Smallville Season 8!


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shorter seasons may not be bad. the problem is that the writers have lost a sense of time. clark is now pretty much as old or looks as old as superman did in the last superman returns movie. They really could have ended the show 2 seasons ago if they had not put so many non sense filler episodes in and just focused on the damn story of how clark becomes superman.

Seriously, Brandon Routh was 26 when he filmed Superman Returns. Tom Welling is now 32 and his Clark Kent still hasn't flown. At this rate he's going to be gong through a mid-life crisis by the time he dons the suit.

Somehow I see events unfolding as follows:

Clark saying goodbye is REALLY Clark, not a ghost, but for the opening of Season 9 he will focus full-bore on Krypto-training in the Fortress

Zod will quickly rear his head providing Clark a good glimpse of what happens when a Krypto ignores his humanity. Clark will realize he's becoming too much like Zod for his liking and after beating him (temporarily?) he will realize that Chloe was in fact correct in that his humanity makes Clark the hero he is.

Then Clark Kent will return miraculously alive after the Doomsday attack.

Don't you feel a little disappointed, that at Comicon they said they were going back on the "no flights" rule. This was for the leadup for season 8, and here we are at the end of it, and nothing :(

The Doomsday fight was REALLY disappointing, they need to get this sorted!

I agree and change in writing staff and plot delivery for season 9.

Its funny how everyone wants to shoot people for not doing a good job be it driving a bus, making a movie or a tv series. Season eight was largely disappointing bar a few episodes. Its about time the writers get some focus. There have been way too many episodes where he is trying to solve somebody's problem. How about getting some of that training going that we were promised eons ago ? They really need to quit using the fortress as a problem solving tool.

I was really disappointed to see the confrontation between Clark and Doomsday being turned to streak of light heading underground. It was a perfect opportunity to highlight some growth both mentally and physically but it was not to be. Then back to the same formula of leaving things hanging just to get people to stick around for another season. I am pretty sure that if they extend this any further people will snap. All thanks to the filler episodes they have a lot to address. I hope they get their heads together and focus on substance instead of fillers.

Awful episode, absolutely shocking. And how is Jimmy dead when he is alive in the films etc..

while i do have a lot to complain about with the terrible finale...this i can actually live with...since it was pretty obvious that his little brother is going to become the Jimmy Olsen we all know from the comics, etc....

Looking at all these complaints, even from the MOST LOYAL fans, I'd assume this summer the CW/Smallville guys will NOT be ignoring anymore.

I hope at Comic-Con, the first thing people do is Boo the hell out of these guys!!! ;)

We fans should start a movement!!

Edited by JediXAngel
a movement well maybe, but I do agree that with all the complaints something has to be done to the show before it tanks the superman legacy.

It already has. But I'm willing to accept that it's not canon, but their excuse for what they did in the finale is that it's trying to be canon. To me, the issue with the writers is that you can't have it both ways. They plain suck at writing but are using the excuse of canon as a way to deflect blame.

This is what they have to do.

First part of the season complete the story, bring back Lois without memory of Clark or Smallville, revive Lex, Clark do the damn training.

Second part of the season get rid of everyone and just keep Lois, Clark, Lex, maybe keep Chloe, nw Jimmy. Clark with tights and cape flying and continue as a Superman show instead of a Clark show.

Yeah I wish... :hmmm:

Do you know what also annoyed me about the last episode ... When Chloe says to Jimmy's brother at the funeral "Oh so you must be Jimmy's little brother"

WTF B*tch! you married the guy how the hell do you not know his family, this show is so weak it makes my blood boil.

Do you know what also annoyed me about the last episode ... When Chloe says to Jimmy's brother at the funeral "Oh so you must be Jimmy's little brother"

WTF B*tch! you married the guy how the hell do you not know his family, this show is so weak it makes my blood boil.

What about the guy that played Jimmy's dad? could he get any more serious?

Do you know what also annoyed me about the last episode ... When Chloe says to Jimmy's brother at the funeral "Oh so you must be Jimmy's little brother"

WTF B*tch! you married the guy how the hell do you not know his family, this show is so weak it makes my blood boil.

Yeah, I found that rather stupid too!

This season has been a little bland, if not disappointing. They killed the best character in the series, trashed the Doomsday plot potential and made too many melodramatic moments. The only thing I really liked is that they used The Killers' "Good Night, Travel Well" in the Requiem episode. Thanks to that episode I knew the song and ended as my favorite The Killers' song.

Killing off the Ol' Magnificent Bast*** was a terrible move by the producers, IMO.

John Glover's cunning was left unmatched for the remainder of the episodes.

You can't outfight Superman, so you have to outsmart him (though this is no hard feat as 'Smallville' is dumber than a box of nails,)

and MB did it best. You could never anticipate his next move.

I found the rivalry of father v son (MB and Lex) to be more interesting than the hero v villian scenarios.

The number of bad episodes far outweigh the good ones.

I'm only watching it now to see how it ends.

I was majorly disappointed, as well, BUT you gotta at least see Clark don the Superman suit & Fly for REAL before it ENDS for good.

Of course... Studios don't make decisions based around money at all - it's purely to get the fanboy payoff...

Anyhow, Doomsday was made out to be 100% lame by the ending. Pffft!

Of course... Studios don't make decisions based around money at all - it's purely to get the fanboy payoff...

Anyhow, Doomsday was made out to be 100% lame by the ending. Pffft!

We shouldn't have walked into season 8 expecting them to actually faithfully portray Doomsday. :(

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    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
    • Thanks
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