Probe House DMA Sample Player rel 4.2
by William Wong, Sep 97


WHAT IS IT?
 Probe House DMA Player (PH Player) is a 8/16 bits, mono/stereo DMA 
 sample player for the STE, MSTE, TT & Falcon. It's a simple player,
 just pass it some sample & it will play it. 
 
 
WHAT'S NEW IN THIS RELEASE?
 * IMA ADPCM stereo support.
 * Loaded sample information display.
 
 
WHAT SAMPLE FORMAT DOES IT SUPPORT?
 Following audio format are automatically recognised:
 1/ AU  - Next/Sun Audio files ( u-law, 8/16 bits linear).
 2/ AVR - Audio Visual Research ( 8/16 bits linear).
 3/ WAV - Microsoft Wave ( u-law, a-law, ADPCM, 8/16 bits PCM).
 4/ WAV - IMA 4-bits ADPCM.
 5/ SND - Sound file (8/16 bits linear).
 6/ AIF - SGI/Apple IIF uncompressed (8/16 bits).
 7/ IFF - AMIGA IIF uncompressed (8/16 bits).
 8/ VOC - PC SoundBlaster uncompressed (8/16 bits).
 9/ RAW - any data files: default to 8 bits, 8KHz & Mono.

 Mono/stereo samples are support for all known formats.


WHAT PLAYBACK SPEED/FREQUENCY DOES IT SUPPORT?
 All the popular playback speed are supported. PH Player preprocess the
 sample for speed adjustment before playing. This incur some delay before 
 playing the sample. However, playback will suffer no delay.
 
 The following playback speed is supported:
   5500, 6258, 7333, 8000, 10000, 10050,11025,12516,16000,18900,
   22050,22150,25033,32000,37800,44056,44100,48000,50066 Hz.
 

HOW TO USE IT?
 1/ Install it as a desktop icon. 
    To play any sample, just drag the sample file on to it. 
    No GUI will appear when using this method.
    
 2/ Double click it.
    A GUI will appear. Here you can PLAY, STOP or LOAD any sample.
    
 3/ Install it as a viewer for another program. 
    The program must pass to it the full pathname of the sample. 
    No GUI will be appear under this mode.
    
 4/ Installing it as a Desktop Accessory.
    Renaming it to .ACC extension & placing it on your bootup partition.
    When called from the desktop accessory, a GUI will appear.
    
 5/ VA-Protocal.
    The calling program must pass to it the full pathname of the sample.
    If PH Player GUI is opened, the GUI will be topped otherwise no GUI
    will appear.


THE GUI BUTTONS & SHORTCUT KEYS
 The 1st button or 'P'/ENTER/RETURN key is PLAY.
 The 2nd button or 'S'/ESC is STOP.
 The 3rd button or 'L'/SPACE is LOAD.
 The 4th button or 'I' key is ABOUT & sample information.
 The closer widget or 'q'/UNDO key is QUIT.


SAMPLE INFORMATION
 The sample information (format, frequency, stero/mono) is displayed
 by pressing the 'i' icon or by pressing the 'i' key. The information
 is displayed along with the ABOUT of the program. 


PROGRAM OR DESKTOP ACCESSORY?
 PH Player is both! Just change the extension from .PRG to .ACC for it
 to become an desktop accessory.
 On bootup, PH Player can play a sample ( ala Win95 ) if it can locate
 the file "PHPLAYER.WAV" at the bootup partition. The sample can be 
 any sample format but the extension must be .WAV.
 
 Bootup will continue as the sample plays!
        
 
ALL THIS FOR FREE?
 It's not shareware, crippleware nor nagware. It's FREEWARE!
 No conscience of not paying up.

 Only a small token of appreciation by visiting my website... 
 or uploading this program on to your local BBS.
 
 
WHAT ELSE?
 Probably on-the-fly loading for large samples? 
 Depends on response of users... so drop me a email.
 Any ideas are welcome.


DEVELOPEMENT INFO
 This program was created & tested on a Falcon running both single
 tasking (tos 4.04) and multitasking (AES 4.1). Sorry I don't have 
 MagiC so it's not tested on it ( I don't mind if some kind person 
 donate Magic 5 to me :-) ).
 Any bugs please let me know.

 
HISTORY
 Jan 97: 1st release
 Feb 97: multiple frequency support, AIFF data block fix.
 Feb 97: VOC & Amiga IFF support.
 Sep 97: Added GUI, VA-protocal, ADPCM support.
 Sep 97: IMA ADPCM support, TTRam/FastRAM fix.
 Sep 97: IMA ADPCM stereo, smaple info display.
 

CONTRIBUTIONS ARE WELCOME
 What can I say, any contributions are welcome.
 Email me for my postal address.
 
 email: wongck@letterbox.com
 http : //www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/6880/phsw.html