™ Sonic Edge 5.
Philips Sound Solutions Software End User License Agreement ATTENTION: THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO THE LICENSE TERMS DESCRIBED BELOW. USE OF THIS SOFTWARE INDICATES ACCEPTANCE OF THE LICENSE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE LICENSE TERMS, YOU MAY RETURN THE SOFTWARE FOR A FULL REFUND. IF THE SOFTWARE IS PACKAGED WITH ANOTHER PRODUCT, YOU MAY RETURN THE ENTIRE UNUSED PRODUCT FOR A FULL REFUND.
Philips Sound Solutions Philips Sonic Edge™ 5.1 Channel PCI Soundcard © Copyright 2002 Sonic Edge™ is a trademark of Philips Sound Solutions. Philips Sound Agent2™ is a trademark of Philips Sound Solutions. QSound™, QEM™, QSound Environment Modeling, QSound Multi-Speaker Systems, QMSS™, Q3D™, QSound QXpander™, QInteractive3D™, Audio Pix™, and the Q logo are trademarks of QSound Labs, Inc. EAX™ and Environmental Audio Extensions are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd.
Philips Sound Solutions Table Of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................5 1.1. KEY FEATURES ........................................................................................................ 6 1.2. Minimum System Requirements ................................................................................. 7 1.3. What Is Included In the Package ...............................................
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3.2.3. Normalization ............................................................................................ 19 3.3.2.4. 3D Effects ................................................................................................. 19 3.3.3. Equalizer Tab.................................................................................................... 20 3.3.4. Setup Tab ....................................................................................................
Philips Sound Solutions 6. 5.2. Technical Support Information: ................................................................................. 30 5.3. Warranty Statement.................................................................................................. 31 Appendix A ......................................................................................................................33 Useful Tips For Speaker set-up, And More.............................................................
Philips Sound Solutions 1. Introduction Congratulations on your purchase of the Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 Soundcard! We know that you’ll agree, once you give it the edge, your PC will never sound the same again. Your next generation Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 soundcard offers advanced features for today’s digital music enthusiasts and PC gamers who demand the absolute best sound possible from their PCs. As the world’s first soundcard to provide incredible 5.
Philips Sound Solutions 1.1. KEY FEATURES Gaming and Music-centric audio components transform your PC into an advanced digital audio processor! • QInteractive3D technology offers precise 3D sound positioning with all headphone and speaker output configurations and is compatible with DirectSound3D, EAX 1.0, EAX 2.0/I3D Level 2, A3D enabled games. • QXpander converts ANY ordinary stereo input to 3D surround sound with any headphone or two-speaker set configuration.
Philips Sound Solutions 1.2. Minimum System Requirements - 233 MHz CPU 32 MB RAM One CD ROM Drive One open PCI slot 800 X 600 Screen resolution (1024 X 780 recommended) Headphones, or amplified speakers 35 MB of available hard drive space Windows® 98SE, Windows® ME, Windows® 2000, and Windows® XP. Please Note: Each operating system has its own minimum requirements which should be observed. In addition various games and DVD applications may require higher limits than listed above.
Philips Sound Solutions 1.3.
Philips Sound Solutions 2. Soundcard Installation Procedure Installing your Philips Sonic Edge soundcard is easy. Please take a moment to read all the steps before proceeding with the installation. The installation Video on this CD can provide you with a quick overview of how to install your new soundcard. If you need more details, read through this user’s guide. Note: Computers come in different shapes and sizes.
Philips Sound Solutions 2.1.1. Identify Your Old PC Sound System Check the back of your computer in the area of PCI slots (usually toward the bottom (on the tower and mini tower cases) or to the right side (on desktop cases). All the connectors line up in one row on a 4-inch end bracket (similar to your Sonic Edge end bracket). Add-in Soundcard Figure 1 Look for the standard soundcard connectors. The standard labels for the connectors are shown in Figure 1.
Philips Sound Solutions 2.1.3. Uninstalling the Old Soundcard and Drivers Uninstall the drivers for any previously installed soundcards. This is very important and failure to do so may result in your Sonic Edge soundcard not working properly. You should remove the drivers before you take the old soundcard out of your system. Consult the documentation of your old soundcard for details. Appendix B contains some useful general instructions on how to uninstall the old audio drivers.
Philips Sound Solutions Figure 4 2.2. Installing the New Soundcard Follow these steps to install the Sonic Edge card (Figure 4). • Remove the Sonic Edge Soundcard from the anti-static bag. • Align your soundcard with the selected PCI bus slot and firmly push it into the slot. Be sure the soundcard is aligned properly and fits snugly into the slot. • Connect the cable to the CD-In connector on top edge of the card (Figure 5). There are two analog connectors (CD In, and Aux In).
Philips Sound Solutions 2.2.1. Soundcard External Connection There are five jacks and one large D-connector (Game/Midi port) on the end bracket (see Figure 6). External analog stereo sources with line level output can be connected to light blue 3.5mm stereo jack at the top of the soundcard bracket. A microphone can be connected to the pink 3.5mm mono jack. An analog or digital joystick and/or MIDI devices can be connected to the large connector at the bottom of the bracket.
Philips Sound Solutions 2.3. Software Installation During the boot process, your operating system will detect the new soundcard and will launch the “Found New Hardware Wizard” program. Cancel the Wizard, put the installation CD into your CD-ROM drive, and let the Sonic Edge driver installation program install the drivers for you. Your PC will detect the CD and automatically bring up the application launch panel (see Figure 7).
Philips Sound Solutions 3. Using The Philips Sound Agent 2 (PSA2) PSA2 is the visual audio interface for the Sonic Edge soundcard. 3.1. Basic interface operation To launch and setup your Sound Agent control panel, double click on the PSA2 icon in the System Tray (see Figure 8). Sound Agent 2 icon Figure 8. When you first launch the PSA2 it appears in the fully expanded form, but you can resize it using the Resize button.
Philips Sound Solutions The Visualization Panel provides a graphic representation for advanced audio processing features of the Sonic Edge. It also includes controls to enable the environmental effects. The Visualization Panel appears only in the expanded mode as a sliding cover for the Main Control Panel. 3.2. Details of Compact Control Panel The Compact Control Panel contains the following controls: 3.2.1. Master Volume Master Volume controls the overall output level of the soundcard. 3.2.2.
Philips Sound Solutions PSA2 responds automatically to games that use the EAX and EAX2.0 commands. These games automatically control the selection of environments (regardless of what is selected from the Visualization panel) to match various scenes and locations, and change these selections as the environment changes. The applied intensity of reverb is controllable by a slider in the Visualization panel.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3. Main Control Panel 3.3.1. Accessing the Main Control Panel To access the Main Control Panel, first open the Philips Sound Agent 2 by double clicking the Sound Agent 2 icon in the system tray. See Figure 11. Sound Agent 2 icon Figure 11 If only the bar-shaped Compact Control Panel is visible, you must expand it by clicking on the Resize button on the right hand corner, next to the Close icon.
Philips Sound Solutions QSizzle self-adjusts in real time according to frequency response of the input signal. This is different from the Equalizer, which is a fixed frequency processor. The Equalizer does not monitor the input signal or perform self-adjustment. The label QSizzle Active appears in illuminated text when QSizzle is enabled, and QSizzle Off when disabled. 3.3.2.2.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3.3. Equalizer Tab The Equalizer (EQ) controls the frequency response of the system by increasing or decreasing the frequency response of ten independent frequency bands. This Equalizer works very much the same as the equalizers in high quality sound systems. Each slider controls the relative level of a band (range) of frequencies. The number listed above each slider column is the center frequency of the band controlled by that slider.
Philips Sound Solutions Figure 14 3.3.4.1. Headphones This option selects the headphone sound processing algorithms. 3.3.4.2. Stereo Speakers This option selects the stereo processing algorithms. Use this option with any stereo speaker system. We recommend that you enable the 3D Effects in this mode while listening to music and enjoy the surround sound effect that is built into your new PC sound system. For more information read the QXpander section of this manual. 3.3.4.3.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3.4.5.1 AC3/DTS Pass-Through Sonic Edge passes AC3 or DTS digital audio data from a DVD to S/PDIF OUT. This feature allows you to play a DVD on your PC using a soft-DVD player, utilizing an external AC3/DTS decoder. Examples of an external decoder are receivers, speaker sets with built in AC3 decoder, or a standalone AC3 decoder boxes. AC3 is available when using a compatible soft-DVD player capable of streaming AC3 or DTS data to the soundcard.
Philips Sound Solutions Figure 15 3.3.5. Mixer Tab Mixer Tabs allow you to select and control playback, recording, and S/PDIF input sources. 3.3.5.1. Playback source controls You can individually mute or un-mute as many playback sources as you wish. Volume sliders set the playback level for each source. Balance sliders adjust the relative left and right output levels for each stereo source. Balance sliders should normally be left in the center, which is the default position.
Philips Sound Solutions Balance Slider Volume Slider Scrollbar Figure 16 3.3.5.2. Recording Source Control Philips Sonic Edge allows you to record sounds and music from various input sources. Select the Mixer tab, go to the bottom of the panel and click on “recording”. This panel enables you to select and control recording sources. Scrollbar Figure 17 Before you start recording, you need to configure the recording source. Select a source by clicking the appropriate “Select” button.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3.5.3. Advanced Tab Your new soundcard has two digital input lines. They are located on top of the soundcard and can be accessed from inside the computer box. They are designed to be connected to your CD ROM and/ or DVD ROM drives. The audio signal fed to these inputs can be recorded and monitored on your speakers. The following controls are on the Advanced tab. See Figure 18. 3.3.5.3.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3.6. Presets Tab The Preset functions enable you to make snapshots of the state of all Philips Sound Agent 2 controls, so that you can conveniently reload the same settings at any time. Figure 19 The Preset system enables you to save the state of your Philips Sound Agent 2 controls once you have adjusted them for a certain purpose, so you can bring back that entire settings in one click the next time you want to listen to a similar sound stream.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.3.6.4. Delete Deletes the selected preset permanently from the list. When you select one your presets and click on this button, a confirmation dialog box will appear and when you confirm by clicking the OK button, the preset will be removed from the list. This button does not work if you have selected one of the factory presets. 3.3.7. Info Tab This tab contains useful information regarding the product.
Philips Sound Solutions 3.4. Visualization Panel The Visualization Screen provides graphical representations of the environments that are created by Philips Sound Agent 2. It also contains two menus and one Reverb Intensity Slider. The selection menu on the right contains all the choices for Reverb environmental effects. The menu on the left contains the list of presets for various types of music. The Slider controls the intensity of the effect that is applied to the music.
Philips Sound Solutions 4. Uninstalling Software Drivers If it becomes necessary to uninstall your Philips Sonic Edge drivers, you can choose one of the two methods available. You may go to the system control panel and launch the “Add/Remove Programs” utility as shown in Figure 22 (from Windows XP). From the list of programs find Philips Sound Agent 2 and click on it so it is highlighted. Click the “Add/Remove” button in Windows 98/ME, or “Change/Remove” in Windows 2000/XP.
Philips Sound Solutions 5. Technical Support And Warranty Before calling the technical support number please make sure you have the following information available: • • • • • Model number and date of purchase. Computer type, processor speed, and memory available. Computer operating system (IE; Windows® 98SE, ME, etc.). On-screen error information. Other hardware connected to your soundcard. 5.1. Internet Address: You can find vast amount of useful information on the web.
Philips Sound Solutions 5.3. Warranty Statement Philips Sound Cards Warranty Conditions For Personal Use Only USA and North American Customers Only One-Year Free Parts, Labor and Technical Support WHO IS COVERED? You must have proof of date of purchase to receive warranty service. A sales receipt or other document showing when you purchased the product is considered ample proof of date of purchase. WHAT IS COVERED? Warranty coverage begins the day you buy your product.
Philips Sound Solutions BEFORE REQUESTING SERVICE... Please check your owner’s manual before requesting service. Adjustments of the controls and/or procedures covered in the manual may save you a service call. TO GET WARRANTY SERVICE IN U. S. A., PUERTO RICO, OR U. S. VIRGIN ISLANDS... A Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number must be obtained by calling (800) 8353506. Write the RMA number conspicuously on the outside of the product carton.
Philips Sound Solutions 6. Appendix A Useful Tips For Speaker set-up, And More Following is some suggestions to help you set up your audio hardware for best results. 6.1.1. Ideal Listening Scenario (Speakers) The ideal way to experience proper imaging, whether stereo, surround, or 3D, is to begin by arranging each pair of speakers as symmetrically as possible. Front speakers should be at the same height, angle and distance relative to the listener.
Philips Sound Solutions If each speaker has separate volume controls, try to set them as equally as possible. You can use the Philips Sound Agent 2 test utility to help you judge the volumes. This practice applies to headphones as well.
Philips Sound Solutions 7. Appendix B Uninstalling the Old Drivers and the Soundcard Regardless of which one of the supported operating systems you have, the following general steps are used to remove the old drivers. It is recommended that you remove the drivers before you take the old soundcard out of your computer. • • • • • • Click on the start button Click on the Settings and select Control Panel Double click on Add/Remove Programs Find the audio drivers on the list.
Philips Sound Solutions 8. Appendix C Disabling the Integrated Sound To disable the on-board audio you need to enter the system BIOS setup. Most computers only allow you to enter the setup right after power up and just before the operating system starts loading. A message may appear briefly to inform you that you can enter the setup. Typically, this message shows up at one of the corners of the screen and says something like “Press Del to enter setup”, or “Press F1 to enter setup”.
