6. Familiar Software

The software bundle that comes with the Notebook is obviously built around Mediasource, a kind of integrator that offers numerous modules for various uses, but also access to adjustments. Aside from the ones mentioned above, they include EAX (using the card's DSP) and the seven-band graphic equalizer, a simple but effective tool that lets you optimize the sound output to suit your tastes and listening conditions. The equalizer has presets for different types of music and you can obviously memorize your own adjustments.

The Mediasource bar lets you access the different programs and adjustments.

The EAX console duplicates certain adjustments that are on the Audio Console.

The equalizer is the same as on other Creative sound cards, and will surely be a welcome function.

The Mediasource player has evolved - it now supports skinning, and you can change the app's appearance to suit your tastes. But it also has some more serious additions, such as DTS Neo:6 processing, which lets you get six channels (5.1) of music either from an unencoded stereo source (Music Mode) or from a matrix-encoded stereo source (MP Matrix encoding, known under the names Dolby Surround or Dolby Stereo) in "Cinema Mode." Oddly, Creative is very discreet about this possibility. It's not in the general help file, and you have to open the Neo:6 window to get to it. Needless to say, since Neo:6 has a similar goal to Creative's CMSS system, enabling one is exclusive of the other, which is automatically deactivated.

Neo:6 is an undeniable plus for the Mediasource player.

Neo:6 is an undeniable plus on certain disks takes on a dimension that goes far beyond simple stereo. Of course, it is an exceptional disk as far as management of the sonic space is concerned.

The choice of Neo:6 decoding is not necessarily what you'd think. It all depends on whether the source is encoded or not.