• Registered: 2007-11-09
  • Posts: 340

Topic: alarm1.mp3 choppiness

I have an mp3 file that I put on the data portion of an iPod Shuffle (1rst generation).  The alarm went off correctly and played the file, but the playback was very choppy. It was recognizable, but not clear -- as if it were modulated by a square wave about 180 cycles per second.  I don't know how else to describe it.

This is a short tune I bought on eMusic, just a little over a meg in size.

Any idea what the problem could be?  is there a preferred sample rate for the alarms that I may not be meeting?

wayn3w

  • From: Melbourne, Australia
  • Registered: 2007-11-13
  • Posts: 5

Re: alarm1.mp3 choppiness

Hi wayn3w,

At a guess I would try to make the file as small as possible without losing quality. Perhaps try compressing it and see if that helps. For widgets the recommended data rate is "32kbps (mono) or less", however I don't know about using an .mp3 as an alarm file. Good luck :-)

Regards,
Chris

  • Registered: 2007-11-09
  • Posts: 340

Re: alarm1.mp3 choppiness

Please help with my confusion:  what makes playing an alarm different from playing an MP3 from the iPod?  I can play the song clearly when it is music played through the 'Music' panel, but choppy when it is an alarm.  Although it is a different area on the iPod, they are bit-wise identical.  I would expect them to be the same.

  • Duane
  • Duane
  • Blue Octy
  • Offline
  • From: San Diego, CA
  • Registered: 2006-08-24
  • Posts: 8,197

Re: alarm1.mp3 choppiness

At the moment, they are played by entirely different subsystems - the iPod music is played by a separate audio player, but the alarm Easter Eggs are played by the Flash player itself.

This will be changing in an upcoming Control Panel, however, this is just an unsupported Easter Egg with no guarantee of functionality.

Duane's Website

  • Registered: 2007-11-09
  • Posts: 340

Re: alarm1.mp3 choppiness

Cool, thanks for the explanation.