SoundOverviewHow Sound Works in a PCSound-Capture BasicsSlide 5Slide 6Slide 7Recorded Sound FormatsPlaying SoundsMIDISlide 11Other File FormatsVideoApplicationsStreaming MediaGetting the Right Sound CardSound CardsSound Card DifferencesSlide 19Slide 20Sound Card ConnectionsSlide 22Audio CablesSpeaker StandardsSurround-Sound StandardsSurround-Sound StandardsSpeaker FeaturesInstalling a Sound Card in a Windows SystemPhysical InstallationSlide 30Installing DriversConfiguration ApplicationsProprietary Configuration AppsInstalling ApplicationsIT TechnicianHardware ProblemsConfiguration ProblemsApplication ProblemsBeyond A+Slide 40© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSoundChapter 18© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedOverview•In this chapter, you will learn to–Describe how sound works in a PC–Select the appropriate sound card for a given scenario–Install a sound card in a Windows system–Troubleshoot problems that might arise with sound cards and speakers© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedHow Sound Works in a PC© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSound-Capture Basics •Four components for capturing and outputting sound1. Sound card2. Speakers3. Microphone4. Recording/Playback software© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSound-Capture Basics •Sampling—capturing sound–Sampling rate is measured in cycles per second (KHz)•Low quality (11 KHz) to high quality (192 KHz)–Doesn’t capture every nanosecond of sound–Takes samples and extrapolates, or predicts, what the data is between samples•Dotted line—can you connect the dots?© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSound-Capture Basics •Sampling—capturing sound–Bit depth—Number of characteristics of a particular sound (for each sample)•Amplitude (loudness)•Frequency (tone)•Timbre (qualities from different instruments)© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSound-Capture Basics •Waveforms are commonly sampled with either 8 or 16 bits per sample–8-bit stores 28 or 256 different characteristics–16-bit stores 216 or 65,536 different characteristics•Tracks–Monaural—one track–Stereo—two tracks•CD quality–44.1 KHz–16 bit depth© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedRecorded Sound Formats•Pulse code modulation (PCM)–Developed for telephone calls–Better known as the WAV format–Large files•Four-minute song at 44.1 KHz and 16-bit stereo is greater than 40 MB–Compressor/decompressor (CODEC) programs•Algorithms developed to compress sound files•MPEG-1 Layer 3 codec or MP3 is one example of a codec© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedPlaying Sounds•Every sound card can play WAV files using sound player software–Windows Media Player comes with Windows–iTunes is Apple’s media program–Many other good sound players are available© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedMIDI •Musical Instrument Digital Interface –MIDI file is a text file•Contain a series of commands that describe–What note to play–How long to play it–Which instruments to use•Tiny in size compared to WAV files–Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is 78 MB as a WAV file and 60 KB as a MIDI file© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedMIDI •Sound cards play MIDI files using one of two technologies1. FM synthesis•Strictly electronic—software says what to play2. Wave table synthesis•Uses recorded sounds (WAV files) to start•Modifies characteristics of sounds to create amplitude, frequency, and timbre desired•Polyphony of card—how many instruments it can play at once (128 instruments is common)© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedOther File Formats•Over 100 sound formats–Table lists just a fewAcronym DescriptionAAC Advanced Audio Coding—native format for Apple’s iTunesAIFF Audio Interchange File Format—popular with Macintosh computersASX Microsoft Advanced Streaming RedirectorAU Can be played in Windows, Sun, Next, UNIX and MacintoshOGG Vorbis format—open source codexRM RealMedia—audio, or audio and videoWMA Windows Media Audio—proprietary© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedVideo•Videos typically have sound built in–Some common video formats areAcronym DescriptionAVI Audio Video InterleaveMPEG Moving Pictures Experts GroupMOV QuickTimeASF Advanced Streaming FormatRM Real MediaWMV Windows Media VideoDivX Often used for ripping audio and videoFlash Used on YouTube© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedApplications•Many applications (especially games) play sounds•Most use the standard WAV, MP3, or MIDI file formats© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedStreaming Media•Broadcast of data that is played on your computer and immediately discarded–Internet radio stations–Most popular players are•Windows Media Player•Winamp•Apple’s iTunes© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedCompTIA A+EssentialsEssentialsGetting the Right Sound CardGetting the Right Sound Card© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSound Cards •A sound card typically has many built-in features–Two separate processors (one for MIDI and one for the rest)–Support chips for joysticks–Recording capabilities–MIDI support–More•Can be a separate sound card–Often just a chip built in to the motherboard© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved•Sound cards differ in five basic areas:- Processor capabilities - Speaker support- Recording quality - Jacks- Extra features•Processor handles communication between the application, OS, and CPU–Low-end sound cards let your CPU do most of the work–Better sound cards do most of the processing, which accelerates the sound process and provides better sound qualitySound Card Differences© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reservedSound Card Differences•Speaker support–Basic support—two speakers or headphones–Better sound cards support five or more speakers–Often have a subwoofer–5.1 means 5 speakers with 1 subwoofer•Recording quality–Signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio expressed in decibels–Low end have S/N ratio of 30 to 50 decibels•Records artifacts (noise) when there is no actual noise–High-end cards offer a 96 to 100+ S/N ratio© 2007 The McGraw-Hill