CompuServe Thread

IBM has provided a solution to the sound differences in redbook sound and wave file sound in the newly announced ultimedia computer – the model 57 SLC. The machine has a bulit in CDROM drive, and a 16 bit audio card built in. The output from both are connected internally to a mixer/amplifier in the computer with a single headphone jack on the front panel of the computer. If redbook sound is played, you hear it through the headphones, if wave sound is played, you also hear it through the headphones. The end user of the applciation may or may not know the difference in the sound, depending on their perception of the sound quality as they hear it. As an example of the two types of sound that have been used in applications, those of you who have the "Mammals" enclyclopedia from natinoal Geographic are hearing "redbook" sound when you hear the sound files. The sound is played directly from the CD ROm drive, through its associated amplification system. NG is soon to have available a new application, "The Presidents: It All Started With George", also written using IBM LinkWay in a similar format to Mammals, except all of the sound is done using 8bit PCM files. The difference is that this application will require a sound board to play back the audio, rather than playing through the CD's headphones or audio jacks. Any MPC compliant sound board should work. There are a couple of advantages that come from using the PCM files for audio, one major one is that the CD should be useable over a network if the machines on the network have sound boards in them, where the red book audio cannot be sent over a network. There is another feature in this new application which is very nice, the inclusion of audio with the movies. The movie files are typically speeches of the modern presidents, with audio playback synchronized to the movie.