okay, there has been debate about the best media player out there for free, & im gonna try to resolve this. I will review TCPMP, Winvibe, Mortplayer, & GSplayer.
The following is tested on my X51V, please note i do not have a wm2003 device to test these on any.
TCPMP
TCPMP (the core pocket media player), also known as betaplayer, has been popular for quite a while. I found it when i had my axim for about 2 months, & it easily beats the mobile version of windows media player. I was excited to hear about divx & xvid support, along with nearly every other audio & video format available. upon opening the settings, i found a plethora of audio settings, speed, zoom, & even pixel aspect ratio. The video, when recorded in divx, works flawlessly, but wmv is very slow & often skips frames. The best feature is how quick this media player works, im suprised it could keep up with me. Audio Is crystal clear, that is, when the equalizer is set correctly. TCPMP has a tendency to become disorted at high volume levels, & also creates an annoying hiss when music is paused or if the music is quiet. I wish TCPMP had skinnability, i hate the plain-jane looks.
Pros:
Excellent video playback
Millions of settings
Support for nearly every photo, video, & audio format
Cons:
looks
disortion at high levels
hiss when music is paused or quiet
Conclusion: if you're looking for an all-around video/audio player, then tcpmp may be your anwser.
Winvibe
Winvibe, a newer audio only player that i found recently on aximsite, is an excellent alternative if you want a "snazzier" display or better options. I tested Winvibe's 3d-chorus & reverb settings. on lite rock & orchestral songs, they work well, but disable it on techno or other loud music; it just ruins it. i really like the visualizations, though i would prefer them to bee full-screen; they are still nice. CPU usage has been a complaint though, nearly taking the whole processor sometimes. Album art? i dont think this has support for it, ive used several skins & settings, but there is no support. audio quality is superb, no fuzz, static, or hiss, even when turned all the way up. Unfortunately, winvibe does not support video.
Pros:
excellent audio quality
skins are high quality
simple controls
cons:
not as versatile as other players
No album art
conclusion: Winvibe does an excellent job of playing audio, yet it may be too simple for some people.
GSplayer
GSplayer (green soft player) is an mp3/ogg player with plugin and skinning support. An interesting feature is the midi support, which uses the GM table.
GSplayer has some nice skins, and landscape support. although some unique features are available on gsplayer, it lacks some features i consider important (equalizer, 3d & reverb, ect.) mp3 playback is good, showing info on the current song. I would prefer a different table for the midi, The audio sounds like a soundcard off a pentium I.
Pros:
Quick & easy to use
Plug-ins can be downloaded
unique features
WM5 version
cons:
no EQ
Where's the album art?
midi is poor quality
Conclusion: if you are looking for a easy-to-use player with midi support, then i suggest GSplayer.
Mortplayer
Mortplayer, popular among many pocket pc users, is considered by many the best audio player for ppc. When i started up Mortplayer, it led me through a little tutorial on basic usage (playlist editing, controls, ect.) & i played a few songs. mp3 playback quality, is by far, the best i have heard. The output is not very good on the stock speaker, i suggest connecting a small set of stereo speakers to the headphone jacks. for an audiophile like me, what i liked was the extensive settings & options, & the skins are nice. However, the controls can take a while to get used to, & may be too complicated for many. Landscape mode works well, but i wanted video playback on Mortplayer.
Pros:
Excellent audio quality
album art
loads of options & settings
cons:
may be too complicated for some people
no video support
takes a while to load
conclusion: if you want a load of options & excellent themes, i recommend mortplayer.
I hope this guide helped you on choosing one (or several) freeware media players.
:approve: :approve: :approve:
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Axim X51v with a12 update & lots o' programs
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Last edited by thebigbread; 02-18-07 at 05:03 PM.
Reason: Updated
For TCPMP I would add the loads of supported formats (incl. video) to "Pros", and the somewhat complicated handling for audio (tiny buttons, or even only reachable by menu and assignment to application buttons) to "Cons".
GSPlayer has the same audio routines as MortPlayer. This means, GSPlayer has an equalizer and effects (though a bit hidden in the menu) and MortPlayer also supports GSPlayer plugins. Additionally to the MIDI plugin, there's a quite good MOD plugin around which is based on bassmod. A WMP plugin is worked on, but there seem to be some difficulties with the plugin interface...
Well, and of course the audio quality should be equal, though there seem to be minor differences caused by different CPU usage and different default buffer settings.
For MortPlayer, I'd also like to mention the "Changer Mode". AFAIK there's still no other player around that allows you use like the common MP3 player: Insert card, scan directory structure (in MP limited to "favorites" so you don't get e.g. sound effects of games, and it won't last forever to scan the entire card), and then select the directory with a finger friendly dialog or cycle between directories with prev./next favorite buttons. And when a directory is played, it switches to the next one.
OK, while this often makes it easier to use once you got the idea, it's quite uncommon and does a big deal to the "may be too complicated for some people"...
That's funny, I just wrote up a review of the same four applications (plus I threw in Winampaq just to make it an even five) for Download Squad a few weeks ago.
I agree that MortPlayer's pretty much the best of the bunch if you want the most features. My only complaint is that it has so many features that are accessed in so many different submenus that figuring out how to do things like load a playlist on startup isn't the most intuitive process.
You can check out my review (with a few screenshots) here.
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I really want to use GSPlayer, I really do, but I won't TOUCH that program until they allow the user to add folders of MP3s (like Pocket Player does) I don't use playlists! If anyone has a solution to this, please please please please please let me know!
MortPlayer may be functional, but it is ugly as hell, even with the best skins.
I really want to use GSPlayer, I really do, but I won't TOUCH that program until they allow the user to add folders of MP3s (like Pocket Player does) I don't use playlists! If anyone has a solution to this, please please please please please let me know!
MortPlayer may be functional, but it is ugly as hell, even with the best skins.
Have you tried the MyPod, Glass, or Dark Glass skins for Mortplayer? I think they look way better than the default GSPlayer skin.
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Sompy ripped off the TCPMP source code... Without acknowledgement, IIRC.And without some filters to boot. I'd put it in with TCPMP for the round up...or just ignore it.
Sompy ripped off the TCPMP source code... Without acknowledgement, IIRC.And without some filters to boot. I'd put it in with TCPMP for the round up...or just ignore it.
Except for the fact Sompy is looking like TCPMP, any proof of what you're saying:rolling: btw wasn't TCPMP freeware like the source code too
Except for the fact Sompy is looking like TCPMP, any proof of what you're saying:rolling: btw wasn't TCPMP freeware like the source code too
That was a discussion on the old CoreCodec forums, linked here which mentions that SOMPY's media player took the GPL'd source code for TCPMP as well as the Haali Matroska Parser Library and incorporated it into the SOMPY software... but without either giving credit to the sources OR allowing their source code to be available to everyone, as per the GNU General Public License (which specifies that any GPL-derived software's sourcecode be available to the community). It's one thing to use TCPMP sourcecode in your own application; that's allowed, under the terms of the GPL - but you have to make it available to everyone else in return... which SOMPY technically has not, and on top of that you have to credit the people whose software you borrowed from (which SOMPY has not).
When the people who created the application say that it's been ripped off, I tend to believe them. As noted by other reviewers, SOMPY is pretty much like TCPMP but with fewer codecs available to it... so I'd either ignore it alltogether, or just consider it to be 'TCPMP' as far as the reviews go.
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