Kd player

Infobox Software
name =



caption = Screenshot of KD Player version 0.89 (default skin)
developer = Knyzhov Dmitry
platform = Java ME
language = Various [cite web |url=http://www.easter-eggs.net.ru/KDPlayer/Other_Languages.htm |title=KD Player translated into other languages from Russian |2008-01-14 |accessdate=2008-01-14]
genre = Media player
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.easter-eggs.net.ru/KDPlayer/EN_Versions.php www.easter-eggs.net.ru] KD Player is a free J2ME based audio player created by Russian developer Knyzhov Dmitry. It is designed for mobile phones running Operating System Embedded platforms. The program can playback audio files that are supported by the phone model, most commonly mp3 and wav files which are fully supported. KD Player can be downloaded depending on screen display that a mobile phone would support. The current screen displays available are 128x160 , 176x220 , 208x208 and 240x320 for different screen displays.

Features

The software was developed with the idea of an option for mobile phone users to replace the standard audio player with a sufficient and customizable player as described in the author's description. Playback options are as what can be found on any media player and are play, fast forward, rewind, shuffle and repeat in which playlist repeat and single track repeat are supported. The applications also hosts its own volume control which is separate to the volume of the mobile phone device it is running on. KD Player supports full reading of ID3-tag data (v1 & v2) in common mp3 files. The user can specify which folders to scan on either the mobile phone's in built memory or inserted memory card of the mbile phone. KD player stores the scanned folders in a music library from which the user can further read and create playlists and similarly create bookmarks to audio files. The application can use the number keys on a phone for operation in playback and menu selection, such as 5 for play/pause/select in menu and 6 for fast forward/next track/go right in menu in menu with all other number keys with a use. KD Player can be comparable to the Walkman software player found on specific Sony Ericsson mobile's, however unlike the Walkman player the user must manually update the music library by the selecting the feature update library whenever music is added or removed from the mobile phone. For the updating of the library to work the user must first select all necessary folders where desired and supported audio file formats are located.

Scanning of subfolders can be enabled and disabled in the 'preferences' option. In some models particularly Sony Ericsson JP-7 and later based phones, the player can be minimized and left working in the background. KD Player also supports the reading and display of album art as one of its primary features. An image file supported by KD Player (typically jpg, png, bmp) has got to be pre-placed in the folder of corresponding audio files which will serve as the album art image that is displayed. The reading and displaying of embedded metadata album art is also supported with images any images read being restricted in filesize due to the java heap (memory) allocated by the phone.

Translations

KD Player has already been translated into several languages including English, French, Swedish, German, Spanish and Italian (and sometimes Polish). Translating the application is achievable by extracting the contents of the .jar file (a Zip archive format which is the installer) and then by editing the text language files located in the 'lang' folder.

Updates

Since the latest test version of 0.91 improvements have been to add the feature of the 'scrolling' of long tag names, more support for more phones like Nokia, Motorola and Siemens with other improvements and bug fixes. The release of version 0.95 that is an update from the 0.91 release available is available in Russian and English as well as a few other translations for this version. A changelog for all versions starting from 0.81 are found listed on the official website.

Skins

One of the most sought after features of KD Player is the ability to custom change the theme design by the use of designed skins created by users to enhance the player's visual look. Skins for KD Player have shown that the album art can be made bigger depending on the skin's layout. Skin's created are screen display dependent. The entire skin consists of a kdi and a kds in order for the skin to be used. The kdi file is a simple image file (typically a png) with all the necessary image elements for the skin whereas the kds file is text file that contains code coordinates for where each element has to be placed to make up the skin.

Skins are available to download free of charge on KD Player's website and also found on various websites and online forums. A full tutorial for creating skins, that is written in Russian, is also available on the official website.

Requirements

KD player requires the presence of JSR-75 also known as File Connection API as well as the JSR 135 or the Mobile Media API (MMAPI) on phone devices in order to both search for files able and playback audio files. To utilize the player efficiently, the user must fully enable file access rights that KD Player will request when any attempting to play or search for files. The prompts for file access can simply be disbaled on most phone's (for example, selecting 'Never Ask' for the application permissions on a Sony Ericsson K810).

The most recent version (0.95) includes the presence of a equalizer, a much requested feature from users. The equalizer is only usable on certain phones; a full list of compatibility for the equalizer feature is available on the website.

References

External links

* [http://www.easter-eggs.net.ru/KDPlayer/EN_Versions.php KD Player's Official website - Russian and English]
* [http://xpressmusic.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/kd-player-working-media-player-for-nokia-s40-3rd-edition/ KD Player for non-os mobile phones]
* [http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=158403&start=0 Skins for KD Player - Esato]
* [http://forums.se-nse.net/index.php?showtopic=10526 Skins For KD Player - SE-NSE]
* [http://forum2.mobile-review.com/showpost.php?p=657201&postcount=84 A list of significant changes made to KD Player since version 0.81; translated from Russian]
* [http://www.easter-eggs.net.ru/KDPlayer/EQ.txt List of compatible phones that will allow the use of the equalizer]