			     Homp3 - [v 2.5]
				README.TXT
			-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
			
INTRODUCTION
============
Homp3 is a freeware software MP3 player powered by the Xaudio SDK. The Xaudio
decoding engine is one of the finer MP3 engines around today, together with
the Nitrane decoding engine found in WinAMP 2.x, the StarDust/AE4 engine
found in Sonique and the Xing decoder by Xingtech. While each of the decoding
engines listed above have their own merits, only the Xaudio SDK is available
freely for download and for use, that is why I have created this player based
on the Xaudio SDK.

Furthermore, most of the popular MP3 players today feature memory and
processor hogging features like skins, graphical equalizers, visual effects,
etc which I do not have any use for. I just need a simple MP3 player with a
easy to use playlist that I can use to play my MP3s in the background, with
minimal fuss, therefore I present...Homp3.



INSTALLATION
============
* Homp3 is available in the ZIP package which you will need Winzip or a
similar utility to unzip.
* After downloading the ZIP package, unzip the package into a new folder
called Homp3 or any other folder which you desire.
* The two files necessary for running Homp3 are the main application file,
HOMP3.EXE and the Xaudio SDK, XAUDIO.DLL.
* Homp3 will generate homp3.ini in the same directory as itself and
bookmark (bookmark.ini) and playlist files (*.pl) when required.
* The xaudio.dll should reside in the same folder as the main application
file. If need be, it should be copied into the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.


UNINSTALLATION
==============
* Simply delete the directory where Homp3 was installed in; there are no
registry keys to delete as Homp3 uses an INI file instead.
* Alternatively the files to safely delete are: homp3.exe, xaudio.dll,
readme.txt, homp3.ini, bookmark.ini, all the Homp3 playlist files which
have a ".pl" extension.



XAUDIO FEATURES         
===============                          
[ripped from the Xaudio website]
The main features of the Xaudio SDK are: 

* Very fast: the fastest commercial MP3 decoding library in the world, up
  to twice or three times faster than some other implementations.

* Very Robust: the library has been very stable for almost 2 years, and is
  very resilient to bad streams, errors, etc... It never crashes !

* Supports all formats: the library will decode MPEG Audio Layers 1, 2 and 3
 (MP1, MP2 and MP3), at all bitrates and frequencies as well as MPEG 2.5
 extension bitstreams (lower sampling rates).

* Supports Integer Decode: a special integer-decode mode allows fast realtime
  decoding even on CPUs without a floating point co-processor.

[end rip]



HOMP3 FEATURES
==============
* The main feature and IMHO, advantage of the Homp3 interface is the
playlist-centric interface instead of a file-based interface. No need to
click so many buttons just to add your files into the playlist.

* No fancy skins or graphics or visuals to slow down your system. Homp3 is
built for all you 486es and Pentiums out there.

*NEW* A bookmark feature that lets you bookmark your favourite mp3
directories! No more crawling through a mess of subdirectories to get to
your favourite songs.



PERFORMANCE
===========
The Xaudio decoding engine, IMHO, is not as CPU efficient as the Nitrane
engine and eats up more processing cycles. However, may I add, the difference
is CPU utilization is really very minimal considering that many of us run
P200 and above?. I also feel strongly that it is much better sounding than
the Nitrane engine. Again, it is purely subjective as my ears are certainly
different from yours, otherwise we would become Vulcans.

Compared to the StarDust/AE4 engine however, the Stardust/AE4 engine
certainly sounds much better than the Nitrane engine and slightly better
than Xaudio. The Stardust/AE4 engine sounds naturally loud, boomy and bassy
as compared to the other engines out there that is why I still use Sonique
as the MP3 player for maximal enjoyment. However, there is a serious downside
to the Stardust/AE4 as it is not as CPU efficient as the Nitrane and there
is, I believe, a memory leak with the engine. Once loaded and playing,
Stardust basically starts to consume all your available physical memory til
0. The AE4 however, does not exhibit such a leak. Memory leak or just a
glitch with my system monitor program? I dunno, but it is disconcerting to
find your memory draining down the 'longkang' just playing MP3 files.

Memory footprint of the different MP3 players:
Homp3 - 1.7MB
WinAMP 2.62 - 2.5MB
Sonique 1.51 - 5.5MB

All players were run in default configuration, skinless. For WinAMP, only
the main window and playlist were open. For Sonique, the mini-bar mode was
used.

As can be seen from the above statistics, Homp3, using the Xaudio decoding
library, has the mini-est memory footprint of the engines, due to its lack
of unnecessary features rather than other reasons. It is well suited for
systems with limited memory and for users who, like me, do not care about
fancy and unnecessary features.



QUIRKS
======
* Playlists can in proprietary format, i.e. Winamp cannot read Homp3
playlists and Homp3 and cannot read m3u or Winamp playlists. Why? Because
it would take too much time to program it otherwise heheh..

* Because Homp3 is a playlist-centric player rather than a file-centric
player, it will not register the mp3 filetype and thus you cannot
double-click on an mp3 in Explorer and hope that it will play in Homp3.
However, in future versions I may program it in such a way that by dbl-
cliking on the file in Explorer, it will load the file into a new playlist,
but doing so will go against my idea of not using the Registry. Registering
filetypes have to be done using Registry!!

* The routine for extracting the track length (time) cannot calculate the
length of VBR (Variable Bitrate) files. VBR files will be shown to have
00:00 length and may affect the display of the next few files in the
playlist.



SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
===================
P133+ and above, 16MB RAM, generous amounts of harddisk space to store all
your MP3s, good pair of soundcard and speakers to fully enjoy your MP3s.

Runs on W9x and W2K systems, not tested on WinNT 4 yet. 



UPDATES
=======
v2.53 b281 - back with minor bug fixes after a one week break
(110201)   - fixed bug when player is stopped and user tries to start playing
	     again by double-clicking or by selecting "play from this track"
	     onwards.
	   - added a few more hourglasses for large directories loading
v2.52 b280 - fixed bug when playing in minimized mode
(030201)   - fixed bug with playlists - filenames with commas in them, 
	     new playlists generated are not backward compatible and vice-
	     versa.
	   - changed colours - deemed too dark
	   - track displays filename only and not the whole directory
	   - application cosmetic changes.

v2.5  b255 - Load/Save Playlist feature enabled finally!
           - playlists are in proprietary-format and not compatible with
             Winamp playlists. Neither can Homp3 play Winamp playlists.

v2.5  b251 - recoded smooth scrolling after beta-tested a bug in the
(300101)     scrolling process. Thanks for Ho Wen Wei.
           - Bookmark feature!! saves your favourite directories.
           - fixed bug with mp3s stored in root directories. Thanks to COB!

v2.5  b250 - rebuilt Homp3 source code from scratch
(250101)   - implemented smooth scrolling feature
	   - added support for extracting mp3 track time, but is not accurate due
             to Variable Bitrate files.
	   - improved PlayList display
	   - sleeker interface
           - set focus to current playing item!

v2.20 b237 - removed Fade out feature. It is an extra feature which takes up 
(300700)     additional cpu cycles and memory and which nobody uses much anyway.
	   - even smaller width now!
	   - redid Homp3 icon.

v2.20 b235 - special edition release. Added Fade out feature. I normally do not 
(210700)     want to add special features into the proggie, but a evaluator has
	     requested for the fade out feature so that the song fades nicely 
	     into the next song.
	   - also redone the interface! Nicer?
	   - even smaller size now..
v2.10 b230 - 8 band graphical equalizer added to "scrub the sound before it hits 
		the amp! (thanks for Pete's suggestion!)
	   - creation of ini file to store saved settings.
	   - stores previously accessed directory.
(090700)
v2.00 b227 - resized bitmap graphics, reduced size even further. used small-fonts.
(250600)   - minor cosmetic changes.
v2.00 b225 - Introduced Reduced and Expanded Modes and decreased real-estate size.
(140600)	(Thanks to Ivan Wee and Chan On Bon)	   
	   - Added popup menus for File Box, playlist and for Time Elapsed label.
	   * released to web for evaluation.

v1.52 b200 - Fixed bug with REPEAT btn when playlist is cleared. (Thanks to Ho Wen Wei)
v1.52 b199 - Menu bar added for redundant and easier functionality.
(110600)   - Time Elapsed / Time remaining option
	   - Repeat button enabled for both File Open and PlayList controls	  
	   - Move Tracks Up and Down code refined. May be still buggy.
	   - Output resetted when Stopped or EOF to enable other applications to use sound.
	   * released to web for evaluation

v1.5 b160 - Major release. Revamped interface using Win9x standard controls.
	  - Playlist with move tracks up/down functionality
	  - sturdier code for playlist addition, deletions
	  - cropped logo? problem with small font systems fixed.	  
	  - ticker bar (the ugly black bar) beneath track bar removed.	  

v1.0 b419 * Released to web for beta-test and evaluation. 



DEVELOPMENT NOTICE
==================
Homp3 v2.52
latest build: 280
Xaudio SDK: 3.0.7
Development Software: Delphi 3/ Windows 98
Development Platform: AMD K6-2 / 337MHz [Intel Pentium Compatible] 64MB RAM
Author: Ho Wen Yao / NUTeK
E-Mail: wenyao@icestorm.net
URL:	http://www.bigfoot.com/~homp3/


Please email me for bug reports/comments/criticisms, etc...



Enjoy!
