Portable Music Players

MPEG Layer 3 Audio. A popular open-standard compression and file format for digital audio.

Advanced Audio Coding MPEG Layer 4 Audio: The newest generation of open-standard audio compression and successor to the 10 year old MP3 standard. It is the core of a series of different file types such as 3GPP and MPEG-4 (M4A and M4P file types) and provides higher quality sound as well as multi channel (surround sound) support. RealNetworks and others used this standard for developing their latest generation high quality audio options.

Windows Media audio file: Microsoft Windows proprietary audio format.

Digital audio format designed to be played by the RealPlayer. Saved as RealAudio files (.ra, .rm), secure RealAudio files (.rms), secured RealJukebox files (.rmx), unsecured RealJukebox files (.rmj), or Streaming Media Metafiles (.ssm).

Refers to computer resources (such as drives or files) that are part of a computer, or available on a local area network (LAN).

Portable Players and Devices

Portable players and devices are often solid state (having no moving parts), very small, and are capable of reproducing music at near-CD quality. The music files that are stored on these players can be deleted and new ones transferred to them in just minutes. Used with RealPlayer, portable music players allow you to play back your music anytime you want.

RealPlayer, using Harmony Technology, can transfer media files to a variety of portable music players and storage devices. Clips that you organize with My Library are transferred as digital music files in a variety of media formats (including MP3, AAC, WMA, and RealAudio) and qualities (bit-rates).

Installing a Portable Device

Before you can use a portable player with your RealPlayer, you have to install it properly. Click here to learn how to install your device.

Formats and Transferring

You can transfer files from your computer to your portable device in a mix of file types (MP3, RA, RAX, M4A, M4P, etc.) and of differing qualities (96 Kbps, 196 Kbps, etc.). RealPlayer will automatically try to convert incompatible files into a format that your portable device can use. File conversion preferences are selected with the Configure Device or Change Options commands, depending on the device installed. (See Common Tasks, below.)

Attention: Clips that do not have local media files available (such as links to streaming media) cannot be transferred to a portable player.

Common Tasks

Because each portable device has a different storage capacity and set of features, RealPlayer uses a custom display (called a plug-in) for many devices to display the appropriate features for each specific device. Add a new plug-in by clicking Add a New Device... in the Tasks area of the sidebar in the Burn/Transfer page.

Once you have installed the necessary plug-in, attach the portable device to your computer, start RealPlayer, reopen the Burn/Transfer page, select the matching device from the Current Burner/Device drop-down list in the Burn/Transfer page, and begin transferring files.

Some of the more common tasks are listed in the sidebar at the left of the page. The device that is currently installed and selected determines which tasks are available. Some of these tasks are:

Device Status

Information about the media files and the file space available in a selected portable device appears in the lower left corner (for synchronizing devices) or the lower right (for non synchronizing devices) of the Burn/Transfer page.

The currently selected device and function determines the type of information displayed. Some of the possible types of information include:

Task		Instructions
Add Selected to Device		Adds the selected clips to the transfer queue of the current portable device. (See Adding Clips to a Device for details.)
Configure Device...		Opens the Configure dialog for the selected device. (See Configure Your Portable Device for details.)
Synchronize Device		Compares the media files listed in My Library and on the portable device. If a file or playlist is determined to be different from the file or playlist being synchronized, the file on the device will be replaced with the file listed in My Library. (See Synchronize Devices for details.)
Eject Device		Shuts down all transactions with a portable device so you can safely disconnect it from your computer. After ejecting a device, RealPlayer returns to the Burn/Transfer Home page. Note: After a device has been ejected, it must be disconnected and then reconnected to your computer before it will be recognised by the Player.
Change Options		Opens the Options dialog for the selected device. (See Change Device Options for details.)
Start Transfer		Starts transferring copies of the selected media files to your portable device. If files need to be converted, temporary files of the required format and bit-rate are created and transferred to the device. The original files remain unchanged.

Status		Description
Clips		Number of clips already on the portable device.
Selected		Total size of all the files selected in the transfer list.
Total to Transfer		Size of files in transfer list that are not yet transferred to the portable device.
Space Available		Amount of file space remaining on the portable device.

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