PocketTV

Taking multimedia a step further by adding an
MPEG player to Windows CE PC Companions.

by Rich Hall

A big part of the Windows CE future is multimedia. The ability to record voice memos, play electronic music files, record and play back video in color, and read e-books will make current and future PC Companions more fun and useful. And Windows CE's ability to support more robust multimedia applications will help Microsoft differentiate the Palm-size PCs (now being called "Pocket PCs") from devices running the simpler Palm OS that does not support multimedia as well.

We've already seen quite a bit of Windows CE multimedia development. Sharp was the first to come out with a Digital Camera Card over two years ago, for its Mobilon 4500/4600. They still sell it as an option for its Mobilon Pro H/PC Pro. Hewlett-Packard recently upgraded their Jornada Palm-size PC to include a stereo headphone jack and a built-in MP3 player (the Hum). And Casio introduced perhaps the most successful Palm-size PC to date, Cassiopeia E-100/105. Its success was largely due to multimedia features, including a stereo headphone jack, built-in Mobile Audio and Video players, AudiblePlayer (for listening to audio books), and an optional Digital Camera Card that captures still images and video with sound.

Finally, Microsoft recently announced the next iteration of the Windows CE operating system and Palm-size PC applications. The new Palm-size devices based on this technology will now be called the "Pocket PC." Among other improvements, the new wave of Pocket PCs will include the Microsoft Reader with ClearType technology for reading e-books; and the Microsoft Windows Media Player for the Pocket PC, allowing users to play music in either Windows Media or MP3 format. We expect that most of the new Pocket PC devices will have stereo headphone jacks to support these applications.

PocketTV: an MPEG movie player for Windows CE

MpegTV (www.mpegtv.com) recently released the beta version of PocketTV, a free MPEG movie player for Windows CE Handheld and Palm-size PCs. PocketTV plays standard MPEG1 files, which makes it a more universal solution than Casio's Mobile Video player.

I downloaded the free beta version at www.mpegtv.com/wince/pockettv/index.htmand installed it on my Casio E-100 Palm-size PC. This early version of PocketTV does not come with an installation routine. You have to copy the program (POCKETTV.EXE) from your desktop PC to your PC Companion using ActiveSync. Copy it to the WIN DOWS\StartMenu\ folder and it will appear in your PC Companion's Start menu.

I also downloaded a short MPEG video clip of the movie Top Gun from the MpegTV site, and another clip of two railroad cars colliding from another general MPEG site. The MPEG files must be placed in the "My Documents" folder. If you use a CompactFlash card or other storage device (e.g. IBM microDrive), you must create a folder called My Documents on the storage device and place the MPEG files in this folder. I opened PocketTV, went to the Open option in the File menu, and selected the MPEGs. Each ran without any problems (see Screens 1 & 2).

MPEG2.jpg (11324 bytes)

MPEG3.jpg (6696 bytes)

Screens 1 & 2 show MPEG videos displayed using PocketTV on the Casio E-100 Palm-size PC. The first screen is of two railroad cards colliding, the second is from the popular movie, Top Gun.

PocketTV comes with the standard MPEG player controls, including the ability to pause a clip, rewind it, mute the sound, step through still images, set the clip to play in continuous loop, set the audio to play in stereo or mono, and adjust the audio quality (low, medium, high). If you have a Casio E-100/105 or an HP Jornada 430se with stereo headphones, you'll want to set the auto to stereo and the audio quality high.

The various Handheld and Palm-size PCs come with different CPUs. There are separate versions of PocketTV available for Palm-size PCs (MIPS or SH3 processors) and Handheld PC Pros (SH4 or ARM processor, Windows CE 2.11). I have an HP Jornada 680 Handheld PC Pro with an SH3 processor. I went ahead and installed the P/PC SH3 version of PocketTV on the Jornada 680 and it seemed to work without any problems. The Web site indicates that versions are in the works for older Windows CE 2.0 Handheld PCs.

For best results

On Palm-size PCs, the best results are obtained when playing MPEG files encoded in QSIF size (160x120) or half-SIF size (240x160). PocketTV can play larger size video and is limited only by the performance of your system and the size of your screen. PocketTV's Web download site (www.mpegtv.com) has two MPEG movie trailers you can download, a 30-second clip from Top Gun and a two minute clip from Starwars.

Your PC Companion device needs to be able to display at least 256 colors, but a 65,536 color display is recommended. If you have a 256-color screen, you need palette support (PocketTV won't work on devices that support only the system palette). Stereo support is recommended (e.g. Cassiopeia E-100 series or the HP Jornada 430se). You need about 500K of storage memory for the PocketTV program, plus memory to store the MPEG files. You'll also need about 1 to 2 MB of available RAM to run the program.

Why is MPEG support important?

I mentioned the Casio E-100/105 earlier. The main criticism I have for Casio's Digital Camera Card and Mobile Video recorder/player is that they use Casio's proprietary CMF format for the videos they create. They include a utility that translates MPEG video clips to the CMF format, but not the other way around.

MPEG is the most common video format. You can send just about anybody an MPEG clip and they'll be able to open it up and play it on their desktop computer. MPEG clips can be used for more than entertainment purposes. You can record visual instructions on how to accomplish a task, educational videos and more. There are those who predict that short video messages (personal and business) will replace, or at least compete with e-mail text messages in the future.

All things considered, MPEG support for PC Companions makes a lot of sense, for business and entertainment. I expect we'll see other MPEG players for Windows CE. But for now, PocketTV is an excellent first shot and the only MPEG player available.