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Maplay 1.2+ for Win32

  Web Site

                        Last modified: December 16, 1997

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Newest version released: 1.A

  Latest News:

   FINALLY!!! Version 1.A is now available for Win32, which has much better
   playlist support. Playlist items can have lyrics or images associated with
   them, and they can be moved from one computer to another without any
   difficulty. You can now create these playlists using the player itself.
   Also there are a lots of other features that have been added. See the file
   whatsnew.txt for a complete description of the changes.

   I will try to finish the DLL, but no promises.

   I'll be working in Japan hopefully, but I'll continue work on maplay.

   Version 1.81 has been ported to Linux, Macintosh (on PowerPC), OS/2, BeOS,
   HP-UX, and FreeBSD successfully. For the newest source files and
   information on these ports, check the ports section.

   Alas, I have found out that the console version does not work with Windows
   3.1. Sorry for the inconvenience.

   The layer III decoder of maplay is highly optimized from the original
   public c source, but still is quite CPU intensive. If you are interested
   in making optimizations (and getting a share of the glory) please don't
   bother with the following functions, which I've already gotten
   optimizations for:
     * Bit_Reserve::get_bits()
     * Ibitstream::read_buffer()
   Optimizations for any other functions are welcomed. Send them to
   ctsay@pasteur.eecs.berkeley.edu!

  What is maplay 1.2?

   Maplay 1.2 is a program written for UNIX systems by Tobias Bading. What it
   does is decodes MPEG Audio Layer I and II files, which are factor of 6-12
   times smaller than uncompressed audio (like Windows PCM WAVE, Sun AU, or
   Apple AIFF files). Despite the huge compression, there is no audible
   signal loss! Using MPEG Audio Layer III, you can retain CD-quality sound
   at compression ratios around 1:11 (112 kbit/s). Unfortunately, decoding
   MPEG audio streams is a very CPU intensive process. And until now, there
   have been no fully-featured decoders available for Windows.

  What is maplay 1.2+ for Win32?

   Thanks to Bading's hard work in maintaining portability in maplay, I was
   able to re-target maplay to run on the Windows 95 and Windows NT operating
   systems. I also added a few features such as WAV playing, pausing,
   stopping, and repeating MPEG audio playback. It took about 4 weeks, since
   I had no prior Windows programming experience. Now after a year of work,
   maplay 1.2+ for Win32 also has support for layer III MPEG-1 audio streams.

  What do I need to run maplay 1.2+ for Win32?

   Maplay 1.2+ for Win32 requires the following hardware and software to run:
     * 486 or higher CPU (Pentium required for stereo playback.)
     * Either the Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system. It will not run
       on Windows 3.1 or lower operating systems, even if you have Win32s.
     * A 16-bit sound card, and the appropriate driver for Windows. (I have
       reports that 8-bit sound cards such as the SB Pro and SB work as
       well.)

  What about the competition?

   Alhough it was the first freeware player for Win32 and many other
   platforms,  maplay 1.2+ has been becoming less popular nowadays. There are
   several reasons for this. Many other players are faster. WinAmp has a nice
   graphical equalizer display. However, with version 1.A, the player has, in
   my humble opinion, the best features out of any other player out there.
   Some things maplay 1.2+ does that most other players do not :
     * Lyric and image display for playlist items
     * Playlists can have embedded lists
     * Built-in, convenient playlist editor that creates, edits, tests, and
       saves lists
     * Jump window for quickly selecting a track of the list to play
     * Support for file types the multimedia system supports (Sun AU, Apple
       AIFF, Quicktime, Video for Windows, Video CD, MPEG video, CD audio,
       WAV, MIDI)
     * Remote control mode
     * Decodes to a WAV file

  What kind of interface does the program have?

   Check out the Maplay 1.2+ for Win32 Gallery!

  Cool. Where can I get maplay for Win32, and how do I install it?

   Maplay for Win32, version 1.A, is available here (on my shell account on
   cory, a Berkeley EECS server) in following four flavors:

+------------------------------------------------------+
|                      | 486           | Pentium       |
|----------------------+---------------+---------------|
| InstallShield Setup  | mpw1A-4.zip   | mpw1A-5.zip   |
|----------------------+---------------+---------------|
| No Installshield     | mpw4nois.zip  | mpw5nois.zip  |
+------------------------------------------------------+

   A few notes on installing:
     * The InstallShield Setup takes longer to download but will
       automatically configure everything for you. If you have WinZip, you
       can simply open the archive with WinZip, choose the file "setup.exe"
       and select the menu option Action...Install. If you are having
       difficulties (getting stuck at 42%, etc.), close all of your other
       programs and add the maplay through the Add/Remove Programs icon of
       the Control Panel.
     * The same files are contained in archives that do not contain the
       InstallShield setup. These are for people who are having problems
       using InstallShield, or who are having downloading problems. The
       versions with InstallShield are approximately 878 KB; the ones without
       InstallShield are approximately 270 KB.
     * If you plan to use the version with InstallShield, you should
       uninstall version 1.71 or later of maplay, if you have it, before you
       proceed.
     * None of the above 4 archives contain the source code. You can download
       the source in a separate archive.
     * I have reports that Cyrix's 6x86 runs the 486 version a bit faster
       than the Pentium version.
     * To play Sun AU, Apple AIFF, MPEG-1 movies, and more with maplay 1.2+
       for Win32, you need to install Microsoft's ActiveMovie.
   These are the NEWEST versions (1.A), last modified on December 16, 1997.
   See the "whatsnew.txt" file for details on the changes.

   The console version (1.90) is also available here in two flavors:

+-----------------------------+
| 486          | Pentium      |
|--------------+--------------|
| mpcon-4.zip  | mpcon-5.zip  |
+-----------------------------+

   These command-line versions (about 83 KB) do not include source code; for
   the source, please download one the source archive. Please see the above
   note for non-Intel CPU's.

  How do I use maplay for Win32?

   Maplay for Win32 supports command-line playback, so you can associate MP2,
   MP3, or MPG files with maplay in the File Manager of Windows Explorer.
   Actually, this will now be partially done by the installation program, so
   you don't have to do anything yourself. Just select the MP2 (MPEG-1 Layer
   II Audio Stream) or LST (playlist) file in Explorer, and double-click! If
   you want to associate MP3 files to maplay, you will have to do this
   manually. Just delete whatever association you had before, and
   double-click on the MP3 file. Use maplay to open the file from now on.You
   can also use it as a viewer in Netscape. The MIME type is "audio", and the
   subtype is "x-mpeg". Finally, you can use as a stand-alone program, as
   there is a menu item to open files. Feel free to e-mail me if you need
   further instructions.

   You can use the playlist editor in maplay 1.2+ to create, edit, and save
   playlists. You can also associate images and lyrics with each item using
   the Properties... button in the playlist editor.

  How much does maplay for Win32 cost?

   Nothing. Well, almost nothing. Of course you still have to pay for the
   access time and the long distance charges to download it! However, your
   generous donations are welcomed but not required. To donate, please send a
   check or money order to:
                                   Jeff Tsay
                               30 Ashbrooke Drive
                               Voorhees, NJ 08043

   I'm an extremely poor college student, so anything I receive will go
   towards my college education. I do also take donations of the form of
   interesting CD's, anime CD's, videos, posters, cels, etc., or pretty much
   anything else. If you're not sure I want it, just e-mail me before you
   send it. Thanks.

   Also, if you would like some publicity for your company (a link on this
   web page and in the About box of the application, something to the effect
   of "Developed with ... courtesy of ..."), I'd be glad to accept :
     * From Borland : Version 5.02 or later of Borland C++ or the newest
       version of C++ Builder.
     * From speaker manufacturers : Any decent set of computer speakers.
       Subwoofer, multichannel, and/or 3D capabilties preferred.
     * From US Robotics : A 56 kbps modem to test the future audio streaming
       capabilties
     * From computer manufacturers : Any computer system above a Pentium-133,
       preferrably with MMX technology
   I'm also open to donations of other types of hardware or software. In any
   case, if you are interested in making a donation, please e-mail me. Thank
   you!

  Are there any bugs in maplay 1.2+ for Win32?

   Well, as I said before, I'm new at Windows programming, so I'm sure there
   are. But the following are the only bugs I know about:
     * The web site menu item only works if Netscape Communicator is
       installed on the C: drive. Down with IE!!!
     * The new context menu sometimes does not go away if the systray icon is
       right-clicked.
     * Due to a memory leak in the waveOut functions of Windows 95, the
       allocated memory slowly increases for large files. There is nothing I
       can do about this.
     * Sometimes the shortcut keys don't work. You just have to use the
       mouse.
   I'll work on getting rid of these bugs, and if you find any others, please
   e-mail me.

  Where can I get MPEG audio files?

   Check out my list of MPEG Audio links.

  How do encode my own MPEG audio files?

   You can use Cool Edit 96 (with the MPEG audio extensions) or AMPEG 4.3,
   which is a DOS program, but considerably faster. (AMPEG now decodes Layer
   III files) Also required is the the source that contains the tables.
   Remember, before WAV files are encoded, they must be saved in 16-bit
   format, with a 32 kHz or above sampling frequency. 

  How do I obtain or port maplay 1.2+ for other platforms?

   The source is much more portable, so it should be relatively easy to
   compile. The rows of this table that have links indicate that maplay has
   already been ported, and you can obtain an executable. The rows that are
   marked "N/A" are ports that haven't been done yet, but should be
   relatively straightforward (all the code is already written -- the only
   things left to do are compiling and linking).

   +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   |           | Version | Distribution  | Binary Executable   | Ported by  |
   |           |         | Site          |                     |            |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | IBM AIX   | N/A     | N/A           | N/A                 | N/A        |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | Sun SPARC | N/A     | N/A           | N/A                 | N/A        |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | HP-UX     | 1.81    | N/A           | maplay_hp.zip       | Earle      |
   | 9.05+     |         |               |                     | Philhower  |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | Linux     | 1.81    | N/A           | maplay3-1.1.tar.gz  | Timo       |
   |           |         |               |                     | Jantunen   |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | FreeBSD   | 1.90    | Here. Duh!    | maplay+_freebsd.zip | Jeff Tsay  |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | SGI       | 1.81    | N/A           | N/A                 | Andres     |
   | Indigo    |         |               |                     | Meyer      |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | NeXTStep  | N/A     | N/A           | N/A                 | N/A        |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | BeOS      | 1.81    | N/A           | maplay_beos.zip     | Thomas     |
   |           |         |               |                     | Philippe   |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | OS/2      | 1.81    | N/A           | maplay10.zip        | Timo       |
   |           |         |               |                     | Jantunen   |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | MacOS     | 1.81    | SoundApp Home | SoundApp.sit.hqz    | Norme      |
   | System 7  |         | Page          |                     | Franke     |
   |-----------+---------+---------------+---------------------+------------|
   | DOS       | 1.81    | N/A           | dmaplay.zip         | Jochen     |
   |           |         |               |                     | Wilhelmy   |
   +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

   I don't want to take away from the authors of SoundApp for the Macintosh
   and maplay for Linux and OS/2; SoundApp supports a ton of audio formats
   besides MPEG Audio. maplay3 for Linux and OS/2 have playlist
   functionality, which the pure command-line version lacks.

   The source code for all versions is in the file mp1A_src.zip which doesn't
   have those nasty ^M characters. Thanks to Gyorgy Kenez for his conversion
   utility.

   Please see my porting notes for information on how to port to these and
   other platforms.

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  Credits

     * Original source code by Tobias Bading.
     * Layer III code adopted from the ISO MPEG Audio Subgroup Software
       Simulation Group.
     * Win32 port, interface, and layer III porting and optimizations by Jeff
       Tsay.
     * Jump window and lots of other GUI stuff by Zibin Yang.
     * Additional optimizations/modifications by Conrad Song, Timo Jantunen,
       and and Mikko Tommila. Please see the file credits.txt for the full
       credits.
     * License rights for the original maplay granted by the Free Software
       Foundation, Inc.
     * Borland C++ 5.01 compiler donated by Borland International.
   Want to contribute? Right now, I need a man page for the UNIX versions, a
   HLP file for the Win32 GUI versions, and some interface code to display
   characters and numbers nicely (not using fonts). If I use your stuff, I'll
   be sure to mention you!

   I wish to thank the following donators, whose contributions make
   developing maplay worth the effort:
     * Corky Coreson
     * Rich ??? (sorry, I don't remember your last name)
     * Deutsche Welle Radio via Wilfried Solbach

  The Future

   Timed lyrics, MOD format support, and a new interface are planned.

   The latest version of maplay is very portable, so I am waiting for people
   to port the code to many other operating systems. 

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   Need more information? Broken links? Comments? Please contact me at
   ctsay@pasteur.eecs.berkeley.edu.
