Sound Blaster Live Platinum 5.1 $167

[zod]

So this card has a dolby digital hardware decoder?
Would the mp3+ 5.1 and/or the x-gamer 5.1 also?
I cant make heads or tails of creative's vague site.

 

[zerogear]

They're essencially all the same card, just that Platinum has Live Drive (or II ~~ no idea which)

 

[zod]

And the Live Drive just has the speaker connections in the front + a remote control (in the II?)

 

[dcdomain]

nah, I think it's a new version of the live drive...
closest i can think of is a live drive II with IR (remote)...

it has optical in out, midi in out, analog in out and some other connections.. not sure.. bought it mainly for the optical...

more information at www.soundblaster.com

 

[zerogear]

Would the 5.1 Dolby do any good if my speakers (ProMedias) is 4.1?

 

[rayg]

which brick and mortar stores allow exchanges on unopened merchandise with no receipt? i heard bestbuy does this but am looking for other options. i have a shrinkwrapped plain ol' live platinum that i want to upgrade to the new 5.1 model as soon as it hits the B&M stores.

 

[dcdomain]

kick ass.. my card shipped today!!!

 

[BChico]

Where is that 20% off coming from?

 

[BChico]

I just called computers 4 sure and they said they dont even have a release date from creative, whats up with that?

 

[Wag]

You guys probably know that the 5.1 is the same old rehashed SB Live! we've seen a million times except with one more analog output.

It's really doubtful that the card will have true onboard Dolby Digital decoding. What it probably will have, just like every other 5.1 card (Santa Cruz, etc) is fake 5.1 imaging. While it sounds really good, it's not true "Dolby Digital".

I for one don't see what use 5.1 output is good for anyways? Wouldn't anyone who wanted Dolby Digital output already own a nice receiver with this feature built in? I myself feed my receiver with the SPDIF output of my Vortex2 based card.

 

[dcdomain]

Just received my Soundblaster Live! Platinum 5.1 today from Computers4sure.

Does anyone know where I an order an Optical Toslink cable? I have the cable with two round ends for CD to MD, but I need one with a round end and a square end or an adapter so I can connect my MD to the Live!Drive. I know Hoontech.com sells one, but the shipping is nuts since they ship it from Korea.

I had a hell of a time figuring out what exactly was in the box on Creative's site. So to clear things up:

Live!Drive IR has the following:
S/PDIF IN
S/PDIF OUT
Optical S/PDIF IN
Optical S/PDIF OUT
RCA Auxiliary in
Infra-red receiver (for the included remote)
Headphone out with volume adjuster
Line in/Mic in with volume adjuster
Midi IN
Midi OUT

The package contained the following:
Soundblaster Live! Platinum PCI card
Live!Drive IR
Wireless remote with batteries
Hands free microphone
Digital CD Audio cable
Analog CD Audio cable
Power supply splitter cable
3.5mm to 1/4" adapter jack
Screws for Live!Drive IR installation
Mini MIDI DIN to Standard MIDI DIN adapter cables (x2)
Connection cable to the Live! card

Applications:
Creative Software Pack
Steinberg's Cubasis VST, Wavelab Lite and ReCycle Lite
Mixman Technologies Mixman Studio
Pixaround's PixMaker and PixScreen (creative edition)
Vorton Technologies' Kool Karaoke
Mindmaker's Prody Parrot
Mindmaker's Game Commander SE

Games:
MDK2
Deus Ex
Theif II: the Metal Age
Unreal Tournament