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Review: CoreCodec TCPMP 0.66

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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-07-25 7:22 AM
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One source of consternation for Handheld PC users has always been that when Microsoft developed the Pocket PC video enabled version of Windows Media Player, it was never ported back down to the H/PC.
What was Microsoft's loss was however, to the gain of the ingenuity of Windows CE developers. Over the years as portable media has come out of the shadows and increasingly into the minds.

Recently CoreCodec have taken up this challenge, and sounding their first Core Pocket Media Player release we take a look at the new TCPMP 0.66.

Read the review and have your say here on the forums.

Review: TCPMP 0.66
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chiark Page Icon Posted 2005-07-25 10:14 AM
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Nice review Chris.

One thing to note is that this is an open source product, so if anyone feels the need to improve it in whatever way they see fit, they're welcome to providing they obey the terms of the license (GPL, in this case).

VideoLan's VLC player is now available for windows CE, however it's been targeted for PocketPCs with Aygshell available, so consequently is less than ideal, and less friendly than tcpmp.

What encoder would you recommend for watching videos on the go?

Edited by chiark 2005-07-25 10:17 AM
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wallythacker Page Icon Posted 2005-07-25 4:57 PM
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Great review. Many people would never realize great freware like this exists if not for reviews.

My only point of dissent is I like the simplicity of the interface, the less the better I say. WHo really *needs* skins? AFAIK they don't add a single mhz of performance.

I struggled with the earlier iterations (pre-betaplayer) and never mananged to find happiness. Then the day I installed beta, BAM, instant acceptable video on the go. Wow! In less than a minute my 6651 was on par with my ppc for entertainment.

I've never found the need for docs which IMO is a good thing. Any program worth its salt should be intuitive enough to use wihtout refering to a doc.
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PocketDVD Page Icon Posted 2005-07-25 5:16 PM
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Nice review Chris, good job.
Unfortunately, not all of us have taken the time to skin our devices like yours, so it *MIGHT* be nice to add a "normal" screenshot to the review as well. I do know how you like to show off your graphic skills with your themes, but unless you can package me a nice cab for my 720, I just keep on wishing.

The interface of TCPMP is quite simple to use, but honestly, if you set it up right, you never have to actually see the interface at all. Mine is set up to certain file extentions, and I just doubleclick in (resco) explorer to start it up in fullscreen. I hit the spacebar to pause/continue play, and thats all I use.
Just as with everything else in life, fiddle a little to get what you want out of it.

Concerning the best encoder for TCPMP, I would defenately recommend my own product. PocketDVD. Chris did a review of it a while back (http://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=92) , and PocketDVD 2.0 is pretty much around the corner. Using Betaplayer/TCPMP, you can easely get a "screenrating' value for your device by doing a simple benchmark on an existing file, and PocketDVD/Video will use that to get the best possible playback on your device.

I'm not going into further advertisement here though. Just have a look at the review and the www.pocketdvd.ca website to get the full sales pitch.

PocketDIVX Encoder is recommended for conversion of files for TCPMP, but does not have specific optimisations for HPC devices.

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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-07-25 6:59 PM
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chiark,
I know it'll stand as a huge bias, but I'm with PocketDVD on this one - simply for the fact that it has written into it H/PC optimisations that make it easy for anyone with a (reasonably spec'd) H/PC to get something.
You can of course use any DivX converter, but you'll need to know the optimisations and your way around it in the first place.

I also feel I should say something along the lines of you need to be careful with freeware DivX encoders and the like as they promise the earth, and deliver (sometimes) nasties as well as sub-standard compatibility.
DivX and it's 'bad era' will never be shaken from my conscious.

wallythacker,
I agree, it's the gems of the community that all too often go unnoticed. Here's to remedying that!

On the skinning, it's good that you're happy with it, I'm not unhappy with the simplicity of the toolbar, and as I (and PocketDVD) pointed out, spend a few minutes and you can circumvent a lot of input by file associations and keyboard shortcuts.
As most of you know by now (and if you don't you will do soon - tehehehe) I'm a graphics tart so like to perdy' things up from time to time - having said that I never skin my PC's!!! Just H/PC's

Here are three good reasons for skins with larger buttons
1) When I used to be able to listen to music - I'd sometimes do so in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. When you're eyes are adjusted for darkness fumbling for a micro toolbar button isn't the quickest way to get back to darkness again
2) When I used to be able to listen to music - I'd have the H/PC hooked up to the car radio - fumbling for a toolbar button while driving, or clicking key commands probably is not a good idea (legal disclaimer: HPC:Factor nor C:Amie are implying you should try and find out if it tapping small toolbar buttons while driving is a good idea)
3) Show off potential - Show someone the device having been tarted up and the 'wow' factor becomes dizziness.

PocketDVD,
It's for the precise reason that someone would comment on the shell skin that I have left it there. I want people to comment on and ask about it, I want passers by to see it and I would really like the community to get into skinning and design. There are a few artists around here, if enough interest were piqued, may be it could be a new thing for the community to follow - more than just desktop wallpapers.
I'll sort you out with the skin the next time I see you on IM. Nice and easy - you can download it from themes too.

Thanks all for you kind words all.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-07-25 7:45 PM
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nice review! does anyone here know where the developer comes from? from the same country as mine..

i think you shouldn't have rated usability so low though. it is by far the best player ... the overall score is a shame too

skinning.. yep good idea to show off!
funny i never was interested in skinning before HPCs.. just like you

can you send me that skin? i'd like to have it oh i see it's downloadable.. i'll go and find it in themes
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 6:35 AM
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cmonex,

The potential for this product is huge and they're doing an amazing job on it - I in no way wish to demean that in the ratings. There is simply a little catching up to be done compared to the MS Player(s) and WinCESoft's offerings (based around similar source history).
I don't doubt that they will get there before v1.0.
It's because this site is for anyone on any level (or cosmetic shallowness ) that we have to consider (or try our best to consider) reviews from a broad perspective of users points of view.

The system Longhorn shell theme is in downloads, TCPMP doesn't support skinning yet, the image is a sample graphic demonstrating what can be made using their skin model.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 7:40 AM
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I'm getting mixed results with both BetaPlayer and TCPMP on my HPCs. I can view videos with BetaPlayer on my Jornada 680e (as well as audio files), but only audio files work in either application on my Clio. Every time I tried to view MPEG files in both of these apps on my Clio, it freezes up and I have to reset. In fact, after trying MPEG on TCPMP, the Clio not only froze up, but won't even reset, and right now I have a white screen that I can't get rid of, though it still acknowledged screen taps and key presses with its usual clicking sound. (I'm working on a full reset right now, having disconnected the battery.)

Help!
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chiark Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 8:13 AM
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I'm embarassed to say I've never looked at PocketDVD - I shall remedy that forthwith

Thanks for the info
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 9:16 AM
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The Clio is a MIPS VR4100 device, the same as my z50 and the 780 (amongst others). TCPMP locks up on all of these devices. There is clearly a fault with the MIPS binary.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 7:40 PM
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Thanx, C-Amie. I didn't catch any reference to MIPS processor problems in the article. I've successfully hard-reset my Clio and have removed both TCPMP and BetaPlayer. However, I seem to have broken the reset button while trying to soft reset before this. (If you look in the hole, you see nothing but circuit board.) Is there a way to set up a keyboard sequence to soft reset the device? Or is there a desktop application to do this? I haven't found anything on the Internet to do this on HPCs - only Pocket PCs.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 7:53 PM
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erm.... this is very unfortunate! as it is a Clio i suspect it lacks the soft reset API (or whatever) so none of the reset apps (there are a few for hpc's too) will work.. at least they say so on a site... but you should try it ... they said it about a Clio-1000 but maybe the 1050 is different? (that is, if you have a 1050 model)

EDIT: i checked again and it DOES work on a clio 1050! so... which clio do you have?!
a soft reset utility for example (i think there are others too!): http://www.nsbasic.com/s309/WarmReboot/S309WarmReboot100.exe

Edited by cmonex 2005-07-26 8:16 PM
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 9:38 PM
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Thanx, cmonex. Worked like a charm. (I have a 1050, by the way.) Anyway, now I know that the CoreCodex media programs won't work on MIPS processors. Too bad . . . . I was really hoping to find an open-source media player to play video on the larger screen. I will say again, though, that the CoreCodex player works great on my Jornada 680e (SH3).
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 9:51 PM
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yeah i saw your other posts that you had a 1050. lucky you!
we could try contacting the developer... i'll try this in any case (i know him a little).. there's too many of nice MIPS devices.. (though i don't have any - funny, as i own everything else, SH3, strongarm, XScale)
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2005-07-26 11:36 PM
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I should note also that TCPMP won't work in my LG Phenom H-120F (SH3) either. I expected not to be able to view video as the Phenom is monochrome, but I was hoping to be able to play MP3 audio, since the Phenom runs CE 2.0 and Windows Media Player only goes back to 2.11. I tried both installation methods (setup.exe and CAB files). No luck. Both times I got the "illegal operation" error message. Another issue for CoreCodec developers, I guess. Can't knock open source, though. As I said before, the quality of the CoreCodec players is great on my Jornada and my X-Scale Pocket PC - better than PocketTV in both cases, and it plays MPEG-4 video, which means I can view my own digital video recordings within seconds of making them. Cool!
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