Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition

Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition is the ultimate in audio technology and is fully compatible with 2.1 to 4.1 speaker kits, and also with 5.1 Dolby® decoding speaker systems thanks to the S/PDIF optical output. With PowerDVD™ 4.0, Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition produces perfect Dolby Digital™ sound. Its optical digital in and out allow easy and instant connection to hi-fi devices and MiniDiscs™. Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition is a totally user-friendly sound solution with exciting features such as a special headphone output (no need to disconnect the front speakers in order to plug in your headphones), a Hercules designed control panel, and a great 10-band equalizer!

Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition will be available from mid March at a recommended street price of $49 (USD)/€69 (Euro).

• The ultimate solution for Digital Music!
  Electronic musicians will enjoy using Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition with Storm™ Hercules® SE, the virtual Home Studio, to create their own music with a personal touch. Audiophiles can load songs from their digital audio devices and edit them with Sonic Foundry Acid™ Xpress, the perfect tool for realizing those creative instincts. Including Yamaha's S-YXG50 wavetable SoftSynthesizer™, Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition guarantees high-end quality for reproducing acoustic instrument sound and is compatible with both General MIDI and Yamaha XG standards.
• Get ready for the rush!
  Gamers should expect an adrenaline rush when using Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition! To meet power gamers' demands for superior acceleration in games, Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition incorporates one of today's most powerful audio Digital Signal Processors, the Cirrus Logic® SoundFusion® CS4624. Thanks to the famous Sensaura™ engine, users enjoy truly lifelike 3D audio effects in the most advanced games (includes support for A3D™ 1.0, EAX™ 1.0 & 2.0, MacroFX™, MultiDrive™, ZoomFX™ and EnvironmentFX™). Thrill?seeking gamers will be seduced by the award-winning Mindmaker Game Commander® 2 SE, which enables voice control of games!
• A true DVD Home Cinema experience!
  Finally, DVD buffs will benefit from the PowerDVD™ 4.0 DVD player on Gamesurround Fortissimo™ II Digital Edition and enjoy a true DVD Home Cinema multi-channel experience with their favorite DVD movies!

17" PROPHETVIEW LCD FLAT SCREENS

The Hercules Prophetview 920 and Prophetview 920DVi are high quality 17-inch LCD monitors featuring a large display area, similar to a 19" tube monitor. They are compatible with VGA graphics boards and function at a recommended resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels for games and multiple window applications. The monitors' enhanced high contrast and brightness settings provide optimal visual comfort.

With their slender ultra flat design, futuristic boomerang bases, and fashionable blue color, the Prophetview 920 and Prophetview 920DVi are a stylish work of art, creating the new standard in ultra-slim screens. Furthermore, they take up less desk-space than other monitors, feature ultra-low power consumption, are lightweight and comply with the highest safety regulations. Prophetview 920 and Prophetview 920DVi are perfect LCD monitors for both home and office use.

The Hercules Prophetview 920DVi
Based on Prophetview 920, the Prophetview 920DVi features added DVI and video input. Hercules Prophetview 920DVi is ideal for use with the latest Digital DVI graphics cards (for example the Hercules 3D prophet ALL-IN-WONDER 8500DV) for a unique digital display chain experience. Hercules Prophetview 920DVi is also dedicated to videos, featuring a plug in for game stations or camcorders.

"Offering the latest in LCD and component technology, the Hercules Prophetview 920 and Prophetview 920DVi offer fast moving visuals, a wide viewing angle and true color display, ideal for DVDs, games and professional applications," says Sébastien BALCH, Hercules Senior Group Manager.

Features and Benefits

• Ultra-slim: an advanced stylish work of art with a boomerang base and an ultra-thin design;
• Unique color: attractive and fashionable silver and blue finish;
• DVI inputs: for the highest image quality with a digital graphics card (Prophetview 920DVi model);
• Video input: for direct connection to game stations, camcorders (Prophetview 920DVi model);
• Wall mounting: easy to fix to a wall using simple standard screws;
• VESA mounting: easy to fix to an articulated arm to free up desk space
• High image quality: for fast moving videos, wide viewing angles and true color for DVD playback and games;
• Reliable: high level of compatibility with VGA graphics boards;
• Safe and ecological: very low power consumption and highest safety regulation standards;
• Portable and lightweight: ideal for your business trip presentations (works in universal voltages);
• Easy installation: Plug & Play and comprehensive software bundle for professional results.

Availability
The Prophetview 920 and Prophetview 920DVi are scheduled for end-of-Spring shipment to retail and online outlets. Also the 2 models come bundled with a detachable stand (for wall mounting), an AC-adapter, a complete documentation and a CD-ROM with drivers, exclusive screensavers and Prophetview tester software.

3D Prophet 4800, Powered by the KYROII SE

"3D Prophet 4800 is Hercules' solution for gamers and home users looking for an optimized and complete graphics solution at a reasonable price. Impressive 2D and 3D image quality, amazing speed in 3D applications and fluid DVD video playback can now be experienced by every user", says François Garet, Video Group Manager in Hercules Technologies. "In the meantime, Hercules will continue to manufacture and market 3D Prophet 4000XT and 3D Prophet 4500 series and offer to our customers a successful and non-stop support."

3D Prophet 4800's new 3D processor offers a remarkable assortment of the most up-to-date graphics technology features for key 3D effects in the latest applications. 3D Prophet 4800 stands out with its unmatched enhanced Transform And Lighting technology engine which has been specifically designed by PowerVR for the new generation of KYROII chipsets. It mixes intelligent 3D and CPU resources applied to Transform & Lighting and enables the 3D processing to calculate in real time how light intensity will vary on surfaces, where shadows are positioned in 3D applications. These operations guarantee more realistic scenes without increasing CPU resources overload, which maximizes the frame rates in games. The enhanced T&L engine proves to be up to 15% faster than standard engines in games where T&L causes a bottleneck.

In addition, 3D Prophet 4800 offers gamers the highly innovative and intelligent SMART 3D Render technology, an implemented Tile-based rendering engine. This technology enables faster 3D rendering by eliminating back-end polygons (Hidden Surface Removal technology) and mapping textures onto visible surfaces only. SMART 3D Render achieves ultra efficient bandwidth optimization and uncompromising fill rates in high-resolution scenes, which provides gamers with extra power in first person games. SMART 3D Render is fully transparent under Direct®X and OpenGL® APIs and enables designers of current and future games to take advantage of its innovative features without needing to carry out additional programming.

3D Prophet 4800's KYROII SE chipset incorporates Texture8 technology for full support of single pass 8-layer multi-texturing. The processor can combine up to 8 layers of different textures, taking the best of DirectX® 8.1 for highly detailed 3D backgrounds and natural looking 3D models. For flawless image quality, 3D Prophet 4800 fully supports Internal True Color™ enabling all pixel operations to be rendered in the graphics processor at full 32-bit Internal True Color resolution, which means added levels of color interpolation. The board also features TrueRender OnChip FSAA. Pixel-perfect FSAA is performed with zero memory footprint allowing the memory to be dedicated to other operations such as the storage of larger and more complex textures. KYROII SE employs TrueRender OnChip to implement both 2X and 4X high quality Full Scene Anti-Aliasing. For ultra-realistic surfaces and reflections (plastic, metallic, rubber & shiny effects), another plus is the support of Bump Map Complete bump-mapping, providing optimum support for DirectX®8.1 features: EMBM, Dot3 and Embossed bump mapping.

3D Prophet 4800 displays up to 1940X1440 at a refresh rate of 60Hz with incredible sharpness and true 32-bit color.
3D Prophet 4800 TV-out version also comes with a high-resolution TV-Output for watching DVDs on TV. Accompanied by Cyberlink® PowerDVD™ 4.0 XP DVD player, the graphics board allows users to watch their DVDs with hardware motion compensation on their PC or, through the PAL/NTSC video output, on TV Sets in resolutions from 640x480 to 1024x768.

3D Prophet 4800 is Hercules' latest board, focused on innovation and specifically designed for long-lasting home entertainment. Based on future-proof 3D technology, it enables the whole family to take advantage of current and future 3D games at an affordable price.

3D Prophet 4800 and 3D Prophet 4800 TV-out will be available through Hercules' worldwide retail and distribution network.