Conduits Updates Pocket Player, Pocket Artist

[Janak Parekh]

Conduits has updated not one, but two of their popular Pocket PC programs. <li> <a href="http://www.conduits.com/products/player">Pocket Player</a> is now at version 2.6. New features include playback of DRM WMA files with WMP10, skinnable Today plugin, new plugins, and bugfixes.<br /><li> <a href="http://www.conduits.com/products/artist">Pocket Artist</a> 3.1 is primarily a collection of bugfixes, but has also added early JPEG2000 support. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20050809-Conduits.jpg" /><br /><br />Previous owners of Pocket Player 2.x and Pocket Artist 3.x can simply upgrade by downloading and installing the new version over the old one.<br /><br /><b>Update:</b> Jason Patterson of Conduits writes in with the following news:<br /><div class="quote"> <span class="quote">Quote:</span> From now until September 21st, we are proudly having a Summer Sale! All Conduits products are 35% off - and we do mean ALL! Visit <a href="http://store.conduits.com/">http://store.conduits.com/</a> to place your order, and please remember to use the "summersale2005" coupon code. </div>

[Darius Wey]

I had the opportunity to beta test Pocket Player 2.6, and I was very impressed with its set of new features. For those of you after an alternative to Windows Media Player Mobile, in my opinion, Pocket Player is definitely worth a look.

[beq]

Cool, so Janus DRM songs you download from Yahoo/Rhapsody/Napster and transfer to the PPC can now be played with Pocket Player in addition to Pocket WM10...

[surur]

Does this bring Janus to WMP 9 ppc's however?

Surur

[dhpss]

My Setup:

1-On my PC: iPodder as Podcast aggregator: all Podcasts are stored under a main directory, each channel is stored under its subdirectory

2-On my PC: MobSync: to sync from that Podcast main directory to my PocketPC Storage card (the same directory structure is maintained) on my Storage card

3-On my PocketPC: Pocket Player. I can select the main directory and PPlayer automatically select also the subdirectory, a playlist is built. The best part is when listening, you can jump 10 sec (programmed with a h/w button) to skip. You can also jump from 1 Podcast to other and PPlayer bookmarks for you so when you come back you can resume where you left off. You can set turn off the screen during playback to conserve power, etc..

I know there are more ways to do this, but my setup seems to work seamlessly and automatically. In the morning, when I leave home, all the Podcasts are there on my PocketPC.... , The old ones remain on my storage card for 2 days and will be recycled automatically as well..

[Jason Patterson]

Janak, thanks for the news mention! Also our Notes From The Inside (http://www.conduits.com/company_news.asp?nfti20050809.html) mentions:

SALE! SALE! SALE! From now until September 21st, we are proudly having a Summer Sale! All Conduits products are 35% off - and we do mean ALL! Visit http://store.conduits.com/ to place your order, and please remember to use the "summersale2005" coupon code. Now that's hot!

Just FYI.

To answer some questions:

Surur: Unfortunately, you need a WMP10 Mobile device for Pocket Player to play back DRM tracks. Also, if you do have WMP10 Mobile, you don't need to install the large WMA support package like other devices.

Dhpss: You might want to try our new dsp_stretch plugin, which can speed up playback of podcasts without altering the pitch of the voices. It's available from our Plugins page (http://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp).

[Janak Parekh]

Janak, thanks for the news mention! Also our Notes From The Inside (http://www.conduits.com/company_news.asp?nfti20050809.html) mentions:
Updated the frontpage post. :)

--janak

[dhpss]

Janak, thanks for the news mention! Also our Notes From The Inside (http://www.conduits.com/company_news.asp?nfti20050809.html) mentions:...

Dhpss: You might want to try our new dsp_stretch plugin, which can speed up playback of podcasts without altering the pitch of the voices. It's available from our Plugins page (http://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp).

I download the plugin and copy to Pocket Player directory, but when I go to Option-Plugins, it did not show up. Could you help, also, how to use this exactly?

[Jason Patterson]

DSP plugins show up in Options > DSP, where you configure them. Go there, and select the Stretch plugin, and you can increase or decrease the playback speed.

Also, note that in 2.6, if you hold down the Next button, it will fast-forward through the current track.

[dhpss]

DSP plugins show up in Options > DSP, where you configure them. Go there, and select the Stretch plugin, and you can increase or decrease the playback speed.

Also, note that in 2.6, if you hold down the Next button, it will fast-forward through the current track.

Thank you Jason!, DSP works. (It would be nice to be able to map this to a hardware button, without going thru several taps :-)

The next button hold to fast forward does not seem to work for me. It jumps to next track as soon as I release.

[Jason Patterson]

In Options > Buttons, is the name of the command you have mapped "Next (Hold to Fast Forward)"? Pressing and holding that button should fast forward (essentially it will jump ahead in the track a couple times a second), and when you release the button, it should not advance to the next track.

[dhpss]

In Options > Buttons, is the name of the command you have mapped "Next (Hold to Fast Forward)"? Pressing and holding that button should fast forward (essentially it will jump ahead in the track a couple times a second), and when you release the button, it should not advance to the next track.

I am running 2.6 Beta, I do not have that function "Next (Hold to Fast Forward)". Perhaps I should re-install the official 2.6?

[Jason Patterson]

That's explains it: some small features (and bugfixes) were added between the last beta and the final release. Download the final 2.6 version and it should work.

[dhpss]

That did it!
Thanks Jason!.

[Marcel_Proust]

I've always thought this was the best sounding player. Most people don't notice the sound differences for their music, the mass market even thinks iPods sound good over iRiver and xAudios and such. This player sounds most like my iriver. One problem I've always had with it is high processor and memory overhead. I would guess it's even higher with the new dsps?

[Jason Patterson]

Thanks for the great comments.

We actually re-optimized our equalizer (and carried our optimizations over to the DSPs) again for 2.6, which reduces CPU usage to less than half of version 2.52's equalizer.

[wocket]

Woo Hoo! I nearly ordered pocket player the other night as I needed a player with bookmarking (brushing up on my French). But now with the sale i've ended up ordering both pocket player and pocket slides.


Quality stuff Conduits!

My damn cradle is in work 8O

[q-live]

I've always thought this was the best sounding player. Most people don't notice the sound differences for their music, the mass market even thinks iPods sound good over iRiver and xAudios and such. This player sounds most like my iriver. One problem I've always had with it is high processor and memory overhead. I would guess it's even higher with the new dsps?


i thought it was me but i have 2.3 and notice my mp3's do sound a little louder than wm thats built in....

My question is has anyone tried the bluetooth featcher yet..... i want to make it works good before i put down any more money..... also if anyone trys it with the logictech freedom headset let me know

[Jason Patterson]

q-live: There never was a version 2.3 of Pocket Player. Version 2.6 is a free upgrade for 2.x customers though. Are you asking about our support for the HP Bluetooth Headphones? We've heard many people having it work pretty well so far.

[johnm]

Jason,

I assumed from the feature list that the hardware buttons of my HP bluethooth headset would now work, but they don't Is there something extra I need to do to make this work?

[Jason Patterson]

jonhm,

The headphone support is a separate plugin that you do need to download from ttp://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp.

You'll also want to make sure you have the latest version of the Bluetooth profile on your Pocket PC, which HP has available from http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/22475.html.

[johnm]

Thanks, I'll try it out.

[q-live]

jonhm,

The headphone support is a separate plugin that you do need to download from ttp://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp.

You'll also want to make sure you have the latest version of the Bluetooth profile on your Pocket PC, which HP has available from http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/22475.html.

well that link isnt working right now also can i use the dl with the current version i have now or will i have to upload to the 2.6 version

[Jason Patterson]

q-live: Sorry, that link should have read http://www.conduits.com/products/player/sdk.asp. You do need Pocket Player 2.6 as well.