my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » Sound card output

Author Topic: Sound card output Michael Brown Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1522 From: Bradford, England Registered: May 2001 posted 08-27-2001 06:45 AM                     Since all of my computer use is in various computer rooms around the university i come across different types of sound cards. I am having a problem with sound on some Acer P.c's. It seems to be built in sound on the motherboard and the 3 jack sockets are marked audio out, audio in and microphone. With my headphones plugged into the Audio out jack, the volume level is very low, and thats with the master and wave output levels turned to maximum. (im listening to mp3's with Winamp/realplayer and watching trailers with quicktime.) If anyone has any suggestions I would be gratefull.  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 08-27-2001 02:16 PM                     The Audio out jack is designed for speakers with a higher impedance than headphones have. If you can, you should go out & get a pair of portable speakers with a headphone out jack on them. Sony makes them, as does Altec Lansing. I've got Altec's ACS21W 21 watt powered speakers & they work great with my headphones.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-28-2001 08:54 AM                     Sound cards used to have speaker amplifiers built in, so they could work with the passive speakers available then. Not BIG amplifiers, maybe 1 watt/ch. Now this is rare. The output is now usually a line level high impedance signal, to drive amplified speakers. Passive computer speakers are uncommon now. Some cards have a low impedance line output that will give a listenable but low volume sound on headphones though, others are barely audible. I have a Sony amplified speaker thingy I use, about the size of a deck of cards that folds open to reveal tiny speakers. Weak speakers, but it drives headphones nicely.  |  IP: Logged JC Cowles Film Handler Posts: 77 From: St. Paul, MN Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-03-2001 05:01 AM                     I still run my old ISA Soundblaster 16 with built-in amp. That's all I used it for tho. The headphone jack on my Yamaha TSS-1 speakers doesn't work worth a crap. I have a Philips 5.1 soundcard for my external speakers. Tho, I really miss when they used to put amplification on the card. Now I have volume controls on my keyboard, on my taskbar, and on the external amplifier. It used to be one unified volume adjustment.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.