MP3 player to maximize battery life?

[Marauder]

Is there an MP3 progam out there that's better than Windows Media player for the Pocket PC? Specifically, I'm wondering if there's a progam that would let you turn off your screen completely while still listening to your MP3s. That would be a nice feature.

Also, are there any that are more processor efficient? It'd be nice to listen to MP3s while doing something else, and not have to worry as much about battery life. Thanks.

[rob hulett]

You can turn off the screen in windows media by hitting tools, settings, buttons. then you can map a button to turn off the screen only when using the media player

[Kati Compton]

I think it's easier in Pocket DivX.

[Seraph1024]

Use withMP3

[Pony99CA]

Is there an MP3 progam out there that's better than Windows Media player for the Pocket PC? Specifically, I'm wondering if there's a progam that would let you turn off your screen completely while still listening to your MP3s. That would be a nice feature.

Rob gave you most of the answer, but didn't completely specify the final step. After selecting Tools/Settings/Buttons, select Screen Toggle in the Select Function drop-down list, then click the button you want to toggle the screen on and off.


Also, are there any that are more processor efficient? It'd be nice to listen to MP3s while doing something else, and not have to worry as much about battery life.

Is there anything that leads you to believe that Windows Media Player is inefficient? The only way to test this would be to play the same playlist under various media players until the batteries died. Has anybody seen that kind of test?

To be as accurate as possible, you probably should say what Pocket PC you have.

Steve

[Marauder]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm glad I finally know how to turn off the screen to play MP3s.

As for processor efficiency, I wasn't really sure if Media Player was good or bad... I guess I just figured that a 3rd party software company would make a good MP3 player for Pocket PC. A battery test against various programs would be a good idea to test power consumption. Do most people use media player anyway?

[Seraph1024]

I guess I just figured that a 3rd party software company would make a good MP3 player for Pocket PC.
...
Do most people use media player anyway?

I use the 3rd party app withMP3 for MP3 playing. That is because when I try to listen a huge audio book (200MB) I find that pocket divx and pocket WMP can not scroll to the middle of the book where I left it. Otherwise, it is good.

I use media play as well. usually when I am about to fall asleep. I plug in my network card and start a windows media server on one of my servers. Watch what ever as it streams it to the PPC (and the rest of the world).

Lwin

[Janak Parekh]

Is there anything that leads you to believe that Windows Media Player is inefficient? The only way to test this would be to play the same playlist under various media players until the batteries died. Has anybody seen that kind of test?

To be as accurate as possible, you probably should say what Pocket PC you have.
Windows Media Player is inefficient in playing MP3's. It eats up large amounts of the CPU as per my experience (at least, versions <= 8.0 on a 3870). PocketDivX and iPlay actually use less battery playing the same amount of music. It's not going to be a monstrous difference if it's a solid-state CF card, mind you, but it's definitely noticeable. Especially if you try to multitask... worse, though, is WMP's inability to gauge the time of VBR MP3's correctly -- that's a deal-killer for me.

I have to try out WMP 8.5 though. Haven't had a chance to install EUU3 yet... and I use iPlay+Ogg now.

--bdj

[Jeff Rutledge]

Use withMP3

What's the URL for withMP3?

[Janak Parekh]

Google sez:

http://www.citsoft.net/product.asp?lang=ENG&menu=S

--bdj

[szamot]

I found that withMP3 is good except with my X5 I seem to lose all the info for my tracks. It worked fine with my iPAQ - this is rather annoying so I use WMP and that works flawlessly, even though I like the former much better from the looks and quality perspective.

[Janak Parekh]

I found that withMP3 is good except with my X5 I seem to lose all the info for my tracks. It worked fine with my iPAQ - this is rather annoying so I use WMP and that works flawlessly, even though I like the former much better from the looks and quality perspective.
Have you emailed the withMP3 folks? Seems like they need to test it against the new batch of PPC's...

--bdj