Mpxplay
Encyclopedia
Mpxplay is a 32-bit console audio player for DOS
and Windows (Win2K
, XP
, Vista
and Win7) operating systems.
It supports AAC
, AC3, ALAC
, APE, FLAC
, MP2
/MP3
, MPC
, Vorbis
, WMA
, WV
audio codecs, AIF and WAV
/W64 files, and can play sound from videos using the AVI
, ASF
, MKV
, MP4/MOV
, MPG/VOB, OGG
and TS containers. With plugins it plays: DTS, MOD
and SPX
too. Audio CD playing and ripping is also possible (CDW).
It supports the following playlist types: M3U
, M3U8, PLS
, FPL
, CUE, MXU. DOS version uses a 32-bit DOS extender
(DOS/32 Advanced DOS Extender being the most up-to-date version compatible).
play-back, exact value depends mostly from audio codec and file format used. 4-8 MiB
RAM is also required. MS-DOS
5.00+ or equivalent (e.g. FreeDOS
) is required.
or through emulation
. Native support is achieved by having drivers
in Mpxplay that are capable of writing to the sound card directly. When native support is used more of the sound cards features are available such as the ability to use 32-bit sound.
Cards that are currently supported for native access are:
Cards supported through emulation typically need a TSR driver wrapper
, a program that translates the codes for one type of sound card to the one actually in the machine. This can be used to gain the ability to use a sound card that typically is not well supported by the majority of DOS applications. As DOS needs drivers to be programmed into each application in which they are used, it can be useful to run a sound card that is nearly universally supported by most applications with sound support: SoundBlaster 16.
Mpxplay can use this technique to support the following sound cards:
The Win32 version of Mpxplay is a multi-threaded console application with the following sound outputs:
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
and Windows (Win2K
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
, XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Win7) operating systems.
It supports AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, AC3, ALAC
Apple Lossless
Apple Lossless Apple Lossless Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), or ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially being proprietary for many years, in late 2011 Apple open sourced...
, APE, 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...
, MP2
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III...
/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...
, MPC
Musepack
Musepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160–180 kbit/s...
, Vorbis
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio 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...
, WV
WavPack
WavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant.-Features:WavPack compression can compress 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-bit fixed-point, and 32-bit floating point audio files in the .WAV file format. It also supports surround sound streams and high frequency...
audio codecs, AIF and WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
/W64 files, and can play sound from videos using the 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...
, ASF
Advanced Systems Format
Advanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media...
, MKV
Matroska
The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks in one file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows...
, MP4/MOV
QuickTime File Format
QuickTime File Format is a computer file format used natively by the QuickTime framework.- Design :The format specifies a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text...
, MPG/VOB, OGG
OGG
Ogg may refer to:*Nanny Ogg, a character in the Discworld series of books*Ogg, a multimedia container file format, in computing*Ogg Vorbis, the Vorbis free software/open source audio codec, commonly used with the Ogg container...
and TS containers. With plugins it plays: DTS, MOD
MOD (file format)
MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga where the original trackers instead use a “mod.” prefix scheme, e.g. “mod.echoing”...
and SPX
Speex
Speex is a patent-free audio compression format designed for speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm. Speex claims to be free of any patent restrictions and is licensed under the revised BSD...
too. Audio CD playing and ripping is also possible (CDW).
It supports the following playlist types: M3U
M3U
M3U is a computer file format that stores multimedia playlists. It is supported by many applications.An M3U file is a plain text file that specifies the locations of one or more media files. Each line carries one specification...
, M3U8, PLS
PLS (file format)
PLS is a computer file format that stores multimedia playlists. It is a more expressive format than basic M3U, as it can store information on the song title and length...
, FPL
Foobar2000
foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows developed by Peter Pawlowski, a former freelance contractor for Nullsoft. It is known for its highly modular design and extensive SDK which allows third-party developers to do such things as completely replace the interface...
, CUE, MXU. DOS version uses a 32-bit DOS extender
DOS extender
A DOS extender is a computer software program which enables software to run under a protected mode environment even though the host operating system is only capable of operating in real mode....
(DOS/32 Advanced DOS Extender being the most up-to-date version compatible).
Features
Mpxplay supports many features unique to it among DOS/console media players. These include:- Native (DOS) support of many modern sound cards and sound chipsets
- Commander-style directory, file and playlist handling
- Multichannel support at AAC, AC3, DTS, FLAC and Vorbis inputs, and Win32/DirectSound, WAV-file outputs (from v1.58)
- RealtimeReal-time computingIn computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
crossfading - UnicodeUnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
(UTF-8UTF-8UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks...
, UTF-16) ID3tag/APETag and playlist handling (reading and writing) - Using of external DLLs, like audio decoders and encoders (DOS/4G and Win32 versions of Mpxplay)
- FTP client (remote directory browsing and direct playing from ftp servers)
- LCD display support (DOS only)
- Support for reading and displaying long filenames under DOS using DOSLFN.
System requirements
DOS version of Mpxplay requires cca 100 MHz i486 CPU or faster for realtimeReal-time computing
In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
play-back, exact value depends mostly from audio codec and file format used. 4-8 MiB
MIB
MIB may refer to any of several concepts:* Master of International Business, a postgraduate business degree* Melayu Islam Beraja, the adopted national philosophy of Brunei* Motion induced blindness, a visual illusion in peripheral vision...
RAM is also required. MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
5.00+ or equivalent (e.g. FreeDOS
FreeDOS
FreeDOS is an operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. FreeDOS is made up of many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project...
) is required.
Sound Card Support
Mpxplay supports sound cards using one of two methods: nativelyNative mode
The term native mode or native code is used in computing in two related senses.*to describe something running on a computer natively or in native mode meaning that it is running without any external support as contrasted to running in emulation....
or through emulation
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
. Native support is achieved by having drivers
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....
in Mpxplay that are capable of writing to the sound card directly. When native support is used more of the sound cards features are available such as the ability to use 32-bit sound.
Cards that are currently supported for native access are:
- Sound Blaster Live and Live 24
- Sound Blaster AudigySound Blaster AudigySound Blaster Audigy is a product line of sound cards from Creative Technology. The flagship model of the Audigy family used the EMU10K2 audio DSP, an improved version of the SB-Live's EMU10K1, while the value/SE editions were built with a less-expensive audio controller...
1, 2, 4, and LS - SB Ensoniq (SB PCI 16/64/128)
- CMI 8338 and 8738
- Intel ICH
- Intel HDA
- VIA 686,8233, and 8235
Cards supported through emulation typically need a TSR driver wrapper
Driver wrapper
A driver wrapper is software that functions as an adapter between an operating system and a driver, such as a device driver, that was not designed for that operating system. It can enable the use of devices for which no drivers for the particular operating system are available...
, a program that translates the codes for one type of sound card to the one actually in the machine. This can be used to gain the ability to use a sound card that typically is not well supported by the majority of DOS applications. As DOS needs drivers to be programmed into each application in which they are used, it can be useful to run a sound card that is nearly universally supported by most applications with sound support: SoundBlaster 16.
Mpxplay can use this technique to support the following sound cards:
- Sound Blaster 16Sound Blaster 16The Sound Blaster 16 is a series of sound cards by Creative Technology. They are add-on boards for PCs with an ISA or PCI slot.-Sound Blaster 16:Sound Blaster 16 , the successor to the Sound Blaster Pro, introduced 16-bit digital audio sampling to the Sound Blaster line...
- ESS
- WSS
- GUS
- Sound Blaster Pro
The Win32 version of Mpxplay is a multi-threaded console application with the following sound outputs:
- DirectSoundDirectSoundDirectSound is a software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system. DirectSound provides a low-latency interface to the sound card driver and can handle the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams....
(Directx v3 or higher) - Wave Mapper (all Win versions)
See also
- MplayerMPlayerMPlayer is a free and open source media player. The program is available for all major operating systems, including Linux and other Unix-like systems, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS and MorphOS are also available. The Windows version works, with some minor...
- Video and audio player, also has DOS version - Dosamp - Very old DOS audio player
- Comparison of media playersComparison of media playersThe following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.For the purpose of this comparison, "video players" are defined as any media player which can play video, even if it can also play audio files.-General:-Operating system...
External links
- Mediaplayers at DR-DOS Wiki - more info on MPXPLAY and other DOS audio and video players, more screenshots