I finally found a MASplayer! After 2 Years!

[Tenacious]

I bought mine from leirbag28, who is great to deal with.  There is noticeably more dynamic range and quality to the music than I experience with 14 bit Paula.  Tried it with both AmigaAmp and Amplifier, AmigaAmp seems to load the CPU less than Amplifier (21% versus about 35%).  Both seem to work great, though.

The VU bargraph displays in both programs stopped working.  Has anyone seen this before?

I'll say it again.  The MASplayerPro is, IMHO, one of the most worthy hardware projects for someone to revive and start selling.  I would happily buy 1 or 2 more.  I understand that the chip set is available in Europe.

[_yak_]

Just out of curiosity, what CPU do you have?

I don't have a MASplayer but as far as I understand how it works the bargraph won't work. The MP3 stream is sent undecoded to the MASplayer where it is decoded and converted directly to analog signal. This means that CPU has no access to decoded audio signal and cannot calcuate the bars.

[Tenacious]

I have an 060.  After reading your post, that seems fundamental and obvious.  Great insight!  I wish I had thought it through.

[Matt_H]

Regarding visualization:

Yes. Same thing happens when using the Delfina for hardware decoding.

[alexh]

Dont you think the MAS player is well... erm.... how do you put it... DEAD, for a good reason? All Amiga users now have a different PC/Mac as their main computer on which they play their MP3's etc.

Amiga's for Amiga stuff... something else for everything else? Dont you agree?

[keropi]

yeah Alexh, but bear in mind the "amiga virus"  :-D  , if there is a way to do it on amiga, then u must do it there  :-D  :-D  :-D

[Tomas]

alexh wrote:
Dont you think the MAS player is well... erm.... how do you put it... DEAD, for a good reason? All Amiga users now have a different PC/Mac as their main computer on which they play their MP3's etc.

I disagree.. I rather want to play the mp3s on my amiga. Why should i use my big box x86 when i can use my a1200?  :-)

[leirbag28]

Hey Tenacious!  glad your enjoying the MASPlayer..........I agree 100% that its one of the most worthy projects to continue.  Amigas Need simple MP3 capability in easy hardware to connect.  Heck Playstations and Sega Dreamcasts have MP3 decoders like this.......why not Amigas?

Something strange though.........I was able to play Super High quality 365kb MP3's on my 7mhz A600 but was only able to play up to 128kb on my SX32 68030 50mhz.  I was wondering what the heck was hindeing it...might of been some hack running in the back...........so let me know if you are able to play those 365kb ones..............nevertheless...the 128kb ones sound superb and are smaller files.

By the way..you can also play WAV files with AMPlifier and drop them in with the MP3's Playlist if you need to play some voice recording from a PC or something. I wish it could Play MODS and 8svx sound samples.



@alexh
Quote:
Dont you think the MAS player is well... erm.... how do you put it... DEAD, for a good reason? All Amiga users now have a different PC/Mac as their main computer on which they play their MP3's etc.

Amiga's for Amiga stuff... something else for everything else? Dont you agree?
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I DISAGREE with you 100%!  Would you want to play SLAMTILT on your PC?  or on your Amiga?  Do you want to use SCALA on PC or prefer Amiga?   is putting YAM on PC same difference as using it on AMiga?

Well the clear answer is heck no!  we will take anything we can get for out Amigas so that we can do it with our Amigas and not need a PC as a humungous DONGLE just to play MP3's..................Plus Amigas are portable....when compared to PC towers that require a VGA monitor with it...........Amigas can use a 5 inch LCD screens and you can install one in your car.  Look at my photo album to see my A600 which used to have the MASPlayer connected to it.

More MAS Players!   and more powerful ones! Less CPU load please!

[_ThEcRoW]

I use my iPod for mp3 playing and the Amiga for Amiga things.  :-D

[Tenacious]

@ Leirbag

You tell 'em!  Grin.

@ alexh & keropi

Yes, I'm probably infected with the Amiga virus. I have PCs, Macs, and Mp3 players, and they all do a good job.  It was far more satisfying to get my favorite 15 year old computer to play Mp3s, though.  I am facinated to see an Amiga deal with formats and technology that came out long after "experts" declared the machine, ...DEAD.  It's a testiment to beautiful design.   The Amiga IS my "main" machine, PCs and Macs are supplimental and for other things.

On the other hand, there are probably just as many folks fawning over (and updating) their 15 year old PCs and Macs as there are devotees here.  Big Grin.  Actually, in the case of the Mac, this may be really true.  

[LoadWB]

alexh wrote:
Amiga's for Amiga stuff... something else for everything else? Dont you agree?

Would you mind defining "Amiga Stuff," please?

[mpiva]

@ alexh

I totally disagree with that statement.

I have an Amiga and a PC sitting right next to each other in my office.  I still prefer to do all my writing in FinalWriter97 rather than Word.  When I write I often like to have my MP3s playing in the background.  While it is possible to be using FinalWriter and Amplifier (or AmiNetRadio) at the same time it does slow down my system (A4000T/060) somewhat; not unbearably so but it's still noticeable.  More and more I've been turning on the PC just to play music while I write.

It's incredible overkill to turn on two computers for this.    Perhaps I'm infected by this Amiga virus in that even using FinalWriter on the PC via WinUAE is not a satisfactory solution.  I know how ridiculous it sounds but I'm just not inspired on a PC as I am on a good old classic Amiga.  I would love to get a MASPlayer and give myself one less reason to turn on that PC.


Hey... My 100th post!!!   :-D  :-D  :-D

[alewis]

Its a hardware project? if "homebrew/DIY", any details anywhere?

edit: bugger, commercial hardware. Any idea who owns the copyright, where one could obtain tech specs, etc?

[Doobrey]

@alewis
 Dirk Conrad's MASPlayer site

[alexh]

Would you mind defining "Amiga Stuff," please?

Things that you can do on an Amiga that you cannot do on any other platform (without emulation).

i.e. Play Amiga games, watch Amiga demos etc.