Pocket Music Player Help

PocketMusic Help
Contents:

1. Today Screen plug-in
2. Load Music Options
3. File Types
4. Skin Modes
5. Skins. Adding new skins, current skin selection
6. Audible Files Playback
7. Hardware Key Mappings
8. Alarm Clock and Sleep Timer
9. Playlist Organizer. Sorting media, creating playlists, changing ID3 tags
10. Bookmarks
11. Playlist Options
12. Effects and Equalizer Presets
13. Crossfading and Gapless Features
14. Improving Playback Performance
15. Power Options
16. Playing Music from the Internet
17. How to copy music from desktop PC to your Pocket PC
18. How to play music from local network drives

 

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Today Screen Plug-in

Using Today Screen Plug-in you can control music playback directly from the Today Screen.
To activate the Today Screen plug-in, go to general Pocket PC settings -> Today -> Items.
Check the PocketMusic option and tap OK. Now you can use Today Screen Plug-in. By the way, when the plug-in is activated, you can quickly and easily start PocketMusic by tapping on the bar of the plug-in window.

 

Load Music Options

To set Load Music settings go to "Player Options" -> "Load".

1. Sort files on load - PocketMusic will sort files in the playlist by name or by track number. This option will be available for tracks with tags.
2. Continue from last position - this option will allow you to start right where you left off the last time you stopped PocketMusic.
3. Load local content on start - will load audio files located in the main memory each time when PocketMusic is started.
4. Load folder contents on start - will load audio files from a specific folder each time when PocketMusic is started. The folder can be located in the main memory, on a storage card, or on a network drive. Tap Browse button to locate the folder.

 

File Types

PocketMusic supports MP1, MP2, MP3, OGG, WMA, AA, FLC, M3U, ASF, ASX, PLS, WSZ, WAL file types. The most popular music formats are MP3, OGG, and WMA.
M3U, ASX, PLS are playlists file formats, and WSZ, WAL are Winamp skin file formats.
AA and FLC files are Audible books - with PocketMusic you can listen to the Audible provided content (www.audible.com) on your Pocket PC, it is more than 34.000 hours of audio programs, plus 135 Audible content partners that include leading audio book publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers.
The File Types tab sets which types of files you want to associate with PocketMusic. You may play files which are associated with PocketMusic just by taping on them in File Explorer.
Other media file formats can be supported via additional plugins.

 

Skin Modes

There are two Skin Modes available in PocketMusic.

1. PocketMusic Skin Mode. This is default skin mode.
2. Winamp Skin Mode.

To change current skin mode, use Player Menu.

 

Skins

PocketMusic supports Winamp 2.x skins for Winamp Skin Mode and its own skin format for PocketMusic General Skin Mode and Landscape Skin Mode.

To add a new skin, you should copy it to your Pocket PC:

1. Connect your Pocket PC device and desktop PC with connection cable or cradle
2. Run ActiveSync for software connection
3. Click ActiveSync icon on desktop PC and you'll see ActiveSync window. Click "Explore" button in ActiveSync window. You will see folders and files which exist on your device.
4. Drag-and-drop skin files from a PC folder to Pocket PC folder.
5. Tap the skin if it has standard extension *.wsz or *.wal. If it has any other extension (*.zip) rename it to *.wsz and then tap the file.

To change the current skin, go to Player Menu -> Player Options -> Skins
You can find more skins on our web-site (www.pocketmind.com), or in the Internet. There are about 10.000 Winamp 2.x skins available in the Internet, best of them are tested with PocketMusic and published on our site.

 

Audible Files Playback

PocketMusic supports Audible files playback, and you can listen to the Audible provided content (www.audible.com) on your Pocket PC, it is more than 34.000 hours of audio programs, plus 135 Audible content partners that include leading audio book publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers.

To listen to the Audible files, you can just copy the files to the device, or to the storage card through the card reader. But you will also need to activate you Pocket PC to be able to play Audible content. To activate your device, download and install Audible Manager software from www.audible.com, open it and select Device menu -> Activate/Deactivate. Select which devices do you wish to activate (make sure Pocket PC is checked in the device list). Proceed with activation. Don't forget that you need to activate you Pocket PC with the same Username as you used when buying books you wish to listen to. Now you are able to listen to your audio books. Some audio books contain sections (for example, chapters). For navigating between sections use main menu->Bookmarks->Next/Previous Section commands. Also there is a possibility to map these commands to the hardware buttons in main menu->Key Mapping Options.

 

Hardware Key Mappings

The Hardware Key Mappings option ties specific operations of the player to the hardware buttons. You also have the option to tie a mapping to a button while PocketMusic is in the background, allowing you to manipulate the player without leaving current application. To map a button, go to Player Menu -> Key Mapping Options.
Choose an action from the list and press the hardware button you want to map. Tap "Unmap" button to clear selected key mapping.

 

Alarm Clock and Sleep Timer

Using Alarm Clock feature you can wake up with your favorite music in the morning at a specified time. Sleep timer automatically shuts off the device if you don't touch the screen or buttons for a specified period of time from 5 minutes to 2 hours. To set Sleep Timer and Alarm Clock options, go to Player Menu -> Player Options -> Timers.

 

Playlist Organizer

Using PocketMusic Playlist Organizer you can manage media files and playlists. To run Playlist Organizer, go to Player Menu -> Playlist Organizer. Once you started Playlist Organizer, it will automatically search the device and storage cards for supported music files, and build a music library sorted by Genre, Artist, Album or Title.
The Playlist Catalog lists any currently available playlists and allows you to select which one you would like to add to the current playlist.
The buttons on the control bar of the Playlist Catalog are:

• Rescan Media Info - refresh the display with all currently available lists
• Rename - change the name of the currently selected playlist
• Delete Selected Files - remove the selected playlists from your Pocket PC
• Check - select all, none, or invert the selection of playlists.
• Add selected items - add the selected lists items to the current playlist.

The Media Catalog shows you the content of the playlists you've selected in the Playlist Catalog. You can select particular styles of music, particular albums, or particular tracks from any album to add to the current playlist. The buttons on the control bar of the Media Catalog are:
Rescan Media Info - refresh the display
Song Grouping Type allows you to group items in a wide variety of ways:

• Album Title
• Artist Name
• Directory/Filename
• Artist/Album or Album/Artist
• Genre/Artist/Album or Genre/Album/Artist

Edit Media Description - change ID3 tags of the MP3 file. You can change Artist, Title, Genre, Album, etc.
Delete - delete selected files.
Check - select all, none, or to invert the current selection of items.
Add selected items - add the selected items to the current playlist.
The Current Playlist shows the items that are on the current playlist.
Play - play the checked items from the current playlist.
Enqueue - add current items at the end of those items you are currently playing.
Save - save the playlist.
Delete - delete items from the playlist.
Move - move items up or down within the playlist.
Check menu allows you to check all, none, or invert the checkmarks.
Select menu allows you to select all, none, or invert the current selection.

 

Bookmarks

Bookmarks feature is great if you are listening to the audio books, recorded lectures, DJ sets, radio programs, etc. A bookmark marks the current location in the current audio file and allows you to return to it later. Go to Player Menu -> Bookmarks -> "Bookmark current position" to create a new bookmark (you can also map a hardware button for this action). Also you can replace an existing bookmark with the current position here.
Go to Player Menu -> Bookmarks to quickly go to existing bookmarks.
Go to Player Menu -> Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks to organize your Bookmarks. The buttons on the control bar of the Bookmark Organizer are:
Edit Bookmark - change Bookmark description, position time.
Play - play the bookmark.
Enqueue - enqueue the selected audio file.
Delete - delete selected bookmark.
Delete dead bookmarks - if you've deleted some files from your Pocket PC or a storage card, you can delete all obsolete bookmarks for these files too.

 

Playlist Options

There various playlist options are available in PocketMusic menu. To set them, go to the Player Menu -> Player Options -> Playlist.
The options in the Playlist Options window are:
Enqueue files from command line - needs some explaining because we never really see the command line on a Pocket PC. However, if you tap on a file or set of files that are associated with PocketMusic, you actually create a command line that starts up the program and lists each of those files. With this option enabled, PocketMusic will just add these files to the end of current playlist. Otherwise it will clear current playlist first, then add the files you tapped on.
Use tags if possible - if tags are enabled, the player displays the performer's name and track name as they play. Otherwise it will show the filename or filename and folder name.
Show filename - show filename only.
Show folder and file - show folder name and file name.
Show numbers - display item numbers that show the order that the items appear in the playlist.
Repeat Mode - determines which items on the playlist will repeat as play continues.
Repeat whole playlist - if the option enabled, PocketMusic repeats current playlist.
Repeat current item - if the option enabled, PocketMusic repeats current playlist item only.
Repeat selected items - you can select some of your favorite songs in the playlist and PocketMusic will repeat them.
Move selected items by hardware keys feature allows you to scroll playlist and change the order of items in the playlist by using the directional keys.

 

Effects and Equalizer Presets

There are such features as Equalizer and Extra Bass in PocketMusic. Both Equalizer and Extra Bass improve the sound and make music performance better. You can tune Equalizer either by yourself (manual), use Equalizer Presets, or even create your own Presets.
Available EQ presets: Techno, Soft, Soft Rock, Rock, Reggae, Pop, Party, Live, Large Hall, Headphones, Full Treble, Full Bass, Full Bass and Treble, Dance, Club, Classical.
To create your Preset, tune Equalizer and tap "File"->"Save Preset" menu.

 

Crossfading and Gapless

New version of PocketMusic supports a set of features to improve listening experience:

1. Crossfading between tracks or on playing position seek. On track change PocketMusic fades out old song and fades in new song, mixing their sounds together.
2. Gapless playback is useful when listening to DJ's sets. It allows seamless transition between tracks - without clicks or pauses.
3. Ability to remove silence at the beginning/end of track. When this feature is activated, PocketMusic tries to detect long silence at the beginning and at the end of each track and to skip it. Note: length of skipped silence at the end of a track cannot be more than two seconds.
4. Extra bass feature enhances the bass portion of the sound spectrum. This feature is particularly good for those people who use small headphones.

To setup these features go to main menu->Player Options->Effects dialog.

 

Improving Playback Performance

There are few options in the "General" options window for improving playback performance.
Enable file caching and Set file cache size - initially file caching is 256 Kb, but it is adjustable up to 16 Mb. When using a hard drive as storage for music files, battery life can be affected, since media players normally stream the content from the storage device. If you will change this option and set the cache to 2-14 Mb (higher for larger files), PocketMusic will quickly buffer the whole music file in memory, which will allow the hard drive to spin down shortly after starting playback.
Decoder thread priority - you can set how much system time is devoted to decoding music as it's played. If you will set higher priority, it will improve music performance, but as it takes more resources, it may slow down other applications. Setting lower priority means better performance in other applications but may cause music to skip. You can play with this setting and find the best priority for your device configuration.

 

Power Options

To set or change power options, go to Player Menu -> Player Options -> Power. The options in the Power Options window are:
Automatically turn off display - shut off the display after the specified time from 5 seconds to 3 minutes.
Automatically lock hardware buttons - block the hardware buttons from accident presses after the same time limit.
Don't lock display toggle button - when used with previous option, allows you to lock all buttons except the button used to toggle display on/off.

 

Playing Music from the Internet

PocketMusic supports HTTP streaming for MP3 and Ogg formats along with SHOUTcast and Icecast title streaming formats. There are a large number of Internet radio stations at yp.shoutcast.com. To play streaming radio you will need to download playlist files for selected stations. In case you are browsing directly from Pocket PC, click on desired station link in Pocket Internet Explorer and choose "Open" command when asked. Pocket IE will download playlist file for the radio station and then start PocketMusic to play it. You can also download playlists for all desired stations on your Desktop PC and then copy them into your PocketPC. Then start PocketMusic, open needed playlist, and press "Play" button. Please, make sure that you are connected to the Internet before playing. If you don't have playlist for the radio station, but you know its IP address, you can add it manually. To do so, start PocketMusic, open Playlist window, tap File->Add URL. Now enter the IP address of the station. It should have the following format: http://ip-address:port (for example http://123.45.67.100:8000) or http://server-name:port (http://www.streaming-radio.com:8011). Then double-tap on the added playlist entry, or press play.
To access streaming playback options go to main menu->Player Options->Streaming dialog. It's possible to connect to a streaming radio station through the proxy server. Proxy server address should be in the following format: proxy-server:port. Adjust buffer size for the data streamed from radio station by moving corresponding slider. Default buffer size is 128 KB. When streaming playback is started, PocketMusic prebuffers some amount of data from server. On slow Internet connections player can run out of incoming data. Then it will start prebuffering again. For both these cases you can set how many data will PocketMusic prebuffer.

 

How to copy music from desktop PC to your Pocket PC

1. Connect your Pocket PC device and desktop PC with connection cable or cradle.
2. Run ActiveSync for software connection.
3. Double-click the ActiveSync icon on your desktop, and then click the Explore button. This will open up a window called "Mobile Device" on your desktop PC. Now you will see folders and files that are on your Pocket PC's internal memory.
4. Drag music files from desktop PC folder into Pocket PC folder. For example, if you double-click "My Pocket PC" and then "Storage Card", you will be able to browse the contents of your storage card and copy your music there.

 

How to play music from local area network computers

To play music from local network, you should map a network drive. If you are using PocketMusic Feature Pack, you can map network drives directly from PocketMusic file open window (just select "Map Network Drive" menu). You also may use any third-party software to map network drives. As soon as you mapped any drive, its name should appear under "Mapped Network Drives" folder in the file open dialog. PocketMusic is specially adapted to play music from network with optimal performance. To remove unused or unaccessible mapped drives you may use "Unmap Network Drive" menu.