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Digital audio player

A digital audio player is a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. It is more commonly referred to as an MP3 MP3

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a popular digital audio [i] encoding an ... 

 player , but DAPs often play many additional file formats. Some formats are proprietary, such as Windows Media Audio , and, to a degree, MP3. Some of these formats also may incorporate restrictive digital rights management Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management is any of several technologies used by publishers to control access to and usa... 

  technology, such as WMA DRM, which are often part of certain paid download sites. Other formats are completely patent-free or otherwise open, such as Ogg Vorbis Vorbis

Vorbis is an open source [i], lossy [i] audio codec [i] project headed by the Xiph.org Foundation [i] ... 

, FLAC FLAC

FLAC, an acronym [i] for Free [i] Lossless [i] ... 

, Speex , and Module file formats.

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Encyclopedia




A digital audio player is a device that stores, organizes and plays digital music files. It is more commonly referred to as an MP3 MP3

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a popular digital audio [i] encoding an ... 

 player
, but DAPs often play many additional file formats. Some formats are proprietary, such as Windows Media Audio , and, to a degree, MP3. Some of these formats also may incorporate restrictive digital rights management Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management is any of several technologies used by publishers to control access to and usa... 

  technology, such as WMA DRM, which are often part of certain paid download sites. Other formats are completely patent-free or otherwise open, such as Ogg Vorbis Vorbis

Vorbis is an open source [i], lossy [i] audio codec [i] project headed by the Xiph.org Foundation [i] ... 

, FLAC FLAC

FLAC, an acronym [i] for Free [i] Lossless [i] ... 

, Speex , and Module file formats.

There are three main types of digital audio players:
  • MP3 CD Players - Devices that play CDs. Often, they can be used to play both audio CDs Compact Disc

    Cheddar is a village in the district of Sedgemoor [i] in Somerset [i], England [i], situated on the edge ... 

     and homemade data CDs containing MP3 or other digital audio files. Some MP3 CD players have been criticized for ceasing the ability to read MP3 CDs prematurely but continue to read conventional CDs.
  • Flash-based Players - These are solid state devices that hold digital audio files on internal or external media, such as memory card Memory card

    *UFC
  • FISH Universal Transportable Memory Card Standard

... 

s. Due to technological limitations, these are relatively low-storage devices, commercially ranging from 128MB to 8GB, which can often be extended with additional memory. As they are solid state and do not have moving parts, they are very resilient. In effect, they do not suffer limitations that owners of Hard Drive-based players face, such as fears of dropping their player or fragmentation. Such players are generally integrated into USB Universal Serial Bus

Universal Serial Bus is a serial [i] bus [i] standard to interface [i] ... 

 keydrive USB flash drive

USB flash drives are NAND [i]-type flash memory [i] data storage device [i]s ... 

s. Within years, Flash-based media is expected to surpass the capacity of Hard Drive-based Players, and inevitably render them obsolete.
  • Hard Drive-based Players or Digital Jukeboxes - Devices that read digital audio files from a hard drive Hard disk

    A hard disk drive is a digitally encoded non-volatile storage [i] device which stores data on the magnetic [i] ... 

    . These players have higher capacities, ranging from 1.5GB to 100GB, depending on the hard drive technology. At typical encoding rates, this means that thousands of songs — perhaps an entire music collection — can be stored in one MP3 player. Due to their capacity and physical size, image and video media support is becoming standard among Hard Drive-based players. The Apple Apple Computer

    Apple Computer, Inc. is an American [i] computer [i] technology [i] corporation [i] with ... 

     iPod IPod

    The iPod is a brand of portable media player [i]s designed and marketed by Apple Computer [i]. ... 

     and Creative Zen Creative Zen

    The Creative Zen is a line of digital audio player [i]s produced by Creative Technology [i] and a branch ... 

     are examples of popular digital jukeboxes.

History

The precursors to DAPs were portable CD player Compact disc player

A compact disc player or CD player is an electronic device to play audio from compact disc [i]s. ... 

s and MiniDisc MiniDisc

ATRAC is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms used to store information on MiniDisc [i] ... 

 players . Non-mechanical DAPs were introduced following the popularity of the precursors.

The first non-mechanical digital audio player in the world was created by SaeHan Information Systems in 1997. The MPMan F10 was later OEMed to the American market through Eiger Labs.
The first non-mechanical digital audio player on the American market was the Eiger Labs MPMan F10 Eiger Labs MPMan F10

The MPMan F10 was the first portable MP3 player [i], developed by SaeHan Information Systems which is he... 

, a 32MB portable that appeared in the summer of 1998. It was a very basic unit and wasn't user expandable, though owners could upgrade the memory to 64MB by sending the player back to Eiger Labs with a check for $69 + $7.95 shipping.

The second DAP was the Rio PMP300 Rio PMP300

The Rio PMP300 was the second portable consumer MP3 [i] digital audio player [i], and was produced by Diamond Multimedia [i] ... 

 from Diamond Multimedia Diamond Multimedia

Diamond Multimedia is a company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology.... 

, introduced in September 1998. The Rio was a big success during the Christmas 1998 season as sales significantly exceeded expectations, spurring interest and investment in digital music. The Recording Industry Association of America Recording Industry Association of America

The Recording Industry Association of America is the trade group [i] that represen ... 

 soon filed a lawsuit alleging that the device abetted illegal copying of music, but Diamond won a legal victory on the shoulders of Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.

Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 [i], also known as ... 

 and digital audio players were ruled legal devices.

Other early DAPs includes Sensory Science's Rave MP2100, the I-Jam IJ-100, and the Creative Labs Nomad. These portables were small and light, but only held enough memory to hold around 7 to 20 songs at normal 128 kbit/s compression rates. They also used slower parallel port connections to transfer files from PC to player, necessary as most PCs then used the Windows 95 and NT Windows NT

Windows NT is a family of operating system [i]s produced by Microsoft [i], the first version of which wa... 

 operating systems, which did not support the then newer USB Universal Serial Bus

Universal Serial Bus is a serial [i] bus [i] standard to interface [i] ... 

 connections well enough to be considered for use. When in the year 2000 USB became more common, most players adopted the USB standard, with a few isolated models supporting the FireWire FireWire

FireWire is the name given to the external wired interface specified by the IEEE [i] ... 

 standard.

In August 1999 the first in-dash digital audio player appeared. The Empeg Car Empeg Car

The empeg car is the first in-dash [i] MP3 [i] player developed. ... 

  offered players in several capacities ranging from 5GB to 28GB. The unit didn't catch on as SonicBLUE had hoped, however, and was discontinued in the autumn of 2001.

By the end of 1999, Compaq Compaq

Compaq Computer Corporation is an American [i] personal computer [i] company founded in 1982 [i]... 

 made a significant improvement in DAPs' space limitations by using a laptop hard drive Hard disk

A hard disk drive is a digitally encoded non-volatile storage [i] device which stores data on the magnetic [i] ... 

 for song storage rather than low-capacity flash memory Flash memory

Flash memory is a form of non-volatile computer memory [i] that can be electrically e ... 

. The Personal Jukebox Personal Jukebox

The Personal Jukebox was the first commercially sold hard disk [i] digital audio player [i]. ... 

 , manufactured under license by HanGo Electronics, had 4.8GB of storage space, which held about 1200 songs , and was the beginning of what would be called the jukebox segment of digital audio players. This segment eventually became the dominant type of DAP.

In 2000, iRiver Iriver

iriver Co., Ltd. makes portable digital audio players [i]. ... 

 released their first digital audio device.

The arrival of Apple Computer Apple Computer

Apple Computer, Inc. is an American [i] computer [i] technology [i] corporation [i] with ... 

's iPod IPod

The iPod is a brand of portable media player [i]s designed and marketed by Apple Computer [i]. ... 

 in 2001, combined with the iTunes ITunes

iTunes is a digital [i] media player [i] application, introduced by Apple Computer [i] o... 

 software that all but created the legal-music-download business, greatly expanded the market. Since then, a number of new digital audio players became available each promising to be an "iPod Killer".

In 2004, Microsoft Microsoft

company_name = Microsoft Corporation
... 

 introduced their Digital Rights Management Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management is any of several technologies used by publishers to control access to and usa... 

  technology under the PlaysForSure Microsoft PlaysForSure

Microsoft PlaysForSure is a marketing certification given by Microsoft [i] to media player [i]s that hav ... 

 brand. This technology allows consumers to rent music from subscription music services such as Napster Napster

Napster is an online music service which was originally a file sharing [i] service created by Shawn Fanning [i] ... 

, Rhapsody, and Yahoo Music Unlimited and transfer it to their compatible digital audio players.

In 2006, MSI Micro-Star International

Micro-Star International is a Taiwan [i]ese computer [i] and components manufacturer. ... 

 developed and showcased the first solar powered player, the MSI MEGA 540, at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.

Equipment

Generally speaking, digital audio players are portable, employing internal or replaceable batteries and headphone Headphones

Headphones are a pair of transducer [i]s that receive an electrical signal from a media player or receiv... 

s, although users often connect players to car and home stereos. Some DAPs also include FM Frequency modulation

Frequency modulation is a form of modulation [i] which represents information [i] as variations in the ... 

 radio tuners and/or microphone Microphone

A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic , is an acoustic to electric transducer [i]... 

s for voice recording. Many players can encode audio directly to MP3 or other digital audio formats directly from a line in audio signal.

Recently Flash digital audio players have even been incorporated into sunglasses, as demonstrated by the Oakley's "thump" model.

A number of manufacturers now produce Network MP3 players. These tend to be non-portable devices which have no storage of their own. Instead, they connect to a home ethernet Ethernet

Ethernet is a large and diverse family of frame [i]-based computer networking [i] ... 

 network, and receive a digital audio stream from some computer on the network. They are designed to connect to a home stereo, and are operated with a remote control Remote control

A remote control is an electronic [i] device used for the remote operation of a machine [i].... 

. Slim Devices, Roku, and cd3o each produce a Network MP3 device.

Modular keydrive USB flash drive

USB flash drives are NAND [i]-type flash memory [i] data storage device [i]s ... 

 players are composed of two parts: the head and the body . They can be independently obtained and upgraded .

Usage/Usability

As digital audio players have spread, new uses have been found for them. This includes podcasting Podcasting

Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia [i] files, such as audio or video programs, over the... 

, in which radio-like programs, or even TV-like video feeds, are automatically downloaded into the device to be played at the owner's convenience. Even a low-capacity digital audio player can store several hours of podcasts.

Audio acquisition

Most, if not all, digital audio players can play music that has been ripped from Compact Discs via computer Computer

A computer is a machine [i] for manipulating data [i] according to a list of instructions [i] ... 

. In addition to ripped CD tracks, many digital audio players can accept downloaded music from online music store Online music store

An online music store is an online [i] service that sells audio, usually primarily music, on a per-song ... 

s. However, such stores often use proprietary formats and DRM Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management is any of several technologies used by publishers to control access to and usa... 

, which means that the tracks can only be played on suitably licensed and restricted devices.
The main formats in use are WMA/PlaysForSure Microsoft PlaysForSure

Microsoft PlaysForSure is a marketing certification given by Microsoft [i] to media player [i]s that hav ... 

 from Microsoft Microsoft

company_name = Microsoft Corporation
... 

, AAC Advanced Audio Coding

Advanced Audio Coding is a standardised, lossy [i] digital audio [i] compression [i] scheme. ... 

/FairPlay from Apple Apple Computer

Apple Computer, Inc. is an American [i] computer [i] technology [i] corporation [i] with ... 

 and ATRAC ATRAC

ATRAC is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms used to store information on MiniDisc [i] ... 

 from Sony Sony

is a Japanese [i] multinational corporation [i] and one of the world's largest media conglomerate [i]s.... 

, all of which are mutually incompatible.

A huge amount of legal, freely downloadable Module file  music is available on the Internet from sites such as The MOD Archive . Most MOD files are composed by individuals who allow them to be freely distributed, unlike MP3 files ripped from commercial CD tracks. While today's digital audio players generally do not support MOD files directly, progress is being made on that front with projects such as the TRAXMOD  digital
audio player. For everyone else, it is possible to convert MOD music into MP3 format using software such as Winamp Winamp

Winamp is a multimedia player [i] made by Nullsoft [i] and eventually acquired by America Online [i] ... 

.

Compared to compact discs

  • higher data storage density and smaller physical size .
  • skip free
  • consumes less power
  • even though they are more expensive than compact disc players, prices are expected to go down substantially during the next ten years. However, MP3 players are substantially cheaper than CD players with advanced error-correction and anti-shock features.
  • more logical random shuffling
  • more user-friendly song-selection interface

See also

  • Internet radio device
  • Audio player
  • Portable media player
  • Podcasting Podcasting

    Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia [i] files, such as audio or video programs, over the... 



External links


Comparison engines

  • - Comprehensive search comparison engine for digital audio player reviews, specifications, price and pictures.




News and reviews

  • - Up-to-date news, reviews, for digital audio players, pmp and anything related.
  • - News and Reviews of iPod Alternatives
  • - News, reviews, features and shootouts for digital audio players in Asia.
  • - News, reviews, shopping guides for digital audio players
  • - News, reviews, and community for Korean DAPs
  • - Reviews, pros and cons for digital audio players

Other links

  • resourcers for mp3 usb players
  • Drivers that allow many MP3 players to connect to a Windows 98 PC via USB
  • - Community focused on high-end headphones and audio players
  • and - Richard Menta's two-part article covers the first digital audio players on the market with pictures of each player.