1. Player and Plug-in operation

Control panel operation

1.Playback/Pause button

Click this button during Pause/Stop to start performance of the selection from the present position (playback of SoundVQ file). If the Pause button display appears during performance and the button is clicked, there is Pause and the display changes to the Play button. Even if the sound is choppy during stream playback, the data up to the section which was performed is stored in the buffer. By proceeding from Stop to Play the section in the buffer is played without skipping.

2.Stop button

Click this button to stop the performance (playback of SoundVQ file) and return to the beginning of the selection.

3.Repeat Play button

Click this button to set Repeat/1 Selection Repeat/All

4.Song Selection

Click this button to select in order the selections that were selected in the performance list. Click the upper button to advance one selection. Click the lower button to return to the former selection.

5.Volume Adjustment

Drag the mouse over the button to adjust the volume.

6.Power button

Click this button to stop the player.

7.Icon button

Click this button to go to icon (minimizing).

8.File Open button

Click this button and the Menu to select the SoundVQ file appears. Select the selection you wish to play. In addition to files on the disk, it is possible to select URL (Example: http://www.yamaha.co.jp/xg/SoundVQ/******.vqf), etc.

9.Save button

Click this button to open the dialog box to store the SoundVQ file which was downloaded from the network and to store the file in the required position. This button only functions when properties allowing storage are included in that SoundVQ file. With the present SoundVQ Encoder V2.00b1 it is possible to compile compression data which includes setting of storage properties.

10.Set button

Click this button to open the dialog box to carry out player operational settings. These settings are also used by the SoundVQ Plug-in.

General

• Always On Top ---> Player is always located in the front.
• Auto Play --->After going from auto player to selection of number, playback starts even when the Playback button is not pressed. (It is not possible to make changes in this item with this version).
• Multiple Instances --->Open the player for each selection. Possible to start up multiple players.
• Use 100% of CPU power(for Low-power PC)--->If you use PC with Pentium 75MHz - 100MHz or worse and check this check box, you may perhaps get less chopping noise. Usually do not check this check box.

Proxy

Sets whether to use proxy or not during Stream Playback (sets playing selection data from the network during download). In case of proxy, the proxy server is listed with the following format in the item entitled HTTP Proxy.

• e.g.) http://proxy.site-name.com :8080/
  The host name that is actually used is indicated in prox.site-name.com).
  (The port number that is actually used is indicated in 8080).
• Sites for which you do not want to go via the proxy server should be separated by a comma when listed in the proxy list.
  e.g.üjxxx,yyy.com,aaa.bbb.org,foo.bar.co.jp

Network

• Speed of Modem--->Choose your modem-speed to connect the Internet.
• Wait x seconds data ( y seconds maximum ) to start.--->These values are used when stream playback start. Default values are "10" and "10".
• Display 'Warning' when unstreamable file is played.--->When the SoundVQ file you try to stream-playback is over the value of 'Speed of Modem', Warnning dialog is displayed. But, if you enable 'PerfectPlay' function of this player, this Warnning dialog is not displayed.

PerfectPlay

PerfectPlay function allow playback of higher quality data on lower bandwidth connections. Before begining playback, these settings control how much of the SoundVQ-file is buffered.
• Use PerfectPlay--->If checked, PerfectPlay function is enabled.(Default value is checked.)
  • Automatic-Delayed start--->Using the value of your "Speed of Modem" and bandwidth needed for the stream playback file, buffered size before bigining playback is automatically controled.(Default)
  • x % of data arrival start--->When buffered size before bigining playback is over x % of the stream playback file, playback is started.
  • 100% of data arrival start--->When 100% of the stream playback file is arrival, then playback is started.

11.Performance Information button

Click the triangular button on the left side of the title display to open the dialog box and check the detailed information on the selection that has presently been selected.

12.Player Information button

Press the triangular button on the right side of the SoundVQ logo open the dialog box and check the player version information.

Explanation of display

1.Title

Displays the title of the number which has now been selected. There is no display if no number has been selected.

2.Sampling Rate

Displays the sampling rate of the number which has now been selected. There is no display if no number has been selected.

3.Bit Rate

Displays the bit rate of the number which has now been selected. There is no display if no number has been selected.

4.Channel

Displays in mono/stereo the channel number of the number which has now been selected. There is no display if no number has been selected.

5.Elapsed Time

Displays the elapsed time for performance of the selection (playback of SoundVQ file).

6.Total Time

Displays the total continuous playing time of a selection (playback of SoundVQ file).

7.Playback Indicator

Displays the fact that it is in a playback (playback of SoundVQ file) state.

8.Network Indicator

Uses blue, yellow and red LED displays to indicate whether the network is crowded or not when Fast Listening (playback while downloading music data from the network). Blue indicates Free. Yellow indicates Congestion. Red indicates Major Traffic Jam.

9.Security Indicator

A key mark is displayed in case of security attributes in the data such as a "watermark" in a TwinVQ file or if there is scrambling. Setting of security attributes is not possible with the present SoundVQ Encoder V1.00b1.

10.Status

Display of a variety of information in addition to performance information.

2.Encoder operation

In order to create a SoundVQ file, first prepare the sound source and store the file on your hard drive. Follow the steps given below to encode the data as a SoundVQ file.

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1.Select the source file for encoding. (Source)

Browse button:

Click this button to open the dialog to select the audio data for encoding. When you select a file, the file name appears in the File message box and the sound format of the file appears in the Format box.

Supported audio files are ; ".wav" (Windows WAVE format), ".aif" or ".aiff" (Apple AIFF format). All other formats are judged to be Raw PCM format.

The bit resolution is 8 bits/16 bits and only non-compressed files can be encoded.

When moving a Macintosh file to a Windows machine, please make sure that it is not MacBinary.

If you select a file with an extension other than ".wav", ".aif" or ".aiff," you will need to manually set the file type, bit resolution, sampling frequency and number of channels (Stereo/Mono), etc.

Play button:

Click this button to start playback of the audio data displayed in the File window. This can be used to check the sound and its quality prior to encoding.

2.Specify the output of the encoded result (Destination)

Browse button:

Click this button to open the dialog to specify the destination to which the encoded result will be output. When indicated, the filename is displayed in the File box. Normally, the automatically specified filename will consist of the file name selected for encoding, with the extension changed to ".vqf".

Play button:

Click this button to start playback of the SoundVQ file displayed in the File box. This can be used to check the quality after encoding.

3.Selection of compression mode (Compresssion)

Encode Mode

Selects the compression mode. The compression mode will change according to the audio data file being compressed, as shown below.

Source sampling frequency	Compression mode	Compression rate per channel
8KHz	8KHz/8Kbps/ch	8kbit/s
11KHz	11KHz/8Kbps/ch	8kbit/s
	11KHz/10Kbps/ch	10kbit/s
16KHz	16KHz/16Kbps/ch	16kbit/s
22KHz	22KHz/20Kbps/ch	20kbit/s
	22KHz/24Kbps/ch	24kbit/s
44KHz	44KHz/40Kbps/ch	40kbit/s
	44KHz/48Kbps/ch	48kbit/s

Channels

The number of channels that the compressed file will have can be specified as stereo/mono.
It is not possible for the compressed data to have more channels than the original data.

Quality

You may give priority either to sound quality or to compression speed by selecting one of the following three choices for compression. Normally you will select Normal.
The Quality setting that is selected will have no effect on the data transfer rate of the compressed data.

"High" :Sound quality is given priority. The compression speed is the slowest.
"Normal": There will be an equal balance between sound quality and compression speed.
"Low" :Compression speed is given priority. The sound quality may be slightly lower.

4.Enter information regarding the compressed data (Description)

Title

Enter the title for display on the player. Entry of the Title is required.

Copyright

Enter the Copyright for display on the player. Entry of the Copyright is required.

Comment

Enter any information.

Permission to save

If chekcked, "SAVE" button of SoundVQ Player is enabled when this SoundVQ file is loaded. User can save it to the person's local-disk.

filename

If "Permission to save" is checked, this filename is used as default filename to save. The last of this must be end with ".vqf".

3. HTML description

The HTML entry to start SoundVQ Player is completed by simply pasting a link on the SoundVQ compressed file (extension: vqf) or SoundVQ locator file (extension: vql).

The HTML entry to start SoundVQ Plug-in is completed by simply pasting a link (w/EMBED tag) on the SoundVQ locator file (extension: vqe)

• vqf file -> : The compressed file itself is passed to the browser. After all compressed files are downloaded, the SoundVQ player will start.
• vql file -> : The SoundVQ player will read and acquire the target file location which is described in the vql file. When a vql file is used, streaming playback is possible. With streaming playback, the playback will start much quicker than if the file is downloaded, since the playback starts while the data is still downloading.
• vqe file -> : The SoundVQ Plug-in will read and acquire the target file location which is described in the vqe file. When a vqe file is used, streaming playback is possible. With streaming playback, the playback will start much quicker than if the file is downloaded, since the playback starts while the data is still downloading.

Sample HTML descripton to start SoundVQ Plug-in.

<EMBED SRC="xxxxx.vqe" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=40 AUTOSTART=TRUE REPEAT=TRUE VOLUME=100>

The file xxxxx.vqe is what is called SoundVQ locator file. It is a simple text file, and describes the location (URL) of the SoundVQ file. Please refer here to know about syntax of the SoundVQ locator file.

The difference between the vql file and vqe file is only the extension. vql file starts SoundVQ Player, and vqe file starts SoundVQ Plug-in.

• By setting "WIDTH=2 HEIGHT=0 HIDDEN", you can hide the panel. In this case, contorol will not be possible.

• "AUTOSTART=TRUE" is the normal setting, causing playback to begin automatically when the page is opned. When "AUTOSTART=FALSE", playback will begin only when the Play button of the control panel is pressed.

• "REPEAT=FALSE" is the normal setting, causing the song playback to repeat until the stop button is pressed. When "REPEAT=TRUE", the song will playback once and then at the end of the song. When "REPEAT=3", the song will repeat only 3 times.

• "VOLUME=100" is the normal setting, causing the song playback at volume 100%. You can set from 0 up to 100 as the value.

• If you write several embed tags in one Web-page, the number of embed tags whose autostart function is enable must be 0 or 1.

  
  

Recommended HTML description

• Recommended HTML description

  <EMBED SRC="xxxxx.vqe" WIDTH=150 HEIGHT=40 AUTOSTART=TRUE LOOP=FALSE TYPE=audio/x-twinvq-plugin PLUGINSPAGE='http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/xg/SoundVQ/'>

SoundVQ Locator file syntax

Files with the extension "vql" or "vqe" are known as SoundVQ Locator Files. These files are simple text files (as opposed to files with the extension "vqf"). If the SoundVQ Player is already installed, right-clicking of the locator file will cause the Editing (E) menu to appear.

More infofor SoundVQ Locator File Syntax.

4.Browser settings

Helper settings will be made automatically at the time of installation, so there is no particular need for you to make settings.

5.Server settings

If you wish to transmit SoundVQ files via HTTP, please never forget to make the following settings on your HTTP server.

	Player	Plug-in
MIME type	audio	audio
Subtype	x-twinvq	x-twinvq-plugin
Extensions	.vqf, .vql	.vqe

6.Known Problems

• When "MWAVE" (used on many computers manufactured by IBM ) is used to produce sound, the sound is fragmented.
• When a Pentium CPU of 75MHz or less is used to playback a 44KHz stereo SoundVQ file, the sound is fragmented (insufficient processing power). Sometimes this happens to NotePC users w/Pentium 120MHz or worse.