Using Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers and Windows Media Player 10
Published: August 25, 2004
By Galan Bridgman, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
It was inevitable. It was long anticipated. For many, it was anxiously awaited. Technology advances have now made truly portable digital video devices a reality. Families couldn’t imagine long trips anymore without either portable DVD players or built-in DVD players in the family mini-van. DVD rental stands in airports attest to the popularity of watching DVDs on notebooks or built-in systems on planes. But the flexibility and power of choice available in portable audio players has so far been elusive with respect to video. Until now, that is.
Microsoft, recognizing the technology trends and the latent consumer interest, has now teamed up with Creative Labs, Samsung and iRiver to introduce a new category of portable device, the Portable Media Center. With a user interface a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC owner will feel right at home with, Portable Media Center sports a combination of power, battery life, and ease of use that should make it a hit.
A Portable Media Center offers four media-related capabilities: audio, pictures, recorded TV, and video. Windows Media Player 10, introduced this month in beta, makes synchronizing media with your Windows XP PC a snap.
Barb Bowman covers the user interface, pictures, recorded TV, and output to a TV in depth in her column, Viewing recorded TV on a Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center.
I will focus primarily on music and video, and what you are synchronizing with Windows Media Player 10.
Now, I have to admit, it actually took me a while to warm to this device. I finally discovered that the reason was that I had just been "testing the waters," with temporary relationships and poking and prodding around. Once I took the plunge and made a permanent relationship and enabled all the features that would make using the device easy, such as Auto Sync and background conversion, and I got comfortable with how it all worked, then my excitement and appreciation for it grew, and I started having a lot of fun with it. So my encouragement to you is, “Come on in, the water’s fine!”
Figure 1: Choose to make a permanent relationship.
Figure 2: Then choose to automatically synchronize.
The Basics
Windows Mobile software for Portable Media Center is built atop the Windows CE 5.0 operating system, and presents a customized user interface very much modeled after the Windows XP Media Center Edition PC. Portable Media Centers connect via USB 2.0 cable to a PC running any version of Windows XP and synchronize content using Windows Media Player 10. With Windows Media Player 10 installed on your PC, the devices are recognized upon connection as supporting the Media Transport Protocol (MTP), and Windows Media Player communicates with it as a next-generation media device that may support features such as pictures and video not present in older portable devices. It queries the device capabilities upon connection, and presents the appropriate options to the user.
Video
Let’s start right off the bat looking at the Portable Media Center’s video capabilities, as that’s what everyone is looking at to differentiate it from other portable media players.
As you’re undoubtedly aware, video files are typically quite large. Every second of video is roughly equal to 30 digital pictures. In a two-hour movie, that’s 216,000 pictures. Granted, video compression is better than JPEG, but as you can see, it’s still a lot of data. Not to mention the fact that a DVD, for example, has 4.5 times the resolution per frame than the Portable Media Center supports. So how does Portable Media Center deal with that much data? It converts it to a format more suitable to its capabilities. First, it scales the frames to fit the screen, 320 x 240 in the current devices. Secondly, it converts high bit rate data that would incapacitate a device of low CPU performance capabilities relative to a PC to a rate and complexity within its range.
This conversion is done with the help of Windows Media Player 10, and an encoding profile that’s specifically suited to its capabilities. Each device communicates its capabilities via MTP to Windows Media Player, which then selects the optimum profile for that device. The default profile for the Zen Portable Media Center from Creative Labs, for example, has a bit rate of 800 Kbps. The user can also select a profile that has a lower bit rate, if their desire is to get additional hours of content on the device while sacrificing some quality. If you intend to display your content on a TV, I suggest you stick with the default profile, as artifacts in the video are stretched on a large TV screen, and you’ll want to minimize those artifacts by encoding at the highest possible quality. But if you intend to watch your videos only on the screen of the device, a lesser profile would be okay.
To select a different profile:
1. | In Windows Media Player 10, click on Tools, then click Options, and then click the Devices tab. |
2. | Select your Portable Media Center device and click Properties. |
3. | On the Quality tab, click Select quality level and then move the slider to the desired bit rate. |
Note: DRM protected content cannot be converted to another bit rate, so it is important you not attempt to synchronize DRM content that is known to exceed the capabilities of the device.
AVI and MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files will also be converted, if the right codecs are installed on your PC to decode them.
Supported digital media file types include:
| • | Windows Media Video and Photo Story files (.wmv, .asf) at a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and at a bit rate less than 800 kbps |
| • | Windows Media Audio files (.wma) |
| • | MP3 audio files (.mp3) |
| • | JPEG image files (.jpg, .jpg, .jpe, .jfif) |
Windows Media Player converts some other compatible files to Windows Media Video and Windows Media Audio file formats to play on the Portable Media Center:
| • | Windows Media and Photo Story files (.wmv, .asf) at a resolution higher than 320 x 240 pixels and/or at a bit rate higher than 800 kbps |
| • | Microsoft Recorded TV Show file (.dvr-ms) |
| • | MPEG movie file (.mpeg, .mpg, mpe, .m1v, .mp2v, .mpeg2) Compatibility of some file formats is dependent on third party software. |
| • | Windows Video file (.avi) Compatibility of some file formats is dependent on third party software. |
| • | Windows Audio file (.wav) |
Now that we’ve covered the basics on video playback and conversion, stop for a moment and consider the kind of videos that you would find exciting to carry with you on a device like this. Movie buffs will no doubt want full-length movies on their Portable Media Center device. No problem, you can probably fit about 30 full-length movies on one with a 20-GB disk. TV buffs will find they can fit about 160 half-hour shows on it. But then there’s the “priceless” variety of videos. You know, the home movies of your family. Again, 80 hours or so of video is enough to wear out your welcome at any relative’s house. Except grandparents, of course.
You can also play Photo Story movies on your Portable Media Center device, which is a great combination of storage efficiency and the creativity of user-authored slideshows with background music and narration. If the Photo Story-created video you synchronize with your device falls within the capabilities of the device, it will not convert it. If it exceeds the device capabilities, such as 640x480 resolution, for example, then the file will be converted to a profile that meets the specs. It will not, however, convert the format to a non-Photo Story (Image Video 9) codec, thereby preserving both the storage efficiency and the image quality.
Videos created with Windows Movie Maker will, of course, be treated like any other format. Format conversion will only be performed when necessary. In addition, when you install the software that comes with your Portable Media Center, a special profile for Movie Maker designed for the capabilities of your device will be installed into Movie Maker’s profiles directory. You can thus create movies directly targeting your device that will require no conversion.
Music
If you have a large library of your music collection digitized and on your PC, chances are you have a portable audio player as well. As you know from competing audio-only products, a 20 gigabyte (GB) device will store about 300 hours of high-quality audio, or 4,000 songs or more. Many people now have more than this in their Windows Media Player Media Library, but for a portable device, thousands of songs should be good for just about any road trip.
As it does with video, Windows Media Player 10 will automatically convert audio files if necessary to accommodate the capabilities of your device. You also have the option of selecting the bit rate you want your files encoded at. This is done on a per-device basis.
To select the bit rate for music:
1. | In Windows Media Player 10, with your Portable Media Center device connected, click on Tools, then Options, and then click on the Devices tab. |
2. | Select your Portable Media Center device and click on Properties. |
3. | Click on the Quality tab, click on Select quality level in the Music quality level group. |
4. | Slide the quality bar to the desired bit rate. When you have made your settings, click OK. |
One important new feature to the Portable Media Center and Windows Media Player 10 is the improved capabilities in buying, playing, and transferring DRM-protected content to your Portable Media Center device. The DRM version commonly known by the codename “Janus” is included in the Portable Media Center OS image. The digital rights of music purchased from online music stores like MSN Music and Napster can now transferred, along with the content, to and from Portable Media Center devices.
Pictures
JPEG pictures taken with digital cameras can be quite large, as they are often very high resolution. Just as with video and audio files, these digital pictures are converted to 320 x 240 JPEG images suitable for your device’s display screen. They are approximately 20 to 40 KB each, depending on complexity. This means a 20 GB disk could hold about 630,000 pictures. That is, if you had nothing else to put on it. But this, I’m sure, will not be the case once you’ve read Barb’s column for details on how to play music in the background while displaying a slideshow of your pictures.
A playlist for pictures is called a slide show. As you navigate across the categories at the top menu of the my pictures screen, you’ll notice that each category has a play slide show menu item. Playlists or slideshows for pictures are automatically generated. There’s one at the top level that plays all of your pictures, and there’s one for each folder you’ve created and synchronized to your device which plays all the pictures in that folder as a slideshow.
You can also sort your pictures by name or date.
Creating Playlists
There are two types of playlists, Windows Media Player playlists and portable playlists that are on the Portable Media Center device. The portable playlist is for music only.
To create a playlist on the Portable Media Center device:
1. | On the Portable Media Center menu, select my music. |
2. | Navigate to a song in your library and select it. Then select the Add to portable playlist item. (You can also add Genres, Albums and Artists to the portable playlist the same way.) |
3. | To clear the portable playlist, navigate to the playlists category of my music and select Remove all from playlist. |
You have a lot of control over playlists in Windows Media Player 10. Songs can be added and removed from playlists, and you can choose which playlists are synchronized to the Portable Media Center device. But keep in mind that only playlists containing music will be synchronized to the Portable Media Center device.
To create playlists in Windows Media Player 10 on your PC:
1. | In Windows Media Player 10, right-click on My Playlists and select New. |
2. | Drag and drop items from your Media Library to the List pane on the far right. When you are finished,, click on the New Playlist drop-down menu and select Save Playlist As.
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3. | Enter a name for the playlist and click Save. |
4. | With the device connected, click Start Sync. After it has synchronized your music with the PMC, a message will display: Synchronizing 100 percent complete. You can disconnect the device. |
5. | Now navigate on the device to my music and you’ll notice your new playlist and all the music is on the device. |
You can also drag and drop playlists within My Playlists in the Contents pane of the Library to the device list, and it will be added to the playlists to be synchronized for that device.
You can choose which playlists get synchronized first. Right-click the device name in the library pane and click Change Sync Settings. Here you can choose playlists to synchronize. When your Portable Media Center device storage is getting filled with media, you can prioritize what playlists get synchronized first. Use blue arrows to move a playlist up or down. The lists at the top are synchronized first, so lists at the bottom may not get synchronized if there is not enough space.
Figure 4: Portable Media Center playlist synchronization list and priorities.
Note: Dragging a playlist from the My Playlists to the synchronization list will have different behavior if a Portable Media Center device is connected to your PC.
With no device attached, Windows Media Player 10 will expand the playlist to show individual files. But if a Portable Media Center device is attached, Windows Media Player 10 will add the playlist to the synchronization list for your device. Playlist synchronization takes a little practice. Spend a little time when you first get your player. Experiment with how playlists work and you'll quickly grasp how cool this is.
Auto Sync and Background Conversions
One of the things that makes a big difference in your experience with Portable Media Center is to enable both Auto Sync and Background Conversion.
To enable Auto Sync and Background Conversions using Windows Media Player 10:
1. | Click Tools, then click Options, and then click on the Devices tab. See Figure 5 below. |
2. | Select your Portable Media Center device and click Properties. |
3. | On the Synchronize tab, click on Start sync when device connects and click OK. See Figure 6 below.  Figure 5: Open the device properties.
 Figure 6: Choose to synchronize the device when it connects.
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4. | On the Devices tab, click Advanced. |
5. | In the Conversion settings group, select either Allow video files to convert in the background or Allow audio files to convert in the background, or both. See Figure 7 below. If you have a powerful enough CPU you might also want to check Choose quality over speed when converting video. As it says, it’ll increase your conversion time, but you’ll get a better result. Then click OK. |
Figure 7: Choose background conversion.
To take full advantage of Auto Sync and Background Conversion, you have a few additional steps:
| • | Video playlists must be selected for sync. |
| • | Windows Media Player must remain open. |
| • | Your Portable Media Center device should not be connected. |
| • | Your machine should be idle for at least 10 minutes after new content is created or dropped into your “My” folders. |
| • | The content you have to convert must not exceed (in its new converted size) the capacity allocated to the temporary files cache. |
If the above are all true, once new content is either discovered in or arrives in your My Pictures, My Music, My Recorded TV, or My Videos folders, automatic conversion will begin. The converted files are stored in the temporary files cache, waiting for when your device is next connected, and then they are synchronized to the device.
Also, if you converted a video file and synchronized it, and then removed it from the device, you can re-select it for synchronization again, and, providing the cache had not overflowed and the converted file had not been deleted, the previously converted file will simply be copied back to the device. The cache is your friend.
The Portable Media Center is a new category of device that obviously is a glimpse of the future. It might take it awhile for it to catch on as well as CDs and DVDs did, but then again, who knows? Everything seems to be happening faster these days.
Galan Bridgman is a developer, architect, and enthusiast for digital media technologies. He co-developed QuickTime for Windows for Apple Computer. At Starlight Networks he developed innovative client and backend technologies using ActiveMovie® and NetShow® Server, the precursors to Windows Media Technology. He is a full-time consultant, and is currently developing a next-generation, fully-automated radio station using Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series technologies. After hours he enjoys showing others how to make the most of Microsoft's latest Windows Media applications. Check Galan's Web site for more information about him.
