My Goal: No Forcing True VGA...

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 02:55 AM

My goal is to not have to install any VGA forcing software (like ozVGA, etc). So far I've been impressed. I've played some games (ToyGolf) and watched videos on TCPMP. Both of which, as I understand it, work fine in VGA and don't require any special program.

My next goal is internet browsing. I want a free web browser that will take advantage of VGA - basically giving me 4x the real estate like I like. I noticed IE with VGA screen looks good but it appears some graphics it automatically scales to be bigger, some it leaves smaller, and it does the same with certain bits of text. I'm looking for a browser that basically gives me 1 pixel = 1 pixel, and none of the IE scaling so it looks the same on VGA as it does QVGA.

Does that make sense?

I'm hearing news of Opera for Pocket PC - someone said they had it. How does it work, is there somewhere to download it?

I heard Netfront is good - but its a pay for, and its a bit out of my range (Basically I don't want to pay more than $5 for software, maybe $10 if its really good).

Secondly, besides Internet I need a good audio playing program that takes advantage of VGA. I'd like something that looks good, but most importantly provides lots of screen real estate for playlists. Is there one like this or am I just being too picky.

Basically I want my pocket PC for a few things: 1) Games 2) Movies/Video 3) Audio (car and mp3 player) and 4) Internet

I didn't really get it as an organizer, although I might use it for that if I get smart and organized... So I'm looking for programs specifically for that.

Again, I'm not against paying if its VERY cheap, but I hesistate to buy anything over $10.

bnlsn · 01-06-06, 03:33 AM

There aren't really any good free VGA browsers. Minimo (a browser from Mozilla), which does have true vga, does not work on most axims (or so I've heard) and is still in beta. As for audio, both MortPlayer and GSPlayer (there is a special VGA version) should both work (mort has more features but is slower and GSPlayer is fast but simple) as they both look ok on VGA and display playlists

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by bnlsn

There aren't really any good free VGA browsers. Minimo (a browser from Mozilla), which does have true vga, does not work on most axims (or so I've heard) and is still in beta. As for audio, both MortPlayer and GSPlayer (there is a special VGA version) should both work (mort has more features but is slower and GSPlayer is fast but simple) as they both look ok on VGA and display playlists

Thanks, I'm contemplating buying Pocke

I heard great things about Netfront, and thought maybe i'll plunk down money for it, then I saw it was $30... I'm not paying that.

Does using ozVGA or the other one force IE to do VGA without pixel doubling. I actally found it interesting that when using IE at first during a page load it almost appears to load without pixel doubling, then suddenly everything elarges - is there a way to force IE to accept it pixel for pixel?

Also I noticed MultiIE - does it work well, its cheaper, but still more than I'd want to pay...

Carrot007 · 01-06-06, 05:16 AM

> Minimo (a browser from Mozilla), which does have true vga, does not work on most axims (or so I've heard)

As far as I know that was fixed a few releases back. I'll have a check.

Yup current status is given as:

Device Minimo working Notes
Axim x50v Maybe Works w/ WM5.0 upgrade and version .010
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/dougt...es/008927.html
Axim x51v Yes Tested w/ .010

Worth a try then! I certainly will give it a go when my x51v arrives!

get it here.
http://www.meer.net/~dougt/minimo_ce/

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 02:06 PM

Downloading - will say how I like it.

Does it work with VGA? Or is it going to pull an PIE on me and pixel double?

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 02:13 PM

Its downloaded and installed - thanks for the link.

Heres my impression of it after using it for a short while:

It definately is True VGA judging by the tiny print - which is exactly what I wanted.

I can't say i'm terribly impressed. It does what it said and wraps stuff aroudn the screen so theres no horizontal scroll bar - I'm going to see if I can force it to NOT do that.

Its a bit buggy and slow... i'll update you as I play around more with it. Its pretty unresponsive, I'd say its not very usable yet :(

Edit: In the settings you can turn SSR off (the wrap crap) so you can get it to display pages pretty true - but the buttons are really unresponsive, adn its hard to even get into the settings...

01-06-06, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by Trav2003

Its downloaded and installed - thanks for the link.

Heres my impression of it after using it for a short while:

It definately is True VGA judging by the tiny print - which is exactly what I wanted.

I can't say i'm terribly impressed. It does what it said and wraps stuff aroudn the screen so theres no horizontal scroll bar - I'm going to see if I can force it to NOT do that.

Its a bit buggy and slow... i'll update you as I play around more with it. Its pretty unresponsive, I'd say its not very usable yet :(

Are you talking about Minimo?

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by oly8080

Are you talking about Minimo?

Yeah.... Minimo

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 02:24 PM

Looks much better with SSR or whatever it is turned off - especially on a VGA device. Load time is a bit on the long side, but viewing web pages the way they're meant to be viewed is a definate plus, and seeing it take advantage of a VGA screen is also nice. It would, however, be nice to have the top bar much bigger, as its also taking advantage of VGA and its very tiny, yet the top and bottom scroll bars are fairly large... Very interesting, still not perfect, and I don't see a way to do multiple windows, but i'll keep playing around.

My one gripe is, for the life of me, I just can't get to the settings window. I did once, but not i just have to keep tapping the button hoping to get the menu to pop up.

Edit 2: It does have tabbed browsing, adding a tab is on the same window as the settings, its just a pain to get the settings window up.

So heres what I can say so far:

Pros:
True VGA - lots of a site viewable.
Tabbed Browsing - Whats not to like about that?

Cons:
Slow and unresponsive at times.
Hard to bring up menues.
No portrait mode as far as I can tell - and that'd be nice on a browser.

01-06-06, 02:47 PM

heres my advice...
Get the Netfront 3.3 beta demo release. Save all your favorites as a HTML file and make it your homepage and use that. Its beautiful...

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by awdark

heres my advice...
Get the Netfront 3.3 beta demo release. Save all your favorites as a HTML file and make it your homepage and use that. Its beautiful...

Where can I get it? Is it disabled in any way?

And does it only have a certain trial period?

I assume you mean the technical preview - i'm giving it a go.

Marcello · 01-06-06, 03:04 PM

You really only have two options: Minimo and Netfront.

Minimo is in alpha/prerelease as far as the interface is concerned, however it uses the mozilla/firefox gecko rendering engine plus full javascript support so you won't get much better than that. They also have a fairly active forum and you can submit bug reports and feature requests. Most if not all of the problems you mentioned have been reported and theoretically will eventually be fixed.

However, as you can see, it's an open-source endeavor, this means people are donating their time to improve it. You cannot really complain unless you want to contribute.

Next up, Netfront. It's not free, but is surprisingly stable and they do discounts from time to time (I picked up a copy of 3.1 for my x5 for $20 with Java). If you want a great browser (albeit not as great as minimo's html/js support), *now*, then you'll have to shell out. Try the 3.3 preview release (they haven't actually started selling it last I checked---this is the version that supports VGA) and see how you like it.

Except for the dns/lookup delay, I find pie not half-bad. The image doubling is actually pretty useful (if you find the qvga icons in minimo hard to click on a vga display, what makes you think icons on a website would be a any different?)

Anyway, good luck.

For audio/mp3: gsplayer2 vga port
For video: the core
For games: ones that come with it? not too many cheap/free vga games out
Solterra was free last I checked. if they're still doing that.

Trav2003 · 01-06-06, 03:10 PM

I'm playing around with 3.3 TP - I like it quite a bit.

I have the core for video - as thats pretty much a run away facorite.

I'll try GSPlayer, basically i've heard either GSPlayer or Mortplayer are the 2 best.

I'm contemplating Mort player because of the car button mode, and I probably will use it in my car for mp3's.

thx138 · 01-06-06, 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by Trav2003

I'm hearing news of Opera for Pocket PC - someone said they had it. How does it work, is there somewhere to download it?

Opera 8.5 is running on my X51V.
Check this link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=35595

Note that this version of Opera is a functionally-limited release and originally locked for Sharp W-Zero3, Japan-specific WM5 device.

medgirl2001 · 01-06-06, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by Trav2003

Where can I get it? Is it disabled in any way?

And does it only have a certain trial period?

I wanted to ask this question, too - I understand that NetFront 3.3 is a beta, but will it expire?