact that they didn't write them themselves, they still provide them on their website and provide information on how to use them) As I'm typing this, I'm watching Pink Floyd's The Wall in a window under Linux, and my roommate is watching it on the TV in the other room through the S-Video out. It works perfectly, except for the fact that menus don't work. I just ran across the link to the drivers last night, downloaded a devel kernel, recompiled, and everything worked perfectly. The image looks better than it does under Windows, as well (why, I don't know, but it does noticeably)

The drivers are even open sourced... the only binary needed is an image of something, I forget what. (I was drunk last night when I set this up :-)

If anybody's wondering, the URL is http://opensource.creative.com. The command line program works decently (but you have to know the number of the .VOB file you want to play.... but once you start it, it plays through the whole movie uninterrupted) There's a GNOME player (gdxr2 or something like that) but it sucks - it's extremely buggy. I may write a GNOME DVD player (as soon as I get bored with working on PowerShell... hehehehe shameless plug :-)

"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
-Linus Torvalds

Creative Labs has the Creative Open Source web page with the Sound Blaster Live! sound card module (the emu10k1).

I may be the only one but I bought the Linux Version of Quake because ID is supporting Linux not just announcing support. I could give feed back with my $$.

You're not the only one, buddy! I bought Q3A for Linux too. Now if only I can get my tin box soon...

Off-topic: Assuming the Sigma people did finish their Linux-compatible DVD decoder product, what will the OpenDVD and LiViD people think of it? If the Linux software to run the decoder is GPL'd (assuming the decryption engine is done in hardware only -- programming calls to access the engine, but not the engine itself), will the OpenDVD/LiViD people still be satisfied with the source code?
--

Except for one thing. There is no mention of an environmental sound model (EAX or simmilar). Their features list does mention DirectX compatibility, and I think the later versions of DirectX include environmental sound, so it may be included.

But somehow, I have a feeling that it is not. And Linux AFAIK doesn't have an environmental sound API. I think it would be great if the LithTech people hooked up with the opensource SB Live driver developers and created an API that would work for game developers and be open source...

Anyway, the most recent fruits of Creative's newfound enlightenment can be had here:

http://opensource.creative.com/

and here:

http://www.alsa-project.org/ Don't let the version # fool you, ALSA has been awesome on w/ my GUS Max since I started using it 6-8 months ago. You may want to save ALSA for a future go-round, though, until you're feel comfortable configuring drivers not included as part of the stock kernel, as it's completely redone (and backward compatible) sound support for Linux, which is planned to be the next generation drivers and API. Also, it has a user mailing list in case you'd like a helping hand.

Both have documentation about how to go about setting it up, so given the inclination, you can have sound right now instead of waiting for the next round of distro updates. :)

Btw, kernel configuration and compiling really isn't very difficult - it's primarily choosing what devices to support, and a few protocols (and each option has a friendly little help display if you're unsure). For more information, you can visit the Linux Documentation Project at http://www.linuxdoc.org/ and LinuxNewbie.org at (oddly enough) http://www.linuxnewbie.org/- home of the NHFs (Newbieized Help files "in plain english")

Ever heard of Nist/Livid ?

No DVD under Linux, huh? Well than don't look at this sample , it might confince you otherwise... Also, never heard about the DXR2 drivers on the Creative Opensource site? Or that Sigma Designs is planning on giving their next Hollywood chip native Linux support?!

With those Windoze players, I always have to mess around with my display settings, if I want to watch DVD.. with Nist I just compiled it in.. no need to mess with that anymore..

Creative plans to release a binary-only driver to replace the current open source drivers. The open source drivers are simply a stop-gap, and a way to get Linux users to buy Creative cards. The current drivers only implement wave recording and playback, and support for external MIDI devices. Presumably you will need the binary-only drivers to use any of the Emu10k1 or wavetable features. See Creative's SB Live on Linux FAQ for more information.

Aargh.. malformed anchor tag....

sound blaster live driver :

opensource.creative.com

Follow the instructions to get the CVS source version, rather than the release binary tarball, if you can handle compiling from source. It's got support for 32-channel simultaneous playback thorugh /dev/dsp.

This site also carries awe drivers, and creative dxr2 dvd drivers.

sound blaster live driver :



Follow the instructions to get the CVS source version, rather than the release binary tarball, if you can handle compiling from source. It's got support for 32-channel simultaneous playback thorugh /dev/dsp.

This site also carries awe drivers, and creative dxr2 dvd drivers.

Creative did release drivers.

See http://opensource.creative.com.

The SB Live driver will be GPLed, according to this page. The ATI glx driver is not being developed by ATI (they released specs instead of a driver) and will have an X-style license. As for Aureal, we'll have to wait for the official announcement.

I'm sure that some compliments couldn't hurt their commitment to making the SB Live! work better with Linux (and other OSes, by the way). Pat them on their collective head and tell them they've been good. :)

Comments developer relations can be emailed to dev-questions@creative.com or submitted by web at http://developer.soundblaster.com/feedb ack/.

If anyone has any other addresses which may be appropriate, feel free to post 'em!

Although it is legally correct that 3dfx is taking action to defend their copyright, their stance is in stark contrast to nVidia and Creative Labs, among others, who seem to have recognised the benefits of working with the open-source community rather than against it. In nVidia's case they release and support Xservers optimised for their graphics cards. In Creative Labs' case, in January 1999 they announced plans to release Linux drivers for most of their hardware.