Windows Media Player for Windows XP and Portable Audio Players
Published: May 1, 2002
By Galan Bridgman, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
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Most of my brother's social calls have a secondary agenda—shopping for gadgets or software here in Silicon Valley. On a recent visit, his mission was to find a portable audio player. In my role as digital media expert, I went with him to help find the unit that best suited his needs. In the process, we ran into some great products and developed a set of criteria for selecting a portable audio device.
Compression Formats
Audio players are distinguished from one another primarily by the audio compression format(s) they support and the storage media they employ.
As you shop for an audio player, you'll discover that all of them support MP3 and many of them support both MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. MP3 was developed in the late 1980s and is describe in more detail in Windows XP Supports MP3. WMA is a more recently developed format from Microsoft that uses the latest in compression algorithms to achieve very high fidelity audio in less space than MP3 requires.
Audiophiles agree that WMA is a great compression scheme, and more and more devices support it. However, MP3 is widely used, so Microsoft made sure that Windows Media Player could encode MP3 if the user desired to by providing a plug-in capability for MP3 encoders. (MP3 encoding technology must be licensed. It is not free.) Windows Media Player will play and download MP3 files to your audio player just fine, but if you want to encode to the MP3 format you should purchase an MP3 Creation Pack. I seldom swap files with friends, and I like the quality and small file size that WMA produces, so I would always make sure any audio player I bought supported WMA.
You can listen and compare the quality of MP3 vs. WMA at Windows Media Player for Windows XP Audio Format Comparison.
Storage Media
The storage medium an audio player uses has a lot to do with the variations in form factor, weight, battery life, user interface, and price.
There are several types of storage media in use, such as internal flash memory, flash memory cards, full-sized and mini CDs, and now hard disks. There are other formats, such as Iomega PocketZip disks (formerly known as PocketClik! disks), but the ones I cover below are getting a lot the attention right now.
Internal Flash Memory
Experience has taught me to avoid gadgets with fixed limitations wherever possible, unless the limitations are well within my expectations for the life of the product. But if ultra-portability is important to you, a player built with internal flash memory allows designers to minimize the device for size and weight. The trade-offs are storage capacity and battery life. But if recharging batteries and reloading music into your player in the evening for an early morning jog fits your lifestyle, these ultra-light players are perfect for the job.
The Nike psa[play defines this category nicely. The Samsung yepp is also ideal for the highly mobile user.
Flash Memory Cards
Swappable flash memory cards hit the sweet spot for many shoppers searching for a player in the highly-portable category. Typically just a little larger than internal memory units, these memory cards can be filled with different albums or genres of music and then exchanged with a friend who has a player with the same card format.
Flash memory cards come in many varieties. You'll find audio players sporting SmartMedia cards, MultiMediaCards, Secure Digital cards, CompactFlash cards, and Sony Memory Sticks. The available capacities of these cards vary from 8 MB to 512 MB. Secure Digital cards are basically MultiMediaCards with two extra contacts and some internal circuitry supporting encryption, which is used in Digital Rights Management to protect copyrighted material. Windows Media Player fully supports Digital Rights Management for content that you purchase digitally.
The Compaq PA-2 and Creative Nomad IIc are good examples of this category. A somewhat amusing variation on this theme is the Duo-64 from Digisette. And then there's the very new flipster! from PoGo! Products, which blurs the lines between an audio player and a PDA. In fact, it is a PDA of sorts. In addition to playing audio, it also plays video and runs Pocket PC applications such as games.
Full Size and Mini CDs
CDs, which hold about 10 times as much as typical flash cards and are much cheaper to burn and keep permanently, are a popular option for people with large libraries of songs they want to keep in digital format. Once your WMA or MP3 files are encoded, simply burn a CD and insert it into the player and off you go!
Many of the recent models of these devices are multi-format, meaning they can play WMA and MP3 files from a CD-R or CD-RW, as well as regular CD audio discs. It makes perfect sense. Why have two CD players that appear almost identical but can't play each other's format?
Moving parts introduces the possibility of the music skipping when the player is bumped or jostled, so manufacturers have created skip protection mechanisms by buffering the data stream through a small memory buffer before playing it. The buffers are usually large enough to provide between two and eight minutes of skip protection. (Marathon runners beware!)
The RiVolt defined this category, and the Compaq iPaq Personal Mini Player PM-1 is a great update on the theme, using a mini CD that allows the player's size to be reduced significantly. A full-sized CD can hold about 300 songs, and a mini CD has a capacity of 180 MB, enough for about 80 songs. Imation has come out with its RipGO! Mini CD player, which also supports CD-R burning.
Hard Disks
The arrival of Toshiba's miniature 1.8-inch hard disk drive has been a real boon to the audio player market. Apple capitalized on this drive quickly to jump into the audio player market with its very slick and popular iPod. Fortunately for Windows users, mainstream audio player vendors were not far behind. There are now several models to choose from that work with Windows XP and Windows Media Player, with storage capacities as high as 20 GB. These units provide similar skip protection mechanisms as CD players, and you'll typically also find a few more bells and whistles. The RioRiot is a very cool example of this category. Owners rave about its user interface.
 | Using WMA, even at a very high quality setting, 20 GB is enough to hold about 7,000 songs. Who would have ever guessed when the Sony Walkman first came out that one day we'd be walking around with 7,000 songs in a gadget even smaller than the Walkman and with random access to boot? |  | |
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Using WMA, even at a very high quality setting, 20 GB is enough to hold about 7,000 songs. Who would have ever guessed when the Sony Walkman first came out that one day we'd be walking around with 7,000 songs in a gadget even smaller than the Walkman and with random access to boot?
The current lineup of these products is so versatile that some manufacturers also tout them as a file exchange media between computers, like Apple does with the iPod. But unlike the iPod, most of these devices support only USB, not the higher transfer speeds of IEEE 1394. But the new Creative NOMAD Jukebox 3 finally broke the speed barrier with its addition of IEEE 1394 support. Bravo! If you need a portable storage device as well as a music player, this is the one to go with.
Both RioRiot and Creative Nomad use lithium-ion batteries to extend the battery life of these power-hungry, hard disk-based players.
Additional Features to Consider
Another feature popping up on some players is a built-in FM tuner. It makes perfect sense to offer this in an all-around music device. Now if only they'd add AM so I can flip back and forth between "News, Traffic, and Weather Every 10 Minutes" and my music.
It's also a good idea to check whether the device you are considering supports firmware upgrades by the user. This can be a vital capability in preventing obsolescence, especially for expensive, full-featured players.
Some players can double as a voice recorder by using a built-in microphone, a feature you might find useful.
Also, check the battery life for the unit you are considering. Battery lifetimes vary considerably, from four to about fifteen hours. Most devices accept replaceable batteries, but the sealed devices require being plugged in for a few hours to recharge.
And finally, check Windows Media Portable Devices for information on an audio player's compatibility with Windows XP, or check the manufacturer's Web site, which should be the most current source. Sometimes an updated driver is required for full compatibility.
PDAs Play Music
If you already have a Pocket PC or Pocket PC 2002 device, congratulations—you already have a portable audio player! They may be overkill for an audio player, but they work just like stand-alone audio players do from within Windows Media Player, except that you'll notice the navigable folder structure on your device. Just launch Windows Media Player on the Pocket PC and you've got a working audio player.
Integrating with Windows XP
When deciding which player to buy, I would focus first on what I'll use the player for, and choose either a desired size and weight or capacity based on that use. Then I'd look for a player that integrates nicely with Windows XP and Windows Media Player. Many devices come with their own third-party management software. Sometimes that works out great, but other times it doesn't. My brother had to take back the first unit he chose because he could not get the third-party software to work on Windows XP. I recommended he find a device that worked natively with Windows Media Player. He did and it worked flawlessly.
I'd also make sure it supported WMA, because it would bother me to have to sacrifice either the number of songs I could store or the quality of the audio. I'd also make sure it supported firmware upgrades, particularly if the cost of the device was high.
Now apply the remaining criteria mentioned in this column and you should find just a handful of units to choose from. At that point, I'd let coolness factor be my guide. After all, we are talking about cool gadgets here, right?
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.
