Movement On The Media Front

[Janak Parekh]

A number of interesting announcements happened on the media player front today.

• First, Microsoft is delaying the release of Media2Go devices (which, by the way, has now been renamed to "Windows Mobile Software for Portable Media Centers") to mid-2004. In my opinion, they'd better stick to that timeframe; there's a lot of movement in the portable player front right now, and Microsoft should put effort into making sure they hit the market sooner than later.
  
• Dell released details on their music player and announced that they're partnering with MusicMatch Jukebox Downloads. I was curious to see how Jukebox's DRM works, and it's very similar to the iTunes Music Store: 3 machines may play the music at any given time, and there appear to be no other restrictions. The files are in WMA format. I wonder if these files can be played on Pocket PCs? If anyone knows, feel free to let us know.

This will certainly be a market worth watching in the next 6-12 months, as "legal" online content is finally appearing with earnest.

[Janak Parekh]

A number of interesting announcements happened on the media player front today.

• First, Microsoft is delaying the release of Media2Go devices (which, by the way, has now been renamed to "Windows Mobile Software for Portable Media Centers") to mid-2004. In my opinion, they'd better stick to that timeframe; there's a lot of movement in the portable player front right now, and Microsoft should put effort into making sure they hit the market sooner than later.
  
• Dell released details on their music player and announced that they're partnering with MusicMatch Jukebox Downloads. I was curious to see how Jukebox's DRM works, and it's very similar to the iTunes Music Store: 3 machines may play the music at any given time, and there appear to be no other restrictions. The files are in WMA format. I wonder if these files can be played on Pocket PCs? If anyone knows, feel free to let us know.

This will certainly be a market worth watching in the next 6-12 months, as "legal" online content is finally appearing with earnest.

[sparkyewu]

My only problem with the Musicmatch DRM is once you deactivate a computer it is deactived for life. I'm not a big fan of this. That is why i want an ipod and use itunes, at least there if you deactive a computer you can always reactive it, you can only just have 3 machines activated at any given time.

Just my 2-cents. :clap:

Edited: Oh and the other DRM with Musicmatch is the number of times you can burn a playlist. Same with I tunes except i think musicmatches number is 5 where an unchanged itunes playlist can be burnt 10 times.

[lgingell]

"Hey is that a Windows_Mobile_Software_for_Portable_Media_Centers _device in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?"

Jeez....I think Microsoft need to think about how they are naming all these devices - its pretty ridiculous. For example, why change PocketPC? that was such a great name, now its windows_mobile_for_who_knows_what_and_where....

now my fingers hurt from cut & pasting those long names!

..lance

[doogald]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

[*] MusicMatch Jukebox Downloads.... The files are in WMA format. I wonder if these files can be played on Pocket PCs? If anyone knows, feel free to let us know.

Yep! Though I could not copy the files from Windows Media Player (meaning that I could not resample them to 64 kbs), and though when I tried to copy to my SD card it said it could not because my SD card was not a SDMI compliant device, it did let me copy to my CF card.

[doogald]

Originally Posted by doogald

Though I could not copy the files from Windows Media Player (meaning that I could not resample them to 64 kbs)...

Dope that I am, I missed that option in MusicMatch Plus. You can, indeed, change the bitrate to 64 kbs if it was ripped at a higher rate.

MusicMatch recognizes Pocket PC as a portable device, just as WMP does.

[Abba Zabba]

Originally Posted by lgingell

"Hey is that a Windows_Mobile_Software_for_Portable_Media_Centers _device in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?"

Jeez....I think Microsoft need to think about how they are naming all these devices - its pretty ridiculous. For example, why change PocketPC? that was such a great name, now its windows_mobile_for_who_knows_what_and_where....

now my fingers hurt from cut & pasting those long names!

..lance

:rofl: Seriously what is up with MS and those long names. It's like they have to make sure they absolutly distinguish the type of device. Try to keep it down to a combo of 2 anything like Pocket PC. MS...come on :roll:

[Janak Parekh]

Originally Posted by doogald

Yep! Though I could not copy the files from Windows Media Player (meaning that I could not resample them to 64 kbs), and though when I tried to copy to my SD card it said it could not because my SD card was not a SDMI compliant device, it did let me copy to my CF card.

Cool! Thanks for letting us know. The SD card bit is weird, though. :? Do you have to use ActiveSync to copy the music over, or could you just copy the protected files using a CF/SD reader? I'd go nuts if I had to wait for ActiveSync...

--janak

[doogald]

Originally Posted by Janak Parekh

Cool! Thanks for letting us know. The SD card bit is weird, though. :? Do you have to use ActiveSync to copy the music over, or could you just copy the protected files using a CF/SD reader? I'd go nuts if I had to wait for ActiveSync...

I haven't had a chance to try it yet - but when I manually moved the file from CF to the SD card on the PPC and then tried to play it, the file disappeared.

I actually do not mind using Musicmatch or WMP with Activesync to copy the files over if they are going to change the files to 64 kbs (the song that I bought was at 162 or something like that - I'll have to check when I go back home). Musicmatch has a feature called synchronization so that you can create a playlist and it will copy over only the files that are not on the device already.

I will try copying to the CF using the reader tonight (I don't have an SD reader) and let you know unless somebody beats me to it.

Oh, I also have a support call into Viking to see why the card does not support SDMI when their web site says that it should.