Been a while...

Audio isn't a function of video so a co-processor won't matter. Assuming equal audio quality then it comes down to the player.

If you don't assume equal audio quality, then you've got a long job ahead because, like you said, no one cares to compare (it's an awfully subjective thing, anyway). There were some outright bad ones (C500/SMT5600, very bad artifacts -- periodic tzzzzzt noises -- when playing high frequencies, to name one) but otherwise devices are probably close. Some will be better, that's for sure. Anyway, the player I mention in that thread would make even the worst-sounding device sound better than the best-sound device using other software. No joke. Headphones are very important; even more so than the device, but not more than the player (in this particular case). It helps to have a 3.5mm jack, too. BT headphones are an option, but many players don't play well (skip a lot) with those. At least one player (I know of two) works very well with BT headphones (right, the one in the link). A good source (quality mp3, m4a, wma, etc.) is also important.

But no, you won't find things like measured distortion, frequency response, power use, and so on. It'd be cool if someone knew how to measure meaningfully, and had the time to do it. I suspect few do.

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Phantasm, though, now that is different, newer, and even better software.

And there we go. See, you thought you replied, but all you really did was talk about yourself. You never did answer any question that was important, or even really discuss anything but yourself. Funny that. As best as I can remember, anyway. I do not doubt that you think you did exactly what you say you did, as much as I don't doubt my version.YOu did read the iplay_on_sp.html page, right? I'll be lazy and post it, messed up maybe, here: (In case it's not mentioned below, I don't charge anything extra for this SP version.)

iPlay Client on a Smartphone

The iPlay client can be installed on a Smartphone running SP2003. For example, iPlay plays well on an Audiovox SMT5600. The client was not designed with the smartphone UI limitations in mind but it still plays and sounds better than anything else, so why not use it then, especially if you already have the client for your PPC.

Because of this, using iPlay client on a Smartphone is not supported. If it works, great, if not, there's always your father's Olds, and WMP.
Only basic features are available when run on a Smartphone. There is no file system (FS) on SP. Instead, all files found (mp3, mp4, m4a, ogg, flac) are loaded to the main list (as usual) and from there played. This is the same EXE file that goes on your Pocket PC.

Before installing, I recommend that you first turn your phone off, then back on. The reason is to ensure that you have enough RAM drive space. The installer copies the install bits to the RAM (root) drive. About 700 KB is needed for the initial install. Typically, 1.5 MB is available, though that will vary.

The main list files can be ordered in a half-dozen ways, same as the client, by using the "3 Order by" menu select. The menu, activated by softkey #2, is mainly used to position to a control. For example, "1 Volume" sets focus so that the volume is controlled by the joypad's up/down movement. "2 Tools..." opens the Tools menu (as seen in the picture below). "3 Order" by brings up the menu to select how to order the files. "4 List" sets the focus to the main list, so that the joypad up/down scrolls through the list, and left toggles the sequence number, and pressing in immediately starts play of that file. "5 F/X..." brings up the F/X menu. Select the F/X to adjust. "6 EQ..." selects the EQ (also see 40eqid.txt for precisely setting EQ for particular files automatically). 7, 8, and 9 are previous track, stop, and next track. "0 Exit" stops play and closes the client.

Any album art embedded in the file is displayed automatically. The keypad-1 is used to toggle the art display on and off. Some menu functions also turn off the cover art. Keypad-7, -8, and -9 are alternate ways to do a previous track, stop, and a next track.

The play/pause key is softkey #1. You can also start a play by selecting a name in the main list and pressing in on the joypad.

Since this is not made for Smartphones, many of the features of the client are not available. As mentioned, the FS is not available, nor is it required since all files are already in the main list, and it's very easy to order by artist/album/trk#/title, among others (see 40renamer20.zip for more on that). No FS also means no playlists. Again, see 40renamer20.zip for a naming convention that makes creating and using playlists tedious and unnecessary. The video screen does not blank, but the SP already blanks as soon as it can anyway, so that's not needed. "Check for updates" is also not needed since this is not a regular product release (use your PPC). No network, no tone generators, no clock/alarm, and no built-in help, among other things not available (they are there, but are not easily dealt with using a keypad so I've kept them out of the way).

Even with all those NOs, there is still the full complement of effects, including the very fine, studio-quality reverb, the headphone crossfeed circuit, and the great sounding EQ. VU bar-segment LEDs are there to show blown levels, too. Even the SMT5600 (tzzzz), with it's detuned, 170 MHz OMAP 730 CPU, can handle all the effects going, as should any device that meets the hardware requirements.

In rare cases on a low power SmartPhone, play may stutter when starting particular tunes when nothing was previously playing (it happens on only one of my m4a files, and then only when album art is enabled; very weird). If this happens you can hit any of the controls, for example the joypad, and the stutter immediately stops.
|Upon further review, this does appear to be related to artwork...|
Update: 3-July-2005: The cause of this, and why it happens only on some album art but not all, has been identified and cured in .531. While it can still happen, it won't happen from starting a new file that has a large album cover image embedded, and should not happen any more often than a blue moon.


Here's a rough cut of the control layout. Not shown are the Gain hotkeys: the volume up/down buttons (hold down the volume-up key for another way to do a next track). The regular volume is controlled by the joypad up/down (when it is set to control the volume). The joypad also controls movement in the menus and the main list. Escape sequences are provided to access areas that are not generally necessary when iPlay is run on an SP. The fast-fastfwd and fast-rewind (the pound and star buttons) are active only when the regular fastfwd (the 6 button) is active; they jump about 60 seconds forward and back (available on mp3/aac/m4a/mp4). When going to the background (incoming call, pressing the Home button, etc.) any current play is paused; on return (e.g., using the Back key) press softkey #1 to resume play (when paused, holding down the Gain+ button also resumes instead of its normal action of doing a next track). The menus are gotten to either from the main menu button (softkey #2), from that main menu, or from the escape 3x3 button (press the #3 button 3 times within one second). The x3 esc button has different menus based on the context. For example, when editing EQ presets, x3 brings up the "To Q/CF", "To levels" menu. The joypad is used to move among the controls (up, down, left, and right). The #0 button brings up the quick help picture that you see below.

In practice, this layout is very easy to use.

(the images would be here)

|3 July 2005|
1 June 2005

iPlay C/S

I can't delete the duplicate picture. Kinda ruff deal. Anyway, this is a PPC/PE group sO it that picture set is more like you'd see. It's over a year old though, and it's not quite like that anymore, but mostly the same. Now, finally, this is the end of that.

Oooo! I asked you a couple or three questions but you never replied to those so I wasn't going to bother you any more. But, since I see this I may as well bother you, ay? Like I wrote back then, it's probably that you have/had a full drive.
At first that seemed unlikely, since only a newbie would be stopped by that, but I can't see what else it could be. The install needs about 700 KB to copy to the phone. Anyway, it does work on an smt5600 perfectly, even the demo. That is, if I have the space to install. Turn off your phone, then turn it back on. That should clean out the install location. True enough, it is a Pocket PC app, but it works just fine on a smartphone that is app-unlocked, and have 700 KB available to install (the cab is about 660 KB). Not that it will install on yours, but it does install and work fine here.

I have a sig?

The file system found in the client when run on a PPC is not there -- it is, but it's not enabled -- but considering the possible file count is likely to be much less, doing the ordering via the main list (see pic below) should suffice for most. In [artist] order, the album name and track is included, so these are ordered in a makes-sense way: artist-album-track#. I don't use Wmp for music, let alone an iPod, so I can't compare with those. I have no difficulties in using this PPC app on my phone with about 120 tunes, though here I'm only showing it on the wm5 emulator (my phone is 176x220). The PPC app (actually, it's the exact same app) handles 40,000 files, as in, 40k, no problemo. This is realistic only when playing from an external source. My website has more on such an external/portable source, in the lossless/flac FAQ #52, though elsewhere in it, too. Not too relevant to phones, though, not any current phones, anyway.

That didn't? Here's what I like to see in my SP app when I put it on an SP running at 240x320.

I ordered the SP3 from exspansys usa last week. I checked the order Monday and it was changed to SP3i. I called wondering what was up. The phone jockey said it was because there is no SP3 cradle, to which I replied, yes there is, here's the web link. A few seconds later, he said, "they must have fixed it". Hm. Uh-huh. I presumed he meant the link/web info. The SP3i and SP3 have different part numbers. I figured they were the same deal, so didn't press it, since it hadn't even shipped yet.

Got it today. It was around $18, and I thought at the time it was a decent price. Now I know why. It's a piece of plastic, 4 screws, a USB cable, and a whole lotta mess inside. Oh, and a blue LED. Problem was, it didn't work.

When I plugged it in, it said it couldn't find a driver. That's nonsense, of course, but I tried another machine, with another OS. Same deal. I've seen this sort of thing before when I've missed a pin on the external USB headers, but this was the mobo USB connection, and it works fine with a plain mini-USB cable. So, the cradle was mis-wired. I can't imagine that the SP3i, or SP3 for that matter, uses a non-standard wire hookup. (I've an SMT5600, by the way.)

So, I could call or email them to set up a return. It'd probably be on my dime to return it, and spending eight bucks to return an $18 hunk of plastic, not to mention the travel time, was not my idea of a good time. What to do then, but to operate.

As you can see from the attached pic, it's no wonder this has QC problems. I pulled the guts out, put in a regular mini-USB, and plugged it in. All works fine now. But still, don't plan on using the bottom row keys; you can't reach them unless you have Howard Hughes-like fingernails. It's okay to sync, providing the cradle you get, should you get this one, works. I thought about putting a headphone plug in, since I have one to spare, but since the bottom row keys aren't easily accessible, I'll use this only as a sync dock. I've another, self-built cradle I use that has easy access to all keys, and the connections on the bottom.

Even if it worked out of the box -- which had a flap torn, so may have been a return! -- this is not quality stuff. Not recommended.

The center picture is after the cable was replaced. The third picture just shows it in the cradle, after the cable was replaced.

Is that a SanDisk? Many years ago, some CF cards would cause the same problem. Most cards would not use so much power when not in use, but those SanDisks did. I can't recall the brand, but SanDisk is always the one with some sort of problem.

Looking at the bottom-right picture here

http://iplay.40th.com/faq_iplay_on_sp.html

I see BookMk. I can't say that I've tried it, but you'd think I would have. Let's see what the online (PPC) docs say about that (see attached? pic).

I don't know about similar to iTunes:

http://iplay.40th.com/faq_iplay_on_sp.html

The Audiovox smt5600 as it came from ATT is already unlocked. It's got the typical SP2003 security: ask user if he wants to run the app. OK or not. There, that's the tip of the molehill. Some apps, those that access privileged APIs, need appropirate code signing (etc.) and won't work correctly without that on a 5600. Generally, you won't have problems getting apps to run on a 5600.

And the cradle will rock. (If I can attach, if not, see here: http://40th.com/gfx/5600cradle.html )

In that case, it's faster than you probably think. iPAQs are notoriously slow when it comes to SD card access, at about 1 MB/sec (an Axim X30/316 is 3x faster at 3+MB/sec). MB here and in the computed rates is 1 million bytes (so sue me).

Attached is, hopefully, a graphic showing the read rates. "rom" is the built-in memory (not RAM; not enough), and "msd" is the miniSD I wrote about above.

http://www.datamem.com/viewcat.asp?C=768

512MB Transcend miniSD Card (Secure Digital) DM55 085 $61.25

Free ship available. This is the standard 2MB/sec (12x) Transcend 512 MB miniSD with the regular SD adapter in the package.

CORRECTION: The PDF for the product at datamem.com said 2MB/sec. The delivered product is rated 45x. Read: 7.7MB/sec. Write: 6.6MB/sec.

The OMAP 733 is a newer, ARMv5 architecture (similar to XScale), while the 1510 is the older, ARMv4 (similar to the old StrongARM). The 1510 is max rated to 175 MHz. It comes with a DSP rated at 200 MHz. The iPAQ 6315, for example, has the OMAP 1510 and runs at 168 MHz (84 MHz bus/memory I'd bet). It's likely that the DSP on the 6315 does run at 200 MHz, but that only runs things like the phone, and maybe the camera; everything else is on the very slow 168 MHz ARMv4 (oooold) CPU. And that's why everyone says the 6315 is slow -- because it is.