Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

2004-05-12 03:17:59

My unreliable JVC mp3 CD player died just recently and I've been tempted to use my longtime personal organizer/palmtop, the HP Jornada 720 as a portable media player since it has a headphone jack and acceptable (at medium volume) output quality. What's more is that though it only has about 16MB of storage RAM to work with (adjustable),  it has both PCMCIA type II and Compact Flash type I capabilities, leading me to believe I could cart along several 256MB flash carts with me for music purposes.

  The main problem as could be expected is players  - the version of WMP bundled in ROM is pathetic  (hey, it was the year 2000...) and drops frames on mp3's larger than 160kbps. A player called Xaudio works perfectly with the --a-p-s encoded files I've tried so far, however I'd prefer it if I could get an AAC, MPC or Ogg Vorbis player.

It seems to me that the StrongARM 206MHz SA1110 CPU should be able to handle AAC...
 
  Unfortunately I haven't been able to find such a player, which is why I'm posting the question  Has anyone heard of such a beast?

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #1 – 2004-05-12 03:30:23

For Vorbis/MP3/Shoutcast, I use GSPlayer 2. AAC is only available with an unsupported player from Philips. It was found and put on Rarewares. More info at this post. However, it did not install on my H3635 (still using PPC2000/WinCE 3.0).

EDIT: In case you're interested, Microsoft offers Windows Media Player 7.1 for PPC2000.

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #2 – 2004-05-12 03:55:16

Brilliant! GSplayer supports Ogg Vorbis!
....but it doesn't work on this device at all....
I should have used "PocketPC" as a search term instead of "palmtop"

Media player 7.1 doesn't seem useful to me personally, and I suspect the Philips AAC player may require more CPU grunt than the 720 has (if it will even install) but there's only one way to find out....

Edit: no luck, the Philips player is looking for a library or some such and wont run,  although ActiveSync 3.7.1  thinks it installed okay
I'll try to transfer it back and patch it, but I suspect this is not going  to work without the ability to upgrade the OS to PocketPC2002. Why would it?

#2: No luck at all, as could be expected.  The program "cannot be found (or one of it's components)" when I attempt to execute it, though it shows up in the "Remove programs" menu and therefore appears to install. I'd assume there's a library on PocketPC2002 that isn't in 2000 that it's trying to access....

#3 Upgrading to Pocket PC2002 is apparently impossible or at the least, totally unsupported, but only on  this machine.
PocketPC 2002 no longer supports MIPS processors in favor of StrongARM only, which though this palmtop uses one, that doesn't appear to matter              Thanks again, MS! I only paid $800 for this sucker! But it's probably Hp's fault since it's all in ROM and they don't offer a ROM  upgrade option at all.

#4 GS player doesn't work at all, it's an "unsupported device". I tried manually copying the .cab over but no luck at all, same error as with the Philips player. This sucks, royally.  One more shot...

#5 40th floor iplay doesn't work either. I'm totally screwed, nothing that will play an Ogg or an AAC actually works with the Jornada 720, despite all claims of CE3.0 compatibility on the part of developers.
The price I have paid for a usable keyboard  instead of a stylus-only interface is a high one.

#6 How amusing, the WinCE 3.0 service pack will not install properly! Why not? It's a PocketPC2000 machine, not a Windows CE3.0 machine, even though it's running CE 3.0!  The PocketPC2000 service pack will not install at all, because it's in  fact a WinCE device!

#7 Ha! WMP 7.1  won't install either. I'm amazed that Xaudio works...since almost nothing else does.

Once again, I'd like to thank the people at Microsoft and HP. And to think I bought a 100LX (with a 5MB flash drive!) when they first came out and for some reason  expected HP to support the Jornadas like they did their original (DOS) palmtops. They don't, probably because of Carly Fiorina displacing or firing the last of the original "HP Way" people. It sucks to be me, but I won't be buying HP ever again
That's only the twelfth million lifelong customer they've lost this month....

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #3 – 2004-05-14 01:06:27

Hahahaha!
There is in fact a modified Winamp version that plays both OGG and mp3 files called WinamPAQ and is availible both PocketPC, CE.Net machines and HandheldPC (what I've got).

  You may download this animal here.

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #4 – 2004-05-14 01:10:54

The fact that GSPlayer did not work is surprising to me. The installer includes a MIPS cab, and the ARM version works fine on my H3635. Conversely, I had tried WinamPAQ before GSPlayer. WinamPAQ did not work.

Also, WMP 7.1 needs to be run from main memory, not from a memory card.

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #5 – 2004-05-14 02:02:59

WMP7.1 won't install for the same reason as GSPlayer (ARM): it does not recognize the device as supported because the device is in fact not a pocketPC (PPC) but rather a handheld PC (H/PC).

  Neither would be installed to a memory card were I able to install them, the memory card I use currently is only for document backup purposes. This is irrelevant, because the Handheld version of WMP appears to have been discontinued; try clicking on the "Player for Hand Held PC" section in the tree on the left of the WMP download center, and you are redirected to the main portal.
    I'm not too concerned because WinamPAQ works and does Ogg Vorbis, I'm just disappointed in HPQ and MS don't feel the need to properly support the product they released. 

  I'd assume WinamPAQ would have issues as it is the 1.0 beta. It appears to work flawlessly for me, though the minimize button in nonfunctional due  to minimization being done through the dedicated taskbar desktop icon.

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #6 – 2004-05-14 02:12:17

Why not PocketMVP? http://corecodec.org/projects/pocketmvp/

Media player for Windows CE 3.0 machines?

Reply #7 – 2004-05-14 03:36:16

Good program, appears to work perfectly, and is apparently newer than PocketDivX and so has just replaced  it 
  WinamPAQ supports winamp 2 skins and has the classic interface....

  Relay my appreciation to the developers for bothering to make an H/PC version!