I'm a little confused, why encode you mp3's at all if your just going to be burning tracks to a CD? just copy tracks strait from one disk to the other (unless you're burning mp3 CDs) "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
any standard lossless data compression scheme should be able to compress audio to 60%, or even more zip, gzip, rar, whatever "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
There are over 65,000 sound levels available on a CD (16 bit), they can produce any wave that a record player can (and probably more). Records are not only analog, there physical, and the degrade everytime you play them. Also, do they have sterio capability? (and if so, how does it work).
The only reason that anolog sounds better then digital is people have convinced themselves of it. I'd be willing to bet that if it was a 'double blind' test the results would be the same, if not better for the CD "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I'll stick with my $600 stereo setup, with a 100watt 5.1 Dolby digital receiver, thank you:). Sure, the sound card puts in some line noise but it's not *that* bad. Your USB speakers are probably just better speakers.
Another problem is with USB speakers is that you can't do really high quality mixing for sounds, so if your listening to sound from a game that uses multiple sounds mixed together, they will get muddled by CPU mixing (sound cards have special hardware to mix sounds) if your just listening to MP3s it should be OK though.
btw, you ears *can* hear digital waves, IE 1bit samples. this is the way a lot of old PC demos used to output sound through the PC speaker. (you mentioned this in another post) "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
The noise from the rest of the computer is pretty bad. On my box I can hear the HD and even video memory out of the speakers if I turn the volume up enough.
I think the best solution would be to use a S/PDIF(sp?) for digital output to an amp, does anyone know how to do this well? my stereo has fiber optic inputs, are there any sound cards that have these? "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Just plug the Record player into the back of the computer (mic port, line in) and record a.wav file. Make sure you use 44.1khz, but Records arn't sterio so you can you can record in mono (the mp3s will take up 1/2 the space).
check the wav file to make sure it sound nice first though
if you want a really good burn, you might try a CD-recorder, so that nothing hits the computer untill it's already digital. since FM interferance inside a computer can be pretty bad "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
why would you need an amp with 'soround sound' when both MP3s and CDs are only sterio encoded?? The raw audio comming out of the soundcard shouldn't need any more tweaking.
acutaly I have a tuner that can do that, and pure 'sterio' mode sounds better then 'simulated suround' It sounds like it's echoing in a large room or somthing, witch is exactly what it's supposed to sound like. (it sound's 'cooler' but not 'better') "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Did you read the article? Most people, in *scientifically controlled* tests couldn't really tell the difference.
When I first hooked my computer to my new stereo, I could really tell the difference between Mp3 and CD's. A song on CD just sounded better then a song in mp3, (even if they were different songs). When I decided to test a song that I had in both MP3 and on CD, I found that the audio coming out of my CD-ROM drive was about %20 louder. After adjusting the volume to be about as close to the same as I could, I could barely tell the difference
In the article, the people they had reviewing the codecs were professionals, people who worked for speaker makers, etc. (the three best listeners). They said that you could tell the difference with careful, multiple listening. In the 'general' listening sample (all audiophiles) some people even rated the compressed audio *above* the CDs (meaning that they couldn't really tell the difference).
Let me guess, your listening to the MP3's on your crapy PC speakers, and the and the CD's on your nice CD player...
Even if your running them both of your computer, you've probably got your CD-out louder the Wave Out. (even though the bars on my volume control at the same place, the sound was defiantly louder).
to get a really accurate sample, burn some MP3s to CD, and then compare, so you're using the same audio system. "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
And your wrong. The game market can only support about two systems. every 'generational' leap has produced two running systems, (except when the NES was the only game in town).
There were plenty of boxes at the beginning of the 16-bit era, and several at the start of the 'Next-generation' era (I don't want to say 32-bit because the N64 is, well 64 bit)
First the SNES and sega's genesis, the turbo-grafix16 didn't get anywhere. Recently there have really only been the N64 and the PSX. The Sega Saturn, the 3do, Atari Jaguar and whatever else, just died in the water.
I really don't think this box from Microsoft will make much of an impact, despite there success as an OS vendor, they are actually a pretty inept company. "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Well, this box may not even have a hard drive, and since Microsoft is designing it, they may make it difficult to replace the OS.
But if you just want it for a gaming machine, why even bother to install linux? if you dislike microsoft, why not just get an n64? or one of those new fangled psx2's (acutaly the development platform runs linux, so there may be some bits of linux underlying the games:) "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I'd rather install a game on the hard drive then dig up a CD, and considering that a CD is going to be much slower then the hard drive, it makes it faster to (much faster).
man there are lots of loosers in the gaming world I think your one of them... show me a game you've writen... "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
if microsoft was selling it with win9x, but there not, there using Windows CE (wince). Witch is an entirely diffrent OS, and I've heard porting is not really that easy ether...
Man, microsoft should really have there API's writen by a diffrent department, and the implementations done by the OS departments (9x, NT, CE) so they all work correctly. (like UNIX:) "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Hrm, I don't know about this from what it sounds like there just making a striped down PC optimized for games. I doubt it will be very compelling on a technical side. The GeForce kicks ass, but so do the custom chips in the DreamCast and the PSX2.
Also, Micro$~1 will not be building these boxes themselves. The reason game boxes are so cheap is because hardware makes eat the cost. Sony lost almost $100 on each playstation it sold at launch. This is the problem that 3do had. There boxes were made by third party's, instead of 3do itself. they cost far to much, so the market was very limited.
This Microsoft box is going to be going for at least $100 more then the Sega, and at the same price point as the Sony (although I don't know much about Sony's release date the price will be $300 at launch). I'm pretty sure that the PSX2 will have much more CPU power though.
So basically what Microsoft is promoting will be underpowerd (even less then current top of the line PCs, by a little bit. A new console should be at least 1 year ahead of PCs), and probably undersupported. Microsoft does a lot of things, and doesn't really follow through on all of them
Gamers aren't stupid, Microsoft isn't a 'sexy' company like Sony or Nintendo (or even Sega, rrr, I was a Super Nintendo zealot:) I just don't see this succeeding. "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
microsoft isn't making the hardware, there just laying out the specs, just like they do for PC's "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
the hardware will be 'open' in that anyone can make one, just like a PC. at least that what I assumed from the artical. They said that it would be made by "third partys" like dell or compaq, so there might be some limitations. "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
This box will use a x86 clone, and the saturn uses an SH4, i belive. it would posible to put Games for both on the same CD, however and have them share resources. licening issues aside "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
It's not like it comes from microsoft, and its not like they spesificaly said that it *would* run windows CE (wince) in the CNET artical "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I'd hardly call that 'moster' you must have a 3.5inch cock or somthing, to think that 6" is large... "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I normally surf at -1, so I see almost all of the posts (unless something gets -2, witch has happened, I had to change my threshold in the URL to see it). At one point I wanted to read the comments on a topic that had received hundreds of posts, so I set my threshold to '1'. The problem was that registered users were replying to ACs, and at '1' it was impossible to follow the discussion. Setting your threshold to 2 would also filter out *a lot* of important information... there isn't really that much moderation going on.
I also think one of the best things that we could do would be to remove the 'automatic' moderators. Instead, moderators should be hand picked based on there posts by Commander Taco, or Hemos or someone. Or me:) and then give them unlimited moderator points "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I think a good solution would be a personal kill file, where certain troublesome users could be filtered on an individual basis (or automatically given -1, or 0). This would also be a welcome feature for avoiding Bible thumpers and Mac zealots, since you can't really moderate them down across the board (well you can, but it would be in very poor taste)
This wouldn't help much for AC's, so I propose getting rid of them entirely. If someone waned to post something anonymously, they still could. You could also have 'soft' anonymity, and 'hard' anonymity. With Soft, things like default scores, and kill files would still work. Hard anonymity would strip the identity in the software, forever removing any record of 'who' posted. It would get a +1 score. Perhaps for problem users, we could remove the 'hard' anonymity option
Sorry my writing is so crappy, I just woke up "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a little confused, why encode you mp3's at all if your just going to be burning tracks to a CD? just copy tracks strait from one disk to the other (unless you're burning mp3 CDs)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
any standard lossless data compression scheme should be able to compress audio to 60%, or even more zip, gzip, rar, whatever
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
with your own studio, and band :)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
There are over 65,000 sound levels available on a CD (16 bit), they can produce any wave that a record player can (and probably more). Records are not only analog, there physical, and the degrade everytime you play them. Also, do they have sterio capability? (and if so, how does it work).
The only reason that anolog sounds better then digital is people have convinced themselves of it. I'd be willing to bet that if it was a 'double blind' test the results would be the same, if not better for the CD
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I'll stick with my $600 stereo setup, with a 100watt 5.1 Dolby digital receiver, thank you :). Sure, the sound card puts in some line noise but it's not *that* bad. Your USB speakers are probably just better speakers.
Another problem is with USB speakers is that you can't do really high quality mixing for sounds, so if your listening to sound from a game that uses multiple sounds mixed together, they will get muddled by CPU mixing (sound cards have special hardware to mix sounds) if your just listening to MP3s it should be OK though.
btw, you ears *can* hear digital waves, IE 1bit samples. this is the way a lot of old PC demos used to output sound through the PC speaker. (you mentioned this in another post)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
The noise from the rest of the computer is pretty bad. On my box I can hear the HD and even video memory out of the speakers if I turn the volume up enough.
I think the best solution would be to use a S/PDIF(sp?) for digital output to an amp, does anyone know how to do this well? my stereo has fiber optic inputs, are there any sound cards that have these?
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Just plug the Record player into the back of the computer (mic port, line in) and record a .wav file. Make sure you use 44.1khz, but Records arn't sterio so you can you can record in mono (the mp3s will take up 1/2 the space).
check the wav file to make sure it sound nice first though
if you want a really good burn, you might try a CD-recorder, so that nothing hits the computer untill it's already digital. since FM interferance inside a computer can be pretty bad
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
why would you need an amp with 'soround sound' when both MP3s and CDs are only sterio encoded?? The raw audio comming out of the soundcard shouldn't need any more tweaking.
acutaly I have a tuner that can do that, and pure 'sterio' mode sounds better then 'simulated suround' It sounds like it's echoing in a large room or somthing, witch is exactly what it's supposed to sound like. (it sound's 'cooler' but not 'better')
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Did you read the article? Most people, in *scientifically controlled* tests couldn't really tell the difference.
When I first hooked my computer to my new stereo, I could really tell the difference between Mp3 and CD's. A song on CD just sounded better then a song in mp3, (even if they were different songs). When I decided to test a song that I had in both MP3 and on CD, I found that the audio coming out of my CD-ROM drive was about %20 louder. After adjusting the volume to be about as close to the same as I could, I could barely tell the difference
In the article, the people they had reviewing the codecs were professionals, people who worked for speaker makers, etc. (the three best listeners). They said that you could tell the difference with careful, multiple listening. In the 'general' listening sample (all audiophiles) some people even rated the compressed audio *above* the CDs (meaning that they couldn't really tell the difference).
Let me guess, your listening to the MP3's on your crapy PC speakers, and the and the CD's on your nice CD player...
Even if your running them both of your computer, you've probably got your CD-out louder the Wave Out. (even though the bars on my volume control at the same place, the sound was defiantly louder).
to get a really accurate sample, burn some MP3s to CD, and then compare, so you're using the same audio system.
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Much more stable. much prettyer to :)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
And your wrong. The game market can only support about two systems. every 'generational' leap has produced two running systems, (except when the NES was the only game in town).
There were plenty of boxes at the beginning of the 16-bit era, and several at the start of the 'Next-generation' era (I don't want to say 32-bit because the N64 is, well 64 bit)
First the SNES and sega's genesis, the turbo-grafix16 didn't get anywhere. Recently there have really only been the N64 and the PSX. The Sega Saturn, the 3do, Atari Jaguar and whatever else, just died in the water.
I really don't think this box from Microsoft will make much of an impact, despite there success as an OS vendor, they are actually a pretty inept company.
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Well, this box may not even have a hard drive, and since Microsoft is designing it, they may make it difficult to replace the OS.
:)
But if you just want it for a gaming machine, why even bother to install linux? if you dislike microsoft, why not just get an n64? or one of those new fangled psx2's (acutaly the development platform runs linux, so there may be some bits of linux underlying the games
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
woops, I ment to say dreamcast, the saturn uses two SH2's I think (or maybe sh3s)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
sorry to reply to you twice, but
I'd rather install a game on the hard drive then dig up a CD, and considering that a CD is going to be much slower then the hard drive, it makes it faster to (much faster).
man there are lots of loosers in the gaming world
I think your one of them... show me a game you've writen...
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
if microsoft was selling it with win9x, but there not, there using Windows CE (wince). Witch is an entirely diffrent OS, and I've heard porting is not really that easy ether...
:)
Man, microsoft should really have there API's writen by a diffrent department, and the implementations done by the OS departments (9x, NT, CE) so they all work correctly. (like UNIX
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Hrm, I don't know about this from what it sounds like there just making a striped down PC optimized for games. I doubt it will be very compelling on a technical side. The GeForce kicks ass, but so do the custom chips in the DreamCast and the PSX2.
:) I just don't see this succeeding.
Also, Micro$~1 will not be building these boxes themselves. The reason game boxes are so cheap is because hardware makes eat the cost. Sony lost almost $100 on each playstation it sold at launch. This is the problem that 3do had. There boxes were made by third party's, instead of 3do itself. they cost far to much, so the market was very limited.
This Microsoft box is going to be going for at least $100 more then the Sega, and at the same price point as the Sony (although I don't know much about Sony's release date the price will be $300 at launch). I'm pretty sure that the PSX2 will have much more CPU power though.
So basically what Microsoft is promoting will be underpowerd (even less then current top of the line PCs, by a little bit. A new console should be at least 1 year ahead of PCs), and probably undersupported. Microsoft does a lot of things, and doesn't really follow through on all of them
Gamers aren't stupid, Microsoft isn't a 'sexy' company like Sony or Nintendo (or even Sega, rrr, I was a Super Nintendo zealot
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
microsoft isn't making the hardware, there just laying out the specs, just like they do for PC's
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
the hardware will be 'open' in that anyone can make one, just like a PC. at least that what I assumed from the artical. They said that it would be made by "third partys" like dell or compaq, so there might be some limitations.
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
This box will use a x86 clone, and the saturn uses an SH4, i belive. it would posible to put Games for both on the same CD, however and have them share resources. licening issues aside
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
It's not like it comes from microsoft, and its not like they spesificaly said that it *would* run windows CE (wince) in the CNET artical
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
This one about Richard Stevens dying
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I'd hardly call that 'moster' you must have a 3.5inch cock or somthing, to think that 6" is large...
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I normally surf at -1, so I see almost all of the posts (unless something gets -2, witch has happened, I had to change my threshold in the URL to see it). At one point I wanted to read the comments on a topic that had received hundreds of posts, so I set my threshold to '1'. The problem was that registered users were replying to ACs, and at '1' it was impossible to follow the discussion. Setting your threshold to 2 would also filter out *a lot* of important information... there isn't really that much moderation going on.
:) and then give them unlimited moderator points
I also think one of the best things that we could do would be to remove the 'automatic' moderators. Instead, moderators should be hand picked based on there posts by Commander Taco, or Hemos or someone. Or me
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
it dosn't deserve -1
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
I think a good solution would be a personal kill file, where certain troublesome users could be filtered on an individual basis (or automatically given -1, or 0). This would also be a welcome feature for avoiding Bible thumpers and Mac zealots, since you can't really moderate them down across the board (well you can, but it would be in very poor taste)
This wouldn't help much for AC's, so I propose getting rid of them entirely. If someone waned to post something anonymously, they still could. You could also have 'soft' anonymity, and 'hard' anonymity. With Soft, things like default scores, and kill files would still work. Hard anonymity would strip the identity in the software, forever removing any record of 'who' posted. It would get a +1 score. Perhaps for problem users, we could remove the 'hard' anonymity option
Sorry my writing is so crappy, I just woke up
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"