 February
OS/2 Shareware
MP3
Join the MP3 Revolution.
By Christopher Relf |
| Section Index |
| Products in
this section: Windows: ChessPartner
4.2, Deep Green
Reversi 4.2, Chessvision
1.2 (Free Version), David's
Backgammon 3.1, Four
Winds Mah Jong 1.0.9
OS/2: WARP
CD-Copy 1.0b1, MP3PM 0.60b, CD2MP3
1.13, PM123 1.01
Mac: QDesign
MVP 1.0, NetCD 1.6.7, MacP3
1.5, mp3voodoo 1.1, Macast
Lite 1.5.3
Linux: Qcad,
Nessus, Emacs,
Xbill
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|
NB: Before you install a shareware program that you have downloaded from the Internet,
you should always check the version information. Often you could be downloading an old
version, with limited features, or even an experimental one that could crash your
workstation. Generally, the first release version is v1.00 -- there may be versions
before this one, but they are usually 'under construction' versions. When the author makes
a minor improvement, the version number is incremented to the right of the decimal point
(for example: v1.00 becomes v1.01), but when a major change occurs (a lot of extra
functionality, or a new PM interface for example) the version number increments to the
next whole integer (for example: v1.54 becomes v2.00). A word of warning: if the version
number is suffixed with either a or b, beware! An alpha version (eg: v1.32a) is a rough
version that's hardly been tested at all, and a beta version (eg: v2.46b) has been tested
only at a base level, and has usually been released for others to test it in general use.
If an alpha or beta falls over and you lose data, or even experience hardware damage, you
have used the program at you own risk!
| WARP
CD-Copy 1.0b1 |
| One of the
biggest problems with ripping audio tracks from CDs and converting them
into MP3 files is jittering. Warp CD-Copy has been designed specifically
for ripping tracks from audio CDs and it has built-in de-jittering
support. You can set the level of de-jittering support applied to the
grabber's ripping process (the number of jitters before the conversion
fails). The PM interface is very easy and intuitive, and it supports just
about every output format you'll ever need -- wav, raw, and MP3 -- and it
has an in-built MP3 compressor. Although this is only the first beta of
WARP CD-Copy, it worked flawlessly on our test machine. |
 |
Download the version for your operating system here:
OS/2 |
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| Publisher: |
Przemyslaw
Dobrowolski of the ASU'a GROUP |
| Price: |
Commentware
(send the author your comments) |
| Requirements: |
OS/2
Warp 3 (OS/2 2.x wasn't tested), 486DX266, 4M RAM, 800 by 600 (256 colour)
video card, supported mouse, CD-ROM drive, supported soundcard |
| Install
instructions: |
Download to your local drive, then unzip it
and run the EXE file. |
 Links online: |
http://asua.v-lo.krakow.pl/eng/projects/cd-copy |
| Rating: |
 |
| MP3PM
0.60b |
| MP3PM
is a PM shell for the popular command line program L3enc for OS/2, from
Fraunhofer. If you look
at the screenshot of the PM interface, youÆll see that it is fairly
straightforward to use as it isn't cluttered with extra features that youÆre
unlikely to need; it's designed for one purpose and it doesn't try to
confuse you with useless extensions. One curious feature of the MP3PM is
its ability to rip audio CD tracks at up to 320kb/s -- a lot of similar
programs offer only 128kb/s. MP3PM is not bad. The programÆs author Dean
Lamper has taken a gamble that Fraunhofer's L3enc will continue to grow
and it will probably pay off for the software, but a built-in encoder may
be an even better choice. |
 |
Download the version for your operating
system here:
OS/2
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| Publisher: |
Dean
Lamper |
| Price: |
Freeware |
| Requirements: |
OS/2
Warp 4 (should work on OS/2 Warp 3 if WarpSans font is installed),
486DX266, 4M RAM, 800 by 600 (256 colour) video card, supported mouse,
CD-ROM drive, supported soundcard |
| Install
instructions: |
Download to your local drive,
unzip it and run the EXE file. |
| Links online: |
http://www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fe0470/ |
| Rating: |
 |
| CD2MP3
1.13 |
| Just
like L3enc, CD2MP3 rips audio CD tracks and converts them into MP3s. It
includes CDDB support (a database that provides track and artist
information) and ID3 tag support to store information gathered from the
CDDB. It also has Super Grab, which can launch an encoding session while a
grabbing session begins on the next track -- this can improve encoding
time on Bus Mastered CD-ROM drives. A play preview feature allows you to
listen to a track before making your selection, and it can support Leech,
Alfons, JCDread2, ToMPG, L3Enc 2.x and BladeEnc encoders. If you already
have a preference for an encoder that's not listed, CD2MP3 will happily
support Win32-OS/2 and DOS encoders and grabbers. With excellent support
of OS/2 WPS features, you can drag and drop WAV files for MP3 encoding as
well (including the ability to process them in batches). Although it's not
initially intuitive, CD2MP3 does an admirable job. |
 |
Download the version for your operating
system here:
OS/2
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| Publisher: |
Samuel
Audet |
| Price: |
Freeware |
| Requirements: |
OS/2
Warp v3 or above, 486DX2 66, 4M RAM, 800x600 (256 colour) video card,
supported mouse, supported sound card |
| Install
instructions: |
Download to your local drive,
unzip it and run the EXE file. |
| Links online: |
http://www.cam.org/~guardia/cd2mp3pm.html |
| Rating: |
|
| PM123
1.01 |
| So
you've managed to get together a respectable MP3 collection -- now you
need a player. PM123 is an impressive MP3 player for OS/2 that is often
compared to WinAMP. PM123 uses OS/2's DART audio system and is capable of
supporting Web-based streaming audio technology (it works well as a
Netscape helper application). There's a two-mode (fast and inaccurate,
slow and accurate) spectrum analyser and an oscilloscope, both of which
look great. PM123 supports skins so you change the look of your
application, just like a faceplate might change the look of your mobile
phone. You can download a selection of them from the PM123 Web site -- youÆll
find that many of the popular WinAmp skins are available. The control
interface features many of the traditional tape deck-style controls (play,
stop, fast forward, rewind, pause, next track, previous track), with one
unusual variation, a seek slider. It uses read ahead stream buffering
should your hard disk run into trouble or your Net connection becomes a
little slow. In summary -- fantastic! |
 |
Download the version for your operating
system here:
OS/2
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| Publisher: |
Samuel
Audet |
| Price: |
$US15 |
| Requirements: |
OS/2
Warp 3, 486DX266, 4M RAM, 800 by 600 (256 colour) video card, supported
mouse, supported soundcard |
| Install
instructions: |
Download to your local drive,
unzip it and run the EXE file. |
| Links online: |
http://www.teamos2.sci.fi/pm123/ |
| Rating: |
|
⌐ Australian Consolidated Press 1999. All rights reserved.