Pocket Tunes FAQ

Pocket Tunes FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)

1 What devices does Pocket Tunes run on?

Pocket Tunes will run on most PalmOS 5 devices. We officially support the Palm Tungsten T, Palm Zire 71, and Palm Tungsten C. Other Palm OS 5 devices may work as well, and we'd appreciate hearing from you if you find a device that does or does not work.

At this time, we have no plans to support any Palm OS 4.1 or earlier devices (e.g. Tungsten W, etc.). These devices cannot decode compressed audio without additional hardware support. While some of these devices include the necessary hardware to decode compressed audio, we do not plan to support them at this time.

Pocket Tunes also will not run on PalmOS 5 devices made by Sony. This is because Sony decided not to support the standard audio API on their devices. Since they have also not released any information about their proprietary audio API, we are not able to add support for these devices.

2 What is Ogg Vorbis?

Ogg Vorbis is a compressed audio format similar to MP3. Pocket Tunes plays both Ogg Vorbis and MP3 files. Ogg Vorbis provides better audio quality at a smaller size and is patent- and royalty-free. It has been gaining in popularity recently. More information can be found at www.vorbis.com

3 Are Ogg Vorbis files compatible with MP3 files?

No. Ogg Vorbis is a completely different format.

4 Will Pocket Tunes play MP3 files?

Yes, Pocket Tunes 1.4 and later natively supports playing MP3 files.

5 How can I convert my MP3 files to Ogg Vorbis?

Pocket Tunes 1.4 and later supports MP3 files natively, so this is no longer necessary, and it is not recommended. However, we will keep this information here for your reference.

There are several software packages available for "transcoding" MP3 files to Ogg Vorbis. This is not a complete list by any means, but here are a few programs that will do the conversion. (Note that NormSoft, Inc. makes no recommendations or guarantees about any of the software listed here.)

dBpowerAMP Music Converter (free)
Ogg Encoder Decoder by Media Twins
Super Audio Converter
Blaze MediaConvert by Mystik Media
One-click Audio Converter by StreamWare Development
Audio Conversion Wizard by LitexMedia

You can also do the conversion as a two-step process using the free MP3 player, WinAmp. Set the output plug-in to be the Disk Writer plug-in. Then open and play your MP3 files. The files will be converted to WAV files. To convert them to Ogg Vorbis, use a tool like OggDrop or OggEnc (available from http://www.vorbis.com/download_win.psp ).

If you have the original CD or audio source, it is generally better to use that original source than the MP3 file when converting to Ogg Vorbis. Converting from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis may degrade the audio quality somewhat. There are some people with strong opinions on converting from MP3 to Ogg and vice versa. My opinion is: Try the conversion. If you like how it sounds, great! If not, find the original CD or audio source and encode it from that.

6 How can I convert my CDs to MP3 or Ogg Vorbis?

Many CD ripping (recording) programs have built-in support for MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. A popular (and free) ripper with MP3 and Ogg support is CDex. You can download CDex from http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

dBpowerAMP is another free CD ripping program.

7 Will Pocket Tunes run from flash memory?

As of Pocket Tunes 1.2, you can install Pocket Tunes and/or skin files to flash memory. However, if you install the program file to your flash card, you may not be able to install audio files via HotSync; you will have to use a card reader or other installation software to install audio files.

Also note that while playing Pocket Tunes in the background, the application will remain loaded in main memory, so you may see "phantom" copies of it when using some launchers. This is normal, and the "phantom" copy should go away if you launch pTunes, hit Stop, and then exit.

8 How can I install audio files faster?

Installing files using Palm's HotSync capability can be very slow. You can purchase a card reader for about $30 US that will let you copy files to your flash card from your PC. There are also several software packages that you can use. (Note that NormSoft, Inc. makes no recommendations or guarantees about any of the software listed here.)

9 Where can I find music?

Most music is covered under copyright law and is not legally available on the Internet. However, there are several artists who have chosen to make their songs available, and there are several places to obtain songs whose copyrights have expired. You can find a few sample songs at http://www.vorbis.com/music.psp as well as some links to other freely-available music.

10 Why does the audio sound bad when using the equalizer or volume boost?

You have to be cautious when using the equalizer or the volume boost, since it can easily degrade the audio quality. Here are some tips...

The equalizer isn't a "true" equalizer because the Palm is not fast enough to do the real-time processing. Pocket Tunes takes advantage of the MP3 decoding process to alter how the audio is decoded in order to boost certain frequency bands. In order to get the best effect with the equalizer, make small changes in the controls. We've found that a small increase (about 1/3 up from center) in the lowest (leftmost) band produces a fairly nice bass boost in most MP3 files. You may want to counteract this with small increases in the higher bands as well (1/4 to 1/8 up).

Because of the way the equalizer works, it can affect different MP3 files differently. The settings I just described work well for a large percentage of my collection (encoded using CDex with the LAME MP3 encoder), but on some MP3 files, it sounds plain weird. On these songs, you should turn the equalizer off or use different settings.

For the volume boost, using more than +3dB is likely to produce an effect known as "clipping", which means the digital signal hits its maximum or minimum value. This typically causes a crackling or static sound. There are some techniques to minimize this effect (usually at the expense of higher CPU usage), and we may incorporate these techniques to minimize clipping artifacts in the future.

11 Why do I hear crackling or skipping when playing music?

We have found that some expansion cards are very slow and can cause crackling or skipping while playing music. Test your card with the VFSMark program (download it from www.palmgear.com) to determine if the "read" speed is causing the problem. We have found that read speeds of approximately 50% or lower exhibit these problems.