Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mediaplayer

Help with a simple Visual C# coding problem?

kbanas — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:07:28 -0800

Oh God. Where to start? This is, at its heart, a programming question about C#. It's probably not a very hard programming question, either. Although it is against my nature, I will attempt to be brief. I recently built a Windows Media Center PC and hooked it up to my TV and I'm really loving the Windows 7 media center experience... except that all the music I've accumulated for the last 10 years or so is in iTunes. So, while I can watch movies and TV shows and browse my pictures and be a multimedia guru, if I want to listen to music I have to get up off the couch, close media center, launch iTunes and then pump up the volume.

On some level this really irritates me.

I explored exhaustively solutions that exist out in the wild. MCE Tunes looks like a great application that will basically allow you to access iTunes from inside WMC, but it doesn't work with Windows 7, and they have stopped supporting the product.

So, I set upon the idea of importing all my iTunes music into Media Player - thus making it accessible to my Media Center interface. Since Media Player can handle mp3 and m4a files (and thus, 99% of my collection), I figured it wouldn't be a really big deal. But the problem as I understand it is that Media Player can't read meta data from m4a files, and so this would cause a digital divide - I would then have two music programs pointed at the same library of music and I would have to update information in both libraries and make changes and corrections in both libraries and basically this felt like a major hassle. Plus, I would have to re-enter all the meta data for my m4a files!

There's another application called Sound Bridge that takes your iTunes library and dumps it into Media Player, but, again, this doesn't work with Windows 7 and an update does not appear to be on the horizon.

Great!

Well, I thought about it and, you know, hey, I have a CS degree - admittedly a little rusty, but I have one - so I was all like, "Hey, you know what, fuck it, I'll fire up Visual Studio 2008 and I'll just write my own program!"

So, I set out to write a C# program that would take my iTunes library file and collect all the track information and meta data and file info and then build a Media Player library out of it.

And, even though I was 99% sure I would fail miserably, I've actually made some progress.

I have, at this point, a console application that reads in my iTunes XML library, parses it, and then adds all the files and meta data to a Windows Media Player playlist. Except that, for some reason, on some files, while setting the meta data in Windows Media Player, I'll get a permission denied error, as if I do not have access rights to set a specific attribute (like, say, genre) for a specific track.

I've done some investigating and it looks like I may be able to resolve this issue by way of a function called requestMediaAccessRights() - apparently according to all the demos and code samples I can find, I should be able to do the following:

myMediaPlayerObject.settings.requestMediaAccessRights("full");

Except, for some reason, Visual Studio can't find that function. I can access a host of different functions for myMediaPlayerObject.settings, but requestMediaAccessRights just isn't one of them, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I'm adding the Media Player COM object to my project, and I can do everything else with Media Player.... that specific function just seems to be missing.

Does anyone have any idea why that might be?

The other thing I'm toying with is transferring the album art. I see from the MSDN that a Media Player media object has a "WM\Picture" attribute, which references a piece of album art, and I can get the album art out of iTunes, but I can't seem to figure out how to set the WM\Picture attribute.

Any clues?

I Need to Pause the Movie and Look Something Up...

rokusan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:40:31 -0800

Which is the best method for adding codec, playing video from remote shares, and most of all usable web browsing to an AppleTV? Okay, so I picked up a $99 refurb AppleTV on a whim, with the hope of hacking it into being a fuller-featured couch computer. It's still virgin in the box at the moment.

My four main requirements are:
1. Play video from remote fileshares, not through iTunes.
2. Handle a typical wide variety of codecs, not just the Apple-endorsed handful.
3. A decent web browser, preferably Safari or Firefox
4. Use a remote keyboard and mouse (don't care what type)

I know there are many, many, many partial solutions to this, up to and including the nuclear option of installing a full version of MacOSX, which of course would achieve all of the above and much more. I'm comfortable doing that if necessary. I'm a pretty "power" Mac user and can handle Unix hackery if needed. I see there are lots of other, lesser/specialized mods out there, and I'd like to know if anyone has experience or advice for any of them:

XBMC or Boxee? Classic choices, and both include web browser plug-in apps I think, but I can't find info on keyboards/mice.

NitoTV talks a lot about USB support.

aTV Flash looks awfully sweet and is getting a lot of nice buzz lately, but the site seems to contradict itself on whether there's a web browser or not (it's listed both as a feature and as a "coming soon".) I don't think there's a demo of aTV Flash, just a paid version, so I can't test it easily, either.

Patchstick seems to be a bundle that adds most (all?) of what I want to the existing AppleTV OS, or at least makes things like codecs and Safari web browsing installable.

Or do I just bite the bullet and install full OS X on the cute little thing?

Other suggestions very welcome. I'm playing quick catchup on all this.

What do I do with my Archos 604?

griphus — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:07:05 -0800

What do I do with my Archos 604? I recently received an Archos 604 as a gift. My mom's boyfriend was using it for a while and didn't want it for whatever reason anymore, so he gave it to me (read: it is brand new for all intents and purposes, but I couldn't not accept it.)

I'm a pretty technical guy, but I'm not big on consumer electronics -- I've got no TV to hook it up into (which seems to be a big selling point of the device,) and I already have an iPod for music and video, and a eee and a DS for just about everything else. I tried to use it as a PDF reader, but it takes about thirty seconds to load a single page. I'm going to try with .lit or .rtf or something later. I have to buy codecs (rather: unlock

So does anyone know any fun hacks? Can I install Linux on it or something? I tried the archosfans.com forums, but while I'm wading through all the crap, I thought y'all might have some fun idea.

(NB: Due to my own sentiments, I can't just donate it or give it away or sell it.)

I JUST WANT MY MUSIC

EmpressCallipygos — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:24:44 -0800

Had to give up iTunes. Can you recommend a replacement? Because a new and buggy add-in in the latest version of iTunes was causing serious problems with my Outlook, I decided to ditch it. I copied all the music files from iTunes proper and uninstalled the software, thinking I could just play them on Windows Media player. Alas, I was wrong.

So. I am seeking one, possibly two programs:

1. A music player that works similarly to iTunes, in that it can play audio files and will let me burn the occasional mix CD. Ideally free.

2. Ideally the first program would also let me play the mp4 files that iTunes created, or at least convert them (and/or the mp3 files I already had) into whatever format it needs -- but if it can't, then I need a second program that can convert the iTunes mp4 files I bought into another type of file so I can play them. I'd be okay with Windows Media player, in fact, if I could convert the iTunes files into a playable format.

I have Windows XP, about 4 GB of available disk space, and I do NOT have an iPod. Ideally I would NOT like this new program to crash anything else random, or shove weird plugins into other programs. Something simple that stands alone is best.

So! Any recommendations?

Looking for a leightweight MP3 player that plays nicely with OS X.

darainwa — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:20:26 -0800

Is there a good lightweight, skinnable MP3/AIFF/FLAC/etc. player for the Mac? As someone who finds iTunes to be overkill for my day to day use, I have been using Vox (previously Tool Player) for several years now. Unfortunately, Vox has issues with 10.6, is crashy when switching between formats, and has no real playlist support. I used to use Quintessential Player back in my Windows days and MacAst (previously MacAmp) back in my OS 8-9 days.

I'm looking for something with a feature set similar to these two media players as they did pretty much exactly what I wanted (playlists, no video playback, no library, skinning with alpha transparency, etc.). Ultimately, I'd like to be able to skin it to look like this, but I'd settle for something that's lightweight, with no library but some playlist support.

(Before anyone asks, VLC is out because it doesn't parse MP3 metadata in it's playlist. Cog is pretty close, but is lacking a few key features: repeat a single track and a mini player being the two big ones.)

I'm looking for a device that can wireless play any video file and access bbc iplayer, hulu etc

toocan — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:20:46 -0800

I have a popcorn hour downstairs connected to my wireless router. I’m looking for a cheap small low power consuming (if that possible) device that I can use with my HD ready TV upstairs via wireless. It needs to: Be able to play the usually file formats/codec e.g. divx, h264 etc. Be able to display up to 720p video via HDMI Be able to connect wirelessly to my router Bra able to play video files from the popcorn hour Be able to view service like BBC iplayer and hulu Does such a device exist or would I have to compromise on some of the above?

I can't see invisible things!

timpollard — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:44:30 -0800

Having recently reformatted my XP PC I'm having a very confusing time accessing media files from it using my ethernet-cabled Freecom MP 350 MediaPlayer as it can see some of my shared files, but for some reason not all of them and I would greatly appreciate some advice and help! The MediaPlayer is attached to my TV downstairs and is connected by ethernet to the PC upstairs. The PC can see the MediaPlayer (via NDAS) and vice-versa. I use ZoneAlarm Security Suite and that's configured to allow the MediaPlayer's IP into my 'trusted' zone.

On my PC I have two shared folders, one on drive Q: (which I've called 'Mediabox') and one on drive H: (called, startlingly, 'Mediabox II').

My MP350 can see and play the Q: drive's shared folder and files perfectly. Life is good so far.

However, although it can see the name(s) of the shared folder(s) on the H: drive it can't see any content at all, despite it being set up in exactly the same way. (Which was basically ticking the 'share this folder' box). I've checked the properties on both drives on my PC, they are exactly the same. There appears to be no option in the MediaPlayer software to account for this discrepancy either.

Renaming the shared folders on my PC doesn't make any difference, nor does creating new ones, either on the H: drive or any of any my other hard drives. The MP350 still just sees the folders, but never the content (except from the Q: drive).

Can anyone suggest where I (or my setup) is going wrong? Surely if the MP350 can see and play files from one hard drive on my PC it should be able to see and play from any or all of them?

What am I missing?

Many thanks in advance!

Can I use an iphone as an ipod touch?

bigcheesegump — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:14:44 -0800

Can I use an iphone as an ipod touch? I am looking into getting an ipod touch as a PDA-type device that can handle my contacts, email, and also serve as a web browser. However, I really dislike the fact that the ipod touch doesn't have external speakers. It is the ONE thing that is missing for me. I know the 3g iphone has an external speaker as well as a camera. Is it possible to use a non-activated iphone as an ipod touch? My google-fu has resulted in outdated forum discussions. I am aware that initially, the ipod touch did not have many of the apps that the iphone has, but thanks to a software patch, this issue was resolved.
My understanding of the new iphone is that all the hoopla it received was due to the increased network speed through the EDGE network. Does the new iphone have any better wifi connectivity or any benefits that would affect me? Any tips or alternatives would be appreciated!

In summary:

WANTS:
wi-fi
e-mail
calendar
address book
music/picture/video player
external speaker

NICE TO HAVE:
camera

DON'T WANT:
cell phone plan

Name That Tune/Video (Center)

ill3 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:13:45 -0800

Naming Filter: Hive mind, please help us name our open source OS X media center application! I have been impressed by the hive mind's creativity when it comes to naming things, most recently the Lawyer Golf Team.

Sorry for the long explanation that follows, however, I think coming up with the best name is going to require a little bit of context.

I'm currently working on an open source project (free as in beer and speech) that is a recent fork of the well known and highly regarded XBMC project. In fact, I shamelessly plugged it here in an ask.mefi answer earlier. As many of you may know XBMC originally was called XBox Media Center. It was an app that could be run on a hacked XBox that allowed you to play media on your XBox (divx, h.264, mp3s, etc) pulling the media either from local disks or across the network using windows shares, ftp, etc. What made it a media center, rather than just a media player (like the excellent VLC and Mplayer) the application also has a great skinnable navigation and metadata system. XBMC will scan your media library (which in most cases would be located on a computer somewhere else in the house) automatically guess what piece of media the particular file was, and download and associate the appropriate meta-data. This would allow you to look for movies or songs based on Genre, Year, etc, all while flipping through the DVD's or CD's cover art. The interface is also optimized for use with a remote control, to make it easier to use from the couch than say QuickTime. It's easier seen than explained, here is YT video of it in action running the xTV skin (a skin inspired by Apple Tv).
A little over a year ago the core XBMC.org team decided to start porting what many consider to be the best media center application ever written, to other platforms starting with Linux. They have made great progress and they have already have a highly usable application for Linux. About 6 months ago myself and a few others decided to embark on an OS X port of the application, based on some amazing progress that the head of the new OS X port had made in just a few weeks. There was already quite a bit of pent up demand, as many thought the Mac Mini was an ideal HTPC (Home Theater PC) platform, again discussed here. We started out as a part of the larger XBMC team until very recently, both teams decided that we had enough philosophical differences that it made sense to amicably split up. Up until the project had been called XBMC on OSX and/or OSXBMC. We have currently been using the OSXBMC name as a place holder until we come up with a better name. There are a few reasons for wanting a name change, the big ones are :
- Having XBMC in the name does not differentiate us enough from the original XBMC.org project (the original XBMC guys have politely asked us to make our name a little more distinct) and it perhaps it makes it seem like an XBox is required to use the application.
- Something a little less "acronymy" would be nice, more in the tradition of Mac apps.
- It's possible that someday we will release versions of our (keeping in mind that at this point "our" software is 98% composed of XBMC's code) on platforms other than OS X, so we would like to get away from having the platform in the name.

The project's home page is http://www.osxbmc.com if anyone could possibly want or need any more information.

Thanks very much!

Can Vista be configured so that playback of all common media types Just Works?

hAndrew — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:59:20 -0800

In Windows Vista, is there a combination of software and settings that will let my Dad play all the media files he wants without further difficulty? I want to set up my Dad's new computer, which runs Vista Home Premium, so that it runs media embedded in web pages, runs standalone files too, and doesn't break Vista's Aero interface. He's not a computer expert, so I want media of all common types to Just Work^TM. These seem to be my criteria:

1a. When there is media embedded in a web page, such as here, it works.

1b. The embedded media players make it possible to go full-screen, or at least to easily open separate media players that can.

2a. Standalone media files play when they are double-clicked.

2b. Clicking links like this one (in, say, Firefox) opens the relevant media player with as few clicks as possible, preferably zero.

3. None of the above break Vista's Aero interface, even when going full-screen.

Here's what I've found:

* A combination of RealPlayer and Quicktime solves 1a., except that embedded RealPlayer has poor performance and they both fail 3.

* Alternatively, a combination of Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative with Media Player Classic solves 1a., except Media Player Classic fails 3. when going full-screen.

* VLC solves 2a.

* In Firefox, when clicking on the link in 2b., the "Do this automatically for files like this ..." checkbox is greyed out.

* Nothing I've tried except (built-in) Windows Media Player and VLC satisfies 3. in full-screen mode.

More info

I'm particularly interested to hear from anyone who has a Vista/Firefox configuration in which all these media tasks Just Work.

While trying to set this up for my Dad, I realised that I too had this problem (albeit to a lesser extent) in the XP/Firefox setup on my computer. I now realise I subconsciously open media that isn't Just Working in other media players or I view source -> dig for direct links, etc.

Seeking OS X media player with specific features

chudmonkey — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:26:04 -0800

What video/media player do you use in OS X? Can you recommend one that has some specific features (listed inside)? I've asked basically this same question before, but that was a few years ago and I'm hoping something has changed since then.

I really, really want a Leopard-compatible player with ALL of these features:

-"Always on Top" playing
-Variable-speed playback, preferably with automatic audio pitch-shifting, preferably with a control that shows precisely what % of normal speed is being played.
-Frame-by-frame playback.

I currently have the following installed:

VLC 0.8.6f - No variable-speed playback, no frame-by-frame.
Mplayer 1.0 rc2 - No VSP, no frame-by-frame, no "on top"
Quicktime 7.2.1 - VSP is via an imprecise slider and pitch-shift is not automatic.

MPlayer is actually my favourite, despite having none of my desired features. I like the way it looks. Quicktime is my least-favourite, despite having nearly all the features. It's better now than it ever was, so I'm really just clinging to a bias. The VSP system is shoddy, however.

I'm open to any suggestions you can make, or corrections of my above impressions. I know MPlayer is open-source as has been released in multiple flavours, but I haven't found one with variable-speed playback yet.

Thanks in advance!

Automatic Screenshots from a DVD

muckster — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:46:34 -0800

Automatic screenshots from a DVD? I know how to take individual screengrabs from a a movie with VLC or Media Player Classic -- but I'd like to get a whole bunch at once. Is there windows software that will let me set an interval and extract a series of screenshots automatically?

Need to replace Creative's media management SW due to it's horridness

Empyrean_72 — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:15:51 -0800

Need replacement for the Creative Media Explorer for my Creative Zen V+. It is simply the worst. Not fond of Windows Media Player either & ITunes doesn't work with my player. I love my wee little Zen, but oh how I dread creating playlists & using the SW that came with it to transfer files. Help a gal out! Ok, I have been using ITunes to organize & listen to my music on my 'puter, but can't use it with my Zen V+. I love the smart playlists. I would like to replace it with something that integrates well with my Zen. The Creative Media software that came with my mp3 player is horrid. The playlist feature is torture to use & the overall interface makes simple tasks like transferring files into an ordeal. I have taken to simply dragging & dropping in Windows Explorer & doing without proper playlists. I miss playlists & hate that I can't use Itunes (damned proprietary Apple!!). I tried switching to Windows Media Player, but am not fond of it. Was wondering about Winamp or Media Monkey I never used Media Monkey & haven't used Winamp in years. Guess what I want is something like ITunes that I can use with my Zen.

Software-only Upscaling?

Nelsormensch — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:59:10 -0800

How can I "upscale" DVD/DivX video on my Windows PC and display it on the HDTV I've got setup as a second monitor? Currently, when I play a DVD on my PC using either Windows Media Player or VLC and output it to my HDTV, it looks awful. As bad, if not worse, than SD programming. I've got to change the TV's aspect ratio to 4:3, or the video looks stretched. Either way, there's a lot of horizontal letterboxing and with the aspect ratio at 4:3, the actual video plays amid a sea of blackness.

Putting the DVD in my LG upscaling player, it fill the entire TV at 16:9 (and looks pretty good too). I want the media player software on my PC to do that. (With all the normal assumptions about the source material actually being 16:9, of course)

The box itself has a Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz processor, 3 GB of RAM and a GeForce 8800 so I'd think it can keep up with the decoding/transcoding/scaling. Doing some Google, I saw ffdshow come up a bit, but all the posts seemed to be at least 2 years old. Considering the rise in popularity of HDTVs, I figure this would be a relatively common thing folks who hook their PCs up to their TVs would want to do.

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

n00b-Friendly Ubuntu Media Player for HTPC?

mamessner — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:30:12 -0800

Is there a n00b-friendly media player for Ubuntu that would work well on a set-top-box set up for broadcatching? I have Ubuntu set up to broadcatch using Miro, and I'm looking for a GUI or media player that can easily be controlled with a remote. I don't need to be able to record live TV. MythTV is very intimidating and I can't seem to get it to work. Ditto Freevo. I'd like something that can play movies, view photos, and play music ideally. The closest I've found is Oxine. Anything that can be installed via the package manager or add/remove applications would be best.

Thanks!

Played Playa

ninazer0 — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:02:12 -0800

You guys gave me some brilliant music suggestions in a previous question. So here's the next part of the problem. I need to manage my music. There are issues and I'm feeling very stupid. I have 43 songs from a DRM source (Bigpond music)(very bad idea). The rest of my stuff is ripped from CD's. The 43 songs need to have licencing information in order to play. Being a slacker, I was using Windows Media Player to manage my music as that was what came with the laptop and I wasn't picky. Version 9 allows you to backup the licence information as well as the music. Version 11 doesn't seem to do this (if it does, I couldn't find out how). The DRM source no longer supports V9. I'm currently on V11 and looking at re-downloading the whole shebang again. I'm deeply unhappy with both Bigpond Music and Media Player and I don't want to go through this hassle every time I need to upgrade or reinstall.

My basic requirements are to play music on my PC in some sort of jukebox style and to transfer music to a portable player (I currently have an old Creative MuVo) or to a backup drive - all with the minimum hassle possible.

What is the easiest way to do this? Should I just bite the bullet and get an iPod? Frankly, if I threw away the 43 songs it wouldn't kill me but as I know nothing about the market, perhaps someone has a more practical suggestion? (God - I never want to have to feel this dumb again)

Why won't this Xbox 360 stream media from this Windows XP SP2 machine?

idledebonair — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:34:01 -0800

I cannot stream media from my PC. The Xbox 360 will connect to Xbox Live, but will not pass the "Test Media" option. It always fails after successfully acquiring an IP address. This Xbox has successfully connected to streaming media before on another computer. The connection has been deleted from within the Xbox settings. OS: Windows XP SP2.

All drivers are current.
UPnP is on, both on the router and on the PC.
HTTP SSL is on.
SSDP Discovery Service is on.
Windows Media Sharing Service is on.

The network is handled by a WRT54G (v1.1) over a wired connection and the firmware is current.
The security settings are disabled on the router.
The Windows Firewall is off.
Internet Connection Sharing is off.

Using the Zune software, I enable sharing and select my folders and the Xbox does not find the computer.

Using Windows Media Player 11, I receive and error that says "Media sharing has been turned off because a required Windows setting or component has changed. For additional assistance, click Web Help." Clicking web help takes me to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/webhelp/default.aspx?&mpver=11.0.5705.5043&id=C00D0FF4

After performing those steps, I still get no response from the Xbox and when I click Media Sharing... again in Windows Media Player, I get the same error message.

I have tried several solutions to this problem:

1) Rebuilding the library, the zachd.com method. 2) Deleting the contents of the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM folder. 3) Rollback to Windows Media Player 10 and re-install Windows Media Player 11 4) Rollback to Windows Media Player 10 and install Windows Media Connect 2.0

Using Windows Media Connect 2.0, it appears on the computer that everything should work, but the Xbox still does not register any computer to connect to.

Any ideas?

iPhoto:Lightroom::iTunes:?

feloniousmonk — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 04:02:49 -0800

I'm getting a little antsy with iTunes these days and since it's been awhile, I wanted to see what else is out there. What do you use that you consider to be the Lightroom/Aperture of the media player world? I'm hoping there is some sort of iTunes Pro style application out there that I just haven't heard of.

Best media players for wmv, keyboard shortcuts, and transparency?

abkadefgee — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:20:49 -0800

What media players have decent keyboard shortcuts, don't mess up wmv files when fast-forwarding, and can be set as transparent? I'm going through a lot of different video files on my hard drive, trying to clean up. Some of them are old home videos or projects which are inexplicably saved as wmv files. I'd like to figure out which ones are worth keeping by playing through them, but when I fast forward using alt+rt arrow in VLC, the video frame freezes or becomes distorted and it takes a few moments to return to normal. This means I could be missing something and I have to take the time to watch the clip all the way through.

I'd also like to be able to play my videos in a transparent mode so I could check email and complete other tasks while watching downloaded tv shows.

Can anyone suggest a media player that can play wmv files correctly while fast-forwarding and transparently display movies, but that also has the quick fast-forwarding shortcuts of VLC?

Remotely edit playlists and mp3s with WMP

loquax — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:43:59 -0800

Editing Windows Media Playlists remotely So I have two PCs, both on a wireless network, with WMP 11. My music is all on one PC, basically a file server. The other PC sees the files and the whole library fine using the media sharing thing in XP/Vista, including playlists. BUT, I can't edit the playlists (or the tags/ratings of the files) from the remote library using the WMP interface. Which is a pain. Anyone know any clever way I can do this?

(I'm using WMP because it works easiest with other stuff, so while I'm a big Winamp fan, I can't really use any suggestions other than WMP suggestions)

Thanks!

Dualboot Media Player

philomathoholic — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:39:59 -0800

What's the best media player that works in both OS's in a dual boot setup (XP and Unix) ? Ideally, I would like to listen to my music in either OS, while retaining "last played time" "ratings", etc. I already have my music on a separate FAT partition, so any OS can read/write to/from it.

Some half-ideas I've come up with: Run a program with versions in both OS's and that use the same database file (but which program allows this?). Stream the music somehow, and just find any player that will play streams in each OS (this doesn't seem to solve the problem, but it might offer more options). Use a program written in an interpreted language (the base layer is installed in each OS).

(I'm trying to convert to Unix, and this is one of the critical functions that I must have during my transition.)

Mach Speed Trio Media Player firmware upgrade or reset? Device continuously reboots.

loquacious — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 23:44:12 -0800

I need help with a Mach Speed Trio MP4 1GB media player. Shortly after purchasing it has begun rebooting continuously. I'm looking for any or all of the following as pertaining to the cheap-ass SigmaTel-chipped MP3/SMV media player known as the "Mach Speed" "Trio" 1GB MP4 Media Player (recently available from Fry's Electronics):

1) The main manufacturer's website, with support/driver links. It doesn't seem to exist. SigmaTel provides no end user support.

2) A firmware updater for this device and/or chipset. The Win98 and video conversion utility was included on my min CD, but not the firmware utility. (Which is indicated in the manual.)

3) Any and all related utilities or advice.

It worked as well as could be expected for a number of days, and has begun spontaneously and continuously rebooting. I've tried formatting the drive, deleting the firmware-created config files, hard resetting and more. I've even cracked the case and inspected the power and battery connections, as well as inspected for obvious shorts, debris or unseated plugs/sockets. Nada.

The device appears to work just fine and very reliably as a drive, but the OS/interface doesn't load when disconnected from USB. (OS will not load with USB/power connected - it's just not designed to do that even when operating normally.)

Disclaimer: I should have known better, but it was shiny and purchased in the form of an on-the-spot gift in shape of "you have X dollars to spend here at Fry's the day after Thanksgiving in less than an hour. Go!" and I panicked.

I like the gadget otherwise, but it seems doomed for a refund. This is the player on Fry's Outpost.

This is the Mach Speed official website, which I just found but contains such a distinct lack of useful support that it transcends the surreal and bizarre.

Graceful googling generated great grief.

Netzapper — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:53:38 -0800

Several months ago I remember hearing something on boingboing or /. about a mozilla-based media player/library. I remember it having features such as automatic spidering/downloading of mp3-laden webpages, as well as your standard media library stuff. Will you point me toward it?

I need a good media player for handling streaming radio on linux

LeeJay — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 13:40:26 -0800

I recently switched from Windows to Ubuntu and I'm looking for a good media player for streaming internet radio. I just switched to Linux (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS DapperDrake) and I really love it but I need some suggestions on picking the best media player for me. The computer I have Ubuntu on doesn't have a lot of storage space so most of my music listening is done through streaming internet radio as opposed to local media. I have Xmms and Rhythmbox installed. I like them both OK but neither of them handle streaming radio as well as I'd like them to. And I don't like the way either of them handles playlists.

All I need is something that makes it easy to add streams and easy to manage and edit multiple playlists. Any suggestions?

I can't separate the DRM hype from the facts, so I'm appealing to you.

anotherpanacea — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:00:35 -0800

What are the possible DRM consequences of upgrading to Windows Media Player 10 and/or Windows Media Center Edition? Look, I'm a bad person, ok? I have a collection of music and television (no movies, though!) that I did not purchase. Some files are ripped from friends CDs, but many came from the unsavory networks of the late nineties. In addition, I still bittorrent television shows.

My system uses a large television as a monitor, so I'd like to have more control from afar, and most of the devices I've encountered are only compatible with Media Center. I have been considering upgrading for some time now, but I have been worried about possible DRM issues. Moreover, I don't generally use Windows Media Player 9, as Winamp is mostly sufficient. However, I've run into some instances where it seems like it would help. (With WMP 11 in beta, I'm also worried about that 9 will become obsolete.)

I'd appreciate some input from current and former pirates on this matter. Avast! Will Digital Rights Management software paralyze my system?