Live 5.1 Line

October 12, 2000 - Mark Muschett

Update:  A new Live reference review has been completed along with full reviews of each of the Live 5.1 product line.  You will find much more detail at these links as compared to the early impressions that follow.

SoundBlaster Live! reference review- here you will find all the details.

SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 - European Edition

SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 - America's Edition

Sound Blaster Live! Player 5.1

SoundBlaster Live! MP3+ 5.1

Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1

End of update.

For the sake of brevity in these early impressions I am going to try, beyond a general introduction to the products, avoid restating specifications that you can get from Creative Labs. In the case of the various versions of the Live 5.1 you can get the details specifications by way of the various product pages from Creative Labs. Instead I will concentrate on the information that's not on Creative's site or at least difficult to find.

First the introduction. The Live 5.1 product line includes several new packages including in North America the Live Platinum 5.1, the Live MP3+ 5.1, the Live X-Gamer 5.1,  in Asia the Live Platinum 5.1 and Live Digital Entertainment 5.1 and in Europe the Live Platinum 5.1 and the  Live! Player 5.1. The boards have been somewhat revised and feature a new thinner version of the EMU10K1 that was already starting to show up on some of the previous editions of Live boards. The bundles have been updated and depending on the version you get will include new versions of digital editing and MIDI software and/or a slew of new top end games and the enhanced Playcenter 2 that features high quality MP3 and WMP ripping. If you play games and don't already own the games in the bundle then that alone may be worth the price of an upgrade to the X-Gamer 5.1.

The packages that come with the LiveDrive include a revised version of the LiveDrive II. What's new is the addition of an infra red receiver that is used with the bundled IR remote and controlling software. This software is reconfigured to work with the Live's functions, some core system properties, and some of the bundled software but I have not had a chance to delve into it yet. IR remote aside, the LiveDrive IR's optical SPDIF in/out to go with the COAX SPDIF I/O will be a welcome standard edition to the North American market, which was saddled for some reason with the less featured LiveDrive I in the previous Live! Platinum.

The rest of these early impressions will focus on two key areas. While there may be other changes compared to other versions of the Sound Blaster Live they will be relatively subtle compared to the marquee features of the new card. That is in quick testing I don't notice any ground-breaking changes to EAX or 3D sound support beyond the new features described below. That means that, if you are not already familiar with the Sound Blaster Live, you can check out our review of the Sound Blaster Live Platinum European edition for a reasonable overview of what the new cards have to offer. For the full review we will of course thoroughly test all of the features of the new card using more recent games and the latest versions of software DVD players like WinDVD and PowerDVD.

Specifically the two key new features that I am talking about are 5.1 output and Dolby Digital decoding. All of the comments that follow are based on testing with the new Live Platinum 5.1, the new DTT3500 and the original DTT2500.

The Live 5.1 line features full 5.1 output for games and DVD. On prior versions of the Live this jack was purely a digital output jack, either for Dolby Digital output or the 4-channel DIN connection.

On the Live 5.1 the yellow mini-jack now does triple duty. It can be a center/subwoofer analog output (new to the Live 5.1), it can be a 4-channel DIN output for use with the FPS2000/DTT2500 or a 6 channel DIN output with the DTT3500 ( http://csw.creative.com/products/dtt3500/ ) (new to the Live 5.1) . The DIN connection now also transports the Dolby Digital stream to the DTT3500. In later testing I will try one of the original X-Gamer to see if it can also send the Dolby Digital stream via the DIN connection to the DTT3500. The mini-jack will also serve as the analog out for the center and subwoofer when used with the  DTT2200 which has 3 stereo analog inputs. ( http://csw.creative.com/products/dtt2200/ ).

Just as with earlier versions of the card with a mini-jack digital output, the mini-jack can also serve as standard COAX SPDIF output via a stereo mini-jack to Dual RCA cable where the primary digital output carries the AC3 stream. This can be used with other external decoders like stand alone home theater receivers or PC systems like MidiLand's ADS-2000 or integrated systems like the DTT2500, Altec Lansing ADA880/885, Boston Acoustics' BA7500, VideoLogics' DigiTheatre orginal and DTS, etc. A few more details on this will follow in the section on Dolby Digital decoding.

It's worth noting that the Live 5.1 is not the first card to offer 5.1 analog output but it is the first to offer 5.1 digital output for games when it matched with the DTT3500. When it comes to six channel analog output the various FM801 based cards have done this for some time for both games and DVD and they have generally done a very good job of it. The latest FM801 based cards from companies like Mushroom Technology and ABIT should offer improved performance in some areas and depending on what you are looking for from the card are a viable, less expensive, alternative.

With respect to games, the main limitation of the FM801 based cards is no support for EAX 2.0. The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz / Video Logic Sonic Fury (full review nearing completion for both) also offer 6 channel output and support for EAX 2.0. However, for games the center channel is a virtual center generated from the other 4 channels so it's not nearly as effective as the FM801 based cards.

When it comes to DVD the Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury cards do offer very good 6 channel output which is clearly suited for connecting to a Dolby Digital ready receiver and also well suited to VideoLogic's DigiTheatre LC 5.1 speaker system. However, because of bass management limitations in the way software DVD players all operate (all output in "large speaker mode") and the way the Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury currently work with respect to bass management, those to cards are not well suited to MidiLand's S4-7100 5.1 input mode.

Getting back to the Live 5.1, when it comes to DVD output, the 6 channel analog output can come either via the Live 5.1's software decoding (the first released product to offer this feature) or the players own software 6 speaker decoding mode. In time for the full review we will compare the quality of the different software modes. When looking at the actually 5.1 output what's different compared to the Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury is the Live 5.1 has an option to send bass from all 5 channels to the subwoofer. The Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury can also do this but not without also enabling a virtual center channel which has a detrimental impact on the true 5.1 output.

When it comes to games that support DS3D or A3D 1.x, the Live 5.1's center channel output is based on the correct positioning of sound source. That is, it is not simply a mix of the left and right channels. Rather it's a pan through the center on the way from left to right (or the reverse) which is quite effective in implementation (much more so than a virtual center). Again, in time for the full review we will compare the 6 channel output for gaming on the Live 5.1 with the latest FM801 based cards from ABIT and Mushroom Technology and the latest 5.1 card that will soon be released by Philips.

Looking at the subwoofer output, the option to send bass from the 5 channels to the subwoofer again makes the Live a good match for small speaker 5.1 systems that lack any on-board bass management (MidiLand S4-7100). I suspect that the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2200 will fall into the same mode of operation and will confirm this as soon as possible. If you are using the Live 5.1 with a large speaker system or a Dolby Digital ready receiver the then the bass redirection feature can be disabled if desired.

So should you care about 5.1 output? That depends. If you have your speakers placed in a typical desktop configuration where they are fairly close together then you will already have a very effective center channel (almost as good as a real center). Where the real center channel becomes useful is with wider satellite placement (which can deliver a more immersive sound) where a virtual center loses effectiveness. The 5.1 output feature, like the Dolby Digital feature is one that depending on your perspective will not matter or will be a reason to jump out and buy the card. For some comparisons on 4.0 vs 5.1 output you can check out our MidiLand S4-7100 review and our review of the Skywell Magic Sound Live.

Dolby Digital decoding appears from emails and our forum to have created a fair bit of confusion. Based on my testing and an email from Creative Labs I feel fairly comfortable in stating that the decoding is in software and not on the EMU10K1.

So why offer software Dolby Digital decoding when there are already software MPEG decoders like WinDVD 2000 2.2 (OEM multi-channel version) and PowerDVD that offer the same feature for several different chipsets and cards?

I was asking myself the same thing until I stumbled across the answer in some testing. I say stumbled as the printed manual is totally lacking in this area (the electronic help files for the speaker options offers much better detail). The answer to that question will determine if the Dolby Digital decoding feature of the Live 5.1 is a feature that might be important to you or just one to gather dust.

Specifically, if you have a software DVD player that was bundled with your video card and designed to take specific advantage of your video cards features you may be reluctant to part with that player to get 4 speaker down-mixing or 5.1 analog output. This is where the Dolby Digital decoding on the Live comes into effect.

If you set the card to 5.1 mode in the Speaker Setup and then click on the advanced audio option you are given an option to enable the Dolby Digital decoding function. With that function enabled you can set the software DVD player to send the AC3 stream to the SPDIF output. No physical connection is needed as it's handled internally via the drivers. The result is that as long as the software decoder supports the SPDIF output on the Live (likely if it's recent software but not guaranteed) you will get 5.1 output. This will be either via the Live 5.1's analog outputs,  or, if you are using the DTT3500, via the Live 5.1's 6-channel DIN connection.  

According to the electronic help information, the Dolby Digital decoding will only work in 5.1 output mode but it appears to also work in 4.0 mode. More testing is required to determine just how well but my quick test of the decoding in 4-speaker mode indicates that it down-mixes the center channel (to create a virtual center) and does not down-mix the LFE output. This is similar to the way PowerDVD handles 4 speaker down-mixing. To be clear, in 5.1 output mode, the LFE channel is correctly decoded and sent to the subwoofer output.

When it comes to the 6 channel DIN connection with the DTT3500 I can't think of a reason to go this route as you can use the same DIN connection to send the encoded Dolby Digital stream to the DTT3500's more full featured onboard decoder.  As noted, according to Creative Labs the DTT2200 will not have a 6 channel DIN so it would come in hand there.  For more on the DIN connection to the DTT3500 for the Dolby Digital stream you can check out the early impressions of the DTT3500. I will note here that the DTT3500 does also come with a standard COAX and optical SPDIF for Dolby Digital input).

To use an external decoder for Dolby Digital (AC-3) decoding with the new Live 5.1 cards, you simply need to disable the Dolby Digital (AC-3) Decode feature. If you are using it with the DTT3500 you also need to press one button to change a setting on the DTT3500.

If you are using the Live 5.1 with a different decoder then just as with the CT4760 boards (Live Platinum, X-Gamer, MP3+, Player1024) you can get a stereo mini jack to dual RCA y-cable or adapter and connect the primary digital output to your external decoder. That way the compressed AC-3 SPDIF signal will be passed through the Analog/Digital Out jack of your audio card to the external decoder.

There is one other use for the on-board Dolby Digital decoding capabilities of the Live 5.1. That is Playcenter 2 can be used to playback .ac3 files. These file are typically music and offer multi-channel playback. Now I don't know how many people have .ac3 files kicking around, but if you do, the feature is there. When it comes to testing the feature, Creative does include one file.

The last bit here is to state clearly what the board is not – that is it does not do real time Dolby Digital encoding of 3D sound to send via the SPDIF out. If you want to connect to a receiver via the SPDIF out the limitations and options are the same as any other Live product. That is you can do 2 speaker 3D audio or you can use LiveSurround for Dolby Pro Logic support.  Again to be clear, no other product offers real time Dolby Digital encoding and for that matter no other sound card beyond the Live lineup offers an option like LiveSurround.

Look for lots more details in our full review of the Live Platinum 5.1 including comparison tests between the different Dolby Digital decoding modes, a close look at the IR remote and the LiveDrive IR and lots of testing with new games.  As you can tell, so far I have an overall positive impression of the new Live 5.1 series.

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