Dear SB Troubled;
Having built computers, and also made thousands of hardware and software
purchases for the US Government before losing my sight in an accident, no one
company will tell you another's hardware or software will work -- without
glitches -- with their own product. This includes HJ! A certain company can
only try to work you around the problem. For example, you call Microsoft and
tell them that jfw is causing Windows to lock up upon boot. Microsoft will
lead you through THEIR registry and files to see if they can solve the
problem the "Microsoft" way, not the HJ way. If they can't, then they tell
you to call HJ. Even though HJ is constantly working on compatibility
issues, they can't know everything about another company's product and how it
will function with jfw, as there are thousands of products on the market. If
they knew, HJ would put out an operating system of their own. However, I
think this would tick Lord Gates off pretty well, as he would loose all
vision impaired individuals' business. Hence this bulletin board for shared
info among jfw users.
Don't call Creative Labs -- they couldn't give a hoot about jfw -- as they
don't know what how it's written.
As for Creative Labs SoundBlaster products, they work just fine with jfw, as
Creative Labs has manufactured their boards and written their software code
to be compatible with speech and music. This being the fact, jfw falls
somewhere in the realm of voice and music -- you just have to tweak and tune
the board settings and find the right software version to make the two
compatible.
As for a sound board that has the mic, the SoundBlaster 16, AWE32, AWE64 and
Live cards have mic attachments on them. There are 4 ports in the rear of a
Sound Blaster card. IN, OUT, SPEAKER, MICROPHONE and GAME CONTROLLER ( 9-pin
port for a joystick). However, you need a sighted guide to locate them. The
ports for the mic take the same size plug as your speakers. There is a nifty
little product, I don't remember the name, but it takes up a 3.5 inch bay.
There are 3 ports on the front of it for MIC, SPEAKER and LINE. This item
has 3 wires ending in plugs that pass through the inside of the PC, come out
a slot cover in the rear and plug into the SoundBlaster card. This now
brings your connections for a MIC, SPEAKERS (good for headphone usage) and
LINE to the front of the PC where it's easily accessible. This item also has
a volume control knob. I have a singular (telephone operator) style headset
that allows me to hear jfw from one ear and other sound (like the stereo and
mess call) from the other ear. I have a "Y" connector on the back of the
sound card so a line runs to my speakers also, however, I have the volume on
them turned completely down so jfw won't annoy others. When I need the
speakers for modifying sounds (hearing sounds as treble, bass, right channel,
left channel, etc.) I just remove my earphone and turn the volume up on the
speakers.
I hope this helps. If you would like to discuss more please E-mail me at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Make the subject line "Sound Blaster". If I find
another device to bring the plugs to the front of the PC, I'll let you know.
Good Luck
John
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Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
