This is why I dont buy Creative

[Funkstar]

I've not read through it yet, but there is a response from Daniel_K (aka Daniel Kawakami) on the Wired Bog network

Daniel_K, Who Fixed Creative's Broken Vista Drivers, Speaks Out | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

Via Slashdot: Slashdot | Creative Vista Driver Modder Speaks Out

[MSIC]

Embarressed that i own creative stuff.
Will never buy any again.
Will never recommend anything of theirs again.
I will ensure that all my future builds (for lots of other people) use non-creative chips.

What i will regret losing is their line of speakers. Oh well, we've got logitech.

[latrosicarius]

Oh well, we've got logitech.

i thought logitech was affiliated with them?? i'm probably wrong

[Uriel]

Very happy that my X-Fi was 2nd hand so Creative didn't get my money. Been having driver problems in Vista and will probably use this as an excuse to jump to a Xonar. Anyone seen an objective review assessing Asus's claims about implementing EAX5 yet?

[AndrewJ]

i thought logitech was affiliated with them?? i'm probably wrong

I think that was just rumors, I may be wrong but I have never seen anything offical about that.

[Thorsson]

no........... your quality is not worse with a USB mic

The question is... with the advent of USB microphones and speakers which keep the signal digital for longer... what use is a sound card?

Now, if the sound card had USB pins/plugs and was able to accept the USB microphone and process it FOR the cpu, THEN, a sound card would be good to have still

There have been latency problems with USB mics. OK if you spend enough then it's probably good, although you miss a certain amount of functionality. But keeping the signal digital for longer is no magic panacea - if the equipment that turns that signal into analog is crap (which is the norm for cheaper USB equipment) then the end signal is still crap. In general buying USB mics, headphones or speakers gets you worse quality for more money.

Moreover, there is absolutely no point in a soundcard having USB connectors, because the USB equipment acts as its own soundcard.

[Agent]

Daniel_K, Who Fixed Creative's Broken Vista Drivers, Speaks Out | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

[Funkstar]

See post 49 in this thread

[Agent]

Stop doing that sausage boy!

[Pob255]

luckly I'm not that much of an audiophile as some people and stoped useing creative sound cards after my 16bit soundblaster (which I kept useing for a good while) I only stoped useing it due to lack of drivers and the improved performance of onboard realtek sound chips which give me good enough audio quality.

EDIT: I'm guessing that this was the 3rd party IP

X-Fi:
Got Dolby Digital Live enabled on any X-Fi card. To clarify, I still didn't manage to enable DDL on Audigy cards.
A friend of mine bought a X-Fi, so I could test it, it really works.
The only current X-Fi based card that supports DDL is the Auzentech Prelude.

However from what I read I don't think he released that in his drivers just said that he'd done it.

[Agent]

EDIT: I'm guessing that this was the 3rd party IP
However from what I read I don't think he released that in his drivers just said that he'd done it.

Yup, spot on.

DDL encoder and Crystalizer were not publicly released.

No one but him (and maybe his mate) had them

[-iceblade^]

utter rubbish tbh. A classic example of one corporation standing up too bully a helping person. I won't EVER buy a creative product - logitech for me.

[GAteKeeper]

Swore after the whole SBLive! and AMD athlon boards debacle that I wouldnt buy another Creative product.

To be honest I would rather spend the money on HiFi equipment and a simple digital link style soundcard.

Seems a shame that large corperations feel the need to play such heavy handed tatics with their customers. While enabling totally new licence requiring features cant be condoned, creating drivers that make the cards usable on Vista has to be congratulated.

GK

[Pleiades]

I had a sinking feeling when Creative took down Aureal, its only real competitor all those years back. I had hoped that by buying them out, at least some of their undoubtedly superior tech (and support, possibly, though I never needed to use it) would survive. I was wrong. It's sad to see a good company like Aureal go under (just as it was sad to see 3DfX disappear) - let's all hope AMD survives in some form or other, for obvious reasons!

Personally, I believe onboard sound is now 'good enough' for most people.

Though my Xi-Fi is excellent on Vista 64 headphones at the moment - I'm now dreading hooking them up to the CS 7.1 speakers (and upgrading RAM to more than 2GB). I might be OK, and it's not the end of the world but still...

BTW my Audigy 2 ZS in my other system (Athlon64 5000+, XP) has just stopped working. For no apparent reason (Windows says it's fine, re-downloaded drivers, etc). Switched to onboard and quite frankly just glad Realtek exist (used to scorn onboard as sub-par LOL)!

[HEXUS]

A Brazilian developer threatened with legal action by Creative for making its soundcards work better with Vista has had his work reinstated on the company's website.

Read more.

[usxhe190]

haha I am still NOT buying Creative products.