Review: withMP3

[Brad Isaac]

Review: withMP3
by Brad Isaac, editor
editor's note: This review was originally published Oct. 22, 2002 and received 5293 views
Probably one of the most often used excuses for purchasing a PocketPC is it’s ability to play music and videos using Windows Media Player. Sure, there are many other powerful features in our "pocket rockets" but entertainment is a great selling point. However, one big headache for users can be Windows Media Player itself. It is finicky when it comes to the type of Music and video it can play. For those of us who have spent 45 minutes copying music to a memory card and finding that Media Player doesn’t even recognize the files, you know how annoying this can be.
One option for our music files is withMP3 from Cardinal Info Tech, based in Seoul Korea. WithMP3 is an MP3 music player that supports mp1, mp2, and mp3 encoded music. This player promises more music control, more features and more stability than Windows Media Player. Does withMP3 stand up to these claims? We’ve put it through the paces to find the truth.
The Player
On first running withMP3, I could have sworn I was looking at Nullsoft's famous Winamp MP3 player.

It has practically an identical screen interface, including the scrolling song names at the top and the “mono” and “stereo” descriptors under the song timer. Since Winamp is pretty much a standard when it comes to MP3 playing, learning how to use withMP3 was effortless – I just used it as I would Winamp.
They also have a nice equalizer on the main screen, with easy access and plenty of presets. I’ve had stereo products in the past where the equalizer made absolutely NO difference at all in the sound. This isn’t true of withMP3. It works great! I took a very poorly encoded mp3 and used the equalizer to almost remove 100% of the hissing and pops – Nice. And let’s not forget that spectrum analyzer – their analyzer is a nice touch that will surely catch the eyes of many envious friends.
The seventeen presets give you some instant settings that really do make a difference. I tried the “Rock” preset on Rush’s Exit Stage Left album and the preset added a very audible “oomph” that did not exist before. Their “Bass” setting was equally surprising. Having listened to Pocket Media Player for two years or so seemed to pale in comparison to the sound this player produces.
They have support for playlists which are much easier to use than Pocket Media Player, however they are only proprietary playlist formats. It seems odd that Cardinal Info Tech did not configure withMP3 to accept winamp m3u playlists or Windows Media player lists.
My Experience with withMP3
In using the player, I decided I’d throw many different encoding levels at it – from 16 to 128 bit mp3s with MP3 played them all flawlessly on my iPAQ 3975. And it should be noted that withMP3 will find your mp3s no matter where you store them. Thinking back to the number of times I accidentally stored my WMP files in a directory other than My Documents, and not knowing why they wouldn't play immediately came to mind.
One bug I did find with the different encoding bitrates was that the song timer no longer worked properly. One 10 minute mp3 encoded at 32kbits actually registers as a 30 to 50 minute song. This is not a huge issue, just something to keep in mind.
I tried mp3s from two different source locations - local storage and remote via a bluetooth networked connection. Playing local mp3 files from a Compact Flash card was (as I am sure you can imagine) idiot proof. Just double click a song and it plays, or load it into the playlist and hit “play.” From there you just enjoy.
Remote mp3s were a pain to get to play. First I had to “map” a network drive onto the iPAQ then play the songs manually one by one. I tried to create a playlist several times using these remote files but it failed every time. Also, in between each song, I had to exit withMP3 and double click the song itself to get it to play. I could find no other way to make a song play.
I had hoped that songs with higher bitrates (i.e. 128kbps+) might be able to play since there was an audio buffer feature that went from 50 to 300. I saw very little difference between the lowest setting and the highest.
Perhaps when Cardinal Info Tech improves their networked songs implementation they’ll have this corrected.
Cardinal Info Tech’s customer support is very good. They are quick to respond to emails and questions on their forums. However keep in mind, English is not their native language so there is a small language barrier that is neither here nor there for the review – just remember to phrase any questions you may have accordingly.
Bugs and Wishes
As I stated before, there is a small bug involving their song timer when you encode at a lower bitrate. With their interface as nice as it is, this bug serves as a small distraction from the enjoyable environment withMP3 creates.
One withMP3 option that could cause people some big problems is that it keeps the PocketPC ‘alive’ as long as it is running. What this means is if you like to fall asleep to music, you could wake up the next day to a dead battery. It would be nice if they would add an option where the PocketPC could turn off after a playlist has completed. For now, however, I launch withMP3 and minimize it to the background with no songs loaded as a “Keep Alive” program for meetings when I do not want the screen to turn off.
Speaking of minimizing, they have a ‘minimize’ menu item I haven’t quite figured out yet.
When you hit minimize, withMP3 could disappear to where you cannot find it anymore. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s hidden. Even Pelmar Task manager can’t find it!
My wish number 1 is currently in the works by Cardinal Info Tech for their next release. Many of us would like the ability to skin withMP3 with custom or even existing Winamp skins. A product this nice needs to be skinnable -- it is an unwritten rule
Wish number 2 would be support for Shoutcast and mobile mp3s. As the number of mobile PocketPC users expand, users will demand streaming content from their players. This is the one area where Pocket Windows Media Player beats withMP3.
Conclusion
WithMP3 is one of those programs I really get excited about using. The sound is great and the hassles are minimal. It contains enough features to tune your music so it is just the way you want it, without the hassles of Media Player (such as moving a whole directory of music over to a storage card and finding WMP cannot recognize any of it.) Some of their bugs need to be resolved and streaming features should be implemented in future builds. All in all, however, if you are looking for Winamp on your PocketPC, you’ve got it with withMP3.
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