CE MP3
If you haven't come across it yet, which is highly unlikely, MP3 is the new, highly compressed, sound format for computers. The attraction of MP3 is that one minute of CD audio can be stored in just 1 Mb, as compared to 10 Mb in CD formats. This uses lossy compression algorithms, so the audible quality is noticeably worse than MiniDisc, which in turn is worse than CD. However, the quality is at least as good as a cheap radio, and arguably as good as an average car stereo. I won't explore the implications this has for web publishing of audio, or even for the traditional music publishing industry, but it has already started a revolution in that industry.
Diamond Rio MP3 player
One interesting PDA sized product for MP3 is the Diamond Rio, a small $200 dedicated MP3 player with 32 Mb of storage, which is adequate to hold about 30 minutes of music at normal quality. It would be interesting to compare this, as a dedicated device, with more generic playback systems already available for PDAs.
The XAudio web site, which has all kinds of drivers for MP3, has released a beta driver kit for Windows CE. This installs easily, with a very simple sample playback program that allows you to select an MP3 file and play it, with no frills. As a beta release, it still has a few problems, which shouldn't be read as any implied criticism of the final product.
To create MP3 files you need one of the players and encoders for the PC, all also available from XAudio; I used WPlay and BladeEncoder. Creating an MP3 file takes about twice as long as it does to play the track; once around to grab it as a (large) WAV file, and once to convert to MP3 at your desired quality. Transferring to a CE machine via infrared at 19,200 bps, however, takes a very long time indeed; about 10 minutes per minute of music.
The CE drivers appear to only be able to play back mono files at this stage. Playback isn't a bed of roses even when you have the right files; it is very choppy at best. I found that my HP620 would give poor reproduction, and my Nino I couldn't get to replay at all, although others have reported some success with it. Most CE machines don't have an earphone socket, either; only the Everex Freestyle and LG Phenom from my selection do (which means that the Philips Nino doesn't).
Don't think of the CE MP3 drivers as making a viable music machine out of CE; they don't work well enough for that. Think of them instead as a technology demonstration, and get a better playback system instead.
Words and design by:
Paul Lynch
Last updated: March 30, 1999