Article ID: 12

Added: January 28, 2008

Category: File Management, Media Player

Question

I heard that BrailleNote can play a range of media files. What types of audio and/or video files does BrailleNote support?

Answer

In KeySoft 5.0, HumanWare, then Pulsedata, introduced support for playing mp3 files on the BrailleNote (back then, it wasn't called Classic). With introduction of Windows CE 4.2 in 2004, HumanWare expanded the media file types that can be played on the BrailleNote. This was achieved by using Windows Media Player 9 for Pocket PC technology.

All the BrailleNote family, including Classic, can play mp3 and wav files. In addition to these two file types, BrailleNote mPower and PK accept additional extensionss, as listed below.

The BrailleNote's Media Player, called "KSWMedia," can play the following file types:

 

• mp3 (MPEG Audio layer 3): A popular audio file that provides CD quality without taking a lot of storage space. This format is the one that is commonly encountered on the Internet - from downloading songs to listening to podcasts.

 

• WAV (Pure Wave form sound): A file format used to encode sound before it is saved as other formats such as mp3. This file type is also widely available. This is also the file format associated with voice memos.

 

For mPower and PK only

 

• M3U (MPEG Layer 3 URL): A type of media file consisting of list of media files stored on a computer. These files are called "playlists."

 

• WMA (Windows Media Audio): The default audio file format for Windows Media Player. This file type offers superior quality yet it is even smaller than mp3 format. This is the only file format that reports bitrate (usually in kbps).

 

• WAX (Windows Audio Redirector): a type of streaming format, used to play a series of Windows Media Audio (WMA) format files.

 

• WMV (Windows Media Video): This is a popular video file format. Many websites that host video files store them as wmv files.

 

• WVX (Windows Video Redirector): Similar to WAX, this format streams series of Windows Media Video (WMV) files.

 

• WMX (Windows Media Redirector): This is similar to m3u/wax/wvx files, except that it accepts both audio and video files.

 

• ASX (Advanced Stream Redirector): A type of streaming file format that plays files stored on a website.

 

• SND (SouND): A type of audio file format, developed by Apple that is mainly used with Macintosh computers.

 

• AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format), AIF (Audio Interchange Format), AIFC (Audio Interchange File Compression): A series of file formats, developed by Apple, which is popular among audio and video professionals. These formats have same characteristics as wav files, but are twice the size of the former type.

 

• AU (Audio): A type of format, developed by Son Microsystems (developers of Java programming language) which is commonly used as sound for Unix computers.

 

Updated: January 28, 2008

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