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A2DP support & sound quality & power usage of MS & Widcomm BT stack compared!
Now that I’ve made the stereo Bluetooth headphones (A2DP) support work with my Dell Axim x51v with the original Microsoft BT stack (see the tutorial here), I’ve thoroughly tested it and compared the sound quality and the power consumption of the two stacks.
First, the power consumption test, along with the CPU usage (all measured on the same x51v two times - with a hard reset in between. I've long been promising something similar to the AximSite folks in this thread):
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As can clearly be seen, while device.exe, which is in charge of encoding the A2DP stream, consumes slightly less CPU time with the Widcomm BT stack, the latter still consumes about 13 mA’s more than the Microsoft stack. This, however, isn’t that big a problem if you also take into account the really superior sound quality.
What should you use to check out the sound quality yourself?
I really recommend for example the demo MP3 of Värttinä’s Oi Dai (linked from here); in there, you’ll clearly hear the quality difference between the A2DP mode of the MS and the Widcomm BT stack. Just make sure you try to listen to the generic distortion in the middle band when the girls start to sing.
BTW, use the first about five seconds to fine-tune the Subbands value with the Widcomm BT stack (see my earlier, related tweaking article here) – it’s mostly in the increased noise of strong lows (like at the beginning of this song) that the drastically decreased Subbands value has a really audible effect. With other kinds of music, the difference is very hard to hear.
Tweaking
I’ve played a bit with the MS BT stack parameters under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Bluetooth\ A2DP\Settings I’ve listed in my previous A2DP fine-tuning article. I’ve paid special attention to the following DWORD’s:
MinSupportedBitPool: it does have an impact on the sound transmission: while you can’t fine-tune the quality, a sufficiently high value (for example, 64; with 48, it still works) will make sure no connection can be made between the headphones and the PDA. That is, it’s useless to try to “tweak” this value.
UseJointStereo: the default 0 is “false”. When set to 1, it results in a mono transmission. With 2 (I’ve also tested with 3, with the same result), it seems it indeed uses joint stereo mode. It, however, hasn’t resulted in any kind of sound quality improvement. Conclusion: forget it too.
I’ve, in addition to trying to tweak BitPool, also tried to raise MaxSupportedBitPool , MinBitPool and, of course, BitPool – without success. I couldn’t achieve any sound quality improvement.
All in all, it seems the Microsoft BT stack is definitely worse, A2DP quality-wise, than that of Widcomm / Broadcomm and nothing (no tweaking) can be done to fix this.
Summary
There is not really competition between the A2DP quality of the two Bluetooth stacks. If you happen to have a WM5-upgraded Dell Axim x50(v) or x51(v), don’t hesitate: install the Widcomm BT stack on it if you want the best available sound quality. You’ll be presented definitely better sound quality, on the expense of slightly (but not much!) decreased battery life. And, of course, you get a lot of additional Widcomm goodies like Bluetooth PAN and the like.
Similarly, if you need to choose between, say, a Widcomm BT stack-based device and a MS-based one (and there's no known Widcomm hack for the latter), go for the earlier, if, otherwise, the two devices are the same.
This also means my sound quality problems with the HTC Wizard weren’t (also see my mourning here) because of the HTC Wizard hardware or the bad A2DP hack (see this for a more thorough elaboration on the hack) but because of the A2DP algorithm used in the MS BT stack. The official A2DP implementation of the really powerful Dell Axim x51v AKU2 isn’t at all better, quality-wise, than the A2DP hack for the Wizard.
I’ll try, of course, to push the Microsoft folks very hard to find the cause for the audibly lower sound quality.
More of my Bluetooth-related articles
The Bluetooth category in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Expert Blog
???
Menneisyys said:
Now that I’ve made the stereo Bluetooth headphones (A2DP) support work with my Dell Axim x51v with the original Microsoft BT stack (see the tutorial here), I’ve thoroughly tested it and compared the sound quality and the power consumption of the two stacks.
First, the power consumption test, along with the CPU usage (all measured on the same x51v two times - with a hard reset in between. I've long been promising something similar to the AximSite folks in this thread):
As can clearly be seen, while device.exe, which is in charge of encoding the A2DP stream, consumes slightly less CPU time with the Widcomm BT stack, the latter still consumes about 13 mA’s more than the Microsoft stack. This, however, isn’t that big a problem if you also take into account the really superior sound quality.
What should you use to check out the sound quality yourself?
I really recommend for example the demo MP3 of Värttinä’s Oi Dai (linked from here); in there, you’ll clearly hear the quality difference between the A2DP mode of the MS and the Widcomm BT stack. Just make sure you try to listen to the generic distortion in the middle band when the girls start to sing.
BTW, use the first about five seconds to fine-tune the Subbands value with the Widcomm BT stack (see my earlier, related tweaking article here) – it’s mostly in the increased noise of strong lows (like at the beginning of this song) that the drastically decreased Subbands value has a really audible effect. With other kinds of music, the difference is very hard to hear.
Tweaking
I’ve played a bit with the MS BT stack parameters under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Bluetooth\ A2DP\Settings I’ve listed in my previous A2DP fine-tuning article. I’ve paid special attention to the following DWORD’s:
MinSupportedBitPool: it does have an impact on the sound transmission: while you can’t fine-tune the quality, a sufficiently high value (for example, 64; with 48, it still works) will make sure no connection can be made between the headphones and the PDA. That is, it’s useless to try to “tweak” this value.
UseJointStereo: the default 0 is “false”. When set to 1, it results in a mono transmission. With 2 (I’ve also tested with 3, with the same result), it seems it indeed uses joint stereo mode. It, however, hasn’t resulted in any kind of sound quality improvement. Conclusion: forget it too.
I’ve, in addition to trying to tweak BitPool, also tried to raise MaxSupportedBitPool , MinBitPool and, of course, BitPool – without success. I couldn’t achieve any sound quality improvement.
All in all, it seems the Microsoft BT stack is definitely worse, A2DP quality-wise, than that of Widcomm / Broadcomm and nothing (no tweaking) can be done to fix this.
Summary
There is not really competition between the A2DP quality of the two Bluetooth stacks. If you happen to have a WM5-upgraded Dell Axim x50(v) or x51(v), don’t hesitate: install the Widcomm BT stack on it if you want the best available sound quality. You’ll be presented definitely better sound quality, on the expense of slightly (but not much!) decreased battery life. And, of course, you get a lot of additional Widcomm goodies like Bluetooth PAN and the like.
Similarly, if you need to choose between, say, a Widcomm BT stack-based device and a MS-based one (and there's no known Widcomm hack for the latter), go for the earlier, if, otherwise, the two devices are the same.
This also means my sound quality problems with the HTC Wizard weren’t (also see my mourning here) because of the HTC Wizard hardware or the bad A2DP hack (see this for a more thorough elaboration on the hack) but because of the A2DP algorithm used in the MS BT stack. The official A2DP implementation of the really powerful Dell Axim x51v AKU2 isn’t at all better, quality-wise, than the A2DP hack for the Wizard.
I’ll try, of course, to push the Microsoft folks very hard to find the cause for the audibly lower sound quality.
More of my Bluetooth-related articles
The Bluetooth category in the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Expert Blog
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you ACTUALLY know what you are doing???
Seems like you are taking others work, experimenting, and saying "MY" a looad of times...
Soz, maybe I'm a cinersist!!! (is there such a word?)
A2DP on AKU2.3 / .6 does not have a correct implimentation of EDR tie-in to the bluetooth firmware!!! Nuff said.
If I offend. I am sorry!
Farsquidge said:
Do you ACTUALLY know what you are doing???
Seems like you are taking others work, experimenting, and saying "MY" a looad of times...
Soz, maybe I'm a cinersist!!! (is there such a word?)
A2DP on AKU2.3 / .6 does not have a correct implimentation of EDR tie-in to the bluetooth firmware!!! Nuff said.
If I offend. I am sorry!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please DO show any of the substances I've referred to as mine (just search for the word "my" in the above article and the substance it refers to) actually not having been created / done / published first by me! Thanks in advance
Farsquidge said:
Seems like you are taking others work, experimenting, and saying "MY" a looad of times...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is, excuse me, utter BS.
I have NEVER published any other's work without 1. thoroughly checking it and 2. referring to it. Just compare my articles. I've linked in every single thread where a particular registry hack has been implemented. Count the XDA-Developer references (referencing to work done by others) in my Bluetooth-related articles - you'll see loads of them.
Second, I do test all the hacks and I don't publish anything I haven't tested. This is why the findings in my articles are sometimes diametrically opposed to what people have generally thought before. There're a lot of examples of this too; for example, the BitPool hacks.
Menneisyys said:
Count the XDA-Developer references (referencing to work done by others) in my Bluetooth-related articles - you'll see loads of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, one of the linked article, there are "only" AximSite references. Some four or five of them, all referencing to the original author that has intoduced the hack in the first place. I've "only" thoroughly tested it, which hasn't been done by anyone else before. (Just read the AximSite thread in question.)
Farsquidge said:
A2DP on AKU2.3 / .6 does not have a correct implimentation of EDR tie-in to the bluetooth firmware!!! Nuff said.
If I offend. I am sorry!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please explain what you are saying.
austinbrady said:
Please explain what you are saying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I'm also waiting for Or, for an apology for attacking me without any truth.
Problem lies with sbc.dll
After a lot of digging, I think the problem with the MS BT stack lies with the fact that it uses the sbc codec to send music to the bluetooth headset.
In fact, I don't think MS implemented the sbc codec incorrectly, but that it is the nature of the sbc codec to sound crappy (correct me if I'm wrong).
What MS didn't do was add MP3 support, which would have saved a lot of decoding overhead (no MP3 to SBC conversion), since many of the stereo headsets support MP3 natively.
But since MP3 support is optional in the bluetooth spec, MS ignored it. It's also not in WM6, so don't expect sound quality to improve. If only MS added a way to bypass sbc.dll completely and route MP3 data straight to the bluetooth headset.
If anyone here knows how to write a stub driver to replace sbc.dll, that would be great! :>
joe_dude said:
After a lot of digging, I think the problem with the MS BT stack lies with the fact that it uses the sbc codec to send music to the bluetooth headset.
In fact, I don't think MS implemented the sbc codec incorrectly, but that it is the nature of the sbc codec to sound crappy (correct me if I'm wrong).
What MS didn't do was add MP3 support, which would have saved a lot of decoding overhead (no MP3 to SBC conversion), since many of the stereo headsets support MP3 natively.
But since MP3 support is optional in the bluetooth spec, MS ignored it. It's also not in WM6, so don't expect sound quality to improve. If only MS added a way to bypass sbc.dll completely and route MP3 data straight to the bluetooth headset.
If anyone here knows how to write a stub driver to replace sbc.dll, that would be great! :>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well,
1. SBC itself isn't bad - when correectly implemented. Widcomm / Broadcom, Plantronics (with their A2DP dongle) and Softick (in their Audio Gateway) don't have any problems / bugs in their SBC implementation. MS' SBC implementation in AKU2 is, unfortunately, much worse than the ones listed above.
2, Indeed feeding MP3 directly to the headphones is a very good idea to increase sound quality. Too bad quite few headphones support it MP3 streams in addition to SBC ones (about 15-20%).
Menneisyys, I was able to try A2DP from AKU 3.3 on my Prophet, and unfortunately it sounds pretty much the same as the AKU 2 version.
I tried manipulating bitpool and the minsupportedbitpool, and no difference. Whatever algorithm MS used in SBC.dll is completely fubared.
Other than MSI BluePlayer, is there any other MP3 player that does not do (down) conversion to SBC? BluePlayer sounds awesome, but too much of a pain to use.
joe_dude said:
I was able to try A2DP from AKU 3.3 on my Prophet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure it's TRUE AKU3.3? Cooked / "leaked" AKU ROM versions don't necessarily have really all AKU3 stuff (for example, BT FTP or AJAX support).
joe_dude said:
Other than MSI BluePlayer, is there any other MP3 player that does not do (down) conversion to SBC? BluePlayer sounds awesome, but too much of a pain to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know of any. I'll dedicate an article to this; hope it'll make some software developers (for example, Mort) add direct MP3 support to their programs.
BTW, speaking of the PPC version of MSI BluePlayer, do you know any other source for MSI Blueplayer than http://download.enet.com.cn/html/EN947892006041701.html#instruction ? The download is very slow with me and stops after a minute with all the sources.
Well, it's the AKU 3.3 files from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=284509
So it looks official enough, and the files are slightly different than the ones in the Tornado patch.
As for BluePlayer, check out this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=262715
Can't knock the sound quality, but it's pretty much just a GUI that sends out MP3 data to the BT headset. If MortPlayer could do this, I'd definitely pay to use it.
But bypassing the MS BT stack might not be a trivial exercise (not that I'd know, of course).
joe_dude said:
Well, it's the AKU 3.3 files from this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=284509
So it looks official enough, and the files are slightly different than the ones in the Tornado patch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Indeed it's different from previous cooked ROM's. WIll flash it onto my Wizard.
joe_dude said:
Menneisyys, I was able to try A2DP from AKU 3.3 on my Prophet, and unfortunately it sounds pretty much the same as the AKU 2 version.
I tried manipulating bitpool and the minsupportedbitpool, and no difference. Whatever algorithm MS used in SBC.dll is completely fubared.
Other than MSI BluePlayer, is there any other MP3 player that does not do (down) conversion to SBC? BluePlayer sounds awesome, but too much of a pain to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been a source of much pain for my gadget budget... I bought different headsets because I thought that perhaps it was the headset causing the bad quality. However, it was the MS implementation of A2DP all along!
I'd like to try blueplayer, but the real hurdle now is getting it to work on my Smartphone Edition device (tornado). Since blueplayer only exists in a PPC install, can someone extract the files for me (the actual .exe, etc...) to try on a smartphone device?
I've done this before, and I already have my ways of dealing without a touchscreen... I just need the files so I can try running it!
Anyone?
Unfortunately, except for Mobileburn’s excellent Bluetooth Stereo Headset Roundup and some HowardForums threads (see for example this), there are no real one-to-one feature & compatibility & quality comparisons between current Bluetooth stereo headsets.
This is why I’ve set out and made some SERIOUS tests with three current and popular BT stereo headphones: the Nokia HS-12W, the Plantronics Pulsar 590A/E and the brand new Plantronics Pulsar 260.
The article is still a work-in-progress; however, the comparison chart is already worth checking out if you want to learn more about these headsets, how they deliver in reality, whether, for example, they are Microsoft BT stack-compatible (unfortunately, the Plantronics headsets wont deliver good results with this stack) and whether the battery life / recharging time figures given my the manufacturers are reliable.
Do check out http://www.winmobiletech.com/032007ThreeBTStereoHeadphones/table.html and post your comments!
Anyone having had a O2 XDA Flame have already seen SRS WOW HD, which helps at both widening the stereo (a particularly useful technology on handsets with stereo speakers like the Flame, the HTC Wizard or the HTC Universal) and enhancing / modifying the sound in other ways as well. For example, it adds the, for lon-time audiophiles / Hi-Fi geeks, the well-known loudness-based bass control.
One of the reasons I love the Nokia N95 are the built-in, loud speakers with extremely good frequency response. In the N95, the built-in Music Player has a dedicated stereo widening mode, which can be en/disabled from inside the player:
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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Its results, when used together with the built-in stereo speakers, are simply phenomenal. It really widens their stereo, making listening to music via the built-in speakers a true pleasure (also taking the very good quality speakers into account, unmatched by any Windows Mobile device so far). This has been one of the main strengths of the N95.
Up until now, there wasn’t a generic, non-OEM, similar solution for Windows Mobile-based devices, except for the built-in applet in the already-mentioned O2 XDA Flame. The multimedia players available haven’t really supported stereo widening either, the only exception being Conduits’ excellent Pocket Player, which does support stereo widening at External Pitch/Echo/Stereo Wide DSP (listed as “DSP Stereo Example”). While it lets for the settable widening of the stereo:
it’s in no way as good as on the N95. It certainly makes the stereo a bit wider. No effect at all on mono sounds (as opposed to Nokia’s widening). (Note that, in Pocket Player, there’s another, similar DPS, but it doesn’t do any widening, just makes the center far quieter than the two sides. It’s, strangely, a bit more useful than the first DSP with the built-in speaker.)
Now, the plug-in that has only been available for the Flame has been released for the entire public. It can be installed on any WM5+ Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition. I’ve tested it with the following Pocket PC (phones):
Dell Axim x51v (A12 official ROM)
HP iPAQ hx4700 (WM5 AKU3.5.2 ROM)
HTC Universal (Midget’s WM6 AKU0.2.0 ROM)
HTC Wizard (mfrazzz’s XDA Mobile 6 Release 3)
and it worked just great on them.
Note that it isn’t compatible with MS Smartphones (WM6 Standard) and Pocket PC’s with operating systems prior to WM5.
(screenshot of the 3D parameter setter tab)
(screenshot of the Truebass tab – it’s here that you can set the bass level)
Additional screenshots:
it’s HERE that you can switch between headphones and internal speaker output. The two have entirely different stereo widening characteristics: while headphones, in general, don’t benefit much from stereo widening, especially built-in stereo speakers benefit a lot from them.
Unfortunately, the switching isn’t automatic – that is, the controller doesn’t notice when you switch back to either wired or A2DP headphones from using the built-in stereo speakers and vice versa.
The lack of the automatic switching is indeed pretty annoying: the contraphase effects are, in general, are pretty bad when played back in headphones and it’s only with fully mono signals that they don’t have any bad effect on.
This is also a problem with the Nokia N95, even as of firmware v20, by the way. In there, enabled stereo widening has a definitely nice effect if and only if you play back mono contents. Then, it prettily widens it so that it is no longer in the center of your head, but somewhere in there. Stereo sources, of course, are pretty much messed up when played back via headphones.
HERE and HERE, you can see two (of the several) pre-defined profiles. Of course, you can also play with the sliders yourself.
Resource usage
Based on my past articles (see for example THIS), you may already know that
software-based equalizers can require a lot of additional CPU time and, consequently, radically decrease the battery life on older and, in this respect, inferior platforms (most importantly, Windows Mobile devices based on the Intel Xscale PXA-2xx CPU series - see THIS for more info on how they compare to other CPU's; most importantly, Samsungs and TI OMAP's)
hardware equalizers (see for example THIS) don’t result in a decreased battery life (not even on the PXA-2xx CPU’s) but aren’t compatible with several models and can only be used with wired (!) headphones. Finally, unless the player plays special attention to NOT closing the channel between songs, you will end up having to re-enable some of them manually (!) after a song switching. (See the "Hardware equalizers (HTC Equalizer) keep their settings when switching songs? Tested on HTC Universal" row in the chart of THIS article for more info if interested in which players do this.)
Fortunately, this app, while it has pretty nice equalizer capabilities, doesn’t really cause any really bad CPU usage increase. I’ve measured the following results (these figures were largely independent of the active profile / output used):
HTC Universal (520 MHz): CorePlayer: +5%; WMP: ~7-8%
Dell Axim x51v (forced down to 208 MHz) CorePlayer: +5%; WMP: +13%
HP iPAQ hx4700 (624 MHz): WMP: +5%
HTC Wizard (195 MHz TI): WMP: +14%
As can clearly be seen, the music player will have a somewhat increased CPU usage but it’s in no way as drastic as with some players out there. As a rule of thumb, the already CPU- and battery-friendly players like CorePlayer fare definitely better than the built-in WMP.
Getting, installing
If you have a XDA-Devs forum account, you can download the CAB file right from the related thread (which is, BTW, worth reading!). If you don’t have an account and won’t bother to register one, download it from my mirror. Transfer it to your handset, tap the CAB file and soft reset the device. After rebooting, go to Start / Settings / System / WOW HD Settings and you’re set.
Using, tips
If you have stereo headphones, make sure you only use it in the Headphones mode (see the upper drop-down menu; it’s activated in THIS screenshot). Otherwise, the sound quality will be plain awful. Again, there’s no sound source type it can enhance when it’s in speaker enhancement mode and you listen to it via headphones, unlike with the Nokia N95, where strictly mono sources become definitely more pleasing to listen to (again, via headphones) with widening enabled.
If you have a handset with only one (mono) speaker (the vast majority of current Windows Mobile handsets belong to this category, excluding for example the HTC Universal, Wizard and the O2 XDA Flame), there isn’t much point in using it at all.
If you have external speakers, you may want to give it a try. Note that if they aren’t close to each other, you may want to refrain from using the loudspeaker mode – switch to either the headphones mode (if you need for example the support for extra bass) or deactivate it entirely.
Evaluation on the HTC Wizard / Universal, using the built-in stereo speakers – compared to…
… the Nokia N95: there isn’t much competition: the Nokia N95 has still better stereo, is much louder (when it needs to be) and has much better frequency response.
… Conduits Pocket Player: on both the test devices, WOW HD delivered better (wider) stereo than Conduits Pocket Player, even with the latter set to 100% stereo widening. You, however, will want to make sure you, in some way, decrease the treble level. With the thin, bass-less speakers of both the Wizard and the Universal, the treble-rich sound of WOW HD will quickly become really tiring.
the default mode: the Wizard has almost no stereo sound – only when you have a (not very close; for example, a wall) surface reflecting the sound back to your ears. WOW HD definitely helps this – again, better than Conduits Pocket Player. The difference between the default (non-WOW HD’ed) and the widened mode isn’t that articulated with the Universal, which, particularly if you keep it pretty close to your face, was already able to generate some kind of a stereo field.
(Note that, naturally, in this test, I’ve only tested handsets that do have stereo speakers as it’s mostly on them that, unless you have headphones, you’ll want to use this tool.)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1772622&postcount=29 <-- maybe this post is interesting for you.
LordDeath said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1772622&postcount=29 <-- maybe this post is interesting for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! BTW, hacks / software like this should also be announced in the Dev & Hacking forum as well - I rarely visit the Prophet forums and, therefore, don't notice local development there.
UPDATE (01/07/2008): as my original review mostly concentrated on stereo widening with handsets with stereo speakers, I need to re-emphasize that this app isn’t only useful for stereo widening or adding (comparatively) CPU-friendly loudness+megabass support. It can also be used to enhance the sound (make it more characteristic), which works even on the built-in mono speakers. See the comments for example in THIS and THIS threads.
i have tested this on a spm m3100 with wm6 rom and i noticed that it does change automaticly from internal(speakers) to headphones and vice versa...
at10ti0n said:
i have tested this on a spm m3100 with wm6 rom and i noticed that it does change automaticly from internal(speakers) to headphones and vice versa...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update; I'll post this info in the next update .
Menneisyys, did you try it over BT?
The instructions on the other thread aren't very clear:
Alexx~ said:
That worked through BT headset it is necessary to copy all parameters from [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\Wave Dev] in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\BuiltIn\BtA2dpSnd
Except for value of parameter "OldDriver", he should be such, as was "DLL"
For example:
Before
"DLL" = "bta2dp.dll"
After
"DLL" = "WOWHD_ARM_WCE_PPC2005_Driver.dll"
"OldDriver" = "bta2dp.dll"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not giving Alexx~ grief, quite the opposite, much appreciated... but if you have anything to add it would be appreciated.
-Richard
rpodos said:
Menneisyys, did you try it over BT?
The instructions on the other thread aren't very clear:
Not giving Alexx~ grief, quite the opposite, much appreciated... but if you have anything to add it would be appreciated.
-Richard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope; will give it a try.
rpodos said:
Menneisyys, did you try it over BT?
The instructions on the other thread aren't very clear:
Not giving Alexx~ grief, quite the opposite, much appreciated... but if you have anything to add it would be appreciated.
-Richard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur with this statement. It would be good to know how well and consistently it works with A2DP.
For those with 240*240 screens and cannot see all of the WOW HD gui settings, the registry values are stored in:
HKLM\Software\WOWXT\WaveDev
Just in case it was not obvious straight off...
I´am using the MDA Compact III (its the same as the HTC P3300 or Artemis, branded by T-Mobile Germany) and I installed SRS WOW. It works fine with MP3-Files but it does not work together with the integrated FM-Radio.
Is there any posibility to "arrange" the registry to make SRS WOW working with the radio?
Thanks for answers.
roadrunner159
Does anyone know if this has any (positive or negative) effect on the A2DP skipping issue experienced for example on the Hermes?
roadrunner159 said:
I´am using the MDA Compact III (its the same as the HTC P3300 or Artemis, branded by T-Mobile Germany) and I installed SRS WOW. It works fine with MP3-Files but it does not work together with the integrated FM-Radio.
Is there any posibility to "arrange" the registry to make SRS WOW working with the radio?
Thanks for answers.
roadrunner159
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably not. The sound from the FM-radio goes straight from the receiver to the speakers/headset without entering the digital part of the device. Meaning that no signal processing algorithms can be applied as these all take part before the signal goes analog.
UPDATE (02/27/2008): see THIS thread on making it work on the MS Smartphone platform.
SRS, tytn ll, bluetooth and phone
I've been playing around with this, and when I've had it working over bt to my Jabra Bt3030 it sounds great, however, it kills my ability to make phone calls - phone works but I can't hear anything, through the headset or the handset.
Anyone had this working?
Cheers, A.
SRS WOW HD v. XT?
Menneisyys said:
Fortunately, this app, while it has pretty nice equalizer capabilities, doesn’t really cause any really bad CPU usage increase. I’ve measured the following results (these figures were largely independent of the active profile / output used):
HTC Universal (520 MHz): CorePlayer: +5%; WMP: ~7-8%
Dell Axim x51v (forced down to 208 MHz) CorePlayer: +5%; WMP: +13%
HP iPAQ hx4700 (624 MHz): WMP: +5%
HTC Wizard (195 MHz TI): WMP: +14%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello. I'd be interested to see a comparison of its CPU utlization (v. WOW HD) to the ealier SRS WOW XT for Mobiles? Are Motorola e.g. well-founded to continue XT in their MotoQ handsets?
WOW HD was towards PMP or high-end Windows Mobile devices in 2006/07, whilst XT for Mobiles included "special capability for mobile phones with ultra-wide stereo imaging and optimized single speaker playback" optimized for "low-MIPS, low-memory" plus "TI's OMAP processors have been a key platform".
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=356589 (binary for WOW XT for Mobiles)
Does this work on Atom black, WM5? Not the Atom Exec, the model before the Exec. The plain Atom Black.
wm2003 dont working
I get driver issue errors. Is there a reason for that. I have a samsung and a htc wing.
UPDATE (02/27/2008): WMExperts frontpage (http://www.wmexperts.com/improve-your-wm-sound-srs-wow-plugin ); definitely worth checking out.
I’ve, among other things, been working on an A2DP headphones roundup. While it’ll take at least 4-5 days to publish it (I’m still waiting for a Motorola HT820, which will also be included), I already publish a chart of four headphones so that you can avoid going for a pair of headphones that is completely incompatible with your handset / PDA.
Note that I’ve tested the headphones on all the three contemporary smartphone operating systems of today having A2DP support: Windows Mobile, Symbian and BlackBerry. Do NOT tell me to publish a separate version of this article for these three operating systems because it’d cause me a lot of extra work. Just skip the rows in the chart not related to your particular OS.
HERE’S THE CHART - CLICK THE LINK!! Sorry, the chart is just too big to fit in here.
As can clearly be seen, there are no „best“ headphones, particularly if you require full Symbian compliance and/or the lack of blinking LED’s or dongles without (!!!) any desynchronization problems – these three things that MAY make the, in my opinion, best of the bunch, the 590 pretty much unappealing for people that do need these features. There is, however, a definitely worst one: the Cellink BTST-9000-D, which should be avoided at any rate – unless you want to use its dongle, which is far better than that of the Pulsar. All in all, you’ll need to carefully evaluate your needs, the platform you’re on, whether you plan to listen to the music a lot while you’re outdoors etc. There’re no “hard and fast” rules as to which of these headphones are the best for you.
For the time being, please consult my earlier reviews for more info on how this all should be interpreted. Start with, say, HERE.
I’ve updated the chart by adding the Moto HT820 and extending the info already available (for example, added a Verdict row). I seems I will only be able to publish the full roundup next week. In the meantime, check out and comment on the new chart.
Review posted to http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2252090
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. a cleaned-up, much improved version of this report will be published in the forthcoming iPhone Life (papermag) issue. As it'll be a joint effort on my and the mag's part (cleaning up the English, making the text as easy to digest as possible by adding additional references / explaining things etc.), I won't be able to post it online, unlike this (initial) version, which is (still) entirely my work. Sorry about this.
2. the article not only refers to the iPhone; for example, the games section (Gameloft) equally applies to Windows Mobile and Java (including Symbian and, probably, even BlackBerry) as Gameloft releases its games to all these platforms as well, not only the iPhone. The same stands for some hardware manufacturers (chargers, cases, or, Parrot with their car kits) and TV broadcast solution companies. That is, you might want to read it even if you don't have an iPhone or an iPod Touch.
3. as usual, a. you can click most shots to get a much bigger and higher-quality version; b. if you download the additional video clips I provide (outside YouTube) and your media player can't play it back, use the free and excellent Videolan VLC to play them. (They use the highest-quality H.264 for video.)
Several software companies developing for the iPhone have attended the Mobile World Conference this year; also, there have been some very nice hardware accessories for the device. First, I introduce some of the software and, then, the hardware news.
1. Generic software
1.1 Gaming
Thanks to the business model of Apple's AppStore and the more or less (the only problem is the lack of a directional pad) gaming-friendly, 3D accelerated hardware, the iPhone enjoys the most game releases with some really high-quality titles. At MWC, some of the gaming companies were also present.
1.1.1 Gameloft
Gameloft is one of the biggest players in the iPhone gaming industry. It’s they that published titles like Asphalt4, the racing game I recommend to everyone. The company has other, excellent titles like Guitar Rock Tour, Real Football 2009 (which has also been awarded a GSMA 2009 award) and CSI:NY (a detective game; not as sophisticated as real text/puzzle adventure games like those of Legend Entertainment or, as far as the iPhone is concerned, 1112 (AppStore link; quick review) a complete rewrite of the very popular, quality Windows Mobile title, Fade).
In addition to their recently released simple 2D shooter game "Wild west Guns”, they also showcased their forthcoming (it should hit the AppStore in early March) golf title "Let’s Golf!” Compared to the other golf title, RESETgame’s "Par 72 Golf”, I’ve played a bit ago, it was much-much faster. The game is excellent in other respects too; for example, it has nice, non-repetitive in-game music in stereo.
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(presskit screenshots; I wasn’t allowed to take direct shots / videos of the game as it's still a work-in-progress)
I’ve also played their Prince of Persia remake, POP HD, on the Windows Mobile platform (more precisely, the forthcoming Toshiba flagship and 3D powerhouse, the TG01). It turned out to be a really well done game, which, hopefully, is very soon ported to the iPhone. Please see our blogs for a game video.
As far as the Windows Mobile ports of Gameloft are concerned, as is explained HERE (the PocketGamer.org link is also worth checking out for David's additional thoughts on the issue), while the company does port its games to Windows Mobile (that is, this one will too be ported), it only offers them thorugh mobile operators, not via traditional, well-established channels like ClickGamer, Mobile2Day (or even Handango). I really hope they do change this as, for example, their forthcoming Prince of Persia HD really rocks on 3D hardware accelerated phones. (Their big hit on the iPhone, Asphalt4 Racing, wasn't accelerated on the Samsung Omnia, though - it used software rendering, meaning ugly, pixelizated and very slow graphics.)
1.2 Remote desktop control
iPhones can not only be used to play games and make phone calls, but also remote control any desktop computer to, for example, quickly look up data you’ve left on your office or home computer. (You might want to check out THIS Windows Mobile-specific roundup for more info.) There have already been some implementations of doing this - for example, VNC clients like Veency (in Cydia) or Mocha (in the AppStore) - or the RDP client Jaadu.
1.2.1 LogMeIn Ignition
LogmeIn Ignition is pretty similar to previous remote controller solutions: it makes it possible for you to remote control any desktop Windows PC. It, however, entirely builds on the LogMeIn framework, which has some advantages over "traditional” access methods like VNC or RDP; for example, it allows for gaining access to any desktop computer even through firewalls, without having to remember the Internet address of your computer – which is particularly useful when it’s dynamically changing. LogmeIn has a very easy-to-use interface you’ll quickly familiarize yourself with.
Some goodies, like file transfer, already implemented in the desktop (or the Windows Mobile) client are (still) missing from the current version; nevertheless, the developers promise they’d look into implementing at least file transfer.
1.3 Adobe Flash
One of the biggest problems with the Web browser of iPhone, Safari, is the lack of Flash support. While Adobe announced last November they have created an iPhone version of Flash and all they did was waiting for AppStore approval. At MWC, they have only announced support for alternative platforms (Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android). Many analysts consider this as a revenge on Apple for not allowing the official client to be entered in AppStore.
1.4 Viigo
One of the better RSS readers and podcatcher apps (please see THIS for more info on what the latter means), which, incidentally, has recently received a major update on the BlackBerry (also including podcasting and Twitter support), will also be ported to the iPhone.
1.5 Yahoo Mobile
Yahoo has also announced porting their all-in-one Yahoo Mobile solution to the iPhone. This AppStore-downloadable program (slated for release later this Spring) installs on the iPhone and lets the user access everything Yahoo (for example, Mail). This greatly speeds up for example accessing your personal mail account – no need to go through a Web interface any more.
Two videos I’ve made:
First (not that recommended; high-resolution/-quality original in H.264 HERE)
Second (much more recommended; high-resolution/-quality original in H.264 HERE)
2. Video streaming, TV
Unfortunately, the vast majority of current TV stations use Windows Media Video (WMV) for broadcasting, which can’t directly be played back on the iPhone. Third-party solutions highly popular on other mobile platforms (for example, CorePlayer) still don’t support these kinds of streams. Also, the iPhone (iPod) completely lacking TV receiver hardware, you can’t directly watch TV broadcasts available in your region. Fortunately, there are some just-announced solutions that, in the future, may fix these issue.
2.1 PacketVideo
While PacketVideo (just like all the other, similar companies at MWC), basically, is targeting mobile operators, their standalone offering may still be released for end users.
First, they have a dongle containing a DVB-H/T receiver. This receives digital TV broadcasts and transferring them via Wi-Fi to (also) iPhones and iPod Touch devices. Note that, currently, they only support DVB-H/T, which is only common outside the US. In the States, DVB-T is not at all used and DVB-H is very scarce, MediaFLO being the main method of mobile TV broadcasts. Hopefully, if PacketVideo indeed makes its product available to individual customers, they will also offer a MediaFLO-specific version for American users.
Another (and pretty much independent of the above-explained DVB receiver/Wi-Fi transmitter) of their new products is a complete TV transcoding solution they currently offer to mobile operators only. It allows operators to offer (paid-for, iPhone-compatible) versions of TV programs to their customers. What really makes this especially interesting is that the PacketVideo folks have managed to implement a WMV decoder for the iPhone, which, basically, opens up the huge inventory of existing TV streams to watch right on your iPhone – without having to pay anything extra for your mobile operator (if they at all offer the channels you’d like to watch). The importance of this is enormous for an iPhone user – after all, currently, very-very few TV stations / programs offer iPhone-compatible streams. Actually, I only know of the Finnish Web "video recorder” service "TV Kaista” that offers all the recordings of most Finnish TV channels from the last two weeks as iPhone-compatible streams.
(the PV booth)
(the DVB receiver & Wi-Fi transmitter next to my iPhone 3G [in a case, making it slightly larger])
Note that a lot has changed since the first announcements and demos of the service; this also means the currently available demos you can see on YouTube are outdated and no longer reflect the current user interface of the program. Now, they use a completely redesigned interface with the list of the available channels on the left and other goodies.
A YouTube video of a demo of the player in action is HERE
2.2 Qualcomm
Describing the dongle of PacketVideo, I’ve already mentioned MediaFLO, the US de facto standard for digital video broadcasts for mobile handhelds (not to be mistaken to ATSC, which is meant for non-mobile receivers). Qualcom, the main company behind the technology, has showcased a reference design of a MediaFLO receiver and transmitter based on their chipset. As It uses Wi-Fi to broadcast its transcoded contents, the iPhone is also compatible.
A video is HERE (YouTube version; high-quality/resolution original HERE)
The Qualcomm folks stated there still aren’t any retail products utilizing their chipset doing all this (they just showcased a concept device with it).
Also note that, as with most of the similar solutions, this isn't an iPhone-only transcoder - most? all? of the alternative smartphone operating systems will be able to access the same content.
Speaking of transcoding and playing back mobile digital broadcasts on handsets not having a built-in receiver, I’ve also asked the Nokia folks whether their Bluetooth DVB-H receiver will receive at least DVB-T compatibility (for non-American users) and support for significantly more and not only Nokia handsets. Unfortunately, the answer is no. See THIS for more info.
2.3 1cast and wit Software
I’ve also seen some other companies’ demo of their, similar solutions; for example, that of 1cast and wit Software. The latter has also demoed their mobile operator-side solution. It was low-resolution (QCIF) only because of the mobile operator’s restrictions. I’ve taken a video of it; it’s available HERE and HERE (YouTube; much higher-quality original of the former HERE). Note that, however, the quality of the reception severely suffers from the network congestion (at MWC, everybody is accessing mobile networks) – the service works far better in a far less stressed (congested) environment. That is, in real-world situations, wit software's solution fares far better.
3. Hardware accessories
3.1 Car kits
Parrot has come out with some new designs for controlling, docking and recharging the iPhone: the MKi9100 and the MKi9200. They have also come up with a pretty decently designed set of stereo speakers, along with an iPhone / iPod dock, the Zikmu by Philippe Starck (slated for Spring 2009 release). See product page HERE for more information on all this.
This is a decent addition to the T605, IHF1000 by Motorola and the Parrot CK3000 Evolution, CK3100 and the 3200LS Bluetooth car kits by Parrot.
3.2 Chargers and cases
There have been several companies offering chargers for the iPhone; for example, FreePlay (a company specializing in solar chargers and quick-to-recharge external chargers):
(their rapid charger and iPhone solar charger available to end users)
(the iPhone solar charger from the back)
(…and the bottom)
(their other products having very strong retro-feeling: two digital radios [without a shortwave tuner] and a stereo, battery-operated "audio box” with a built-in iPhone stand)
… and IDAPT-INOITULOS (homepage HERE; it’s still pretty basic; a CES article with video HERE), with their all-in-one solution: swappable charger sockets and a charger also functioning as a stand / cradle:
It’s already available for end users for US$ 50.
As with third party chargers, there have been several companies offering iPhone cases; for example, Trexta:
3.3 Audio enhancement, A2DP
3.3.1 Bluetooth stereo audio transfer
One of the biggest omissions of the iPhone (3G) is the lack of high-quality Bluetooth audio transfer (A2DP) and remote multimedia playback control (AVRCP). By using these, you could get rid of the cables while listening to music on either stereo headphones or external speakers; also, you gain a way to control (volume up/down, stop/restart, next/previous) the playback of your media.
There are two ways of fixing this problem. The easier and non-iPhone-specific one is getting a pair of A2DP headphones (for example, the Plantronics Pulsar 590A or the latest, just-released and astonishingly high-quality Altec 906 - see review HERE) coming with a Bluetooth adapter that plugs into the 3.5mm audio socket of the iPhone. This will make it possible to listen to music, but you won’t be able to remotely control the player with the headphones buttons. To allow for the latter, you’ll need an iPhone/iPod-specific dongle that plugs into the cable connector of the handset. (Technically, it’s there that the handset also allows for controlling playback.)
So far, only few dongles of the latter (AVRCP-capable) type have been released: the Infinxx Icombi AP21 and its enhanced, improved version, Infinxx AP23 iBluon Bluetooth Dongle Adapter (also known as iBluon TD02; review HERE). Another announced one, 8Bananas’s BD-906, doesn’t seem to be available and the homepage of the manufacturer is down.
Now, iSkin (webpage HERE) has announced another dongle that does the same, the CERULEAN TX ( homepage: http://www.iskin.com/ceruleantx/ ). They also offer a pair of Bluetooth speakers, CERULEAN RX. Note that there are several other similar Bluetooth A2DP loudspeakers – they have lately, become pretty common. That is, you don’t need to purchase the RX to listen to your tunes – as the TX utilizes the industry-standard A2DP and AVRCP protocols, any other set of speakers (or headphones) can be used.
3.3.2 SRS
SRS is a well-known company for its audio enhancement software and algorithm(s) – if you’re coming from Windows Mobile, you may already have heard of them as several WM handsets come with it preinstalled. They have come up with a headphones-only iPod / iPhone dongle (connecting to the system socket of the device) doing essentially the same.
4. The competition
There have been some remarkable, multimedia-capable phones comparable to the iPhone well worth mentioning.
On Windows Mobile, the WVGA (800*480 – the iPhone’s resolution is 320*480) 3D hardware accelerated Toshiba TG01 is worth mentioning. It has a whopping, new-generation 1 GHz processor, which greatly speeds things up. On the negative side, though, the device is huge, albeit leaner than the iPhone. Also, Toshiba has a pretty bad record of updates and bugfixes and the TG01 having no Start button, it’s questionable it’ll ever get the next operating system updates.
HTC, the biggest player in Windows Mobile, has also announced two new models. They are pretty nice but can go nowhere near the revolutionary TG01.
On the Symbian operating system, it’s mostly Samsung’s Omnia HD that is worth mentioning. It has an OLED screen capable of rendering colors far better than traditional handsets (including the iPhone), a high-resolution touchscreen and an excellent camera not only able to take 8 Mpixel shots, but also 720p (1280*720) videos. Its multimedia features are topped by allowing for 720p video playback and a pair of stereo(!) speakers.
Please see our blogs for more info on the competition: the last TG01-related article is HERE, the Symbian all-in-one one is HERE.