Database Info

Playing (and editing!) tracked (module) music on your Pocket PC; with Bejeweled (2)

Many Pocket PC games contain “tracked” “module” music that are very easy to be extracted and listened to without actually running the game. Just run a search for “tracked” in my games reviews (or follow this link).
In my article on listening to the .MOD tracked files of the great shoot’m up game Enslave, I’ve already elaborated on the quite Spartan and MOD-only JT MOD Player 1.0. In the current article, I elaborate on the latest developments in the Pocket PC world as far as playing back tracked music is concerned. In the second section, I also explain how you can use the tutorial to listen to the great tracked music of Astraware’s hugely popular Bejeweled (2).
There are a lot of tracked file formats; .MOD used by Enslave is only one of them. The above-mentioned JT MOD Player doesn’t handle any else (for example s3m / Impulse Tracker) formats. Neither does, unfortunately, CorePlayer (the commercial successor to the best Pocket PC all-in-one multimedia player TCPMP) or any other “traditional” Pocket PC music / media player (without additional plug-ins, that is).
On the Pocket PC, there are two tracked music playback tools (not counting in the mod-only JT MOD Player): MilkyPlay and Zerker’s MortPlayer / GSPlayer plug-in.
MilkyPlay
This free standalone player plays almost all the existing other tracked formats (to see the list of the supported files, see this, this and this), except for, unfortunately, Impulse Tracker (*.IT) files. This means, for example, it has no problems with Bejweleled’s .s3m music. It, however, can’t play back Bejweleled 2’s Impulse Tracker (.IT) music.
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To make MilkyPlay work, just download the archive here or here (not available on pocketpcfreewares.com and the original homepage doesn’t work) and transfer MilkyPlay (ARM).exe to anywhere on your Pocket PC. Start it, go to the Playlist menu and, in the upper frame, find and, then, select the files (you can use mass-selection in a directory with the All button and also scan for files). After adding the files, you can safely play them.
It’s worth pointing out that another very important, free (!) product of the same author is Milkytracker, a fully-fledged, highly recommended module tracker for all computing platforms (for example, even the Sharp Zaurus / Amiga OS4), including the Pocket PC (!).
(here, it shows the Bejeweled 2 music loaded in on the Pocket PC; a screenshot of the configuration screen is here)
Zerker’s MortPlayer / GSPlayer plug-in
This title, as opposed to MilkyPlay, is a plug-in into either MortPlayer or GSPlayer (two high-quality multimedia players for the Pocket PC I’ve often elaborated on; see for example the Midi Playback Bible and the Bluetooth remote control (AVRCP) Bible).
It can play back Impulse Tracker (.it) tracks (and has no problem with the Bejeweled 2 music). It, however, can’t play back some other module types (see the list of the supported types here and compare it to that of MilkyPlay.)
The installation is easy: just follow the quick tutorial on the just-linked homepage and copy the two provided DLL files to the player’s home directory.
CPU usage
Fortunately, these two players don’t consume much CPU cycles; the CPU usage is around 10-11%, which is about the same as with standard MP3 playback (also see the figures here (the “CPU usage: no equalizer / DSP's” row in the chart here)) with the built-in WMP, slightly larger than with TCPMP and considerably larger than with iPlay BUT lower than MortPlayer and considerably lower than with Conduits Pocket Player.
Conversion to WAV / other formats
You may also want to convert your module files to WAV files to, then, reconvert it to MP3/ WMA / OGG / anything to avoid the need to stick to a second media player to play your Module files. Unfortunately, MilkyTracker isn’t able to export WAV files; however, it’s able to read .IT files and it saves all files in the very common .XM format, which is already digestable by MilkyPlay.
Note that the PPC version of MilkyTracker is also able to load .IT files as can also be seen here. Using a full tracker to play back a file is, however, a real overkill. It, however, is also able to do the above-mentioned trick of the desktop version: it’s able to load .IT files and, then, export them as .XM files, which can already be played back with MilkyPlay. A really excellent and useful program, even if you don't plan to actively use it as a tracker, just as a file converter!
If you’re ready to fight with making MS-DOS programs run under XP, convert the file with the original MS-DOS version of Impulse Tracker (also see this on making it work under Windows) to WAV file for further conversion.
Now, let’s move on to explaining where the music files of Bejeweled (2) are to be found.
Ever wondered how you can listen to the in-game music of Bejeweled (2) while not playing?
Many of you may already know Astraware’s Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2, the most famous Pocket PC (and Palm OS) titles of the Color Matching game category.
Both these titles have really excellent in-game music. The music of the first part was entirely composed by well-known Finnish musician Skaven aka Peter Hajba), the composer of the PC FPS megahit Unreal, well-known for its excellent music and sound. The music track (which is over 30 minutes long!) of Bejeweled 2 has been co-authored by him.
If you’d like to listen to these music tracks while not playing the game actively, just do the following:
get the games and install them
go to the home directory of the two titles (\Program Files\Astraware\Bejeweled\ and \Program Files\Astraware\Bejeweled2\ for the two titles when installed to the main storage)
with part I, the three tracked music files are named Bejeweled-music*.s3m, where * is either 1, 2 or 3. They can be played back with both reviewed applications
with part II, the over 30-minute-long music track is bejeweled2-music.it. As has been explained, you’ll need either Zerker’s plug-in to natively play it back or convert it to .XM to be played back in MilkyPlay.
BTW, as some additional information on the two games on both the Pocket PC and Palm OS multimedia-wise, following is a quick comparison of the latest versions:

mirror site for zerker's files
Zerker's webpage seems to be down, can anybody upload the plugins to the xda ftp or post a mirror site for downloading? Thanks

I'll try to find it.

Zerker MOD plugin
Zerker's website is back up. I hope it's okay to post the files here just in case. GSPlayer along with this plugin makes a very nice MOD player. I'm surprised why it has not so had much attention.

Audacity releases FREE (!) Audacity Personal DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) for the PPC

There are several sound recorder applications for the Pocket PC (please see the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible for more info.) Now, the previously Palm OS-only Audacity Personal DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) has also been ported to the Pocket PC.
The title is available for all WM2003+ operating systems and is accessible here.
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In this review, I “only” provide a list of pros and cons and compare the title to other PPC sound recorders.
Pros
Filename may contain full date / time (screenshot 1 2 3. Very few other PPC recorders are capable of the same (see the “Additional recording features: Auto recording numbering?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible and my Audio Memory System by Personal Memory Systems review). Currently, as far as non-MP3-recording (but either Speex or Ogg) is concerned, the best Resco is able to include both the date and time in filenames but it’s not so configurable as Audacity Personal DVR.
It can pause/resume (not possible with all recorders; see the “Recording pause/resume?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible) and even append to recordings (even rarer; see the “Append new recording to file?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible)
Alarms can be defined and added with your own recordings (as opposed to the built-in notification / alarm mechanism in Windows Mobile)
Buttons are freely redefinable for all the four types of dialogs / recording states. See here and here (button shortcuts on the Home dialog), here (Idle state), here (Record state) and here (Playback state). Note, however, that the hardware button support is certainly lacking; also see the Cons section on this.
You can start recording with a looooong-press of any (and the same) hardware button (after assigning Audacity to a button first in Settings / Buttons and assigning the same button to the Record functionality in the Home and the Idle dialogs / states and to either Stop or Pause/Resume for the Record and Playback states. (Remember, however, to disable the tutorial at startup by checking in the related checkbox!) Most alternative Pocket PC sound recorders require, in general, TWO button presses to achieve the same (see the “Buttons: One-button recording? Does it need to show the app window?” test in the Pocket PC Audio Recording Bible.
Free (currently)
Desktop-side file synchronization support
Cons
Exceptionally high CPU usage – much higher than with Notes or anything else only using built-in OS-level codecs (check out the related remarks in the Audio Recording Bible – you WILL see other apps, which are only based on the built-in codecs, consume far less power)! (Some figures: Dell Axim x51v: 25% at 624 MHz; Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720: 60% at 416 MHz.). This, unfortunately, not only means vastly reduced battery life when you make a lot of recording (and even playback! – unfortunately, the CPU usage is very high even when you play back stuff), but also skips in the recording on some devices as is the case for example on the HTC Wizard, even when overclocked to 240 MHz. These problems render the application useless on some models.
Only built-in codecs may be used, unlike with the Palm version (see the codec chart at the bottom of the page). A decent sound reorder should support something better than PCM WAV / GSM; for example, MP3 or Speex.
Doesn’t see CF cards in devices sporting them – an example x51v screenshot is here (the situation is exactly the same on all other devices with a CF slot; for example, the PL720). This also means it won’t be able to make recordings into file stores on pre-WM5 devices (and unlocked Extended ROM’s on PPC PE devices) either – only (mini / micro) SD cards.
It doesn’t handle the two side buttons on the Dell Axim x51v and Pocket Loox 720; there is no support for the HP iPAQ hx4700 side button either (tested on a WM5-upgraded device). On the HTC Wizard, it only handles the Camera, Mail, Wireless and Notes buttons (that is, there is no support for the Explorer button and the two WM5 softbuttons); this means at least you’ll be able to use it in the one-keypress mode if you redefine any of the supported (preferably side) buttons. The button referred to as the “Side button” (the only one to have a record functionality assigned to by default) is not supported on any of these devices; this means you MUST redefine one of the accessible buttons (which will be one of the front buttons on non-PPC PE models and can also be the side buttons on PPC PE models) in order to be able to use it to start / stop recording. The developers, as with many others not having read it, should read on my past tutorials / articles on enumerating the available buttons on a given Pocket PC ( Where does the PPC Registry store button mapping info - a tutorial (alternatives: PPC Magazine, BrightHand; make sure you also follow the link to More Programmers'/Hackers' Stuff, along with some cool Pocket Loox 7xx Hold Button Tips: More on Pocket PC Hardware Buttons for more info.). I’ve discussed this problem with the developers; they have assured me support for all accessible buttons will be implemented really soon.
No built-in screenoff support; all the utility offers is backlight dimming (but NOT locking – now, compare this to how Resco allows for full even button protection!) the screen after 30 seconds (independent of the system setting; that is, you don’t even need to enable screen dimming on the system level at all); see for example the button reassignment list above. Of course, you can still use independent screenoff utilities even assigned to hardware buttons, as long as you don’t re-map these buttons inside Personal DVR to inner functions. The fact that only screen dimming takes place also means the graphics-related excess CPU usage will always be a problem.
On the 624 MHz x51v, it takes seven seconds for the application to start recording when started anew – in no way so fast as Notes (not to talk about its CPU usage) or even most other alternative recorders. In this respect, preferring a two-buttonpress-required, but much faster-to-be-invoked recorder may pay out.

Verdict
As with many other direct Palm (and Symbian – see for example Lonely Cat Games’ products like ProfiMail and LGC Jukebox) ports (see for example my review of mVoice 5 by MotionApps, which suffers from exactly the same problem – that is, a title that has been one of the best on the Palm can’t really be compared to the commercial alternatives on the Pocket PC), this application isn’t really a match for current top-of-the-line, commercial (!) Pocket PC sound recorders like Resco – the Pocket PC platform is just far stronger, software-wise, than Palm.
However, given that it’s free (and I’m comparing it to commercial titles like Resco Audio Recorder), I still recommend it, particularly if you’re looking for a one (as opposed to most alternative Pocket PC recorders which almost all require two (consequent) presses) button-press application if you can live with the (current) limitations and problems (no CF, no support for side buttons of non-Phone devices, very high CPU usage, lack of screenoff, long activation time when it needs to be loaded etc.). Hope the problems will soon be ironed out in subsequent versions.
UPDATE (02/03/2007): PPCT frontpage

Updated review posted.

BREAKING NEWS: Infamous, top Linux multimedia player MPlayer is being ported to WM!

MPlayer is one of the most popular Linux/Unix media player. Now, thanks to XDA-Developers forum member amitv_17, the porting to Windows Mobile has started.
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(the main screen on a VGA Pocket PC; as can be seen, the View menu doesn’t contain much; the Tools menu results in an immediate exit)
(176*220 screenshot; as can be seen, on the MS Smartphone platform, the left softkey’s Exit, as is expected)
Availability, compatibility, installation
It’s available HERE, in the official XDA-Devs thread (mirror HERE) and is, of course, a free download. It seems to be compatible with most WM5 and WM6 Pocket PC’s and Smartphones. It seems it’s incompatible with pre-WM5 operating systems (tested this on my WM2003 HP iPAQ 2210).
Unzip the contents of the file to anywhere on your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. Start it by executing mplayer.exe. Then, you can select local file or stream playback. Both are pretty straightforward; in the latter case, make sure you enter the direct RTSP URL as can be seen in HERE, not for example HTTP one. Let me know if you don’t know how you can get for example .RM RSTP URL’s from a HTTP .RAM file.
Supported formats
It’s, theoretically, compatible with several sound and video formats (see their list at the above Wikipedia page). In practice, playback is still hampered by the, in cases, VERY bad performance and compatibility.
In addition to my H.264 (video) playback tests, I’ve made pretty thorough CPU usage tests with the most important audio formats it supports. The following figures have all been measured on a Dell Axim x51v running at 624 MHz. As can clearly be seen (particularly if you take the MP3 playback CPU usage into account), the results aren’t particularly good – alternative (better) players all have lower CPU usage. See THIS for more information. Note that 11% at 624 MHz translates to 33% at 208 MHz – the forced CPU frequency in the tests used in the linked document.
Flac: 5%
M4A (AAC): 16%
Ogg: 30%
MP3: 11%
WMA: - (incompatible)
(I’ve used my standardized audio test files – they’re the same I’ll use in my forthcoming Multimedia Bible.)
Note that while the MP3 playback “only” requires about 11% CPU time at 624 MHz, it still has severe problems when running in the background: it stutters when there’s some additional CPU usage (for example, you open a menu or anything). That is, it’s basically useless when not run in the foreground, with nothing else running.
Video playback is much-much worse and practically useless, unless you try to watch really low-quality, low-resolution and low-bitspeed videos. TCPMP or, even better, CorePlayer (the latter is an undisputed king of video playback on all mobile platforms) are way better.
Finally, RealAudio steaming (one of the best features of even the current, initial MPlayer release) is a CPU hog too and is pretty useless on slower models (read: you must overclock your ~200 MHz TI OMAP CPU’s if you want to listen to RealAudio radio stations).
Let me present you a list of the strengths and weaknesses of the current version:
The good
a HUGE arsenal of codecs and communications protocols already available; in this respect, it’s even better than CorePlayer (which, as of now, doesn’t support RTSP, albeit it will really soon be added)!
supports even RealAudio / RealVideo, unlike CorePlayer / TCPMP / ANY other Windows Mobile player (other than RealOne’s own player, of course). Note that the CoreCodec folks have announced (before the port of MPlayer) that they would never add RealOne support to CorePlayer because it's a proprietary format.
alternative HTTP tunneling with RTSP; working just GREAT with RealAudio streams! In this respect, it’s even better than RealPlayer on Symbian S60v3 FP1 (for example, the one that comes with the Nokia N95), because not even the latter supports HTTP RealOne audio/video streaming, “only” for MPEG4 video streaming (unlike HTC’s own and, in this respect, really incapable Streaming Media on Windows Mobile – see THIS for more info).
supports real (UDP-based) RTSP, which means better bandwidth utilization than with HTTP tunneling. Of course, it also means you must have direct access or a capable Wi-Fi network. This will only later (hopefully still this year) be added to CorePlayer (see THIS recent announcement if interested)
supports both (most) Pocket PC and MS Smartphone models (unfortunately, WM5+ only)
given that it’s the first version, pretty much promising
The bad
HUGE CPU usage when playing back streamed audio! For example, on the 195 MHz HTC Wizard, the CPU used for about 100% while playing back streamed, while on the 520 MHz XScale HTC Universal, running at 520 Mhz, about 97%, as can also be seen in THIS screenshot. On the 624 MHz Dell Axim x51v, it was “only” 72%. This means it’ll chew through your battery VERY fast and you won’t be able to use additional goodies like A2DP encoding at the same time without introducing MAJOR skipping. Note that this CPU usage is independent of the networking protocol used: with both UDP/RTSP and HTTP, the CPU usage is equally high. (Tested by trying to play back THIS Finnish stream (direct RM link: rtsp://ra.yle.fi/live/radiopeili.rm ).)
bad MP3 playback, very sensitive to CPU usage peaks – the same problem as with NoteM and unlike ANY other MP3 player for Windows Mobile
no WMA support
very-very rudimentary interface (albeit the D-pad and the Smartphone dialpads work for control)
streaming MPEG4 videos doesn’t work (as opposed to RealAudio); screenshots (trying to play back the stream rtsp://rtsp.youtube.com/youtube/videos/_CUFEnZeeYw/video.3gp?warned=1 ): 1 2 3 4 5 6
local (as opposed to streamed) MPEG4 videos do work. They are, however, very choppily played back; on VGA devices, only part of the screen is used as can be seen in THIS screenshot. The CPU usage is pretty bad too: on the x51v, playing back a 640*480 30 fps 2.6 Mbps H.264 video (taken on the Nokia N95 in high quality TV mode) took 80% CPU time (and still produced between 1 and 5 fps video, the video absolutely lagging compared to audio). CorePlayer 1.1.1, on the same PPC, played back the video without any frame drop and excellent high-resolution VGA – using the CPU only at 60%.
Verdict
It’s certainly nice to welcome Mplayer on Windows Mobile. While it’s a far cry away from established media players, particularly video playback-wise (in which it’s (still?) orders of magnitude worse than both TCPMP and, particularly, CorePlayer),
hope the developer develops it further and/or
he joins the CoreCodec team or sells / gives them the RealOne decoders so that CorePlayer, finally, receives support for these, particularly in streaming, widely used formats (can you hear me, CoreCodec team?! Now, it’s time to add RealOne support to CorePlayer! We DO need HTTP-based access to streamed content, which the official RealOne player is incapable of!) and
currently (as long as you don’t use a hard-to-configure Virtual Private Network) it’s your only way to play back RealAudio-based radio stations (if you can live with the enormous CPU usage, that is)
Finally, please consider donating the developer (donation link in the original XDA-Devs thread) so that he will continue working on the port.

BREAKING NEWS: Infamous, top Linux multimedia player MPlayer is being ported to WM!

MPlayer is one of the most popular Linux/Unix media player. Now, thanks to XDA-Developers forum member amitv_17, the porting to Windows Mobile has started.
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(the main screen on a VGA Pocket PC; as can be seen, the View menu doesn’t contain much; the Tools menu results in an immediate exit)
(176*220 screenshot; as can be seen, on the MS Smartphone platform, the left softkey’s Exit, as is expected)
Availability, compatibility, installation
It’s available HERE, in the official XDA-Devs thread (mirror HERE) and is, of course, a free download. It seems to be compatible with most WM5 and WM6 Pocket PC’s and Smartphones. It seems it’s incompatible with pre-WM5 operating systems (tested this on my WM2003 HP iPAQ 2210).
Unzip the contents of the file to anywhere on your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. Start it by executing mplayer.exe. Then, you can select local file or stream playback. Both are pretty straightforward; in the latter case, make sure you enter the direct RTSP URL as can be seen in HERE, not for example HTTP one. Let me know if you don’t know how you can get for example .RM RSTP URL’s from a HTTP .RAM file.
Supported formats
It’s, theoretically, compatible with several sound and video formats (see their list at the above Wikipedia page). In practice, playback is still hampered by the, in cases, VERY bad performance and compatibility.
In addition to my H.264 (video) playback tests, I’ve made pretty thorough CPU usage tests with the most important audio formats it supports. The following figures have all been measured on a Dell Axim x51v running at 624 MHz. As can clearly be seen (particularly if you take the MP3 playback CPU usage into account), the results aren’t particularly good – alternative (better) players all have lower CPU usage. See THIS for more information. Note that 11% at 624 MHz translates to 33% at 208 MHz – the forced CPU frequency in the tests used in the linked document.
Flac: 5%
M4A (AAC): 16%
Ogg: 30%
MP3: 11%
WMA: - (incompatible)
(I’ve used my standardized audio test files – they’re the same I’ll use in my forthcoming Multimedia Bible.)
Note that while the MP3 playback “only” requires about 11% CPU time at 624 MHz, it still has severe problems when running in the background: it stutters when there’s some additional CPU usage (for example, you open a menu or anything). That is, it’s basically useless when not run in the foreground, with nothing else running.
Video playback is much-much worse and practically useless, unless you try to watch really low-quality, low-resolution and low-bitspeed videos. TCPMP or, even better, CorePlayer (the latter is an undisputed king of video playback on all mobile platforms) are way better.
Finally, RealAudio steaming (one of the best features of even the current, initial MPlayer release) is a CPU hog too and is pretty useless on slower models (read: you must overclock your ~200 MHz TI OMAP CPU’s if you want to listen to RealAudio radio stations).
Let me present you a list of the strengths and weaknesses of the current version:
The good
a HUGE arsenal of codecs and communications protocols already available; in this respect, it’s even better than CorePlayer (which, as of now, doesn’t support RTSP, albeit it will really soon be added)!
supports even RealAudio / RealVideo, unlike CorePlayer / TCPMP / ANY other Windows Mobile player (other than RealOne’s own player, of course). Note that the CoreCodec folks have announced (before the port of MPlayer) that they would never add RealOne support to CorePlayer because it's a proprietary format.
alternative HTTP tunneling with RTSP; working just GREAT with RealAudio streams! In this respect, it’s even better than RealPlayer on Symbian S60v3 FP1 (for example, the one that comes with the Nokia N95), because not even the latter supports HTTP RealOne audio/video streaming, “only” for MPEG4 video streaming (unlike HTC’s own and, in this respect, really incapable Streaming Media on Windows Mobile – see THIS for more info).
supports real (UDP-based) RTSP, which means better bandwidth utilization than with HTTP tunneling. Of course, it also means you must have direct access or a capable Wi-Fi network. This will only later (hopefully still this year) be added to CorePlayer (see THIS recent announcement if interested)
supports both (most) Pocket PC and MS Smartphone models (unfortunately, WM5+ only)
given that it’s the first version, pretty much promising
The bad
HUGE CPU usage when playing back streamed audio! For example, on the 195 MHz HTC Wizard, the CPU used for about 100% while playing back streamed, while on the 520 MHz XScale HTC Universal, running at 520 Mhz, about 97%, as can also be seen in THIS screenshot. On the 624 MHz Dell Axim x51v, it was “only” 72%. This means it’ll chew through your battery VERY fast and you won’t be able to use additional goodies like A2DP encoding at the same time without introducing MAJOR skipping. Note that this CPU usage is independent of the networking protocol used: with both UDP/RTSP and HTTP, the CPU usage is equally high. (Tested by trying to play back THIS Finnish stream (direct RM link: rtsp://ra.yle.fi/live/radiopeili.rm ).)
bad MP3 playback, very sensitive to CPU usage peaks – the same problem as with NoteM and unlike ANY other MP3 player for Windows Mobile
no WMA support
very-very rudimentary interface (albeit the D-pad and the Smartphone dialpads work for control)
streaming MPEG4 videos doesn’t work (as opposed to RealAudio); screenshots (trying to play back the stream rtsp://rtsp.youtube.com/youtube/videos/_CUFEnZeeYw/video.3gp?warned=1 ): 1 2 3 4 5 6
local (as opposed to streamed) MPEG4 videos do work. They are, however, very choppily played back; on VGA devices, only part of the screen is used as can be seen in THIS screenshot. The CPU usage is pretty bad too: on the x51v, playing back a 640*480 30 fps 2.6 Mbps H.264 video (taken on the Nokia N95 in high quality TV mode) took 80% CPU time (and still produced between 1 and 5 fps video, the video absolutely lagging compared to audio). CorePlayer 1.1.1, on the same PPC, played back the video without any frame drop and excellent high-resolution VGA – using the CPU only at 60%.
Verdict
It’s certainly nice to welcome Mplayer on Windows Mobile. While it’s a far cry away from established media players, particularly video playback-wise (in which it’s (still?) orders of magnitude worse than both TCPMP and, particularly, CorePlayer),
hope the developer develops it further and/or
he joins the CoreCodec team or sells / gives them the RealOne decoders so that CorePlayer, finally, receives support for these, particularly in streaming, widely used formats (can you hear me, CoreCodec team?! Now, it’s time to add RealOne support to CorePlayer! We DO need HTTP-based access to streamed content, which the official RealOne player is incapable of!) and
currently (as long as you don’t use a hard-to-configure Virtual Private Network) it’s your only way to play back RealAudio-based radio stations (if you can live with the enormous CPU usage, that is)
Finally, please consider donating the developer (donation link in the original XDA-Devs thread) so that he will continue working on the port.

This is great news and is definitely something to keep an eye on! I've always been a big fan of MPlayer as it plays pretty much anything you throw at it. I even run it on my Windows boxes.

Menneisyys said:
Finally, please consider donating the developer (donation link in the original XDA-Devs thread) so that he will continue working on the port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can i download the source code ?

REVIEW & COMPARISON: Spb Online

The Spb folks have just released their online portal, Spb Online. Three other reviews have already been published (some hours ago) on it. Therefore, I've paid special attention to elaborating on issues not discussed in the other reviews, particularly when it comes to comparing Spb Online to the competing alternatives – after all, I've published several articles on several areas Spb Online implemented: radio and TV streaming, podcasting and multiplayer games.
That is, first, read the linked reviews (links below); then, you can safely read on to see what additional, comparative (!!) information I have for you. You will NOT want to read further without reading the other review first as I have only concentrated on the areas they didn't discuss (for example, multiplayer games, streaming compatibility, CPU usage, adding non-implemented functionality via Registry hacking etc.)
Let's start with the multiplayer games.
Multiplayer games
Spb Online (SO for short) uses a central server-based approach, which means you must have a constant Internet connection to play opponents. You aren't allowed to select your opponent; that is, you will be assigned an opponent (or, if there aren't any, just the CPU) in a completely random fashion as soon as you start the game. Unfortunately, there aren't other goodies like in-game messaging / chatting either.
An in-game screenshot of checkers played against a human opponent and showing his data:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
In the game options, in addition to the sound volume, you can set your level (what opponents the game should look for upon startin a new game):
In addition to the (few) built-in board games, SO also offers the possibility to purchase applications and games from their online store, right from the program, without ever having to fire up a Web browser.
The built-in support for directly browsing and purchasing software is very nice and easy-to-use. However, currently, it only offers very few titles. For example, as far as games are concerned, it only offers - in addition to Spb's games – titles by Concerte Software, SimbSoft and, in general, the not very good OmniG Software:
Fortunately, it also allows for over-the-air downloads of trial versions whenever available. See the Download Trial link in the following screenshot:

Unfortunately, there's no way of changing the download / saving path from inside the app; this may cause problems if you, by mistake, provide it with a volume not even having 4-5 Mbyte free space:
Fortunately, this can be fixed by simply deleting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Spb Online Shell\DownloadFolder in the Registry and restarting the app (this hack has been found out by me). Then, you'll be asked again for the target path:
It, of course, has a built-in dialog for entering credit card info; that is, you in no way need to depend on an external Web browser:
Unfortunately, there's no PayPal support at all.
Note that the non-gaming part of the online shop contains some other third-party apps; for example, those of Conduits in the Multimedia category:

and that of SBSH in the Business category:
News (RSS) Reader
This module is almost the same as Spb Insight, Spb's RSS reader. It's a solid reader but in no way as powerful as, say, Newsbreak. For example, it has absolutely no podcatching capabilities (see THIS for more info).
TV
The TV module has the best features when it comes to picture-in-picture, TV guide and quick preview. However, the lack of the ability of adding new TV channels certainly decrease the usability of this module. Sure, I know accessing the guide needed to be "wired in" to SO; however, the Spb folks may want to either provide an API (via, say, XML or plain text config files) to be able to configure the program to add new streams.
You can disable any of the (few) wired-in TV stations:
Remember that you can still watch other TV streams – in other apps like CorePlayer or the built-in WMP. Please see my dedicated articles on this.
As a quick summary, the pros of the TV module:
Moderate CPU usage (in no way worse than the alternatives). For example, I've very thoroughly benchmarked the WMV-based Sky News mms://live1.wm.skynews.servecast.net/skynews_wmlz_live300k stream. I got the following results: Spb Online: ~36% (vertically stretched to full screen); WMP: ~40%; CP: ~41% (both 320*180). That is, the results are excellent.
PIP (excellent!)
Quick preview (excellent!)
Advanced TV guide functionality (excellent!)
And the cons:
There's absolutely no way of adding new channel URL's. This is quite big a problem as there are very few streams in the app. Just look at the sheer number of available channels at WWITV - about half of them are WMV and, therefore, can be directly streamed on Windows Mobile, using the built-in WMP! Hope this bug will be fixed in the next version. Adding URL's will only work with the Radio program.
Radio
It also has support for radio streaming, using the same finger-friendly interface. Unlike with the TV module, this support adding URL's:
Stream compliance-wise, it's not compatible with SHOUTcast HE-AACv2 and MP3 streams (THIS, THIS) (aac+) and THIS (MP3): the player either stalls at Opening or displays Invalid header information. That is, it's only compatible with WMA streams like THIS - you won't be able to listen to for example SHOUTcast stations at all. (Links HERE and HERE for more info & links)
The built-in station directory is pretty nice and has about the same number of well-structured stations as the competing, (in this regard) comparable products; most importantly, Resco Pocket Radio and LCG Jukebox (see THIS for more info; as you can see, the third product in this category, Mundu Radio, as far fewer pre-defined stations).
The recently-released Kinoma Play, the (current, at least before the release of CorePlayer 1.3 with the new channel support) king of connected streaming players is, of course, much better. Kinoma's built-in station list just can't be compared to that of SO: in addition to WMA stations, Kinoma also lists SHOUTcast stations, covering both MP3 and AAC+ (but, being not compatible with the format, not OGG) – and, of course, a LOT of TV stations. Opposed to this, SO only lists WMA radio stations (it being completely unable to stream SHOUTcast stations) and the pre-defined, very few TV streams. Add the non-existing compatibility with the widely used SHOUTcast formats: you'll still want to keep other radio streamer clients (Kinoma Play, GSPlayer etc.) on your handset if you're a radio fan – there will be a lot of stations you won't be able to listen to using SO.
Other stuff
There's also a weather and a ringtone purchasing module in SO.
Verdict
I agree with the other reviews: this title is a bit expensive if you already have an RSS reader, a weather or a radio app. Otherwise, you may want to give it a try, particularly if you love playing multiplayer games or want to use the advanced capabilities of the TV module.
Other reviews
Spb Online Review - Verdict: Too Expensive for What You Get (pocketnow; very terse)
Software Review: SPB Online (mobiletechaddicts)
Review: SPB Online (wmexperts)

I have to say, I've been waiting for them to release this publicly so I could try it. But, I was very dissapointed in it personally. The TV part of the app looked like a great MobiTV replacement, until I saw the channel lineup.
I guess it's not half bad, considering it has the same great UI as Mobile Shell, but I think it's a bit too much packed in to one app, considering I've already purchased Insight.
If the Catalog & Themes features weren't included, I'd consider the purchase.