and It's already patched ! have u ever wonder why people with Intel Proccesors didn't have problems? The Motherboard. Anyway it isn't about the drivers , it isn't about Creative . VIA already patched that , so has Microsoft , too .

Okay, it looks like there a whole lot of creative bashing going on here. I'm going to be buying a new PC around October time, and I want to know which Audio card to buy if Creative are so s***. I have a Soundblaster 64 AWE Gold, and I have to say that Creative's support for this card on OSes other than Win9x has been appalling, but I thought the Live series was well supported

I dunno why people seem to be so upset about Creative cards - I've used SBPros, AWE64s and Live! X-Gamer on DOS/Windows, and always had a good experience. Whether the Audigy will really sound different than the 2 year-old Live! technology, that's another question. Its EAX and Dolby 5.1 features will most likely be incorporated into new games and applications in the near future, so it should be useful to get this vs. a Live! to keep away from obsolescence. The Firewire port is also interesting, since it essentially makes the Audigy a combination soundcard/NIC.

In any case, any good soundcard needs a good speaker system, or it will be all in vain. :)

Another question: when will they be in stores? October? And will there be a OEM "Value" version?

I think Creative would make an extremely stupid move to not integrate the much superior A3D API that they now own. Then they'd have my business when I upgrade from my Vortex 2.

And speaking of acquired technology, when is nVidia going to open up the GLide API for use on their cards? I have this Voodoo2 taking up space, and I still have plenty of GLide-only games.

A3D 1/2 has an unfortunate drawback when being used in a PC with a T&L graphics card, and the reason why A3D 3 was being dveeloped as environmental audio, like EAX...

..both sound card and T&L graphics card require trandsform data, causing extra bus load and slowing the PC down...

I have a SBLive!, and after I learnt the trick of disabling DOS emulation it's not given me ANY trouble (DirectSound has, but in't been the game's fault in each case).

IF it's worth the upgrade, I'll get it.

I've always used Creative cards in my boxes and felt they worked well. Then I installed Win2K and bought a Live 5.1 X-Gamer. Pulling teeth was easier than installing those drivers, following their instructions to the letter. It did finally install and I thought it was great until I ran into a little $45 card made by Hoontech, the Digital XG. I have never heard better music quality come from my computer than with the XG. An optional add on gives you digital I/O and optical ports for those who need that functionality. With the add on the cost is about $60-$70, still cheaper than the Creative X-Gamer, MP3, etc. It supports EAX and A3D through Yamaha's Sensaura technology, all games I have thrown at it have worked very well. Plus the drivers are rock solid, something Creative can't seem to muster the strength to bother with anymore. Screw Creative, I'm not going back.

Cool, I'll have to check that out. I too have had problems getting SB Live to work correctly in Windows 2000. Thanks for the recommendation.

Creativ has lost a lot of their following, take a look at their forum from what's left that hasn't been sensored.....search on google....they blamed windows2k and said it would be fixewd with SP2.well it came and went, so did the update from VIA, creative STILL doesn't take responsibility for s***ty drivers.

I had 3 creative cards and my next one is from turtle beach, that you can bet on.

Creative is done and with such a gimmick now, SEEEYaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I wonding win someone was going get around to that one.
If there was a flaw in the EMU10K1 processor itself, no amount of driver writing could fix it.
Remember that EMU10K1 processor came out in 1998, three years before thoses chip set came out, BIGGEST problem is VIA 686B and then there the High Point IDE Controller.

I don't think Creative is very close to sound card market domination, and I have no intention of contributing to that possibility. The Santa Cruz sound card does remarkable things, and I will not switch even if Creative gets cheaper (which it won't).

The Santa Cruz is not a viable option under Windows 2000. Their driver support is much worse than Creative's. My friend struggled with one for a couple days before giving up and exchanging for a Live! MP3+ 5.1 (which, btw, was cheaper). He has since had absolutely no problems and felt a higher quality from the switch.

Wow! "content protection" in my sound card! I sure want that! Not!
Even if it didn't have it, I wouldn't care. I'm done with creative.

Screw Creative, 'police' my MP3s?! HAH right, SURE... yeah I want one!... Hey while im at it I think ill go buy a hand gun and shoot myself in the foor just for the hell of it?!

Creative get a CLUE! People want FREEDOME to do what they want, when they want, how they want with their computers. If your selling hardware thats going to prevent them from being able to do that, then they aren't going to buy your hardware, and go elsewhere for something that fits their needs (as stated above).

Just my $.0001 (More than Creatives gettin from me for this card)

You don't need worry about content protection unless your make very own music and then you have the option ON or OFF.
Beside we don't need worry about this anyway been we use Diff CD ripper & encode so what your problem with that?.

Damn straight.

The source of most of my computer problems are Creative drivers, not only they are loaded with crappy and useless software, they just don't work! Instead to come out with new products why don't you make decent drivers for the ones people have already put their money out?
" However, the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials will be policed by a technology called ContentPass." If they are unable to make a plain sound card working I can imagine how they are going to screw up my system trying to act as cops for the recording industries.I have also to say that I am not particularly surprised by this new alliance: an industry that seems to be run by the dumbest and most shortsighted management I have ever seen is coupling with a company unable, after years and years, to make their products working! "Simil cum similibus"

I wonding win you where going get around to that one.
If there was a flaw in the EMU10K1 processor itself, no amount of driver writing could fix it.
Remember that EMU10K1 processor came out in 1998, three years before thoses chip set came out, BIGGEST problem is VIA 686B and then there the High Point IDE Controller.

What is the SBLive used for by you people? I personally use it for music creation. I use Cubase 5 VST32, SBLive with APS drivers and a measly 333Mhz Celeron with 128MB RAM and slo Hard disks.. and you know what... the SBLive is the single best card I have ever used. People complain to much. No card I have ever tried (and ive tried a lot of cards, std and pro) has come close. Ill get the Audigy if it is as good as the SBLive with APS drivers. But one more thing, yeah the standard drivers are shyte

Take look at this just a hint
http://audigy.boom.ru/

Your attempt at Latin is horrible, I must say.

Creative's sound cards work perfectly well... in fact, their Win2k drivers w/ full functionality are signed.

What exactly is your problem?

Thanks for correcting my spelling, unfortunately you did not post the correct one too: "similis cum similibus". As for my attempt at latin, I studied Latin for eight years in school therefore for me is more a deja vu' than an attempt. As far as CreaLabs goes I am glad you are satisfied of the product but there are a lot of people like me that had a lot of problems with Win2K and Crea drivers. I am waiting to see how long it will take before good drivers for XP will be available.
Regards
Fritzly

Thanks for correcting my spelling, unfortunately you did not post the correct one too: "similis cum similibus". As for my attempt at latin, I studied Latin for eight years in school therefore for me is more a deja vu' than an attempt. As far as CreaLabs goes I am glad you are satisfied of the product but there are a lot of people like me that had a lot of problems with Win2K and Crea drivers. I am waiting to see how long it will take before good drivers for XP will be available.
Regards
Fritzly

Stop b****ing. I have an MP3+ and have no trouble under Win2k since they released their first Win2k Liveware over a year ago. I am also having no trouble in WinXP RC2 using the included drivers. Digital out works perfectly.

No, they don't. There are so many bugs in Creative's drivers (blue screens, delays, etc.) that I find them impossible to use. I'm forced to stick with the watered-down drivers come with Windows 2000, which work perfectly.

The problem doesn't affect most people since not everyone has the same motherboard chipset... The issue resides in PCI latency and poor driver programming... If Creative had a decent programming team behind them, it might do them some good and win over some people who started looking for other solutions

I had a lot of problems too with BSODs and delays until I moved the sound card to a PCI slot which didn't share its interrupt. No problems at all since then.

I don't see any problem using Win2000 Drivers on my SBLIVE card. They work great and I've had no problems. I've also used other drivers written for SBLIVE that work even better. On a Dell Dimensions Pentium III 850, they work great. They work just as great under Windows 2000 then in Windows 98SE

What about the delay of about 15 seconds after you log in to Windows, where you can't click on the Start button? I've seen this on all Windows 2000 systems that use the Creative drivers.

Dunno, I've been running Windows XP with the included Creative drivers for quite some time now.

But it did cure my BSOD problems and spurious, short freezes of the computer.