BIOS: Technology Means Business

Terratec’s Aureon 7.1 PCI is a low-cost soundcard that features Dolby Digital Live encoding. So if you can look past its £39.99 price ticket you can snap up a relatively powerful audio solution for equipping a general desktop computer with top-end surround sound technology. Having said that, you should note that the maximum number of channels that Dolby Digital Live can output is actually 5.1 - the 7.1 refers to the Aureon’s number of analogue outputs.

The best thing about the Aureon 7.1 PCI card is its cost. But the second best thing is its support for Dolby Digital Live encoding, enabling you to encode every audio signal - system sound, MP3 or the sound of a game - in real time in AC3 (Dolby Digital) format and feed this signal to a surround-sound AV amp via the digital output.

Dolby Digital Live is a real-time encoding technology which converts any audio signal into a Dolby Digital bitstream for transport and playback through a home theatre system. With it, your PC can be hooked up to your Dolby Digital-equipped audio/video receiver or digital speaker system via a single digital connection, eliminating the confusion of multiple cables and ensuring the integrity of the audio signal.

The real-time interactive capabilities of Dolby Digital Live technology are ideally suited to PCs (and video game consoles) because it reproduces audio cues and effects that follow the on-screen action, transforming gameplay into an exciting and realistic entertainment experience.

Systems using Dolby Digital Live technology can provide Dolby Digital (5.1-channel surround sound) during gameplay, immersing you in high-quality surround sound that puts you at the centre of the action. The technology is now integrated into the motherboard audio chipsets of many high-performance PCs, which provide an S/PDIF connector and use a digital cable for one-step connection to a home theatre system. Having a separate card, however, means that you can use it with your current system without having to upgrade your motherboard.

Audio signals can be rendered at up to 48kHz using up to 8 channels. You can also opt to address two, four, six or eight loudspeakers, ensuring total flexibility in configuring and adapting speaker setups for the appropriate situation or your working environment. One optical digital input/output each is incorporated to facilitate recordings of high quality and accommodate DVD, DAT and minidisk recorders without any signal loss. To allow you to have the ultimate realistic gaming experience, the Aureon 7.1 PCI supports prevailing audio standards ranging from EAX 2.0/1.0 and 3Dl2 to Direct Sound and Sensaura3D.

Other key features include 16-bit/48kHz signal processing, 24-bit/96kHz at digital interfaces, four analogue stereo outputs, one analogue stereo input, one digital stereo output (optical), and a single digital stereo input (optical). There’s also a headphone output (in combination with Line Out) and microphone input. AC3 and DTS streams from one software DVD player can be patched out via the digital outputs, for example, to an external Dolby digital decoder.

DirectSound support (3D) is included, along with WDM drivers for Windows 98 SE, ME/2000 and Windows XP. Terratec also supplies a basic software ‘utility’ to help you configure the card and alter settings, but there’s no level metering or a S/PDIF cable to hook the card up to your optical drive. Rather surprising is the inclusion of a separate joystick port bracket, which is unusual considering most gamers and musicians now use either USB or FireWire.

The Aureon 7.1 PCI is a low-cost sound card, so it’s difficult to be too hard on it in terms of performance. It worked effortlessly in our general tests, and is more than acceptable for general computing duties. The only real downside is that the inputs are rather noisy, which will deter those on a budget looking for a recording solution. Bundled accessories are also scarce, so make sure you keep hold on to all the cables you’ve got or purchase some prior to this card. But for building a cheap home theatre or media centre PC, the Aureon 7.1 PCI should fit the bill. [7]

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