|
jetAudio 6.2.8
Plus VX
Reviewed
by: Howard
Carson,
February 2007
Published
by: Cowon
Systems
Requires: Pentium
200 or faster CPU, Windows 98 through Vista, 64MB RAM,
40MB available hard drive space, DirectX 9 or higher,
QuickTime 4 or higher
MSRP: $29.00
jetAudio
Plus is a multimedia entertainment player which provides
software controlled playback of just about every
kind of digital audio and video file you can think
of. From WAV to MP3, AIF to SND, MID, AVI, MPG, MOD,
and so on, jetAudio Plus can play them all. The software
is designed around an interface that resembles stacked,
home audio/video equipment, in an attempt to create
a familiar look and feel for end users. For people
who listen to a lot of music or watch a lot of video
on their PC, jetAudio Plus is a comprehensive utility
capable of replacing most of the single-purpose players
you may already be using.
The
software is supplied on a single CD-ROM or as a
download and includes MP3 and
mp3PRO encoding Pack, Special Sound Effect (BBE)
Pack, Sound Pack, Enhanced Recording Pack, Application
Pack, and all the features of jetAudio 6.XX Basic.
We tested the software on a 3.2GHz Pentium and
a Pentium D 524 (3.06GHz, 533FSB), both running
SoundBlaster cards, and ATI X1600 video cards driving
20" Dell Ultrasharp digital LCD monitors.
As
a straightforward multimedia player, jetAudio Plus
is efficient, easy to use, and is designed to be
a viable alternative to any collection of audio,
video and movie players you may already have on
your system. Jet Audio Plus uses all of the existing
media players in your system to do its work. Windows
Media Player and QuickTime to run video, WMP for
streaming internet radio and many other formats
as noted above.
|
|
jetAudio
used to feature an enormous, 8 section interface:
the Power Station (used to switch the other sections
on and off); the Effects and EQ Processor; the
Sound Mixer (with all the different volume and
gain controls); audio CD Player (programmable);
the MP3 & Digital Audio player (programmable);
the MIDI & Karaoke player (programmable); the
Video player (for CD video and digital video files);
the Remote Control (capable of controlling whatever
section is active). Familiar transport controls
displayed standard icons provide obvious hints
to functionality. In addition, popup tooltips told
you what your mouse was hovering over. Create an
album, load individual files, or access a CD audio
or CD video disk. It was big and unwieldy. Things
are much better now however, with a much more compact,
easy to understand (and navigate) interface and
much broader media file compatibility including:
- Windows
Sound Files (WAV)
- MPEG
Audio files (MP1, MP2, MP3) including mp3PRO
- MPEG
Audio Playlist Files (PLS, M3U)
- MPEG
Video Files (MPG, MPEG)
- Windows
Media Audio files (WMA)
- Windows
Media Video Files (ASF, WMV)
- Windows
Video Files (AVI)
- DivX
Video Files (AVI, DIVX)
- Ogg
Vorbis Sound Files (OGG)
- Apple
Audio files (AIF and AIFF)
- QuickTime
files (QT, MOV and MP4)
- SUN
Audio files (AU and SND)
- RealMedia
Files (RA, RAM, RM, RMM)
- MIDI
files (MID, RMI and KAR)
- IMS
file (IMS)
- Module
files (MOD, S3M, XM, MTM, STM, IT, ULT, 669, FAIR, MED,
MDL, MDL, NST, OKT and WOW)
- Monkey's
Audio file format (APE)
- MPEG
Plus Audio files (MPC)
- Free
Lossless Audio Codec files (FLAC)
- Ogg
Media Files (OGM)
- MKV
Video Files (MKV)
- Audio
CD
- Video
CD
- DVD
Not all
codecs are supplied — you'll need to download them
for DivX, Ogg and MKV.
jetAudio
Plus has programming features to accommodate endless combinations
of custom playlists for playback of CD audio disks, MP3
archives, MIDI files and so on. You can easily create albums
containing MP3, WAV, MIDI, CD Audio, and MPEG, MOV or other
video and audio file combinations. Imagine sitting back
while your PC plays a multimedia list automatically? It's
possible. And if your PC is located in a main living area,
you'll be able to use your PC monitor and speakers as multimedia
entertainment devices (for something other than games).
Jet Radio helps in this area too, providing hundreds of
preset stations to choose from. All in all, the software
is interesting and worth a look (and listen).
CD ripping
is much improved. Sound quality and encoding is clean and
error-free for the most part. You can rip to WAV, MP3,
mp3PRO, WMA, RealMedia, OGG and APE. We were generally
pleased with rip speeds and as far as we can tell, your
RAM and CPU should be the only limiting factors when using
jetAudio.
Older
versions of jetAudio Plus were missing one mportant thing:
a DVD player. I suspect that the lack of a DVD player was
the result of exorbitant licensing costs for CSS encryption
and Dolby AC3(R). Well DVD is present with a vengeance
now and the result is quite good — certainly good
enough to draw your attention away from WinDVD and Cyberlink.
You still need a third-party DVD decoder, but the jetAudio
Plus player works extremely well. DVD movie playback is
full featured, providing access to most DVD menus and features
on most of the commercial DVDs we tried. HD-DVD and Blu-ray
playback are not here yet, but Cowon Systems is working
on the next version of jetAudio Plus with integrated hi-def
playback features.
Cons: The
Jet Audio Plus manual is still a marvel of poor writing.
As the software has grown and improved over the past few
years, the product documentation (online help and so on)
hasn't followed suit.
Pros: jetAudio
Plus VX is fun to play with and seems to operate flawlessly.
For anyone who wants a do it all player from someplace
other than Microsoft or Apple, this is the one to try.
Cyberlink and WinDVD are two other competing companies
that are pushing this market very hard with their multimedia
DVD products and continue to carve out a solid niche for
themselves in the face of the market leading dominance
of Microsoft and Apple. With v6 however, jetAudio has toed
the line with a respectable offering too. Definitely worth
a look. Recommended.
|
|
