MPEGDEC is amazing!



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Author	MPEGDEC is amazing! (Read 29409 times)
cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	on: April 04, 2021, 06:25 So I've sampled a lot of older software in Basilisk II (on Android) and just assumed MPEGDEC simply didn't work on it because the audio never worked. I finally took the time to figure out why the audio has been failing me on and off on several applications, I just never connected the dots.. It turns out it was my Mac OS 8 sound preferences! after each reboot, it defaults to 16-bit audio, which does not work at all on BII and I'm sure most 68k Macs as well. Once I discovered this issue and set my sound preferences before using it, MPEGDEC works extremely well! I was able to add ID3 tags and custom cover art to my MP3 and it displays the tags perfectly. Not only that, I'm able to play 44.1Hz 320kbps MP3s, even some that were encoded with VBR! And when I output them to my Bluetooth speaker from my Android Chromebook, they sound great! The next step will be to try to play some Internet-based MP3 audio files, even if I have to set-up my own site to test it since it's designed to play MP3s from the Internet as well. All in all, it has been a very productive Easter weekend! What it does need is a GUI makeover, lol, and adding an album art preview window would be the ultimate hack!
Last Edit: April 04, 2021, 06:33 by cballero
Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #1 on: April 04, 2021, 08:12 Cool progress! From what I can tell, if a Mac (a real one, that is) can play mp3s in decent enough quality it is usually within the realms of streaming stuff too - with a fast enough, stable internet connection. Head over to surfmusic (or the S7T Tutorial on streaming radio) and pick your favorite tune. :-) On a real 68k Mac, MPEGDEC still requires quite some oomph to run decently. My IIci with a Cache Card chokes on it, I have to resort to .aiff files. (which is an alternative to mp3 on old Macs, albeit file sizes get huge). I think MPEGDEC feels really well on 68040 Macs. (or your emulation Android device )

cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	Reply #2 on: April 05, 2021, 00:01 I turned off virtual memory because I could give my BII Mac more RAM, lol, but I was able to lower MPEGDEC's application memory to 3,540kb to save a couple of megs of RAM. I also discovered that MPEGDEC only displays the title and artist ID3 tags if the album art graphic is kept to less than 20k in size! It isn't hard to achieve to do if you keep the album art size to 300 pixels, but it's harder w/a highly-detailed JPEG photo that's 500 pixels. The easiest thing to do of course is not to have any album art, but I like to share my MP3 files w/my Chromebook. Oh, and I ended up deleting my Basilisk II HD as I was saving my MP3 test files. Luckily, I was able to use DiskCopy to save my boot volume into portions that's what I get for playing w/fire, lol

Knezzen Administrator 512 MB Posts: 608 Village idiot	Reply #3 on: April 05, 2021, 10:42 MpegDec works great on my PowerBook 540c, but I send to use SoundJam on my PowerPC systems "just because".

cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	Reply #4 on: April 05, 2021, 20:52 Yes, I am running the paces for MpegDec because outside of the many 68k Macs out there, Basilisk II is the only Mac emulator that has an Android port. I'm doing this because it's the only way to run a Mac emulator on mobile devices that use Android and Chromebooks like mine that use Android but cannot add emulators with Linux apps unless I do a full install of an ARM Linux. I am very excited as to the processing power MpegDec has being a prized assembly language program, which are in the minority like WriteNow and both of these programs perform very well in all of the Classic OS versions and Macs, making them valuable.

Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #5 on: April 06, 2021, 18:06 You need to get a PowerBook 5xx 68k series and join the fun, cballero. You'll get your mobile device you can take with you to the toilet and tinker with "the real thing" :-)

cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	Reply #6 on: April 06, 2021, 21:16 Lol, have you seen their prices nowadays? Even early on, I quickly jumped on a Duo 2300c w/a mini Dock, a PB 1400c w/ PCMCIA slot for wireless networking and several 3400cs, all using System 7 The last 68k Mac I bought was a Quadra 630 and I used that w/Apple's beautiful Triniton AV 14" Display w/the special microphone and Apple's futuristic ergonomic keyboard w/it's numeric keypad printing to a color StyleWriter. It was like heaven! I moved onto a PowerMac 8500 and later a PM 6400 back in the day, so getting 2400c and Basilisk II are my go-tos for System 7 fun and the Pismo w/8.6 and more so the Beige G3 Desktop will be for System 7.8, ahem, I mean System 8.1 for screaming fast pre-Mac OS 8.5 action. Of course, having the ability to switch into 8.6 and 9.2.2 are just extra perks on my two G3 Macs It helps that my Chromebook gives my 'little 68k Mac Inside' any files I need via Chrome and the Unix shared drive, it weighs less than a kg , looks like a tiny Macbook Air and it only cost me $60 total shipped, used of course, lol!
Last Edit: April 07, 2021, 00:50 by cballero
thealterlion 8 MB Posts: 8 I have a powerbook and a dream	Reply #7 on: April 08, 2021, 22:27 Seems like another program to try out on my 520c when my usb floppy drive arrives. I've been learning more about the powerbook 500 series and it is amazing how many things Apple did first with it

Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #8 on: April 09, 2021, 18:08 @cballero - retro Macs are my hobby. Others spend hundreds of dollars on model railroads, oldtimer cars or beer. I spend it on Macs. Let's compare the costs. Thanks to the Mac Garden you don't pay for software. All you need to invest in is hardware. So let's assume you pay 200$ for a half-decent PowerBook 5xx series (not up-to-date on U.S. prices, it's a guess). You may need to pay someone to recap it at one point if you can't do it yourself. Add another 100$. You may want to upgrade it, but then it's not a necessary investment. All in all, I'd say it's an extremely cheap hobby compared to others. The danger is rather to keep it at one or two models and not fifty
Last Edit: April 09, 2021, 18:23 by Bolkonskij
cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	Reply #9 on: April 10, 2021, 00:22 Agreed! and all my real working Macs are just that: I got a second Pismo - the first one I owned rocked so much! I got a Powerbook 2400c - I always wanted Apple's first-subnotebook I got a Beige G3 Desktop - to have a bridge between old and new I got some Mac Minis w/no hds - in the hopes I can use OS 9 on them Sadly, I haven't had any luck getting them to CD or FW boot The 2020 iMac does not count, lol, since it cannot Classic!!

Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #10 on: January 30, 2022, 07:46 Resurrecting this thread - I've been installing MPEGdec on my Mac IIci yesterday. Started playback on a 320 kbps mp3 file and it would play absolutely fine out of the speakers of this 1989 made Mac IIci. Talk about magic moments! Sure, the IIci has a Daystar Powercache upgrade inside, taking it to 40 Mhz, yet it's still something I wasn't ever expecting to happen. Very neat player, definite no. 1 on anything 68k Mac. Next I need to try to find out how to stream stuff. I think that's what you haven't managed to get working too, @cballero?

cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	Reply #11 on: January 30, 2022, 16:48 Exactly! you felt the magic too, right? I was like, holy cow, I could have been rocking MP3s on those little Macs I used to use and even those I troubleshot on back in the day! (well, depending on when MPEGDEC came out that is, lol) Like my school, which had a lot of old Macs, including a Mac II series Mac, an IIci and plenty SE30s running System 7! I also used my IIci at work for marketing using ClarisWorks and a small CRM for work using Filemaker 2.1 as well as a Powerbook 165c we used to go online with AOL and it was amazing! Can you imagine MP3s then? Overseas I worked on a bunch of older Macs because people had older Mac tech, from Color Classics, IIvi, Quadra 700 and the 'pizza box' Centris 660av, from a tiny (and heavy) Powerbook 100 to cool 68k color Powerbooks like the Powerbook 180c; I sold my Classic II and got a Quadra 405 there and the office had a nifty IIg PostScript printer and we also setup and worked on many used Mac printers, models like Lasewriter Select 360, a higher-end LaserWriter Pro 810 and smaller printers like the Personal Writer 320 and StyleWriter IIs MPEGDEC would have rocked on all those Macs, even though many of those had CD-ROMs to play audio CDs Even my last CD-ROM 68k Macs that played audio CDs included a (pretty heavy) Performa 575 and then a LC 630, all that could have easily handled MP3s beautifully with MPEGDEC!

68040 512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !	Reply #12 on: February 01, 2022, 11:44 I found that both classic MP3 audio and MPGEG video up to MPG2 work quite well on classic MacOS 8.1 68k. Naturally none of the more modern codecs do, but classic stuff does w/o a hitch. And Linux offers many tools for data conversion free out-of-the-box. Therefore I can always revert back to the vintage days if I feel like it (which I do ever more often).

cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1176 System 7, today and forever	Reply #13 on: February 01, 2022, 15:39 Very Cool, 68040!! Are you using Sparkle to play MPEG2 videos on a 68k Mac? I've been able to encode and play MotionJPEG videos using QuickTime on Mac OS 8.1 68k, but I haven't been able to play any MPEG1 or MPEG2 videos (then again I may need to get some sample videos to test out on my QuickTime players). Sparkle is the one I've tried using for MPEGs, but so far I haven't been able to get that player working with any videos, but I may just be using the wrong video file types. If you're using any special video programs to encode MPEG videos, please share your setup. I think I have my emulator's FPU on, so if that's a requirement for playback then I may have that troubleshooting step covered. I know that m68k at the Mac Garden has had success with video playback as well, so I may need to pick both of your brains for clues on MPEG playback on 68k Macs, which I know Bolkonskij as well as myself will both be very interested in successfully trying out on our 68k Macs for sure!!

68040 512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !	Reply #14 on: February 01, 2022, 19:58 Yep I use Sparkle and other players for my MPEG and MP3 data. Some AVI and FLV files also play well. Its a trial and error process in most cases. But if the file is old enough it usually works out fine. Except for MP3 were almost all recent audio files are still usable (seems that format didn't change much over time).

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