Conduits' Pocket Player 2.51 Released, Now With SDK

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.conduits.com/products/player/default.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.conduits.com/products/pl...yer/default.asp</a><br /><br /></div>Last week, Conduits released a point update to their popular Pocket Player product. They've combined a bunch of small updates as well as a number of new features, including a Today plugin. What's most interesting, though, is the release of an SDK for the player.<br /><br />"Plug in! A Software Development Kit (SDK) is <a href="http://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp">now available</a> from the Pocket Player website, which includes all the necessary files and features needed to implement the four types of plugins: Decoder, Visualization, General, and DSP plugins. The interface can be extended with the use of "general" plugins that can be added to Pocket Player. With decoder plugins, media format support can be further expanded. Digital signal processing (DSP) plugins lend audio effects to the mix. Visualizations add pizazz to playback."<br /><br />There's only a few plugins available right now (such as MOD support), but this sounds like an attractive option for those of you who want an extensible featureset from your media player.

[surur]

I'm in the mood to purchase a music player. The choice is between PocketMusic and Pocket Player. They both cost the same ($19.99) and seem to have a similar feature set. Any recommendations or Unique Selling Points to either?

Surur

[Jason Patterson]

I'm in the mood to purchase a music player. The choose is between PocketMusic and Pocket Player. They both cost the same ($19.99) and seem to have a similar feature set. Any recommendations or Unique Selling Points to either?


Surur,

Thank you for the consideration. Pocket Player offers several features that aren't found elsewhere:

- Visualizations, both built-in and through a plugin system
- Gapless, variable crossfade support for all media formats (including WMA)
- Advanced input buffering, useful for power-saving for Microdrive users
- the "Local Content" playlist is always up-to-date with whatever media you have on your device or Storage Cards - this takes the hassle out of managing playlists if you don't need them.
- Plugin support for other media formats (already we have a plugin supporting MOD/XM/IT)

We would invite you to download our 30-day demo version, downloadable from our website at http://www.conduits.com/products/player/ .

Thanks!

[SHC]

I tried both PocketMusic and PocketPlayer, I bought PocketPlayer and I have to say that the support received from them was superb (Carrie Hall), thats what swayed me over. These are similar programmes but Pocket Player seems more full featured and robust. I had awful problems configuiring PocketMusic to work properly. PocketPlayer wasnt without problem (mainly because these are powerful programmes and need careful setting up) but as stated support was excellent.
regards
SHC

[Marcel_Proust]

Does pocketplayer stream broadcasted wma files like the built in player?
I wish someone would also build a better streaming .ra player. The one from real, sucks, and plays very few of the broadcasts. Is a plug in for that in the works?

[Len M.]

PDaudio News (April 19, 2004)

The latest version of Conduits' Pocket Player (version 2.51, for PDAs
running Windows Mobile 2003 and PocketPC 2002) now supports playback of 24-bit WAV files. We tested it and it seems to work fine with 24/96 WAV
files. It downsamples in real-time to 16/44.1 for playback via the
PDA's headphones.

So now, when you record high-res audio files using PDAudio, you can play them back on your PDA using Pocket Player.


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[buckyg]

Holy Smokes! That's my description of the last half hour. I've been debating about trying either PocketMusic or Pocket Player, so I thought I'd give Pocket Player a whirl.

Wow, using the equalizer does help tremendously! It makes a big difference, especially going back to WMP and playing the same song. (Okay, I'm not a big audiophile, but I know what I like) And no skips! The Today plugin is gravy, but I like gravy.

The half hour? 25 minutes was trying out the demo, trying the settings, switching back and forth between PP & WMP to see the difference, etc. I was convinced. The other 5 minutes? Purchasing it from Handango, using a discount, getting the emails about registering, sending my ID AND then receiving the registration code! Now THAT'S service!

No, I am not a shill or a plant. Just a new, satisfied customer.

[jonlien2003]

I downloaded and installed the latest version. I have a couple of questions for Jason.

Under advanced options:

1. What is 'Don't query screen power status"

2. What is "Power-on screen pre-sleep"

I could not find these info on the documentation.

Thanks.

[Jason Patterson]

Does pocketplayer stream broadcasted wma files like the built in player?
I wish someone would also build a better streaming .ra player. The one from real, sucks, and plays very few of the broadcasts. Is a plug in for that in the works?

Currently, we do not handle MMS or RTSP -based broadcasts (HTTP-streamed WMA files, and shared networked WMA files are definitely supported), though we are working on support for that in a future release. Regarding RealAudio support, that is also something we will be looking into for a future release.

[bikeman]

Terrific program. I love using the equalizer with Ogg files - the sound is so good I use my digital monitor headphones at home to listen. :D

Is this a free upgrade? :?: I did not see it mentioned on the site.

[Jason Patterson]

Under advanced options:

1. What is 'Don't query screen power status"
2. What is "Power-on screen pre-sleep"
I could not find these info on the documentation.


We're still in the process of updating our documentation to version 2.51.

The 'Don't query' function is intended to help devices that aren't turning the screen off properly. Usually this is the fault of a display driver returning an incorrect value for when we ask "is the screen on"? Normally we check for it, because some devices always turn the screen on when a button is pushed, and meanwhile Pocket Player is thinking it's off; the latter bug was fixed for 2.5, and 2.51 adds the option to not perform that check.

Power-on screen pre-sleep is another 'strange' option that we had to add to accomodate a few Pocket PC's -- turning off the device (using the Sleep timer) with the screen off, would produce erroneous results when turning the device back on (in some cases, you weren't even able to turn it back on!) -- and turning the screen back on resolves that issue, if you have a device that has the problem (a very small number).

[Jason Patterson]

Terrific program. I love using the equalizer with Ogg files - the sound is so good I use my digital monitor headphones at home to listen. :D

Is this a free upgrade? :?: I did not see it mentioned on the site.

Pocket Player 2.51 is a free upgrade for all 2.X users. Simply download and install the 2.51 trial version over your existing installation, and it will upgrade the program (it will recognize your old registration code).

[joelevi]

How does this software react to Microsoft Voice Command? When I say "Play All" will it come up in WMP or your software?

[Jason Patterson]

How does this software react to Microsoft Voice Command? When I say "Play All" will it come up in WMP or your software?

Microsoft hasn't opened up Voice Command for third parties to "hook into" or to have VC "call" other applications. We're in touch with them and will have that feature when they do support that.

[jonlien2003]

Jason,

I found a bug in 2.51.

In General Options, I selected 'Do not use a sleep timer". In Advanced Options, I checked "Disable device auto-sleep".

The way I understand it, this will not make my device automatically turn off when Pocket Player is playing even when it reaches my Pocket PC Power settings - "Turn off device if not used for '5 minutes'. However, if the playback is paused/stopped, this should turn off the device if there is no activity for 5 minutes. This is currently working as expected.

However, an interesting thing happens when the playback is paused and the device turns off by itself when there is no activity for 5 minutes while running on battery.

When I turn it back on and continue playing my music, it will automatically turn off the device in 5 minutes. It totally ignores the setting "Do not use a sleep timer" and "Disable device auto-sleep".

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Zack Mahdavi]

I must say that I love Pocket Player. I was trying to decide between Pocket Player and Pocket Music a while ago, and I ended up choosing Pocket Player.

It has a lot of features, and its shoutcast support is superb. Thanks!

[Jason Patterson]

When I turn it back on and continue playing my music, it will automatically turn off the device in 5 minutes. It totally ignores the setting "Do not use a sleep timer" and "Disable device auto-sleep".

We're not able to recreate this issue on our test devices here. Could you tell us what Pocket PC you are using, what type of media file you are using, where the media file is located (CF, SD, RAM), and what your playback settings are?

[jonlien2003]

Jason,

This bug does not occur now after I did a soft reset.

Thanks,
Jonathan