Pocket Tunes is great on TH55

[andrewcoffin]

I've converted to Pocket Tunes. The latest version 2.3.1 is very impressive, and looks, sounds and functions very well on the TH55. Its features are far superior to the built in Sony player, and beat out Aeroplayer as well, I think (I also own Aeroplayer).

Shoutcast streaming works surprising well too. I thought this feature was a joke at first, but the TH55's great battery life actually makes streaming music a realistic option.

I love the iTunes skin as well (it's the only skin for the Clie that I've ever paid for)....

www.pocket-tunes.com

http://www.palmfocus.com/ptskindetails.asp?skin_id=18

www.shoutcast.com

[Griff]

Anyone know if you can trial the streaming before buying?

[jumpyg]

What do you like so much about it? I'm pretty happy with the Sony program, but would like to know what I'm missing.

[rlc7254]

Originally posted by Griff
Anyone know if you can trial the streaming before buying?

You can download a trial version, but it doesn't say if it supports that function or not. There is a basic and a deluxe version as well, but which one is the trial again it doesn't say on their website.

 :D

[Griff]

OK, I just downloaded the Deluxe trial from PalmGear (http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&prodID=51196) and this program rocks!

I can't say anything for the MP3 playback...and I haven't used many of the features, but the shoutcast streaming works like a charm. 

I'm sitting here doing a half hour test.  My battery was at 90% before I went to hold while streaming from shoutcast.  At 10 after I'll take it off hold and see what sort of drain was put on the battery.

[Griff]

OK, the results of my quick half hour test.  Looks like it ate up about 10% of my battery.  I was at 90% now I'm at 80%. 

For the record I have my wi-fi set to powersave and I was playing a 128bit stream.  The stream sounded great.  Oh, I also had the '55 on hold, so no screen use.

So I'd estimate at least a couple hours if I had the screen on a low backlight in a Starbuck's or something.

[ignar]

PocketTunes can play OGG files and streamed music. Also it can play most (all?) MP3 files not like Sony's player. I found music encoded in 64Kbps bit rate OGG sounds just fine, and it takes a lot less memory space.

[threengs]

What's the difference between the basic and deluxe versions?

[Unregistered]

Streaming internet radio is the only diffrence between delux and basic.. and I have to say its awesome to listen to my favorite songs while surfing the net on the th555, like right now. Lately mycomputer has became unsable so been using the thto replace it.

[bigneeker]

can the hardware buttons be mapped in the new pockettunes?
i have the old version and it doesnt seem to support hardware button mapping.
i would like to do this because it is annoying to always take out the stylus and hit the screen to change a track or fast forward.

[rldunn]

Wow, Shoutcast sounds great. I can access Shoutcast on my Tivo, and I really like some of their channels. It definitely would be cool to listen to on my Clie. Now I just need to decide if I would do it often enough to justify $25.

[CMC]

Can it handle VBR mp3 files. If so..it'd be cool!

[rldunn]

Uh oh, I decided to try this out, and now I don't think I'll be able to avoid buying this one. That Shoutcast thing is seriously cool!! It sounds incredible and actually wasn't hard to set up at all once I figured out which URL I was supposed to be using. Very nice!! I almost think this is worth $50!!

[andrewcoffin]

I highly recommend the iTunes skin too--not just for the looks, either. To me, the controls seem much more intuitive with this skin...

[contempt]

Wow, now you guys made me curious. I wasn't going to give in testing it out, especially not with a $50 price tag. That's quite pricey. Grrrrrr, I hope I don't like it as much as you guys after playing with it. This things getting pricier and pricier :)

[ssulux]

yeah pocket tunes rocks.

[andrewcoffin]

It's $25 for the Deluxe version, not $50...

[rldunn]

Yeah, I said it's WORTH $50. Luckily, they only charge $25 :)

[contempt]

Thanks for the price clarification. If I pay for it, I'd definitely buy the iTunes skin.

Is there any way (or other hacks) to map the jog dial to scroll the playlist instead of controlling the volume? Also, for the right/left arrows to acts as rev/fwd? I really like the background play option since the TH doesn't have the headphone remote. Makes it convenient.

[contempt]

Hey rldunn, congrats on passing that 4000 posts mark!!!

[rldunn]

Originally posted by contempt
Thanks for the price clarification. If I pay for it, I'd definitely buy the iTunes skin.

Is there any way (or other hacks) to map the jog dial to scroll the playlist instead of controlling the volume? Also, for the right/left arrows to acts as rev/fwd? I really like the background play option since the TH doesn't have the headphone remote. Makes it convenient. I did have problems with the background play when I went into ClieMail. As soon as I would launch ClieMail, I would get a fatal exception. Strange. This was while I was listening to Shoutcast, so I thought maybe it was a Wifi thing (even though it literally happened as soon as I opened the app, so I wasn't trying to connect with my email server or anything), but I tested background play with NF and it worked just fine.

It was pretty cool to be able to surf on NF while listing to Shoutcast music with PT, all on a Clie!!

[ignar]

Originally posted by contempt
Thanks for the price clarification. If I pay for it, I'd definitely buy the iTunes skin.

iTunes Skin is free. ;)

[ssulux]

you should buy the iTunes skin 4.v31.
only version before 31 (such as iTunes 4v24) is free.
anyway, v31 is nice skin so i bought it already.

[andrewcoffin]

Maybe you all know this already, but I discovered something pretty "neat" last night...

I had been manually entering ShoutCast stream addresses into PocketTunes to create knew channels. However, I tried surfing to ShoutCast in NetFront, and clicking on button to play a stream. NetFront opened a new window, asking something like whether I'd like to save the file. I said yes...

So then I opened PocketTunes, went to the ShoutCast selection menu...and there was the new stream!

Amazing, if you ask me...

[ignar]

Yep, that's pretty neat. I also have a Treo 600 and streaming virtually anywhere is simply amazing.

I wonder if there anyway to maintain Wifi connection even after I close NetFront or ClieMail.

[PCMaven]

Originally posted by CMC
Can it handle VBR mp3 files. If so..it'd be cool! Pocket Tunes handles VBR just fine...:)

[rlc7254]

Originally posted by threengs
What's the difference between the basic and deluxe versions?

The deluxe can't play streaming internet for one thing. There is a chart on the PocketTunes webpage www.pocketunes.com (http://www.pocketunes.com/) that has the differnces.

 :D

[Griff]

Originally posted by andrewcoffin
Maybe you all know this already, but I discovered something pretty "neat" last night...

I had been manually entering ShoutCast stream addresses into PocketTunes to create knew channels. However, I tried surfing to ShoutCast in NetFront, and clicking on button to play a stream. NetFront opened a new window, asking something like whether I'd like to save the file. I said yes...

So then I opened PocketTunes, went to the ShoutCast selection menu...and there was the new stream!

Amazing, if you ask me...

When I discovered the same thing last night pocket tunes began playing the stream in the background...didn't even have to leave netfront.

[contempt]

What am I doing wrong? I can't get PocketTunes to play Shoutcast. I read the instructions and it seems like I don't have to do anything, but I guess I'm wrong.

In Netfront, I got to Shoutcast and click on 'tune in' I get the dialog box that says "Start application? Tap [open] to exit from NetFront and start it." So I click on Open. I get another quick dialog box stating 'transferring...' then another confirmation dialog stating "Download complete" and then nothing. It doesn't switch apps and nothing plays. What am I doing wrong?

[bigneeker]

contempt: i am having the same problem as you. it says transferring and download complete and then nothing happens. i am also using the th55, i am thinking that it might be a th55 specific problem.

does anyone have any idea on why this is happening?

[CMC]

same here!!!

[jhintonh]

Good Evening-

I too am striking out. Despite this and my other post regarding an inability to effect a WiFi Hotsync, I assure you that I am no gadget novice. Something smells putrid here. This ShoutCast thing sounds right up my alley and it is indeed frustrating to not succeed.

-Jhintonh

[jumpyg]

I can't get it to work, either. I've tried to use "Open" and "Save" when choosing a Shoutcast stream from within Netfront, but nothing happens. I looked on my MS, but it doesn't look like it saved anything.

Sounds cool, but I wouldn't know at this point. :rolleyes:

[Icthus]

This happened to me as well. I went back into Pocket Tunes and went to Actions -> Open then selected New. Where it says Enter URL: http://216.66.69.100:5118 which is the server I wanted to listen to. I listen to this station on my PC in Winamp, and so I opened it in Winamp, right clicked, and selected View File info. It had the address listed, so I put that address in Pocket Tunes, and it works great. Not quite what was mentioned above, but it works.

[jhintonh]

Good Evening-

Icthus, thanks for the tip...it sounds like it would work. But I already uninstalled PocketTunes. Not worth the hassles.

jumpyg, I solved my WiFi Hotsync issue finally. With help from a post on the UX forum. Just FYI.

-Jhintonh

[rldunn]

It's not working for me tonight either. Actually, it hasn't worked all day today. I even saved a bunch of channels yesterday, and all it keeps saying is that it can't connect. After seeing this thread, I tried the NF shortcut method and struck out like the rest of you :( Glad I haven't paid for this yet!! Trust me, it worked last night and was very cool :)

[jumpyg]

Thanks for the info--at least I know it's not something I'm doing wrong. I'll have to try again tomorrow. I've listened to internet radio stations quite a bit on my desktop, so this would be a sweet feature.

[Icthus]

When I select the Tune In thing on my PC it isn't working either. I have to navigate to whatever the site is and choose whatever "listen live" link they have.
....
This got me thinking, so I went to the shockwave web site in Netfront, searched for what I wanted to hear, clicked on the website's name to get to teh website an dclicked on their listen live link, just like on teh PC, and it opened and worked. It appears that the problem is with the shockwave website itself.

[CMC]

Hope there's a fix from PT for TH soon!

[cosFFM]

Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:19:05 -0500 From: xx@normsoft.com

> since today, the latest version 2.3.2 doesn,t save and play
> the shoutcast
> URLs to the playlistlist anymore after I clicked the Tune in! button.
> But it shows a sucessfull saving in my Webbrowser of my Palm T3.
> What may be wrong?

It's not a problem with Pocket Tunes (phew!). There appears to be a
problem with www.shoutcast.com . It is sending back empty PLS files
when you click on "Tune In". TreoBits also uses the ShoutCast servers
to get the PLS files, so it is not working either.

Hopefully they will fix this quickly.

Here's a thread on their discussion forums about this problem:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=171280

In the meantime, Digitally Imported's streams seem to be working fine.
http://www.di.fm/

Take care,
NormSoft, Inc.



I just read this in the PT Yahoo group. Seems to be your problem, doesn`t it?

[jumpyg]

Can someone explain how this works? I just went to digitally imported's site and clicked on the 96k winamp stream (pls file) next to the trance station. Then I chose the option to open the stream. A dialog cam up and said download complete, but it froze. Had to do a soft reset. After the reset, I went into Pocket Tunes and it gave me a message that Pocket Tunes crashed, etc. So it appears after I downloaded the pls file in Netfront, it tried to load PT, but crashed.

I then tried a 24k stream, and crasho again. Unless it takes a really long time to load the stream?

Anybody else get it to work?

I still don't know what the difference is between open and save. I take it open will immediately start the stream, but save will save a small file so I can stream it later. But where is the file saved, how to bring it up in PT, etc?

[cosFFM]

Ok, just tried www.di.fm myself. I clicked on the 24kbps winamp stream and chose Open. Then NF downloads the pls-file. After that a window popped up asking if I wanted to accept that stream into PocketTunes.

Then I switched to PT and the stream was saved under my Shoutcast directory but I can`t connect to that stream or any others either. I haven`t checked the winamp link mentioned in the email from NormSoft but it appears to be a Shoutcast problem.

Until that is solved you can have a little fun and set up your own little Shoutcast station with winamp :) Then you can listen to your own music library until the problem is solved.

This also is a very nice feature I think.

[rldunn]

Chris, thanks for the update. Glad to know it's not PocketTunes, but it's probably bad timing for them as a lot of people would like to evaluate it now on the TH.

[cnycompguy]

definatly buying it as well, i love it, shoutcast rocks

[jhintonh]

Good Evening-

I just downloaded the latest version of PT (2.3.2 I think). I installed it on my TH55 and connected to NF. Jumped to Shoutcast and clicked "TUNE IN" next to a classical channel that I enjoy. Seconds later, it worked perfectly.

Pleasantly surprised with the app now. Satisfied enough that I just came from PalmGear with a purchased copy of PT Deluxe.

Thanks for the information on this thread everybody.

-Jhintonh

[Tarugo]

I havent had the chance to try shoutcast before. i do want to stream my mp3 collection from my pc over my network to the clie. is this possible?

[timepilot84]

It does work when you get a good link, folks. It works just fine. In fact, last night I wanted to see how long the battery would last listening to streamed content, so I unplugged and went to www.di.fm and fired up one of their 96kbps streams and listened for over 4 hours (in hold mode). My battery was only a little under 50% by the time I was finished.

FYI the sound quality is WAY better than the Tungsten T was.

[Tarugo]

Well, finally figured out how to run a shoutcast server over my LAN and stream my MP3's in my computer throughout the house. Hopefully it will work when I get my TH55.

[contempt]

It looks like ShoutCast fixed its server and this things works great!!! So great that I did give in and purchase it along with the iTunes skin. That new iTunes skin is really incredible. Anyway, thanks to those who highlighted this feature and this great app. One more reason to have wi-fi.

[jhintonh]

Good Morning-

I just bought the iTunes skin...very nice. I second "contempt's" thanks for the informaiton on this thread. I am really enjoying the Shoutcast streams over my TH.

-Jhintonh

[rldunn]

It's working again on mine too!! Now that it's working, I need to see if it will work from my work Wifi network (they lock down some sites). If so, I'll be purchasing PT on Monday!!

[bigneeker]

its working but not very well. it opens up and starts playing but 2 seconds into it starts buffering and then playing again. it keeps on going in and out of buffering/connecting. i cannot listen to anything because it is unbearable to have the music stop every 5 seconds. i am using a good connection so it shouldnt be happening.
does anyone know why this is happening?

thanks

[cosFFM]

What version of Pocket Tunes are you using? I had the same problems with a beta two weeks ago. I reverted back to 2.2.1 which works perfectly for me. I believe 2.2.3 is already out but I haven`t tried that yet.

[jhintonh]

Good Morning-
The latest version of PT is actually 2.3.2.
-Jhintonh

[rldunn]

Originally posted by bigneeker
its working but not very well. it opens up and starts playing but 2 seconds into it starts buffering and then playing again. it keeps on going in and out of buffering/connecting. i cannot listen to anything because it is unbearable to have the music stop every 5 seconds. i am using a good connection so it shouldnt be happening.
does anyone know why this is happening?

thanks This is exactly what's been happening to me, and that's when I can connect at all. Is anyone NOT having problems using the Shoutcast streams on the TH?

[LeggNet]

Originally posted by rldunn
This is exactly what's been happening to me, and that's when I can connect at all. Is anyone NOT having problems using the Shoutcast streams on the TH? It appears to me that it does the 'buffering' on higher bitrate streams.  The lower bitrate mono streams work well.

Cheers, Rich

[jumpyg]

Well, I finally got Shoutcast to work, for about 5 seconds.

I still can't open a stream from within Netfront--it crashes every time I try. It apparently does save the file before crashing, though. I found several pls files on my memory stick. I opened one with PT and was excited to hear it play for like 5 seconds, Then it said buffering, came back on for a couple seconds, then fatal exception.

I don't think I'll be paying for application. It's crashed my TH55 more times than all other apps combined have crashed my TH and my old S320. Palm OS is very stable, but this app is a nightmare.

[andrewcoffin]

I still haven't had any crashes at all, and very little problem with buffering. Most of the time buffering is related to the steam itself, I think.

However, I do believe that PocketTunes is limited to lower bitrate streams. Pick streams recommended for modem connections (64 or 96), and they work fine in my experience...

[SonySTINKS]

I have had this problem with my Wife's Clie SJ-33 and it seems to be the same on the TH55. I find that no matter the audio application it seems that the Clie just doesn't pump out much volume. I am not looking to blow out my ears and I certainly don't expect great power. However, when on a metro ( I live in DC) the noise from the train and the people make it so difficult to hear. I didn't have this problem with PPC Ipaq. Am I doing somethign wrong? Any one else have this issue? I know I am not going deaf. My wife was so frustrated with trying to hear the thing that she gave me her memory sticks (that is why she bought them) and said forget it.

[PCMaven]

Can't speak for the SJ33 but I can say that I've never had that problem with either my T-665 or my TH55. Maybe it's a function of the headphones/earbuds you're using? I listen on NYC subways and on NJ Transit trains and have not problems hearing whatsoever...
I do know that Pocket Tunes has an option to multiply the volume by 2 or 3x...Maybe that would help?

[jumpyg]

Well, I finally got PT to work with 24 and 64 kbps streams. However, it is still far from working well.

When I "Save" a stream, I can see a file in /Palm/Programs/MsFiles using ClieFiles, but I can't get PT to see them--the folder is just empty from within PT.

When I "Open" a stream, the TH55 crashes--every single time. However, after resetting, I can go into PT and open up the stream I was attempting to open, so I guess it was saved before the crash.

I also got a fatal exception when I was listening to a stream and then turned off the Clie without disconnecting from the network. When I turned it back on, PT attempted to connect to the network. When I tried to hit the "Home" button to exit, it wouldn't let me. It kept trying to connect and then crashed completely.

Another thing: there doesn't seem to be a way to bring up the input area for entering a stream name. I have to exit PT, bring up decuma, then load PT again. :confused:

[rldunn]

jumpyg, I've never had a problem with bringing up the VG area - maybe it's the skin you're using. I've done it with the Basic skin, the better skin that comes with PT, and also the iTunes skin that was recommended in this thread.

However, your other problems sound very familiar. I've had so many fatal exceptions with this app, and when it's not doing that, it's trying to Reconnect, and when it finally connects, it's Buffering. It's only happened a few times where I've actually gotten the stream I wanted and it played fine for a long period of time. And this is on the same wireless network and same Shoutcast channels that my Tivo has almost NEVER had a problem with (and when it does, which is rare, it's always because that Shoutcast channel is down, so not really a connection issue). So, it really seems like a PT issue. Not to be too harsh on the developers, since I'm amazed it works at all, even if it's not very good yet. I really wish I had just waited until the kinks had been worked out before I spent $30 on the app and the skin.

If you keep trying it, one bit of advice is to just skip the whole Netfront thing for loading channels. I've been real frustrated trying to get that to work. The best method I've found is to sit at a PC with Shoutcast open, hold my cursor over the tune in button and note the URL at the bottom. I then enter this URL once (which is painful - wish PT would just let you enter the RN number and fill in the rest for you), then copy it and put it in a memo (for future adding). Then from within PT, I open the playlist section, make sure I'm looking at Shoutcast, hit new, then past the URL in and edit the RN number. Works good at times it can connect OK.

[jumpyg]

jumpyg, I've never had a problem with bringing up the VG area
Hmm, I'm using the metal skin that comes with it. When I start PT with VG "down," the "up" arrow in the bottom right corner is shaded out, so it can't be selected. Is there another way to bring VG "up"?

I gave up on Netfront, too.

I've been using this method, which involves no decuma, which is a good thing. I'm using Netscape 7.1.

I bring up the web site with the streams on my PC.
Right-click on a link to a stream
Choose "Copy Link Location" ("copy shortcut" in IE)
Paste link into memo pad on Clie Desktop.
Sync
Go to memo on TH and copy a link
Open PT and select the open button
Select New
Paste stream

Kind of a lot of steps, but quicker in my opinion than inputting it on the clie, especially if I do 3-4 streams at a time. Unfortunately, I then have to rename the link which requires using decuma. It is also an extra step. It would be really nice to be able to paste in the stream address and name all at once. The names they give you from the server are often not very helpful.

I now have the Jazz station going and it hasn't buffered at all--going for about 10 minutes now.

[benendog]

Anyone can turn off the power or even turn off the screen while ptune is playing music on the TH55? When I select the option in the manu, it tells me "ptune can not turn off the power on this device."I could only turn off the backlight and I think it takes too much power to left the entire system on during music.

[rldunn]

Just put the device on Hold while the music is playing.

[Nevileon]

I had two q's about PT:

Is PT supposed to take up alot of processing power? I can't play bejewelled and MP3's using PT at the same time on my TH 55(well, I can, but bejewelled runs agaonizingly slow), while the included sony audioplayer, while crappy, still lets BJ play at regular speed. (Too bad it doesn't play my VBR mp3's... *sigh*).

2nd: Has anybody else had problems getting the buttons to work right with PT and the TH55? For some reason, the left and right buttons increase and decrease my volume respectively, along with the jog dial (no matter what the 5 way axis options is set to).

[stephen007]

Originally posted by Nevileon
Is PT supposed to take up alot of processing power? I can't play bejewelled and MP3's using PT at the same time on my TH 55(well, I can, but bejewelled runs agaonizingly slow), while the included sony audioplayer, while crappy, still lets BJ play at regular speed. (Too bad it doesn't play my VBR mp3's... *sigh*).
The difference is that PT uses the main CPU to do all the processing necessary. The Sony MP3 player is able to offload the processing to their (special/extra) multimedia DSP chip, hence making Bejewed faster since the CPU is available more. PT cannot take advantage of that extra chip because Sony hasn't realeased the API for it (I think).

I hear you on the VBRs! I am SOOO happy third party players now play VBR & low bit-rates!

Stephen

[PCMaven]

In addition I just found that PT also plays MP3 PRO files. That should save about 1/2 the space of regular MP3s whether they are VBR or fixed. With the new 512MB card I just got I should be able to fit quite a bit of music on it if I convert my files to MP3 Pro VBR. :) Seems to be worth the multitasking sacrifice to me...

[Nevileon]

I hope that sometime Sony decides to share its hardware goodies... either that, or support VBR's... Right now I've got 2 separate playlists... one for bejewelled <grin> and one for when I'm just reading.

[Atomic Chicken]

Greetings, Tarugo!

Originally posted by Tarugo
I havent had the chance to try shoutcast before. i do want to stream my mp3 collection from my pc over my network to the clie. is this possible?

Yes - this is VERY possible. I am doing this as I type this. I posted some details here, on page 3 of my TH-55 review thread:

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44372&perpage=15&pagenumber=3

Go to the 5th post down on the page, you'll see my PocketTunes with ShoutCast streaming MP3 review. I have had ZERO problems with this once I got it set up right, I am broadcasting my entire MP3 collection (approx. 3,400 songs) full time 24/7 from my WiFi router now. :D

Best wishes,
Bawko

[TreoRenegade]

Heads up re Pocket Tunes Deluxe. Just noticed-- PalmGear is running a special until March 17th on the Deluxe version. $19.95 instead of the usual $24.95. Click the "specials" tab on PG's home page.

[rldunn]

Sounds like a good deal. I think I'm back in the camp of PT being a great app. I'm planning on using it almost exclusively for Shoutcast streams, and if I choose some that require less bandwidth, PT works great. Tonight when I did dishes, it was cool to be able to listen to Shoutcast!!

[1ns4nity]

How many hours can u guys play Mp3s on the TH-55 using PT? Supposedly using sony's player, the TH-55 can last 20 hours!!!

[krypticide]

Is it just me, or even with powersave off, 128 kbps streams get dropped? Unfortunately, I'm used to high quality music that 192 kbps is minimum for me, and that drops every 2 seconds. Anyone else have better luck?

[Atomic Chicken]

krypticide,

It is not just you. I have set up a Shoutcast server on my WiFi network, so I can control what songs are being played, the bitrate, etc. and I have found that 128K causes buffering too.

Happily, however, Sony just released a WiFi patch that speeds up the WiFi and allows 128K to play without problems! The thread is here:

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44764&pagenumber=1

I have been working with this update since last night, and so far it plays the 128K streams just fine. Still no 160K or higher, though :(

Best wishes,
Bawko

[cnycompguy]

here's a link to my first attempt at a skin for pocket tunes,
http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44879

thanks

[cnycompguy]

Here's the thread for my 2nd Skin for Pocket tunes,
called PT2 Inspired by Sony PS2
http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44941

Enjoy!!

[tgoulart]

Originally posted by Atomic Chicken
Greetings, Tarugo!



Yes - this is VERY possible. I am doing this as I type this. I posted some details here, on page 3 of my TH-55 review thread:

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44372&perpage=15&pagenumber=3

Go to the 5th post down on the page, you'll see my PocketTunes with ShoutCast streaming MP3 review. I have had ZERO problems with this once I got it set up right, I am broadcasting my entire MP3 collection (approx. 3,400 songs) full time 24/7 from my WiFi router now. :D

Best wishes,
Bawko

What do you use to rip the MP3's? With that many, I assume you worry anout space.

[Atomic Chicken]

tgoulart,

I use CDex. It is freeware, and uses the world acclaimed "LAME" MP3 encoder. You can download it here:

http://www.cdex.n3.net/

Truly AWESOME software, you can set any options for MP3 output you want - including bitrate, VBR, quality mode, true vs. combined stereo, etc. It automatically finds the titles of all the songs on the CD you are ripping over the internet using CDDB.

As for the space, I'm not worried about that at all. I have ripped my entire CD collection in 192K CBR MP3 format, and stored the resulting files on several DVD-ROMs. I keep the files on my main server machine, which has a 160GB hard disk. My entire collection takes up about 30GB on this drive, which leaves LOTS of room for future expansion :D

Best wishes,
Bawko

[girondins]

Do you know if there is any way (for instance via specific hacks) to map the jog dial to scroll the playlist instead of controlling the volume? Also, iis there any way for the right/left arrows to acts as rev/fwd?

[qUBus]

isn't there a possibility to listen to mp3 from a remote drive? instead of doing that complicated streaming deal? palying the files from another computer (server) ?

anyone did some research on that?

[Atomic Chicken]

qUBus,

If I understand your question, then the answer is no - no way yet.
If you are trying to play MP3 files that are on a hard disk on your computer, then Shoutcast streaming is what you want. The computer "becomes" the server after you install the Shoutcast server software and Winamp player.

Once you set the streaming up, it is really good - gives you a lot of options (like downsampling MP3 files on the fly as it streams them!) that just "playing a remote MP3" wouldn't give you. Put in the work to set up Shoutcast streaming - you won't regret it.

Best wishes,
Bawko

[Unregistered]

It's a pity we can't cross an MP3 player with SMBmate and play MP3s off a remote shared drive...

[cnycompguy]

how true
i dont really want just a stream of mp3's from winamp, i'd also like to be able to change songs/albums on the fly, without several instances of winamp and shoutcast running per album on repeat.
i may be doin something wrong with that, i only played with the program for about an hour, but i just dont see the same functionality as being able to choose exactly what is playing at any given moment (remotely)

[qUBus]

Originally posted by Atomic Chicken
qUBus,
Once you set the streaming up, it is really good - gives you a lot of options (like downsampling MP3 files on the fly as it streams them!) that just "playing a remote MP3" wouldn't give you. Put in the work to set up Shoutcast streaming - you won't regret it.


well see... that is what I have a problem with: the downsampling part of the whole deal, you gotta know I like listening to music that has a lot of bass and high tones. already a 128kb/s track sound really bad to me. I usually listen to 192kb/s and for me the difference in quality between those two bitrates is great!

but I guess since there is no other way... I would have to go with that or just simply copy the songs to the MS before playing them on the clie, seems to me that the battery life would be better that way anyways..

but thanks Bwako!
I learn something every day when I read your posts :)

[qUBus]

Originally posted by cnycompguy
how true
i dont really want just a stream of mp3's from winamp, i'd also like to be able to change songs/albums on the fly, without several instances of winamp and shoutcast running per album on repeat.
i may be doin something wrong with that, i only played with the program for about an hour, but i just dont see the same functionality as being able to choose exactly what is playing at any given moment (remotely)

u can use palmVNC for that ..
only that the response time (as mentioned before in this thread) is going to be about 10s

[cosFFM]

Originally posted by cnycompguy
how true
i dont really want just a stream of mp3's from winamp, i'd also like to be able to change songs/albums on the fly, without several instances of winamp and shoutcast running per album on repeat.
i may be doin something wrong with that, i only played with the program for about an hour, but i just dont see the same functionality as being able to choose exactly what is playing at any given moment (remotely)

If you use the Winamp plugin "Browseamp" you can control the playlists played on winamp through your browser. You can do this with your Clie and Netfront. This way you can control the music streamed through your shoutcast stream. No multiple instances needed.

[Atomic Chicken]

Originally posted by qUBus


well see... that is what I have a problem with: the downsampling part of the whole deal, you gotta know I like listening to music that has a lot of bass and high tones. already a 128kb/s track sound really bad to me. I usually listen to 192kb/s and for me the difference in quality between those two bitrates is great!

but I guess since there is no other way... I would have to go with that or just simply copy the songs to the MS before playing them on the clie, seems to me that the battery life would be better that way anyways..

but thanks Bwako!
I learn something every day when I read your posts :)

qUBus,

The problem with what you are saying is that you WILL have to downsample most of your MP3 files to 112K or lower (128K or lower with the Japanese WiFi update recently posted) in order to play them over WiFi anyway - due to buffering problems. It is MUCH nicer to have the Shoutcast server downsample for you as the songs are streamed than to go in manually and convert all your MP3 files to a lower bitrate, keep 2 copies of every song, and stream the lower bitrate one through whatever software you are thinking should exist.

You are probably right about one thing - in order to do things perfectly the way you want (high bitrate and instant song change), you will need to copy your songs to memory stick. True, this will improve your battery life as well - but at what cost? You will be able to get maybe 200 songs MAXIMUM on your memory card, unless you are lucky enough to afford a few 1GB sticks. When all is said and done, nothing really compares to the experience of having your ENTIRE music collection at your fingertips (or at least "Stylus-tip" :D).

I personally find that the PalmVNC or BrowserAmp methods of changing songs to be a minor inconvenience in comparison to the power that Shoutcast streaming provides!

Best wishes,
Bawko

[krypticide]

Win-Hand may prove faster for you than PalmVNC, but the installation is a bit trickier. I started out with PalmVNC, but moved to Win-Hand and love it!

I jsut set up a custom random playlist in iTunes, and use it to transfer a few new songs everyday to my Clie. Those songs are my five-star rated songs. There are just enough to pass by dull moments, but when I know I'll have more time to listen to songs I'll just grab my iPod and go.

[Atomic Chicken]

krypticide,

Actually, I am no longer using PalmVNC to change songs on Winamp, since I installed BrowserAmp. BrowserAmp is SO easy to use, from Netfront, that I probably won't be going back to VNC.

However, for remote PC operation, I will DEFINITELY check out the Win-Hand application you recommended. Thanks!

Best wishes,
Bawko

[Unregistered]

Hi ... I'm very very new to this board and I have a problem I did the transfer of my mp3 music directly to the msaudio and they play great but the memory they eat up is rediculous is there any fix to this it's like 10 songs used up 100mb please help Debbie

[cosFFM]

There is not an wasy answer to your question, Debbie. The rule of thumb is that you'll have to calculate about 1 MB per 1 minute of music (decent quality).

Seeing your ratio is quite a bit higher, it seems that you encoded your music a bit higher then what most people use (128bps). Please tell us what kind of tools you use to convert your songs to mp3 and we can see from there.

[Atomic Chicken]

Debbie,

There are 2 solutions to your problem:

(a) Buy a larger memory stick, or
(b) Re-encode your MP3 audio files so the bitrate is a lower value. This will decrease the quality of audio, but allow more songs to fit.

There is a third solution - ShoutCast streaming audio, but you will need to be within range of your WiFi access point to use it - it doesn't actually store the songs on the memory stick. Search for and read other threads on this subject for details if you want to set up a ShoutCast server.

Best wishes,
Bawko