As before this tab has two main functions, to choose the input and output devices. The tick box for showing the Volume Control in the taskbar has been moved out of the Playback area, because the Volume Control has settings for all sorts of input and output options.

More importantly, both input and output now both have preferences - which shortcut to the relevant volume controls and Advanced Properties. The Advanced Properties for Playback has two tabs. The first is one that allows you to choose the type of speakers attached so that Windows can adjust the output to suit them in order to help you get the best sound quality - you can even choose between Laptop mono and Stereo Speakers! The Second tab concerns Quality/Speed sample conversion and is the same as the Input Advanced Properties tab shown below (though obviously the settings are independent and changing them in one does not affect the other).

The picture says it all. You can now set the hardware acceleration and Sample Rate Conversion quality for audio, much in the same way that you could always set the hardware acceleration for video in the System Control Panel in Windows 95.

Using these sliding controls you can balance speed against quality and set the Properties in accordance with the level and competence of the hardware you own. As with the video acceleration, Windows 98 makes its own suggestions based on the hardware it detects.

Much the same as the original tab, you can select which CD drive should be used be default for music and the volume for audio from the CD. There is also a new tick box though that allows you to enable digital CD audio for retrieving the CD audio digitally rather than through analog means. This improves the quality as nothing is lost, but may not work on all CD-ROM drives.

See also DMA improvements to IDE