Specifications

By the completion of the thesis, the player was operating as you would hope it to. It can

play MP3s that are stored anywhere on the network, whether the data be on the

computers’ hard drives or on a CD in their CDROM drives. All sample rates are

supported and all bit rates can be played up to 250kbbs, including variable bit rates. The

user can navigate through the play list using the controls on the player regardless of

whether it is currently playing. If the user navigates through the play list while the

player is playing a song the player will automatically begin playing the newly selected

song when the user has finished navigating. The song of the song selected and the

current song number are displayed on the LCD. The audio that is produced is of CD

quality at a Line Out level and is ready to be connected to the Line In of a stereo.

The player can be placed any where there is a network connection to a local area

network. Ideally, this would be near a stereo so the line out of the player can be

connected to the line in of the stereo. The player can then be connected to the network

with a network cable and the user runs the server program on a PC that is connected to

the player through a local area network connection. A play list can be created in the

usual manner using the program called Winamp. Songs can be selected anywhere on the

network or internet and the play list is saved in the same directory as the server

program. The user can then operate the controls on the player to play/pause or stop the

file currently selected from the play list or use the next and previous controls to navigate

through the play list. The selected song name and song number get displayed on the

LCD and will be updated every time a new song is selected.

1.3 Thesis overview

This chapter introduces the idea of an alternate method for MP3 play back; a stand

alone MP3 player that can play MP3s through a network connection. The chapters that

follow outline how this was developed and well it was implemented.

Chapter 2 provides a background into what an MP3 is and how network communication

works. It also provides an outline to other MP3 players with network interfaces.

Chapter 3 presents the desired specifications for the MP3 player to be developed.