It runs windoze mobile, I think... Version 4, which was called windows 2003. Then there was a 2003SE. I don't really know my way around these mobile OS.
If you're looking for a pocket PC, see if you can find one that runs at least WM5. You'll have better luck finding software. Though the PPC may cost you more if it's newer.
edit: My iPaq runs "Windows Pocket PC Version 4.20.0
Circa 2003. So I think its WM4, aka, Windows 2003.
Confusing names...
If you're looking for a pocket PC, see if you can find one that runs at least WM5. You'll have better luck finding software. Though the PPC may cost you more if it's newer.
edit: My iPaq runs "Windows Pocket PC Version 4.20.0
Circa 2003. So I think its WM4, aka, Windows 2003.
Confusing names...
Iain McNeill said:
Nothing complex like that. I have an old MSB Dac with little LEDs that tells you the incomming bit rate. No matter what kind of file I play and no matter the settings in Quicktimes/iTunes, the signal is always 48K. Directly connected to the PC sound Card with spdif, I can get 44.1, 48, and 96 depending on the quicktime settings. I think the linksys driver turns all input into 48K so that it can do its processing (volume, equializer).
Too bad. Those were really nice streamers especially for the price.
panomaniac said:
Very cool, Pano! It is very tempting to try to copy you there. One thing I have been considering is the Western Digital Media Player.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=572
The Western Digital Media Player uses an external usb hard drive and has optical (and HDMI) outputs. It supports most codecs, even high definition video encodings. It can handle 24/96 FLAC, but it apparently resamples to 48Khz for the optical output at the current time. I wonder if that will be addressed with future firmware; they seem to be pretty active with the firmware, unlike some of the offbrands.
At $130 retail (less street of course), I wonder how much one can mod the device to turn it into a true hard drive transport, along with being a high definition video player.
Thanks Dweeks! That's a new one for me. Looks very nice. Good audio support.
At that price, we are getting close to a DIY computer to do the job, but the WD is ready to go - and has a remote. Networking? I can't tell. Looks a lot more robust than so much of the stuff on eBay.
Last year I bought an X-Box to run XBMC. In many ways the ideal DIY player. But the mod chips proved very hard to get in the USA, so I actually gave away the X-Box. =(
Almost all of the media boxes are geared toward video. If only someone would bring out an audio only box at a good price.
At that price, we are getting close to a DIY computer to do the job, but the WD is ready to go - and has a remote. Networking? I can't tell. Looks a lot more robust than so much of the stuff on eBay.
Last year I bought an X-Box to run XBMC. In many ways the ideal DIY player. But the mod chips proved very hard to get in the USA, so I actually gave away the X-Box. =(
Almost all of the media boxes are geared toward video. If only someone would bring out an audio only box at a good price.
panomaniac said:
The Western Digital does not do any form of networking, unfortunately.
That's too bad about the xbox. I absolutely love mine.
Instead of a mod chip, there is a softmod that is very, very easy to perform. The remote and interface is fantastic in my opinion. I am unsure about the optical outputs and limitations, unfortunately. Otherwise, it'll handle just about anything mplayer or vlc will play. HD video will not work since the processor is too slow.
The Popcorn Hour is the closest I have come to buying an HDD Media Player.
It's mainly good for movies but does support FLAC. The only problem is the audio playback from what I've heard is bad - one song at a time, not gapless, not intuitive. Maybe they have worked out the kinks in the audio playback side but it seemed like they really didn't care about that aspect and were busy trying to get video codecs to work.
It's mainly good for movies but does support FLAC. The only problem is the audio playback from what I've heard is bad - one song at a time, not gapless, not intuitive. Maybe they have worked out the kinks in the audio playback side but it seemed like they really didn't care about that aspect and were busy trying to get video codecs to work.
If you are looking for cheap (albeit free) remote control software, that would be good for this appliccation, NGRC will allow you to control an Vista Media Center (possibly XP not sure) using a web interface.
Its free of charge and looks the mutts doo dahs.
Authors site
Currently it is optimised for Sony PSp or Iphone, but it is possible to reskin it for other devices.
I reskinned it for my touchscreen EEE PC 901. I have a little tidying up to do to the reskin and then I think Oliver plans to make it available for download as an official edition. A "Beta" of my skin is available from my site.
Article here including screen shots
I also plan to do a 7' version for eee 701 owners. However I have a flat that i am doing up just now and am finding time a precious and absent comodity
With the network card you refer to, this would be fantastic for Media Center owners
Its free of charge and looks the mutts doo dahs.
Authors site
Currently it is optimised for Sony PSp or Iphone, but it is possible to reskin it for other devices.
I reskinned it for my touchscreen EEE PC 901. I have a little tidying up to do to the reskin and then I think Oliver plans to make it available for download as an official edition. A "Beta" of my skin is available from my site.
Article here including screen shots
I also plan to do a 7' version for eee 701 owners. However I have a flat that i am doing up just now and am finding time a precious and absent comodity
With the network card you refer to, this would be fantastic for Media Center owners
Nice looking software. =) Thatnls for the link. But it seems to work only for the Media Editions of Windoze. Too bad...
Just FYI for anyone reading. If you do get a PDA/PPC for this purpose, but sure to get Windows 2003SE or later. SE was the first of the Windows Moble to support rotation of the screen. How I dearly wish I had that!
Looking at the NGRC sotware reminded me of how much better landscape mode is for this stuff.
Just FYI for anyone reading. If you do get a PDA/PPC for this purpose, but sure to get Windows 2003SE or later. SE was the first of the Windows Moble to support rotation of the screen. How I dearly wish I had that!
Looking at the NGRC sotware reminded me of how much better landscape mode is for this stuff.
Well after living with this system for a few weeks, I can say that I love the music server idea with wi-fi remote - I ended up running J River Jukebox - but the Zyxel isn't the best way to go.
Heres why:
The wireless streaming works well as long as both the host computer and the Zyxel box have a good signal to the WiFi router. The odd pop and click, but no big deal.
The trouble is the resampling. No way to get around it. The Zyxel driver forces it.
Did some A/B listening of CD vs streamed files. CD wins, no contest. But it's the resampling to 48KHz that hurts, not the streaming. Running a FLAC file at 44.1 via ASIO/USB/Spdif sounds as good, or maybe better than CD. But once the signal is upsampled to 48K - yuck. The midrange is muddy and the top end has glare - not a pretty combo.
This holds true no matter how I route the signal or which player I use. The pity of it is, the Zyxel wireless box driver does not allow any rate but 48K. I do think that if it could be forced to the bitrate of the source signal, then it would sound just fine. The Zyxel wi-fi sounds just like a wired USB or Spdif resampled to 48K - so it's probably the resampling that sounds bad, not the streaming.
Still, the best thing for me is going to be a media player right at the sound system. Will likely buy a mini-ITX motherboard and build a player. Can still stream and use remote control, but at least I will have control over the bitreate and resampling and can run ASIO to spdif. And files can be local, too - if I chose.
But that's for another thead!
Heres why:
The wireless streaming works well as long as both the host computer and the Zyxel box have a good signal to the WiFi router. The odd pop and click, but no big deal.
The trouble is the resampling. No way to get around it. The Zyxel driver forces it.
Did some A/B listening of CD vs streamed files. CD wins, no contest. But it's the resampling to 48KHz that hurts, not the streaming. Running a FLAC file at 44.1 via ASIO/USB/Spdif sounds as good, or maybe better than CD. But once the signal is upsampled to 48K - yuck. The midrange is muddy and the top end has glare - not a pretty combo.
This holds true no matter how I route the signal or which player I use. The pity of it is, the Zyxel wireless box driver does not allow any rate but 48K. I do think that if it could be forced to the bitrate of the source signal, then it would sound just fine. The Zyxel wi-fi sounds just like a wired USB or Spdif resampled to 48K - so it's probably the resampling that sounds bad, not the streaming.
Still, the best thing for me is going to be a media player right at the sound system. Will likely buy a mini-ITX motherboard and build a player. Can still stream and use remote control, but at least I will have control over the bitreate and resampling and can run ASIO to spdif. And files can be local, too - if I chose.
But that's for another thead!
Hi guys, thanks for the ideas.
I have downloaded the Secret Rabbit Code SRC, but have not tried it. By the author's own admission, it isn't his best work - but he doesn't like windozes, so it won't get any better. But it is worth a try anyway!
I used the default resamplers in Foobar and JRiver - they did sound a bet better than kmixer.
glt - I'm trying very hard to stay away from Vist-duh. The only reason I'd use it is for its better audio. But there are other good audio OS out there. OSX, Linux - shootz, I could go back to my old BeOS.
Will try the rabbit and report here.....
(if only CDs were at 48Khz, we wouldn't have this problem)
I have downloaded the Secret Rabbit Code SRC, but have not tried it. By the author's own admission, it isn't his best work - but he doesn't like windozes, so it won't get any better. But it is worth a try anyway!
I used the default resamplers in Foobar and JRiver - they did sound a bet better than kmixer.
glt - I'm trying very hard to stay away from Vist-duh. The only reason I'd use it is for its better audio. But there are other good audio OS out there. OSX, Linux - shootz, I could go back to my old BeOS.
Will try the rabbit and report here.....
(if only CDs were at 48Khz, we wouldn't have this problem)
panomaniac said:Hi guys, thanks for the ideas.
I have downloaded the Secret Rabbit Code SRC, but have not tried it. By the author's own admission, it isn't his best work - but he doesn't like windozes, so it won't get any better. But it is worth a try anyway!
I used the default resamplers in Foobar and JRiver - they did sound a bet better than kmixer.
glt - I'm trying very hard to stay away from Vist-duh. The only reason I'd use it is for its better audio. But there are other good audio OS out there. OSX, Linux - shootz, I could go back to my old BeOS.
Will try the rabbit and report here.....
(if only CDs were at 48Khz, we wouldn't have this problem)
If you want to compare the latest SRC to the foobar SRC plugin, SRCdrop uses the latest and resamples wave files. It should be relatively simple to compare. I also find Foobar 0.8.3 to sound better than the latest 9.x.x, but I lost my copy of the SRC plugin for that version. Alternatively, I think cPlay is a music player that resamples using the latest SRC on the fly, but it makes the default Foobar GUI look easy to use.
BeOS! Wow, that's a blast from the past. What ever happened to yellowtab and haiku anyway?
Thanks for the Sox tip. I have downloaded it and will give it a try. Will try via wired ASIO 1st, wifi later.
I don't know if it's the upsample that is actually doing what I don't like, but it seems like it. If a files is run via ASIO (bypassing Kmixer) in 44.1Khz it sounds just like the the CD. Simply upsampling the same file to 48K in foorbar doesn't sound great.
Maybe it's my DAC, but I don't think so - have tried several with the same results. But it's worth looking into.
If the sox src sounds better, or even different, that wil be a step in the right direction.
I don't know if it's the upsample that is actually doing what I don't like, but it seems like it. If a files is run via ASIO (bypassing Kmixer) in 44.1Khz it sounds just like the the CD. Simply upsampling the same file to 48K in foorbar doesn't sound great.
Maybe it's my DAC, but I don't think so - have tried several with the same results. But it's worth looking into.
If the sox src sounds better, or even different, that wil be a step in the right direction.
I did some listening to the SoX SRC today. Man, it's really hard to tell. "Maybe" it sounds as good as straight thru 44.1K. Maybe it sounds just the same. But even the standard foobar SRC doesn't sound bad. I would not put money on passing a blind test.
That is when run ASIO>USB>Spdif. (M-Audio Duo). Yeah, "maybe" the 44.1K signal is a little better, but maybe not. The resampled signal from either SRC isn't bad.
So what was I hearing that sounded so bad? Was going thru the Kmixer? Gotta check on that. The difference wasn't subtle.
Further tests are needed, but I'm not ready to comdem the 44.1 to 48KHz - yet. Must be something else going on.....
Got some odd effects. If I changed from 48K to 44.1 while the music was playing, there was a pitch change. Dropped - what would that be, a minor second? Sounded like more than that. Funny!
That is when run ASIO>USB>Spdif. (M-Audio Duo). Yeah, "maybe" the 44.1K signal is a little better, but maybe not. The resampled signal from either SRC isn't bad.
So what was I hearing that sounded so bad? Was going thru the Kmixer? Gotta check on that. The difference wasn't subtle.
Further tests are needed, but I'm not ready to comdem the 44.1 to 48KHz - yet. Must be something else going on.....
Got some odd effects. If I changed from 48K to 44.1 while the music was playing, there was a pitch change. Dropped - what would that be, a minor second? Sounded like more than that. Funny!
Haha well in that specific case you are changing the playback rate while the sample rate of the the file is the same. So it would be sped up if the source is 44.1 and you are playing it back at 48k. It is a common thing, say if you are listening to something in high res and you still have OS sounds enabled one of those sounds will change the clock on your card to 44.1 while the file is at 96k or 192k and it will sound slowed down.
Yeah that's the thing I was kind of pointing out. You will only really see a difference with SRCs when you are downsampling something from a sample rate that is not an even multiple of the target sample rate. Like in the case of 96k into 44.1 or 48k into 44.1.
The reason there will be a difference in those cases is because some will produce rounding errors and some will upsample to a higher samplerate that both rates are multiples of avoiding rounding errors. But in the case of an upsample it will just be padded the same way by most any SRC provided there isn't a user error like using an anti alias filter when it isn't needed - only use anti alias on downsampling.
Yeah that's the thing I was kind of pointing out. You will only really see a difference with SRCs when you are downsampling something from a sample rate that is not an even multiple of the target sample rate. Like in the case of 96k into 44.1 or 48k into 44.1.
The reason there will be a difference in those cases is because some will produce rounding errors and some will upsample to a higher samplerate that both rates are multiples of avoiding rounding errors. But in the case of an upsample it will just be padded the same way by most any SRC provided there isn't a user error like using an anti alias filter when it isn't needed - only use anti alias on downsampling.
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