Which media player?

[ctmagnus]

I'm in the middle of reinstalling all my software on my 3670 after updating the ROM from 2.14 to 2.20 and am at the point where I need to decide on a free media player.

Should I go with WMP8 (from Microsoft and there are some nice skins available), PocketMVP (more features) or WinamPAQ (single-file install and supports .ogg)?

[Pony99CA]

I'm in the middle of reinstalling all my software on my 3670 after updating the ROM from 2.14 to 2.20 and am at the point where I need to decide on a free media player.
I voted for Windows Media Player 8, but not just because it's from Microsoft or because of the skins. I voted for WMP 8 because it's installed in ROM. As you have a 3670, that won't be an issue for you.

If I didn't have a current media player in ROM, I'd certainly check out the other two you mentioned and compare their features. I may check them out anyway and install one or both on my 256 MB SD card. I have to fill all that space with something. :-)

Steve

[don dre]

withMP3 and love it.

[Janak Parekh]

As don dre implies, you've missed a bunch: withMP3, GSPlayer, Pocket Music, and iPlay. Of the bunch, GSPlayer and Pocket Music are free, so at a minimum those should go on your list. Now, the question is, did I miss any? :D

In any case, I've used Winampaq, PocketMVP, and iPlay. I'd say any of them are far superior to WMP for music playback. Winampaq, PocketMVP, GSPlayer, and iPlay all support .ogg. They use much less CPU and are much more reliable for MP3, plus they have equalizers. WMP should only be used for WMA. Ultimately, iPlay is the best, but it's the most expensive of the bunch.

--janak

[ctmagnus]

As don dre implies, you've missed a bunch: withMP3, GSPlayer, Pocket Music, and iPlay. Of the bunch, GSPlayer and Pocket Music are free, so at a minimum those should go on your list. Now, the question is, did I miss any? :D

In any case, I've used Winampaq, PocketMVP, and iPlay. I'd say any of them are far superior to WMP for music playback. Winampaq, PocketMVP, GSPlayer, and iPlay all support .ogg. They use much less CPU and are much more reliable for MP3, plus they have equalizers. WMP should only be used for WMA. Ultimately, iPlay is the best, but it's the most expensive of the bunch.

--janak

Ok, free is good.

I stuck with the three I did because they were in my iPaq before I upgraded the ROM.

As for your suggestions, GSPlayer (http://www.stickman-radio.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=MostPopular) appears to be a Shoutcast player and Pocket Music (http://www.pocketpccity.com/software/pocketpc/Griff-Pocket-Music-Studio-2002-1-29-ce-pocketpc.html) appears to be more of a full-blown studio app than a mere player, like I'm looking for. Or that's what Google came up with. :)

[Chris Spera]

I use WMP for a couple of reasons. Number 1, its in ROM, and will play both WMA's and MP3's.

Secondly, I use it because the native music file format for Pocket PC (and here comes the flaming...I can feel it...) is WMA. As such, I've stopped playing, using and ripping my purchased music to MP3 and have switched to WMA.

I've had issues in the past when WMP wouldn't play a particular encoded MP3; but its always played every single WMA I've ever thrown at it.

So... 1: If its free, its for me; and 2: No encoding/ compatibility issues with native formats.

Of course, your milage may vary... but even if (and I can't remember...Its been so long since I've used a 3600) you don't have WMP in your 3670 ROM, WMP8 is a good player.

Now, if it only did visualizations while playing music. Am I the only one who wonders why it doesn't do this on Pocket PC?


Christopher Spera

[Janak Parekh]

Secondly, I use it because the native music file format for Pocket PC (and here comes the flaming...I can feel it...) is WMA.
No flame, but that means that the native webpage format is simple HTML, the native text format is PWD, etc.

The whole point of Pocket PC is extensibility and flexibility.

Now, if it only did visualizations while playing music. Am I the only one who wonders why it doesn't do this on Pocket PC?
That, no equalizer, and poor playlist features make it a no-go for me. (Yes, I know about CEPlaylist, but it's nice to be able to select one artist, for example, really easily.) By using WMA, you're locked into one player that's evolving slowly. Once I started using third-party players, I've never looked back to WMP. It was a major hassle for me.

But hey, whatever works for you. :) I just wouldn't base it on "native format". Inclusion in ROM is workable, although the third-party players are, for the most part, really small.

--janak

[Jude]

Ever since I discovered it (back when it was still Pocket DivX) I used to use Pocket MVP for pretty much all of my multimedia needs. I really believe that with just a little more polish (maybe by version 1.0?) this player can pretty much replace everything else out there. I tried WinamPAQ for a while, and I still keep it in memory. It's good for "one-tap" music listening (Pocket MVP requires you to tap a few menus before you can start playing music, especially if you don't have any playlists ready), and also has nifty equalizer presets. Then Windows Media 9 came out and I was curious about the improvement in quality. So I re-ripped a whole lot of my CDs into WMA 9 and have been listening to those for the past month or so. It's pretty good even at the lowest quality encoding setting. Also I discovered that WMP 8.5's playlist management functions aren't as bad as I expected.

I still use Pocket MVP for all my video. WMV on the Pocket PC is still choppy as heck when doing fullscreen.

However, I plan to go back to PocketMVP/WinamPAQ for my music soon because I'm so annoyed by how WMP handles one turning your PPC off and on. Whereas PocketMVP pauses the song or video at the point where you turn off and then you can resume from there when you turn it back on, WMP sets it back to the start of the song.

By the way, I won't even consider using a player that ONLY supports MP3. Encoding into MP3 is a waste of space in my opinion. 128 kbps OGG and WMA 9 beats the socks off MP3 quality-wise, and even more so at lower bitrates. I used to really like OGG, but WMA 9 has caught up majorly in sound quality. When PocketMVP supports WMA (its supposed to soon) then there'll be no reason for me to use WMP.

"Native" format or whatever doesn't really matter (and I don't think that's a very good criteria for an audio compression format). I didn't use WMA 8 before because it didn't sound as good as OGG, I use WMA 9 now because it sounds as good as and in some instances better than OGG (and because WMP 9 on the desktop fixes up your My Music folder really prettily, with album art and all :) ).

[spursdude]

I use WMP for a couple of reasons. Number 1, its in ROM, and will play both WMA's and MP3's.

Secondly, I use it because the native music file format for Pocket PC (and here comes the flaming...I can feel it...) is WMA. As such, I've stopped playing, using and ripping my purchased music to MP3 and have switched to WMA.

I've had issues in the past when WMP wouldn't play a particular encoded MP3; but its always played every single WMA I've ever thrown at it.

So... 1: If its free, its for me; and 2: No encoding/ compatibility issues with native formats.

Of course, your milage may vary... but even if (and I can't remember...Its been so long since I've used a 3600) you don't have WMP in your 3670 ROM, WMP8 is a good player.

Now, if it only did visualizations while playing music. Am I the only one who wonders why it doesn't do this on Pocket PC?


Christopher Spera

Ah, finally a person who agrees with me... I voted WMP for the exact same reasons.