CompuServe Thread

John <<<Thanks for all of the very useful information -it is appreciated.>>> You're welcome. If you didn't get all 43 PVR purchasing tips, since they were posted over a 2 week period in 3 installments, let me know & I'll private E-mail them to you. <<<Let me know how you make out with the Mediatrix card. It has been getting very good reviews and I am anxious to see how the NT drivers are and how it works with the Perception.>>> It's a little early to give you much in the way of results from the AudioTrix Pro, but I will post more details later. Like most of the other companies that claim their board comes with NT drivers, Mediatrix failed to ship them with the board. It seems that most companies just expect you to download these new drivers off their BBS. Anyway, I finally got the NT drivers & loaded them yesterday but I can only get them to play audio, not record. Play & record work fine in Windows 3.11 with the drivers for that OS. If you or anyone else has suggestions of what I might try next to get the NT drivers to record, I'm listening. The customs computer builder who helped me put this system together seemed quite impressed with the sound quality, especially from the sample sounds that come with it. The package comes with 2 small 4 watt speakers that plug into the stereo 1/8" output jack. This jack can also be used for line levels by lowering the software volume a bit. I would prefer to have dedicated standard line level RCA inputs & outputs that don't have an amplifier. Mediatrix says it's amplified line out is 1 to 1 & can be used with line level devices without compromise. Since it didn't come with 1/8" stereo to 2RCA connectors, I now have to go out & find a pair. My board came equipped with the optional DSP/voice effects card & of course it does midi, but it will be some time before I can check these out. Also comes with a bunch of extra programs & other utilities. This card handles Soundbaster & WAV files. If you want to purchase the cable that connects directly from your CDROM to the AudioTrix Pro card, you need to specify the brand & model of CDROM & whether it is SCSI or IDE. For example, it's a different connector for a Panasonic CDROM SCSI than for an IDE. I suspect that once I get the kinks ironed out, I will be pleased with this board. <<<Have you had any problems with the Matrox card. There was something going around about an incompatibility with the PVR and DPS was NOT Recommending the card. Perhaps this has been resolved.>>> There have not been any contention problems with the Matrox MGA Millennium graphics card & the PVR that I'm aware of. The incompatibility rumor with the PVR may have been just that, a rumor. The DPS Canadian technical guys didn't have any first hand knowledge of this possible problem other than the fact that this might have all started by a faulty third party PCI riser card. They referred me on to Dan Denedy at DPS Kentucky. I faxed him about this 11 days ago & 2 days ago but he still hasn't returned either message. About the same time, Dave White from Matrox claimed to have heard nothing about the problem. If there is someone out there that can be SPECIFIC about this supposed problem, I would like to hear from them. Regards Doug Hembruff