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On
this page we have provided information to help you choose the right
Audio and ISDN cards to use with Communictor - or check if
your existing hardware will work ok... most of it will!
You'll
also find here lists of both Audio and ISDN cards that we have tested
with Communicator and our comments.
We
are able to offer for sale a selection of both Audio and ISDN cards
- for these cards, a link to the product summary is shown in each
table. These can be ordered direct from this site and prices are
shown in the pricing section.
| Any
comments we make about specific products are drawn from our
experience and testing only. We do not make, and you should
not draw, any specific judgements (good or bad) or guarantees
about a product's quality or functionality other than from empirical
data gathered during our testing. |
Audio
Cards
Communicator
will work with almost any Windows compatible sound card that you
have installed in your machine. However, some cards will limit the
functionality of the program as follows:
- The
card must support full-duplex audio - i.e. be able to play and
record at the same time... most audio cards do this and you only
need to check this for really old models. Check that the card
operates at a decent sample rate - 44.1kHz is ok... 48kHz is ideal.
- The
card should be capable of decent quality recording and playback
- obviously if you hear a hiss or crackle when you record and
or playback audio, or if the sound quality of the card is poor,
then this will be reflected in Communicator's performance using
that card.
- Firewire,
USB, PCMCIA, PCI and ISA cards are all fine as long as they meet
these basic criterion above.
- We
have observed that using certain USB cards and only on some machines,
you need to fully boot the PC before plugging in the USB card
- this is generally true for the card, rather than being a specific
Communicator issue.
Tested Audio
cards:
(Additional product data is provided on the
cards that we are able to supply direct (top of list) - click the
card name for more. An explanation of our ratings and comments is
provided following the table.)
| Audio
Card |
Type |
Audio
Quality |
Recommended/
Comments |
Available
from us? |
| Marc
2 |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/Great
choice for any studio quality application. Digital i/o. Win
98, Me, NT, 2000, XP drivers. |
Yes |
| Echo
Mia |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes,
Balanced i/o. Great choice for any studio quality
application. Digital i/o. Win 98/Me & 2000/XP drivers. |
Yes |
| USB
One |
USB |
Very
Good
Mic
input |
Yes/Good
option for a laptop if you have a USB facility.
USB requires Win 98/Me or Win 2000/XP. |
Yes |
| USB
Pre |
USB |
Excellent
Mic
input |
Yes/Superb
audio quality USB sound card which incorporates two studio quality
mic pre-amps with phantom power, a headphone amp and mixer and
level meters. Suitable for professional broadcast use.
USB requires Win 98/Me or Win 2000/XP. |
Yes |
| Aardvark
Direct Pro 24/96 |
PCI |
Excellent
Mic
pre-amps, phantom power & headphone socket built-in |
Yes/Great
choice for any studio quality application. Mic pre-amps and
phantom powering built-in... so you can connect microphone and
headphones directly without a mixing desk. Multiple ins and
outs (4x6), digital i/o (1x1). Balanced i/o.
Win 98, Me & 2000 drivers. |
Yes |
| Aardvark
aark 24 |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/Great
choice for any studio quality application. Multiple ins and
outs (8x8), digital i/o (1x1). Balanced i/o
Win 98, Me & 2000 drivers. |
No |
| Aardvark
Direct Pro LX6 |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/Great
choice for any studio quality application. Multiple ins and
outs (4x6), digital i/o (1x1). Balanced i/o.
Win 98, Me & 2000 drivers. |
No |
| Aardvark
aark 20/20 & 20/20+ |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/Great
choice for any studio quality application. Multiple ins and
outs (8x8), digital i/o (1x1). Balanced i/o.
Win 98, Me & 2000 drivers. |
No |
| Aardvark
Direct Pro Q10 |
PCI |
Excellent
Mic
pre-amps & phantom power |
Yes/Great
choice for any studio quality application. Mic pre-amps and
phantom powering built-in. Multiple ins and outs (8x8), digital
i/o (1x1). Balanced i/o.
Win 98, Me & 2000 drivers. |
No |
| Digigram
VX Pocket |
PCMCIA |
Excellent |
Yes/High-quality
PCMCIA card. Balanced i/o. SPDIF digital i/o. |
|
| Digigram
VX222 |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/PCI
card with balanced i/o and digital i/o on SPDIF or AES. |
|
|
Digigram (other) |
|
|
Yes/All
VX-range cards are compatible... PCX cards are NOT compatible
with AudioTX products. |
|
| Echo
Darla & Gina |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/As
Echo Mia above. Multiple outputs (8). Gina has digital i/o.
Balanced i/o. |
No |
| Echo
Layla |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/As
Echo Mia above. Multiple ins and outs (8x8), digital i/o (1x1).
Balanced i/o. |
No |
| M-Audio
/ Midiman range |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/All
excellent quality cards available in a number of combinations,
balanced and unbalanced audio with and without Mic preamps. |
|
MOTU cards
808, 2408, HD range, 24I/O |
PCI |
Excellent |
Yes/All
excellent quality cards available in a number of combinations,
balanced and unbalanced audio with and without Mic preamps. |
|
SoundBlaster
Live! range, Audigy ranges
(1024, value, player etc) |
PCI |
Good |
Yes/The
best of all the low cost cards - good audio quality and fine
for newsgathering level broadcast applications. |
No |
| SoundBlaster
Live 5.1 range (5.1, Platinum 5.1 etc) |
PCI |
Good |
Yes/The
best of all the low cost cards - good audio quality and fine
for newsgathering level broadcast applications. |
No |
SoundBlaster
PCI 128 |
PCI |
Acceptable |
Good
enough for reporter level use. Cannot properly mute audio input
on audio output... so not suitable for studio applications where
a clean feed is required. |
No |
| SoundBlaster
AWE32/64 |
PCI |
- |
No/Drops
to 8 bit operation in duplex mode. 44.1kHz max sample rate -
NOT SUITABLE. |
- |
| SoundBlaster
16 |
ISA |
- |
No/No
full-duplex mode - NOT SUITABLE. |
- |
|
Audio
quality
|
Ratings
|
|
|
Excellent
|
-
Mastering quality... as good as they come |
|
|
Very
Good
|
-
Broadcast (studio) quality |
|
|
Good
|
-
near studio quality |
|
|
Acceptable
|
-
semi-professional card but not studio quality - fine for reporting |
|
|
Average
|
-
useable for reporting... not brilliant though |
|
|
Poor
|
-
Sounds like a cheap PC soundcard. |
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ISDN Cards
Communicator
requires an ISDN card which fully meets the CAPI 2.0 specification.
Unfortunately, our testing reveals that not all cards which claim
to meet this specification actually do. The following is a list
of cards that we have tested and know to work without any problems.
If you discover other widely available cards that work reliably,
we'd love to hear from you!
In
choosing an ISDN card for use in your own country, you should check
what 'switch protocol' your ISDN line provider uses. Here are a
list with current country indications:
It's
easier than it looks - basically, European countries mainly use
DSS1 as do most of Asia, Middle East, South America, Australia.
In the USA, NI-1 or 5ESS are most often found. The others in the
list are rarely used but included for completeness.
- DSS1
Euro-ISDN (Europe, Asia, S. America, Middle East, Australia OnRamp)
- NI-1
(North America National ISDN1)
- 5ESS
(North America AT&T)
- 1TR6
(Germany, where not DSS1 - only really some older PBX's)
- INS
Net 64 (Japan)
- VN3
(France, which is mostly DSS1)
- CTI
(Belgium, which is mostly DSS1)
- TPH
1962 (Australia MicroLink)
Tested ISDN
cards:
(Additional
product data is provided on the cards that we are able to supply
direct - click the card name for more.)
Note
for users in US/Canada: All
of the above cards have a standard S/T ISDN interface and so will
require an external NT1 device to function in the US/Canada. These
are easy and cheap to obtain - the best starting point is to ask
the provider of your ISDN line if they can sell/give you an NT1.
| ISDN
Card |
Type |
Recommended/Comments
& switch protocols |
Available
from us? |
| AVM
Fritz PCI |
PCI
|
Yes.
Our best selling card for Desktop PCs.
Win 2000/XP/Me: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS
Win 98, NT: DSS1 only |
Yes
|
| AVM
Fritz USB |
USB
|
Yes.
Though we do recommend that most users go for the PCMCIA version
of this card. USB requires Win 98 or Win 2000.
Win 2000/XP/Me: Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS
Win 98, NT: DSS1 only |
Yes
|
| AVM
Fritz PCMCIA |
PCMCIA
|
Yes. The
standard recommended card for laptops.
Euro-ISDN
(DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, 1TR6
|
Yes
|
| AVM
A1, A1 PCMCIA, B1, B1 PCMCIA |
PCI/
PCMCIA
|
Yes.
All other AVM cards also compatible but more expensive
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, 1TR6 |
No
|
| Eicon
Diva PCI |
PCI
|
Yes
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, INS-Net 64, TPH
1962 |
Yes
|
| Eicon
Diva USB |
USB
|
Yes.
USB is the best option for a laptop if you have a USB port.
USB requires Win 98 or Win 2000.
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, 1TR6, INS Net 64,
VN3, CTI, TPH 1962 |
Yes
|
| Eicon
Diva Pro PCMCIa/Diva PC card |
PCMCIA
|
Yes.
More expensive than AVM Fritz PCMCIA option, but still an excellent
choice.
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, 1TR6, INS Net 64,
VN3, TPH 1962 |
Yes
|
| Eicon
Diva Pro PCI |
PCI
|
Yes.
Expensive but works fine.
Euro-ISDN (DSS1), NI-1, 5ESS, 1TR6, INS Net 64,
VN3, TPH 1962 |
No
|
| BT
Speedway |
PCI
|
Yes.
(OEM Version of AVM Fritz PCI) |
No
|
| BT
Speedway PCMCIA |
PCMCIA
|
Yes.
(OEM Version of AVM Fritz PCMCIA) |
No
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Network Hardware:
Private &
local area networks, ATM, leased lines etc:
There are no
specific recommendations on choosing your
network hardware. This is because communicator simply uses the networking
system on your PC. Any Ethernet, Fast Ethernet or larger scale networking
hardware are all fine as long as they are a part of the standard
Windows networking or office/broadcast network installed on your
PC.
Communicator
simply attempts to make a network connection via TCP (the standard
IP protocol) to the computer you specify. You can enter this as
an IP address directly, or if you specify a name, the program will
use the DNS setup on your own PC or network to attempt to resolve
the name.
Internet
and public networks:
Communicator
uses a simple IP connection as above to establish contact with the
remote PC - so for most ADSL, DSL or Cable Modem connections running
on your PC, all you need to do is supply an IP address to connect
to. If you use a proxy server, router or firewall on your network,
you may have to configure this device to work with Communicator.
There's more on this in the User Manual which is built into the
Communicator software - under the Help menu.
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