Posted by AUX on 17, 2000 at 11:13 AM:
In Reply to: USB Sound – Does it work on Mame? posted by Dariusz on 17, 2000 at 1:29 AM:
I have USB speakers from Labtec. I got them because the sound from my laptop's minijacks (the walkman headphone kind) was not clean through headphones, and I thought it would be just as bad through powered speakers. However, now I realize the noise I heard through headphones isn't very noticeable through speakers.
As for the USB speakers, they did sound cleaner, but I think they take up CPU time. Playing MP3's thru WinAmp (not the latest version, the last I tried it was a couple years ago, so it might be better), the playback was a tad jerky - not terrible, but noticeable.
Even playing redbook audio CDs through USB could cause stuttering.
I could not get USB sound in DOS. I don't think it even worked in a Windows DOS box. I think the sound worked ok in MAME32. I did not check to see if MAME32 was slower using USB sound.
My laptop is a CTX (cheap crap! the LCD screen hinges broke and it locks up during Internet connections) EZBook 700E, 233mhz Pentium MMX, Win 98. The playback problems I had may have been due to the general crappiness of my CTX laptop, or the speed of the CPU.
Another issue was the USB sound would sometimes lockup or crash if the plug got loose. This may be more attributable to my crap laptop.
As for installation, Win98 recognized the speakers without a problem.
Also, I last tried using the USB sound a few years ago, maybe the current version of Winamp is better.
I wouldn't recommend getting the USB speakers unless the store will let you return them after trying them out on your own system. My computer is relatively slow now.