Hardware mpc players....

2001-09-29 19:18:03

Ok lets get down to brass tax....

Does anyone know (I haven't talked to buschel in a long while) if there is a chance that any company will make a hardware mpeg plus player?  I told Buschel about the rio volt and its specs and firmware up-date-ability and he seemed interested....

I mean if we could get that.... mp3 would be history for many of us.... thats really what's holding me back with .mpc  lack of hardware support..... i can play mp3s in my car, boombox and computer now and its sure to last for years to come.... but mpc is computer only which really is frustrating...

RD

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #1 – 2001-09-29 19:23:36

i dont think there is any portable player out right now, and i dont think there will be one for quite some time

mp3 was already "mainstream" when the first models of portable mp3 players became available. i would assume manufacturers of those devices would want to see mpg plus on such similar or rather close-to usage levels. i really hope more people use it, but as long as music fans stick to mp3 (or wma), i dont see an mpeg plus-supported portable player coming out any time soon

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #2 – 2001-09-29 23:01:55

Hello.

I like to think that the future of hardware players is to make them if I could say "open" standard. RioVolt is a step in that direction with it's upgradeable firmware. How nice could it be to have .APE .MPC .OGG etc. support in my RioVolt...

I hope one day it all be something like WinAmp - you want support for new format? No prob. just put that plugin...

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #3 – 2001-09-30 17:31:25

All this mp+ issue is kinda sick!
1. There won't be any hardware players, because too few people use mpc
2. There won't be more mpc users, cuz there won't be any players. (and so on)
Therefore, the only reasonable way for mpc would be to cooperate with some stronger company (NOT necessarily M$) and promote mpc a bit, 2. give away the code for free to use with decoders (like MS did), even PAY them to do so.
Else, there are no chances for any players IMO.

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #4 – 2001-10-13 12:02:28

I would be willing to pay a very large premium for a portable MPC player, probably up to $400-$500 if need be. I don't see such being available any time in the near future, however, as the large record companies out there are going to deny us the ability to make pristine copies of our music in our own preferred format, and will instead force WMA or their own 128kbit/s-encoded mp3's down our collective throats.

John

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #5 – 2001-10-13 13:38:35

Why not get a pocket PC? They can run Winamp software, memory modules can be added, and it's not only a hardware player :flipoff:
There are some in the $500-$600 range. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/h...are_devices.asp

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #6 – 2001-10-13 13:44:28

The problem with pocket pc's is that they are solid state.  Apparently many people are interested in solid state portables, but I personally prefer the cd players.. you can store many more albums on them and you don't have to worry about bitrate so much.  MPC files will need to be around 160-200kbps or so with a reasonable setting, so that kind of eliminates that as a good possibility on solid state devices.

However, there are actual mini pcs you can get now which are only slightly larger than a standard discman or something which are in that price range.  These things can actually run windows or linux or most other operating systems and they have cd drives, so that would be a fairly interesting alternative.  Plus then you would be able to play ANY format which is compatible with these operating systems.

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #7 – 2001-10-13 15:22:57

I must correct myself on my previous post. The Pocket PC's don't support Winamp yet, only Windows Media Player, therefore they don't support mpc.
Nevertheless, they can be programmed, and therefore a plug-in could be built for mpc.

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #8 – 2001-10-13 16:41:42

Hmm... maybe if some engineers are interested into porting of the MPC decoder source code to fixed-point ARM and TI object code. If such code is available - some of the companies might be interested in it.

MPC needs more PR work, availability of the object/library code for integration into end-user products (SDK), good documentation of the file format (like MPEG standards), and availability of the DSP decoder implementations (TI, ARM, Motorola, ADI).

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #9 – 2001-10-15 19:47:31

A Korean company is direct-selling a CD-R player which is firmware upgradable.  They claim future firmware will support MPC. see:  www.iriver.com/english/imp250.htm
The Casio Fiva mini-PC has a switch that
will boot it into command-line Linux and then run XMMS.  It can operate for 6 hours on battery.  But, at 2G, an expensive path to MPC; one can hope that Intel's drive to kill Transmeta will
put prices for such mini-PCs in 3 digits soon.

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #10 – 2001-10-15 22:09:43

And what about mp3 Cd players with updatable firmware such as Rio Volt?

They already have mp3 and wma I think.
Why couldn't we have a firmware that supports MPC too?

Jord.

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #11 – 2001-10-15 23:16:30

Well, the link that was provided is for the the iriver 250. Iriver is the maufacturer of the original rio volt as well as the new one (same thing as the 250). So there is an outside chance perhaps that we could see mpc on both of them?

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #12 – 2001-10-16 12:56:04

where is the information that in the future iMP-250  will supoort mpc? I saw the page but ain´t see it...

Hardware mpc players....

Reply #13 – 2001-10-17 05:27:01

Mea culpa...I'm propagating rumor.  Researching portables, I encountered a Benelux site where somebody said they'd heard the Imp would have firmware to run mpc.
Subsequently, I encounter reviews by Alfmeister in which he says that iRiver
may offer different firmware from the American, but that the iRiver firmware will work in and be better than the SonicBlue.
//members.home.com/gordonschumway1/
Also, if you Google "Alfmeister's Rio Volt Review" and read from the Google CACHE,  there seems to be additional material.