Re: GP2X


Tom Lucas wrote:
"Isaac Bosompem" <x86asm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1159209254.082417.173050@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I use a 1GB SanDisk SD card. A divX episode of the Sopranos comes in
at
about 350Mb but, after all the applications, ROMs and mp3s, I only
have
about 200meg free. The movie player is pretty fussy about what it
will
play and some divX films just won't work at all. I've got virtual dub
and a number of other open source video processing/DVD ripping tools
that the GP2X wiki recommends so I should be able to fix them once I
work it all out. It would be nice to have mpeg support right out of
the
box but I guess there are licensing issues. To be honest, mpeg is
such a
popular format that it would be worth putting a few dollars on the
rrp
to cover but I guess it would go against the open source philosophy.

Does the PSP have better support? That weird little disc it uses
seems
like a good point of failure when watching movies but it does use
those
expensive memory cards as well which might alleviate that.

The way the PSP works is qutie strange with video. Some commercially
released movies are available on the disc (UMD). But as usual, that is
a Sony proprietary format and it did not take off too well. There has
been announcements that the movie studios would stop releasing videos
for it.

The PSP actually can only play MP4 files off the Memory Stick Pro Duo
card. The PSP requires that these files be named in a certain obscure
manner. The PC side software is responsible for transcoding it to the
MP4 file. It's not too bad actually, my P3 1.13Ghz took about a minute
or so to do a 40 sec MPG video. The quality of the video is quite good
(assuming it scales well to the 16:9 aspect ratio). It makes an
excellent MP3 player too and has good audio output. Also the GPU's
output is quite impressive as well. Quite impressed with it.

I guess the bulk of the work is done by the PC then - does it have a
fairly wide range of supported formats? I suppose you just have to leave
it to Sony to get it onto the PSP unless you want to work out their
mechanisms. This is what infuriates me about the iPod too - everything
is proprietory and you have to go a long way out of your way to get
around it. My plan for the GP2X is to get wireless LAN into it somehow
and then stream movies from my server to wherever I am in the house. To
have to convert all the movies into a GP2X format would be highly
inconvenient and a waste of disc space.

Yup pretty much any format can be converted. I guess as long as you
have the codec installed. The iPod, although a really nice player, is
probably the last MP3 player I would ever buy. There are hacks
available though so you dont have to use that iTunes application (which
unfortunately is bundled with QuickTime player now). Maybe you can get
an SDIO WiFi card for the GP2X? Maybe there is a driver available or
something. My Zire 71 unfortunately doesnt work with most cards. Seems
like only one card is listed as working.

I did use MMPlayer on the Zire 71 and it played a 160x160 video quite
well, no dropped frames and quite smooth. I don't think that is too bad
for a 144Mhz ARM9. There was some exaple 320x320 videos but I don't
think those would go over too well. Might be worth a shot.


The mp3 player on the GP2X is a little lacklustre. There are a variety
of equalizer settings but it is not that brilliant and the compression
is very apparent on deep bass notes.

The GP2X looks like a bigger device so I thought it would have some
good audio hardware.
I remember looking over some code for the GP2X, the way it sets its
output sample rate was quite strange, definitely don't remember it
being standard way of doing it (setting up some clock divider).

The Zire 71 (DioPlayer app to be exact) has a graphic EQ. Once that is
turned on though it becomes quite sluggish.

Though the Zire 71 also has some weak audio output. I hooked it up
through a tape adaptor to the tape deck in my 1997 Volvo 850 (I
believe). The bass was very weak almost non-existant. Now the sound
system in this car is quite impressive for a stock system.

Your mention of compression reminded me of a discussion I had with a
co-worker during my summer job. He does some music production so he was
pretty knowledgable of audio technology terminology (filtering, etc.).
He told me about a case in which he used "compression" and described
what it does. But I must ask what is the difference between compression
and attenuation?

-Isaac

.

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