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Electronics : TRUST SC-5250 5.1 SOUND CARDRating: - OK For Vista - BUTThis card now seems to work okay under Vista - mine came with Vista drivers on the CD, and they are on the Trust website. Either it, or my Logitech Z-5400 speakres cannot handle TrueHD 5.1, but perfectly ok with Digital and DTS. I would need to find a set of speakers guaranteed to accept TrueHD before I can criticise it for that though. The only problem I am having is playing "live" analogue line-in or microphone out of the speakres at the same time. Don't get me wrong, Line-In and Microphone both work, you can see the levels and can record using something like Audacity - I just cannot playback until recording is complete. This is an important factor for me, as I use my soundcard to mix line-in (from my cable STB) with all other sounds created by my computer, enabling me to have audible Picture in Picture while simultaneously using my computer on the same TV/Monitor. So just 3 from me. Rating: - Trust Soundcard mmmmI bought this soundcard to copy all my analogue audio titles onto the pc via the analogue input, the inbuilt sound device on my motherboard refused to function, also the sound output from my motherboard device was far to low so i thought lets try a cheap device firat to see what it can do. The audio inputs both analogue and digital, whilst ok to listen to from a outside source, are no where near up to the job of archiving material onto the pc. The sound crackles and spits with vocal sibbilance far to prevellant, the digital input sound lags a few seconds then catches up, as i say if you want this card to archive analogue material look else where. The audio output is sufficiant to power inboard screen speakers but if you want 5.1 surround sound send to a suitible amplifier with 5.1 analogue inputs, not 5.1 digital as the digital outputs on this card only relays a 5.1 PCM signal to a digital amplifier. You get what you pay for i supose, as a upgrade from a onboard motherboard sound unit its fine with a decent level of audio output, give it something a bit upmarket to do then my advice would be spend a fair bit more. Anyone wanting to archive analogue audio to there pc would be far better getting a real time cd recorder and then put the analogue sound into the pc from recorded cds, if you can find a decent cd recorder. Rating:  - Where is the DTS sound?I connect this card to my AV Receiver with the optical cable and then I put a Movie DVD playing on the PC with WinDVD. Great! the Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound apears on the AV Receiver and even material in Dolby Digital 7.1 (with the center back channel)! So this board can play Dolby Digital 7.1! But when I change to DTS sound... Only 2 sound channels. Great! Now I can't watch movies in proper DTS sound with this card, Only Dolby Digital. Bahh. Or it was the WinDVD software? (Even bad DVD players could send DTS sound to the AV Receiver). The EAX sound is only poor 1.0. The CD with the drivers are very basic. No test sounds. I've got no problems at all installing the board, the midi music keyboard, the drivers or the connections. But they could put some better software to control this board. I don't test the other functions yet, like recording. For this price it is not bad at all. Rating:  - Unforgivable disingenuousness on the part of 'Trust'Installing this card was easy (had it working well enough after 2 re-boots under Windows XP), however, I feel that the manufacturers description is very misleading. As one reviewer has already commented, the 5.1 surround sound is not available through the optical output, nor is it available from the co-axial output. As nowhere is this major (as far as I'm concerned, in any case) shortcoming made clear on any of the manufacturer's descriptions of this product, I have to give this card only one star. Of course, if you do not intend to use 5.1 surround sound through either the co-axial or optical outputs this will not be a problem, but the fact still remains that this manufacturer apparently is willing to deceive consumers with its disingenuousness, presumably to boost sales. As I've said already in the title to the review, this is unforgivable. I certainly will not be trusting Trust's products ever again. Rating:  - Great, buy one.Now I wonder how many of the previouse reviewers, actually a. Read and compared the sound card to other manufacturers b. Read and followed the instruction manual. I was initially put off by poor reviews, then surfed away from Amazon to read reviews on other websites - I was surprised as there wasn't a negative thought out there. Might just prove some Amazon shoppers have no idea when it comes to Hardware upgrades. Do as it says in the instructions! Adjust the bios for starters if you have an onboard sound processor. Make sure you fix the DVD audio lead to the sound card AND then fit the card properly in the PCI slot. Finally download the drivers from disk and reboot the PC. Then update the drivers from the Trust Website. The SC 5250 comes with extra software on the drivers CD. Old versions of WinDVD and a PCI Audio hub, containing CD, Midi & Audio Mixer - these are not necessary and do not affect the sound output. This card comes with an optional adapter and optical cable - ideal for digital audio transfer. So far I can find no problems with this card and recomend it as a reasonable sound card at a reasonable price. |
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