MP3, is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format, designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. MP3 is an audio-specific compression format. It provides a representation of pulse-code modulation-encoded audio in much less space than straightforward methods, by using psychoacoustic models to discard components less audible to human hearing, and recording the remaining information in an efficient manner. Similar principles are used by JPEG, a lossy image compression format.
Generally speaking, digital audio players are portable, employing internal or replaceable batteries and headphones, although users often connect players to car and home stereos. Some DAPs also include FM radio tuners and/or microphones for voice recording. Many players can encode audio directly to MP3 or other digital audio formats directly from a line in audio signal.
Recently Flash digital audio players have even been incorporated into sunglasses, as demonstrated by the Oakley's "thump" model.
A number of manufacturers now produce Network MP3 players. These tend to be non-portable devices which have no storage of their own. Instead, they connect to a home ethernet network, and receive a digital audio stream from some computer on the network. They are designed to connect to a home stereo, and are operated with a remote control. Slim Devices, Roku, and cd3o each produce a Network MP3 device.
Modular keydrive players are composed of two detachable parts: the head (or reader/writer) and the body (the memory). They can be independently obtained and upgraded (one can change the head or the body; i.e. to add more memory).
Recently Flash digital audio players have even been incorporated into sunglasses, as demonstrated by the Oakley's "thump" model.
A number of manufacturers now produce Network MP3 players. These tend to be non-portable devices which have no storage of their own. Instead, they connect to a home ethernet network, and receive a digital audio stream from some computer on the network. They are designed to connect to a home stereo, and are operated with a remote control. Slim Devices, Roku, and cd3o each produce a Network MP3 device.
Modular keydrive players are composed of two detachable parts: the head (or reader/writer) and the body (the memory). They can be independently obtained and upgraded (one can change the head or the body; i.e. to add more memory).
The FormatThe MP3 file format revolutionized music distribution in the late 1990s, when file-swapping services and the first portable MP3 players made their debut. MP3, or MPEG Audio Layer III, is one method for compressing audio files. MPEG is the acronym for Moving Picture Experts Group, a group that has developed compression systems for video data, including that for DVD movies, HDTV broadcasts and digital satellite systems. Using the MP3 compression system reduces the number of bytes in a song, while retaining sound that is near CD quality. Consider that an average song is about four minutes long. On a CD, that song uses about 40 mb but uses only 4 mb if compressed through the MP3 format. On average, 64 MB of storage space equals an hour of music. A music listener who has an MP3 player with 1 GB (approximately 1,000 MB) of storage space can carry about 240 songs or the equivalent of about 20 CDs. - The Fraunhofer Institute in Germany patents MP3 format 1989. 1998 - First MP3 players introduced by Saehan's MPMan, Korea.
