[Coco] Some CoCo ideas to ponder...

[Bill Nobel]

>From: Bob Emery <theother_bob at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>Subject: [Coco] Some CoCo ideas to ponder...
>Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 03:33:47 -0800 (PST)
>
>Next question... I'm sure I'm not the first to wonder if the CoCo can
>play MP3s. Specifically (I want to be realistic here) could it play a
>32Kbps encoded mono MP3 and sound about as good as my cell phone
>playing the same MP3 (as a ringer)? Would there be any possibility of
>the MP3 size not being limited to RAM size? Granted, hard disk would be
>preferred over floppy for this, and so in RSDOS disk size is the
>limiting factor... could the MP3 span a few HD drives?
>
>cheers,
>Bob
>

  Bob, it is possible to play MP3's on a Coco, but the CPU just doesn't have 
the horsepower to produce a clean stream for playing.  I did create a player 
at one time but gave up using it because it was just to choppy in playing 
the stream.  MP3's have to go through a decompression as it is playing, it 
is this decompression which causes the choppy playback.  I have thought of 
decompressing to a file and then playing the file, but MP3's can be huge 
after decompression.  I just finally gave up since the Coco really isn't a 
feasable means with other things such as a OS to deal with.

-Bill

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail  
http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca