Mp3s and the Mas Player?

[Tenacious]

Do many people here have the MAS player?  Are you happy with how they work?  Are they still available?  Sorry for all the questions, but I can do everything else with Amigas except play Mp3s on modestly expanded machines.  With an 060, I can play through Paula @ 14 bits.  Not bad, but My other machines aren't so equipped.

Long live Calssic Amigas!

[spihunter]

I've been looking for months and I cant find one anywhere. I wanted to use it for a A1200 car project.

From what I hear they work well, even on a low end setup.

[Norway]

Hello here is a link:, javascript:ol('http://www.kdh-amiga-shop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=780');

[Hyperspeed]

Wouldn't mind getting one myself - it'd take the workload off the CPU. AmigaAMP has inbuilt support for it but I'm wondering if it hogs the parallel port or has a pass-thru...

[doctorq]

I have 3 MAS players at this point, 2 Pros and 1 non-Pro, and all work well together with AmigaAMP as well as Amplifier.

Someone released an optimized mhi.library for the Pro version, which lowers the CPU load even more. Still no new library for the non-Pro though :-(

[Effy]

Or check out the Ebay link of KDH Datentechnik  :angel:

[toca180]

Hi

I have one. It works great. Not sure if its pro or not as got it from ebay (how can I tell?). It does not have a pass throught so does compleatly use up the parallel port but the serial comector on mine does have pass throught.

On a side note, is there better software to use than the original software written for it?

Thanks
Robert

[leirbag28]

 I have a MAS Player Pro  on my Plain 7mhz A600. You have to put a large enough Buffer for it to play smooth.........256kb is fine if you only have 2mb or even 1mb of RAM....It works great.........the problem s the MASPlayer software isnt so good and it is Only PAL mode!   There is a trick I use to be able to use the screen in NTSC mode Auto scroll......

.....Just download "NTSC4NTSC.lha" on Aminet........this forces any PAL screen into an NTSC autoscroll one!  Ahhhh I can even Play Klondike and Klondike III in NTSC mode!
 Put NTSC4NTSC in your C: directory and Just Type:  NTSC4NTSC  FORCENTSC if you are usng AGA machines................if you are using an ECS machine type: NTSC4NTSC  USEAUTO    and Whalla!  now MASPlayer software is in NTSC mode autoscroll!   You execute this before Running the MASPlayer Software.  Or for other applications you want to be able to use in NTSC mode.

I find the Best Software to use for the MAS Player is AMPlifier and NOT AMigaAMP......AmigaAMP is slower even with the new MHI lib.   AmigaAMP is best suited for gfx Card users.........and AMPlifier for Classic Amigas.    Of course you need a 68020 or above to use it.....so A600 is out of the Question.

I use a Skin Called Snorklex to reduce Chipmem or just use      the skinless setting.   I Swap my MAS player back and forth from my A600 to My CD32/SX32 Pro. It works best on my CD32 of course I I can still RUN SCALA Simultaneously..........there is indeed a significant slowdown, but not too noticable if you know what to do.

Also you can use the MASplayer with No Software at all to save Chip Memory!  There is a CLI package you can download that you can use to execute commands to control he MAS hardware. I use MP3's in my SCALA presentations using SCALA EXECUTE to execute CLI commands from Workbench! SUPER Cool.


One thing I have noticed.....the MAS definitely does not sound as good as a PC.........the Volume output seems to be lower too.  But its still Good! I try to use 128kbps MP3 and not higher but the 193kbps work just as good........the reason I use the 128kbps is because RAMlib gives me issues where the AMPlifier refuses to play anything higher than 128kbs, so I hae to use another Version of AMPlifier to get it to work   I HATE RAMLIB!


EDIT:   The MASPlayer I have has a SERIAL passthroug but not a Parrallel one.............I wish it Had Parralel passthrough so tha I can attach a DSS8+  Sound sampler to sample and to just have the Cool Full screen Oscilloscope running on the screen playing MP3's!........  is it posible to make a Passthrough and use it Simultaneously?

The Cool thing is, On my CD32  I have 3 or will have 4 seperate Audio outputs!  One for Audio CD, another fo MODS and another for the MAS and I am adding another internal CDROM............and I have an external DJ mixer so that I can DJ with this one unit and mix between the different audio OUTS!
I await the day someone will make an MP3 Decoder hat can decode at leat 3 MP3's simultaneously so that one Can DJ between them at parties!
Not even a iPod does this...............Common Someone???!
Eyetech?  Jens?   somebody please!

[Oliver]

leirbag28 wrote:
...is it posible to make a Passthrough and use it Simultaneously?

Am I correct in thinking that the MAS player uses the parallel port to stream the encoded data from the Amiga?  If this is the case, the parallel port is likely to be very busy, and under the control of the software which manages the mp3 playback.  Under these conditions, I think it is unlikely that other hardware and software could successfully share the port during playback.

[Doppie1200]

Effy wrote:
Or check out the Ebay link of KDH Datentechnik

I see they have an MP3 decoder for use with the MMC64. It is intended for the C64 but didn't the MMC64 have an AMIGA clockport interface?

If that is the case this device could work inside of an amiga aswell.

Could be a nice internal alternative for the MAS player.
Ofcourse a driver is still to be written. But the HSI is probably documented somewhere.

Does someone know if this could work?

[CLS2086]

Is it possible to make it works on an A1000 with 512kb and dual drive ?  :-?

[Doppie1200]

CLS2086 wrote:
Is it possible to make it works on an A1000 with 512kb and dual drive ?  :-?

Where would you store the MP3? It does not fit on any of your media.

[Doobrey]

Doppie1200 wrote:
I see they have an MP3 decoder for use with the MMC64. It is intended for the C64 but didn't the MMC64 have an AMIGA clockport interface?

Does someone know if this could work?

Not according to Vesalia :-(  

For those too lazy to followw the link..

Please note that the MP3@64 is not a stand-alone device nor a generic clockport module, it only works with an MMC64.

[steve30]

IS there a schematic so I could make my own?

[Hyperspeed]

Leirbag28: That's cool you can use it on an A600!

I've downloaded NTSC4NTSC as it might help me force an old PAL program into NTSC:Hi-Res Laced (a screenmode I use primarily).

I will give AMPlifier a try. There's 26MB of skins on Aminet but I prefer the simple, power efficient Songplayer over AmigaAMP.

It's a shame that the Graffiti and MASplayer weren't brought out earlier. Fast moving chunky graphics would have been a boost for Alien Breed 3D and combined with MP3 decoding could have made a fantastic game with little CPU use.