Shponglefan wrote on 2026-04-17, 17:19:

I would assume with the feature connector, using something like a CRT Terminator could be an option for getting digital out?

this is the reason we put the feature connector
I have a crt terminator , never used it though
I will update and test eventually 😁

Is the PCMIDI addition still an option? It's just a thought for now, but that thought is consideration of turning my Roland LAPC-I into cash if I can get all its capability bases covered with other devices while remaining in the black.

That SonicVision PRO looks amazing all-in-one card!
Any available card with CL-GD5434 is already wonderful but I really like the idea of a quality late Opti-based sound card implementation. Those otherwise nice sound chips too often appeared only on cheapest cards.

BaronSFel001 wrote on 2026-04-30, 16:24:

Is the PCMIDI addition still an option? It's just a thought for now, but that thought is consideration of turning my Roland LAPC-I into cash if I can get all its capability bases covered with other devices while remaining in the black.

it sure is, we still have some extras

aitotat wrote on 2026-05-01, 07:35:

That SonicVision PRO looks amazing all-in-one card!
Any available card with CL-GD5434 is already wonderful but I really like the idea of a quality late Opti-based sound card implementation. Those otherwise nice sound chips too often appeared only on cheapest cards.

thanks!
I also like the 930 - I find it a very compatible chip that will just work with everything sb-related

@Keropi
I think it's time to start a trend with SonicVision PRO, what do you think?

But most importantly, when do you think we'll be able to have it in our retro PCs? 😁

igna78 wrote on 2026-05-01, 09:33:

@Keropi
I think it's time to start a trend with SonicVision PRO, what do you think?

But most importantly, when do you think we'll be able to have it in our retro PCs? 😁

soon and somewhat soon 😁

keropi wrote on 2026-05-01, 09:36:

igna78 wrote on 2026-05-01, 09:33:

@Keropi
I think it's time to start a trend with SonicVision PRO, what do you think?

But most importantly, when do you think we'll be able to have it in our retro PCs? 😁

soon and somewhat soon 😁

Wonderfull 🤗

Here's my review of the MK1869!
https://youtu.be/2bx79bz0z-o

Ugh.. I completely missed out on this.. *facepalm*

Excuse me, but I have a dumb question.
Is the MK1869 SB Pro 2.0 compatible or "just" SB Pro?

It's the other way around. Even Creative never claimed its cards were backwards compatible with the original Pro version, because of the dual OPL2 chips. Whenever someone claims "Sound Blaster Pro" compatibility, it's pretty much always shorthand for 2.0.

The original Pro used two Yamaha YM3812 (OPL2) chips, dedicating one to each stereo channel. The Pro 2 upgraded to a single Yamaha YMF262 (OPL3) chip.

I had a chance to try out my MK1869 XTREME this weekend. Both the ESS and Interwave sound great. Much less noisy than other ISA sound cards.
I was more surprised by the low frequency response for both Sound Blaster and GUS output. Very noticeable with the main menu music for Epic Pinball.

akimmet wrote on 2026-05-26, 17:05:

I had a chance to try out my MK1869 XTREME this weekend. Both the ESS and Interwave sound great. Much less noisy than other ISA sound cards.
I was more surprised by the low frequency response for both Sound Blaster and GUS output. Very noticeable with the main menu music for Epic Pinball.

glad you are enjoying the card 😁
thanks for the support!

Hello, I know this might not be the right place, but I haven't seen a thread about the Sonic Vision PRO yet, and I have a question for Keropi: I might be interested in purchasing this fantastic all-in-one ISA card as soon as it's available, and I'd like to plug it into a GA-6BXC rev2.0 motherboard in one of my Via C3 builds. In this build, I'll be using my GeForce3 Ti200 in the AGP slot. Since my motherboard (like many i440BX Slot1 motherboards) has the option in its BIOS to select the primary video card between AGP and PCI, and considering that I've read in general (and also here on Vogons) that ISA VGA cards always have priority in the case of the co-presence of an additional VGA card on the PCI bus, my question is this: have you tested whether it is possible, by selecting the primary VGA PCI card in the BIOS of an i440BX motherboard with an AGP slot (and which offers this option in its BIOS to select the primary video card) if, by selecting PCI (and having no other VGA PCI card inserted, but only the VGA AGP card) the VGA ISA card can start and therefore, in your Sonic Vision PRO, the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434 chip loads its BIOS in the high mapping dedicated to video cards in DOS?
I'd love to be able to run an AGP graphics card alongside the Cirrus Logic graphics card in your Sonic Vision PRO, and be able to manage this from my motherboard's BIOS just as if it were the classic AGP or PCI priority VGA graphics card at boot time.
My goal would be to use the Cirrus Logic graphics card in the Sonic Vision PRO to achieve register compatibility with the older CGA, EGA, and Hercules graphics modes, which the GeForce obviously doesn't support natively.

So let me explain in a much more concise way.
In the Init Display First menu in the BIOS of my GA-6BXC rev2.0:
I select AGP: my AGP VGA card starts (GeForce3 Ti200 in my case).
I select PCI: the ISA VGA card starts since I don't have a PCI VGA card (in the case of the Sonic Vision PRO, the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434 will start).

Keropi, can you please do or have you already done a test like this?

Damiano.78 wrote on 2026-07-06, 09:45:

Since my motherboard (like many i440BX Slot1 motherboards) has the option in its BIOS to select the primary video card between AGP and PCI, and considering that I've read in general (and also here on Vogons) that ISA VGA cards always have priority in the case of the co-presence of an additional VGA card on the PCI bus, my question is this: have you tested whether it is possible, by selecting the primary VGA PCI card in the BIOS of an i440BX motherboard with an AGP slot (and which offers this option in its BIOS to select the primary video card) if, by selecting PCI (and having no other VGA PCI card inserted, but only the VGA AGP card) the VGA ISA card can start and therefore, in your Sonic Vision PRO, the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434 chip loads its BIOS in the high mapping dedicated to video cards in DOS?

I've tested ISA/PCI/AGP video combos on a Pentium 4 setup. In my experience, the ISA VGA card will take override priority regardless of whether the motherboard is set to AGP or PCI. The only way to disable the ISA VGA video is if it can be done on the card directly.

I asked earlier if it would be possible to have an option to disable the VGA portion of the Sonic Vision Pro and it was mentioned they may add a jumper for this.

no such tests are made - tbh because even if this works on paper one cannot know what each motherboard will do
this is not even the target platform of the card , if it works then good but we cannot guarantee that a pentium2 and upwards will cooperate as expected with the svpro

but we we have already added a jumper that disables the 5434 bios - not tested yet though as it's an upcoming proto feature

Thank you! Great for the jumper that lets us disable the CL-GD5434 VGA BIOS of the Sonic Vision PRO video card! This way, even if the ISA card always has priority in loading its BIOS at startup over the AGP and/or PCI VGA card, we can effectively make it secondary/completely excluded!

Damiano.78 wrote on 2026-07-07, 09:11:

Thank you! Great for the jumper that lets us disable the CL-GD5434 VGA BIOS of the Sonic Vision PRO video card! This way, even if the ISA card always has priority in loading its BIOS at startup over the AGP and/or PCI VGA card, we can effectively make it secondary/completely excluded!

I believe keropi made it very obvious that there is no guarantee that the jumper will actually do what you think it will, depending on the board and BIOS. You may disable it, but it may still get detected and the board may refuse to initialize a PCI/AGP adapter after that. You will have to try that on a case by case basis.

Correct, but it will be interesting to see if it is possible because if so then it could have other applications for those of us with multiple video cards in our retro setups.

EDIT: Someone noted in an older topic that the Number Nine Imagine 128 came with this very capability. Since putting this particular combination of video/audio/ethernet into a single ISA card is uncharted territory anyway, it makes experimentation along the way that much more worthwhile.