Topic: New Portable Device Support Update (Read 5469 times)

Steve · « **on:** March 27, 2002, 07:45:04 am »

A quick update for those waiting for news about Plugins for additional players....

We have some progress for certain players.

Bantam - I received a response today that they are "interested in working with us", but the person I need to talk to is gone now until the third week of April. We have been through this before. This is feeling like a run around, but we can wait and see what happens towards the end of April.

MPIO Players - We got a response that the reason they have been delaying is that they are adding folder support to the SDK (the document I need to support the player) and when they finish the revisions they will get it to me. This seems like genuine interest so I am hopeful this will work out.

Compaq PA-1 - Compaq won't talk to us, but I am told that the Rio Audio Manager recognizes the PA-1. If this is the case, it is my hope that since we created support for the Rio players, we can manipulate the Rio SDK to accomodate the PA-1. It might work. I ordered a PA-1 today and when it arrives (2 - 7 days) I will connect it up and try to get it going.

Any players not mentioned, I have had no word from.

Thats it for now.

Severian · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2002, 07:49:05 am »

Once again, you rock and your efforts are 110% appreciated. With regard to Bantam, they seem like a small company (sound like anybody you know?) and the name of the guy you mentioned as your contact is actually their JimH equivalent, so I think they probably just need some time.

Steve · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2002, 08:24:33 am »

Severian,

Thanks for the advice of patience. Now I feel like a dog for being so hard on them. I will keep my Type A in check and wait until April.

Doof · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2002, 08:52:56 am »

Oh, what's with the small company cooperation stuff?

What we need is a hard-nosed stance! Force them to comply with your wishes!!

"Listen to me, little man, our userbase is dedicated to OUR product, not yours. If you don't want to get off your lazy butts and give us what we want then our users are just going to start using somebody else's player. How would you like that?!? If you want people to use your prodcut you'd better be getting busy with that SDK or else we'll give all sorts of free advertising to MPIO or Creative Labs JUST so nobody will buy your product!"

Or maybe you could just wait until April.

But Compaq... darn... I'll never understand why anybody buys anything from Compaq.

Steve · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2002, 09:19:55 am »

stebajo · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2002, 09:29:17 am »

Hi Steve,
have you seen anymore Alain...? Next Page

Thanks

Steve · « **Reply #6 on:** March 27, 2002, 11:39:27 am »

Stebajo,

We talked again, but moving forward with Alain is on hold for now.

stebajo · « **Reply #7 on:** March 27, 2002, 02:58:51 pm »

Thank for your answer, we'll remain in stand-by for the moment.
I want to notice new ver. JB Commander, interesting...
http://mikewhelan.com/njb

Deathrider · « **Reply #8 on:** March 27, 2002, 05:42:24 pm »

Steve, Correct me if I am wrong , but isn't the compaq player around seven hundred US Dollars or their abouts and has limited storage. Either way I cant stand Compaq. to darn proprietary for my taste. I looked at their laptops and found they have what I need but am still going to avoid them. I went to the Iomega HipZip, yeh I know, storage per disk is only 40 megs a pop but I can still use it as a portable storage device with flexability for other media than MP3.

Tell Compaq that sales will hurt since MJ users will buy other brands since it is not compatible due to their lack of interest, LOL

Robert Long

Steve · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2002, 06:17:44 am »

Robert,

The Compaq PA-1 that I have received numerous requests for cost us $125. They have some larger storage units as well that are more pricey, but I have not heard any requests for it. I am waiting for Compaq to come grovelling back to us and then we will see whose calls get returned Next Page

KingSparta · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2002, 08:31:44 am »

>> Compaq PA-1 - Compaq won't talk to us
i wonder if they will still make it, due to the HP - Compaq Merger they may drop it all together

Robert · « **Reply #11 on:** April 15, 2002, 12:56:36 pm »

Steve - Anything new concerning MPIO? Thanks.

Steve · « **Reply #12 on:** April 15, 2002, 01:03:09 pm »

Robert,

I am finishing up some work on Yepp plugins and then I will finish up the MPIO. I am mostly done with the MPIO and should have something for them to approve shortly. As soon as I get their approval I will post.

Robert · « **Reply #13 on:** April 16, 2002, 11:50:19 pm »

Great Steve. Thanks!

Dave · « **Reply #14 on:** April 17, 2002, 03:12:29 pm »

I look forward to a possible Bantam plug in.
I think I will shoot them an e mail as well.

Steve · « **Reply #15 on:** April 18, 2002, 05:41:25 am »

Dave,

Contacting them directly is a great idea. It may motivate them to be in touch sooner rather than later.

Thanks.

Severian · « **Reply #16 on:** April 18, 2002, 07:25:31 am »

Dave:
I'm going to hit Bantam today too. I've already done so once, several weeks ago. Might be helpful if they experienced a sudden surge in requests.

Dave · « **Reply #17 on:** April 18, 2002, 01:46:57 pm »

I did e mail them and response was that Media Jukebox was in contact with them and they would forward request to their development department. And they were thrilled that their customers are requesting a plug in for MB.
Lets see what happens.

TedP · « **Reply #18 on:** April 18, 2002, 02:47:42 pm »

I would still love to use MJ as a front end for my RIO car player (or EMPEG).

Steve · « **Reply #19 on:** April 19, 2002, 06:13:11 am »

TedP,

We would like to support all the Rio devices but SonicBlue does not have their act together enough to get us what we need. The somewhat good news is that I received an email yesterday assuring me that they will be in touch next week.

We'll see.

Steve

Steve · « **Reply #20 on:** April 24, 2002, 08:17:51 am »

MPIO update...

In order to create a Plug-in, I need what is called an SDK from a player manufacturer. MPIO is in the process of releasing their SDK for the first time. They sent me a modified SDK today that has some problems so they will need to work on these and then I can move forward in getting the Plug-in released. They are working hard on it and hopefully this can be ready soon.

Steve

Robert · « **Reply #21 on:** May 27, 2002, 12:31:26 pm »

Steve -

Any news on the MPIO plug-in? Thanks.

Robert

Steve · « **Reply #22 on:** May 28, 2002, 06:10:15 am »

Robert,

Thanks for checking back.

I have a MPIO Plug-in ready that has some flaws due to what MPIO has ready to distribute. They have requested that I do not distribute the Plug-in until they resolve their issues and then make a fix available to me. As soon as they give me an OK, we will post the Plug-in but the bulk of the work to support MPIO is already completed.

Robert · « **Reply #23 on:** June 30, 2002, 10:42:13 am »

Steve - Could we please have a status report on the MPIO plugin? Thanks.

Severian · « **Reply #24 on:** June 30, 2002, 11:50:21 am »

Also, in news on other fronts, I just sent off a blistering and lengthy mail to Bantam in response to their last plain vanilla answer to my question of WILL YOU RELEASE SOME SUPPORT.

I'd like to think that I wasn't exactly rude, but I was pretty blunt about how dumb I think they're being by not doing so, and laid out some logical reasons for thinking that. I've been polite for two other e-mails and a few months now, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

I also took a guess at the company president's e-mail address from their press releases and copied him on it. No bounce, so I'm hoping it got through...

Steve · « **Reply #25 on:** July 01, 2002, 06:57:52 am »

Robert,

I have not heard anything back from MPIO, but I know they are working to iron out the kinks in their software developer's kit. I emailed them again this morning and will let you know if I hear any news. Thanks for checking back.

Severian,

Thanks for checking back with Bantam. I will try them again in a little, but they have been pretty frustrating all along.

Harry|PLS|The|PLS|Hipster · « **Reply #26 on:** July 01, 2002, 07:32:04 am »

Anything new on SonicBlue? I sent them an email asking for support on some technical issues and beefing about being restricted to Real on my Rio Riot, and asking that they facilitate a plug-in for MJ. Their response (in addition to being non-responsive on the support problem) was that I should ask MJ to contact them about a plug-in!!!

Sounds like they lost your inquiry, or placed it in the circular file.

HTH

Listening to: 'I've Got You Under My Skin-' from 'Jazz Club - Trumpet' by 'Dinah Washington' on Media Jukebox

Severian · « **Reply #27 on:** July 01, 2002, 09:10:42 pm »

I was just rereading this thread from top to bottom and I couldn't help laughing as I realized that Doof's course of action was the one that I ultimately followed, making those same points with different words.

Steve · « **Reply #28 on:** July 02, 2002, 05:47:00 am »

Just to keep everyone up to date, in regards to SonicBlue I email them once a month to ask for support for new players such as the Rio Riot and they until now have either not responded or been evasive. I haven't tried yet in July, so I will now celebrate the birth of our nation by sending SonicBlue another email that they can ignore

Severian and Doof, as always, thanks for being the vanguard against corporate indifference.

duhva · « **Reply #29 on:** July 30, 2002, 05:10:13 am »

Steve - thank you for the mpio plug-in! It's miles better than the MPIO manager and works great. I only have one problem (and I'm sure it's something obvious I'm missing)...

I can upload files to the internal memory no problem, but how do I send files to my DMG's external memory card?

Thanks.

duhva

Steve · « **Reply #30 on:** July 31, 2002, 05:59:45 am »

duhva,

Expand the tree on the left so that you see both Internal and External folders beneath MPIO. Then drag and drop the files on "External". After you do this, MJ will remember your last path so if you right click and choose "Send-to" your files will go to the last selected path.

Steve

duhva · « **Reply #31 on:** July 31, 2002, 06:30:17 am »

Excellent Steve, thanks! Again, kudos for this plugin. The MPIO is a great player, but comes with horrible software. This plugin cements MJ as my audio program of choice.

One last question: does your plug-in support folders?

Thanks.

duhva

Steve · « **Reply #32 on:** July 31, 2002, 08:15:45 am »

duhva,

Glad MJ is your player of choice. In regards to folders, we cannot support those until MPIO gets us some code to fix what does not work with the firmware on the MPIO. There is a discussion of this on the folowing thread..

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/interact/NeoBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=inter&Post=11731&BoardIdle=7&SortingBy=0&BoardOrder=Descend&Page=0&UserSession=

but the excerpt from the thread that is relevant is...

"You will be unable to manage folders with this version and it also does not report the bitrate of files correctly. The last problem is that it does not handle external media cards very well. As far as I can tell, all these problems are the same with Digitalway's software."

We will fix the folder problem as well as the others as soon as we get a fix from MPIO.

Steve

Andy F · « **Reply #33 on:** July 31, 2002, 10:16:57 am »

Is there any planned support for NetMD mini-discs? I love MJ and have files in many different formats incuding Monkey's and OOG. I would love to have the ability to send it to the device without having to convert to MP3 or WAV first.

Steve · « **Reply #34 on:** July 31, 2002, 11:29:01 am »

AndyF,

Does the NetMD, show up as a removable or fixed drive? If so, we should be able to transfer files to it. If not (which it probably does not)we can look into trying to support these devices.

Steve

duhva · « **Reply #35 on:** July 31, 2002, 12:14:56 pm »

Thanks again Steve. I have a feeling the problem resides with the MPIO DMG firmware (I'm using 12.15), as I have tried using their new Manager 4.0 and it only supports folders on the new DMG Plus model, and only to internal memory.

I'll keep checking the threads until the fix or new firmware is released. Again, great stuff.

duhva

duhva · « **Reply #36 on:** August 01, 2002, 05:34:54 am »

Hello again Steve. I've been playing around with your MPIO plugin, and have two feature suggestions for the next release:

1. It would be good to have a Sequential tab for MPIO, Internal, and External views.

2. It would be good to be able to rearrange the sequential order of files on the MPIO using the plugin.

These two things would allow me to completely toss MPIO Manager (as well as Frase's improved FPIO).

Thanks.

duhva

Steve · « **Reply #37 on:** August 01, 2002, 06:09:20 am »

duhva,

Your suggestion is on the money. I tried to implement this in the Plug-in that is currently posted, but it is not possible due to a glitch in what MPIO has given us to work with ( I should have included it with the other list)They are working on it and it should be resolved when they get me a new Developer's Kit.

Thanks,

Steve

duhva · « **Reply #38 on:** August 01, 2002, 12:47:13 pm »

Cheers Steve. Till then...

duhva

Andy F · « **Reply #39 on:** August 01, 2002, 10:15:03 pm »

No, NetMD does not show up as a drive. It sends data through the USB as ATRAC or Sony's own Propritary OMG.

Currently the only options for transmitting songs to Sony's MD players are;

1) Sony's "God awful" OpenMg software - Which fails to run on a third of the PCs that attempt to run it.

It also includes a copy protection scheme that will allow a user to send a file to the player (Check out) only three times. After that, you have to use the OpenMg to delete it from a recording (Checking In).

2) Use Nero to create a "soft CD" and convince Sony's software to send the entire CD Image to the player.

3) Use Real's RealOne player with a NetMD add on.

The Sony software is so bad that Sony has started linking to Realone and the add-on on the Sony site.

I know that if it can be added to MJ, almost everyone that has a MiniDisk player with NetMD (all new Sony and Sharp) will be trying to get a copy.

Marc · « **Reply #40 on:** August 02, 2002, 12:17:48 am »

Hey, I'm psyched that you're fine-tuning the MPIO plug-in...it sorta works now but I'm looking forward to when it's fixed.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: New Portable Device Support Update (Read 5469 times)

Steve

Severian

Steve

Steve

stebajo

Steve

stebajo

Deathrider

Steve

Robert

Steve

Robert

Dave

Steve

Dave

TedP

Steve

Steve

Robert

Steve

Robert

Steve

Harry|PLS|The|PLS|Hipster

Steve

duhva

Steve

duhva

Steve

Andy F

Steve

duhva

duhva

Steve

duhva

Andy F

Marc