M6 Mini Player
Encyclopedia
The M6 miniPlayer, from Meizu
, is a flash
-based portable media player
that plays audio files in MP3
, WMA
, WAV
, FLAC
, APE
and Ogg
and is also capable of AVI
video playback (using the XVID
codec) on a 2.4-inch QVGA screen. The Mini Player includes an FM tuner, voice recorder, calendar, stopwatch, calculator, USB On-The-Go
support (in near future), a basic ebook reader for TXT files, and two games.
including the United States
, Australia
, France
, Russia
and more. Though the M6 supports many audio formats, the US release did not support MP3 format because of licensing issues. Apparently, there are workarounds to the issue with specific firmware
upgrades.
Recently, Dane-Elec
has formed a deal with Meizu to provide distribution of the M6. Apparently, Dane-Elec has ironed out MP3 licensing issues. Many Europe
an models distributed by Dane‐Elec have their FM tuner disabled because of EU import duties; this can also be remedied by a firmware update.
The M6 has been touted as an “iPod
killer” because of its capabilities with respect to its aesthetics
. One characteristic regarding the Meizu M6 is its ability to function without proprietary
file formats and procedures.
via a USB 2.0 cable, upon which it is typically recognized as a mass storage device
(starting with the 2.00x firmware series MTP
is also supported). Transferring media files and firmware upgrades is accomplished by simply dragging and dropping. Thus, no proprietary software is needed, allowing it to be a true cross-platform
media player. It is confirmed that the Linux
2.6 kernel
driver
for UMS devices
works with the M6.
format, Meizu provides a custom version of VirtualDub
. There is also a Meizu profile available for another open source
program
, Iriverter and Batman Video Converter is available. Mac users can convert with MPEG Streamclip video converter.
to change a few display items such as the background
image
and font
color
.
Unofficially, it is possible to modify the RESOURCE.BIN file to skin
the player with different icons. A number of stick‐on covers are available which allow the front surface and thumb pad to be colored.
Two versions of the miniPlayer were originally produced:
The two versions have different firmware and the screen does not work if the wrong one is loaded. The RESOURCE.BIN files are the same, however.
There was also a special SP edition where the back metal plate would be black
matte, instead of shiny metal
.
) instead of 10 mm and new, better quality, Wolfson
produced DAC
s.
here
Firmware 2004.7 for Meizu Miniplayer M6 SL:
here
Resources:
Meizu
Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese electronics manufacturer. Meizu is the developer of the M6 Mini Player, the M3 Music Card, released in March 2007, and the M8 miniOne mobile phone, released February 2009...
, is a flash
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
-based portable media player
Portable media player
A portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
that plays audio files in MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, WMA
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, FLAC
FLAC
FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...
, APE
Monkey's Audio
Monkey's Audio is a file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless format, Monkey's Audio does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis and Musepack....
and Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
and is also capable of AVI
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
video playback (using the XVID
XviD
Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a...
codec) on a 2.4-inch QVGA screen. The Mini Player includes an FM tuner, voice recorder, calendar, stopwatch, calculator, USB On-The-Go
USB On-The-Go
USB On-The-Go, often abbreviated USB OTG, is a specification that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host allowing a USB Flash Drive, mouse, or keyboard to be attached.- Architecture :...
support (in near future), a basic ebook reader for TXT files, and two games.
Background
The M6 is from Meizu's digital audio player productions. Accordingly, it is only emerging in certain parts of the worldWorld
World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....
including the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and more. Though the M6 supports many audio formats, the US release did not support MP3 format because of licensing issues. Apparently, there are workarounds to the issue with specific firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
upgrades.
Recently, Dane-Elec
Dane-Elec
Dane-Elec is a French maker of computer memory chips and storage products.It has had a manufacturing facility in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland since 1996. Major job losses were announced there in December 2010.-External links:**...
has formed a deal with Meizu to provide distribution of the M6. Apparently, Dane-Elec has ironed out MP3 licensing issues. Many Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an models distributed by Dane‐Elec have their FM tuner disabled because of EU import duties; this can also be remedied by a firmware update.
The M6 has been touted as an “iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
killer” because of its capabilities with respect to its aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. One characteristic regarding the Meizu M6 is its ability to function without proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
file formats and procedures.
Specifications
The following are some of the more important specifications regarding the Meizu M6:| Capacity | 1 GB Gigabyte The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is... (no longer produced), 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB (two 4 GB chips Integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material... ) flash memory |
| Size | 79 mm × 48.2 mm × 10 mm |
| Display | 2.4 inch, 260‐thousand color Color Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors... QVGA, 320×240 pixel Pixel In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled.... resolution Display resolution The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection... TFT‐LCD screen |
| Weight | 55 grams |
| Audio | supports MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, WMA lossless, APE |
| Video | AVI format (Xvid XviD Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a... ) at up to 20 FPS Frame rate Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems... and 384 to 512 kilobits per second |
| Photo | BMP, JPEG JPEG In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.... , GIF GIF The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability.... |
| Battery | rechargeable lithium-ion battery; rated at 20 hour Hour The hour is a unit of measurement of time. In modern usage, an hour comprises 60 minutes, or 3,600 seconds... s audio playback and 6 hours video playback |
File transfer
The M6 is connected to a computerComputer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
via a USB 2.0 cable, upon which it is typically recognized as a mass storage device
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
(starting with the 2.00x firmware series MTP
Media Transfer Protocol
The Media Transfer Protocol is a devised set of custom extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol . Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital cameras, Media Transfer Protocol supports the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media...
is also supported). Transferring media files and firmware upgrades is accomplished by simply dragging and dropping. Thus, no proprietary software is needed, allowing it to be a true cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
media player. It is confirmed that the Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
2.6 kernel
Kernel (computing)
In computing, the kernel is the main component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources...
driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
for UMS devices
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
works with the M6.
Video conversion
For converting videos to the required XvidXviD
Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a...
format, Meizu provides a custom version of VirtualDub
VirtualDub
VirtualDub is a video capture and video processing utility for Microsoft Windows written by Avery Lee.It is designed to process linear video streams, including filtering and recompression...
. There is also a Meizu profile available for another open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
, Iriverter and Batman Video Converter is available. Mac users can convert with MPEG Streamclip video converter.
Customization and variants
The miniPlayer allows the userUser (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
to change a few display items such as the background
Computer wallpaper
Wallpaper is an image used as a background of a graphical user interface on a computer screen or mobile communications device. On a computer it is usually for the desktop, while for a mobile phone it is usually the background for the 'home' or 'idle' screen...
image
Digital image
A digital image is a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type...
and font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
.
Unofficially, it is possible to modify the RESOURCE.BIN file to skin
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
the player with different icons. A number of stick‐on covers are available which allow the front surface and thumb pad to be colored.
Two versions of the miniPlayer were originally produced:
- The TP version has a ToshibaToshibais a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
screen with better color reproduction at the cost of lower brightnessBrightnessBrightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target...
. It is also 2 mm shallower. This model is no longer produced. - The SP version has a brighter and slightly cheaper SamsungSamsungThe Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
screen. This model is still in production.
The two versions have different firmware and the screen does not work if the wrong one is loaded. The RESOURCE.BIN files are the same, however.
There was also a special SP edition where the back metal plate would be black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
matte, instead of shiny metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
.
M6SL and M6SE
A slimmer version of the miniPlayer, named Meizu M6SL (M6 “slim”), was released at the end of September 2007. The main difference from the original edition is the decreased thickness—7 mm (like the M3 Music CardM3 Music Card
The M3 Music Card from the Chinese company Meizu, is a Flash-based MP3 player that allows users to play MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC and OGG audio files. The player is also capable of video playback at 25FPS on its 1.5-inch screen. Also included is an FM tuner, voice recorder, calendar, stopwatch,...
) instead of 10 mm and new, better quality, Wolfson
Wolfson Microelectronics
Wolfson Microelectronics plc is a multinational microelectronics and fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. It specialises in signal processing chips for the consumer electronics market and has engineering and sales offices throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe and the...
produced DAC
Digital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
s.
See also
Firmware 2004.6 for Meizu Miniplayer M6 SP:here
Firmware 2004.7 for Meizu Miniplayer M6 SL:
here
- MeizuMeizuMeizu Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese electronics manufacturer. Meizu is the developer of the M6 Mini Player, the M3 Music Card, released in March 2007, and the M8 miniOne mobile phone, released February 2009...
Resources: