Slashdot Mirror

Why replace a whole computer (with a $999+ component from ThinkGeek, perhapse)? Keep the laptop, but use a different method of getting the tunes *OUT*.

You know that PCMCIA cards suck. Have you tried USB or maybe Paraell port? I know of one product, lp3, hooks into the paraell port and you basically print the MP3 to it. Unfortunately the lp3 is not shipping (they're having problems handling shipping).

I've also heard of the LPBlaster, and of course numerous supported USB audio devices...

its annoying but admittedly has nothing to do with the sound.

otoh, vbr without a settable upper limit can cause problems to various hardware based decoders that stop at 192k. there are plenty of them out there, like the lp3 dongle device and various clamshell cdr iso cd players.

--

(I'm not convinced of the value of a parallel-port MP3 player either - why not just use the CPU and sound card? Is this a laptop market thing?)

It's a general low-CPU-power market thing. Every try to play a mp3 on a 486? Even a DX4/100 can't really cut it, especially if you're trying to do something else at the same time. A Pentium 100 running windows can just barely handle the task, and when you do anything else it stutters. This may be due to the Windows architecture, but I'd be on thin ice to speculate. Certainly on my P133 linux box I could get it to stutter without much trouble.

What's really slick is that you can take a 386 or similar, stick one of these on it, and add some sort of display - Bang, you've got a pretty good-sounding mp3 player. If you were inclined to find some sort of GPS-to-map software, you could get a 486 board from Advantech which is pretty small (90 x 96 mm.) Stack their PC-104 GPS Module on top of it, add a 6" TFT Daylight Viewable LCD (From Sharp, perhaps) to it, and stick it in your car. The entire package would be very small, very low power, and with the addition of the lp3, could play mp3s as a background task, fueled by the operating system of your choice, since it's a standard (more or less) x86-based PC. I'd guess the total cost of such a thing would be about $1100 in parts, counting the SBC, GPS, LCD, and the Cabling kit. It runs off +5 volts, so it should be trivial to regulate down the power from your car and get nice clean power out of it. You'd also need, of course, either a CompactFlash card or a laptop drive for storage. Make that $1200. Still not bad for a complete solution with a display.

Can you tell I've put a lot of thought into this? :)

Having a card with an ARM processor and 64meg of memory would be much more useful if you could use it for other purposes as well. Imagine buying an MP3 player add-on and then downloading software that turns it into a Psion5mx emulator!!!

I had naturally assumed that people would be using some custom logic instead of doing all this nonsense with CPUs and whatnot. Sure, you're going to need some sort of microcontroller to talk to the bus and memory, and shovel data at your mp3 decoder, but that's cheap.

There's a parallel port dongle for PCs called the LP3 which plays mp3s in hardware, including VBRE mp3s. It does everything, basically; The C source for a dos app to use it to play mp3s is here (Note that this is on the lp3music.com site in the downloads section. Does this disclaimer free me from future litigation over deep hyperlinking?)

Basically, though, you just shove data out the parallel port at it, and it buffers it, then decodes frames and does a D:A convert. There's also a linux "driver", a winamp output plugin, and a Windows DLL, and source for all of them is available. It has both line-level and amplified (headphone) output.

Why do I bring this device up? Because it's $99. I would guess that a device based on this with some simple-stupid microprocessor in it and some memory could easily be as cheap as $200. So what's the justification for making this other device cost $269? Just because they're lazy and wanted to use an ARM chip rather than develop something technically sweet? I don't buy it - In more than one sense of the word.

Having a card with an ARM processor and 64meg of memory would be much more useful if you could use it for other purposes as well. Imagine buying an MP3 player add-on and then downloading software that turns it into a Psion5mx emulator!!!

I had naturally assumed that people would be using some custom logic instead of doing all this nonsense with CPUs and whatnot. Sure, you're going to need some sort of microcontroller to talk to the bus and memory, and shovel data at your mp3 decoder, but that's cheap.

There's a parallel port dongle for PCs called the LP3 which plays mp3s in hardware, including VBRE mp3s. It does everything, basically; The C source for a dos app to use it to play mp3s is here (Note that this is on the lp3music.com site in the downloads section. Does this disclaimer free me from future litigation over deep hyperlinking?)

Basically, though, you just shove data out the parallel port at it, and it buffers it, then decodes frames and does a D:A convert. There's also a linux "driver", a winamp output plugin, and a Windows DLL, and source for all of them is available. It has both line-level and amplified (headphone) output.

Why do I bring this device up? Because it's $99. I would guess that a device based on this with some simple-stupid microprocessor in it and some memory could easily be as cheap as $200. So what's the justification for making this other device cost $269? Just because they're lazy and wanted to use an ARM chip rather than develop something technically sweet? I don't buy it - In more than one sense of the word.

My question is, will VBRE be part of the official specification? And next, will someone make an inexpensive hardware device that plays both this new format, and MP3? The lp3 from lp3music is a parallel port device that plays mp3s in hardware; You can use it as easily on an 8088 as on a Pentium Pro. I've been planning to make an inexpensive and SMALL car player based on the lp3, but now am I going to have to worry about supporting this format, too?

• parallel port to drive an lp3music.com (mp3 decoder, audio dac)
• serial port for an IR remote control (realmagic brand is $20 and has a linux driver)
• video display is already there for songname, bandname, album art graphics, etc.
• add a 10gig notebook drive (under $300) and you have lots of storage for mp3 files

there's a neat little hardware dongle thingie at:

http://lp3music.com

the only limitation is that it can't decode mp3's beyond 192k. that is a bummer - but if you try 192k mode on a good encoder (blade-enc is fine at that rate), you'll be very surprised at the quality; especially with this external decoder unit.

it has the advantage of all the analog electronics being outside the PC. less clock noise and hum = cleaner sound. oh, and since the decode is in hardware, your cpu util. is almost nil. and the best part is that it only needs a printer port - not an ISA or PCI slot. so its perfect for laptops. even older 386 laptops!

oh, and yes, there is linux support for this. they provide links for linux sourcecode to drive this. and there's even some work being done to make this an xmms plug-in; for those who insist on a ooey-gui.

ob disc: I'm just a customer who enjoys this hardware product. I had nothing to do with the design, implementation or anything else for that matter

--