What are the best sound and video cards?
S M Trimble
Any opinions as to what the best sound and video cards for the IIGS are? I
get the impression from the FAQ that the Mockingboard Rev D is a good sound
card... Are the video cards available for the IIGS currently for PC monitor
compatibility?
I currently have a old AE Sonic Blaster with a Roger Wagner HyperStudio and
am using the basic RGB video port for video.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Shawn
Supertimer
>Hello,
>Any opinions as to what the best sound and video cards for the IIGS are? I
>get the impression from the FAQ that the Mockingboard Rev D is a good sound
>card... Are the video cards available for the IIGS currently for PC monitor
>compatibility?
Mockingboard would be a downgrade for the IIGS. The
onboard sound is the best in the Apple II world, add-in
cards included. The IIGS is like the nForce2 platform
from nVidia*, the top integrated motherboard of the
Apple II world. If I remember correctly, the Mockingboard
had four, maybe six FM voices whereas the IIGS's
Ensoniq chip had 32 wavetable oscillators commonly
paired in 16 voices, one reserved for timing.
[*Note: I do not mean to say the IIGS is equivalent to
an nForce2 but that it occupied the same position in
the Apple II world during its day relative to the what
the nForce2 occupies today.]
There was only one add-in graphics card for the IIGS,
released near the end of the IIGS market's life. It was
called the Second Sight. You can connect an SVGA
monitor with it. There was one game for it. There was
a picture viewer (JPEG, etc.) which allowed you to
view the pictures same as on a PC. But that was it.
I still have my card. It works but the SVGA modes
were not well supported because a tool-patch was
never made to enable the modes to be taken advatage
of by existing IIGS software.
I would not have bought the card if I knew support
would dry up months after I bought it. If the tool
patch had been completed, it would be a different
story.
>I currently have a old AE Sonic Blaster with a Roger Wagner HyperStudio and
>am using the basic RGB video port for video.
Stick with these. I had a similar set up, minus
the stereo card. This is really the best setup you
can hope for.
Jason Whorton
card for a IIgs? I don't have a stereo card in my IIGS, but I was
thinking about getting one sometime. Do you know of any others that are
available?
Thank you,
Jason Whorton
"Supertimer" <super...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030726142655...@mb-m07.aol.com...
Supertimer
>Hi, Supertimer. Are you saying the AE Sonic Blaster is the best stereo
>card for a IIgs? I don't have a stereo card in my IIGS, but I was
>thinking about getting one sometime. Do you know of any others that are
>available?
What I meant to say was that the built in IIGS sound
was the best in the Apple II world. Stereo cards don't
matter as much because they are not true sound
cards. They just decode stereo from the IIGS' sound
chip.
That said, I do think the Sonic Blaster was one of
the better sound cards. If I remember correctly, it
was a lot quieter than the SoundMeister and it could
record in stereo.
You'd be surprised at how little a stereo card does.
It does not improve the sound quality. In fact, it
degrades it slightly unless the card is really good
and you do not notice any added electrical noise.
If you don't mind mono, then the cleanest sound
is going to be from the headphone port built into
the IIGS. For input, the slotless HyperStudio card
is one of the better ones although it only does
mono. Very clean recordings if set at the right
sampling rate.
Shawn Trimble
what you're saying in that there aren't really any good video upgrades,
other than Second Sight, which is useful only for the ability to use SVGA
monitors..
I've heard some mixed things about sound cards, including a few comments
that the Mockingboard and Phasor are valuable mostly for the speech
emulation they are able to do with select games. A few commented that the
Sonic Blaster had some problems with cabling and advised finding one with
better shielding.
Shawn
"Supertimer" <super...@aol.com> wrote in message
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