Kinoma Player 4 EX Released

Posted By: Ryan Wednesday, November 1, 2006 12:42:34 AM

Kinoma today released Kinoma Player 4 EX, the first network-centric media player for Treo smartphones and Palm Powered handhelds. Kinoma Player 4 EX provides the most complete support playback of Internet digital media available on the Palm OS - including Windows Media 9, Flash Video, MPEG-4, 3GPP, MP3, and RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) - giving users access to the broadest range of streaming content possible. It also is the first application to bring YouTube and Google Video compatibility to Palm OS devices.

Kinoma has long been the leader for video on Palm devices, most recently providing the streaming media player for Palm's acclaimed Treo 680 and 700p smartphones. Kinoma Player 4 EX continues that tradition with several important "firsts." Kinoma is the first to deliver support for Microsoft's Windows Media Video 9 on Palm OS, allowing Palm users to see the wealth of high quality content available in the Windows Media format for the first time.

Kinoma is also the first to bring support for the wildly popular Flash Video format to Palm OS, allowing playback of video from some of the hottest video sites. And RTSP, the industry standard streaming protocol used in many industrial and commercial applications, is another Kinoma first on Palm OS.

Kinoma Player - Palm OSKinoma Player 4 EX sports a sleek new all-black user interface, completely redesigned to put the focus on the media. On Treo smartphones, Kinoma Player 4 EX can be operated with one thumb, making it faster than ever to operate. While viewing video and photos, Kinoma Player 4 EX provides real-time pan and zoom - even while playing - providing a closer look at the content. Kinoma Player 4 EX works together with the Blazer 4.5 web browser on Treo smartphones, so selecting a supported link on a web page launches Kinoma Player 4 EX to play the media. Kinoma Player 4 EX can bookmark any playing stream, allowing users to build a collection of their favorite media links - and for easy sharing, bookmarks can be beamed to another device.

Kinoma Player 4 EX still supports playback of audio, video, and photos from internal memory or a memory card. Supported digital media file formats include MPEG-4, M4A2, 3GPP, Flash Video, MP3, Windows Media Audio3, Windows Media Video, ASF, QuickTime movies, QuickTime VR, MQV, and JPEG.

Another new feature is the the built in Kinoma Media Guide, a well organized catalog of hundreds of feeds linking to thousands of free streams around the internet. The content in the Kinoma Media Guide is carefully selected to ensure compatibility with Kinoma Player 4 EX on most major mobile networks. The Kinoma Media Guide is built into Kinoma Player 4 EX at no additional charge, so users always have new and interesting audio and video at hand.

Today Kinoma also introduced Kinoma Producer 4, the desktop companion to Kinoma Player 4 EX. With support for dozens of devices, including most Palm handhelds, Treo smartphones, the Sony PlayStation portable, and the Apple video iPod, Kinoma Producer 4 is the best way to convert the video files on your Windows or Mac OS X personal computer for playback on your mobile devices. Kinoma Producer 4 includes support for Windows Media 9 output for compatibility with Windows Mobile devices including the Treo 700w.4 On Mac OS X, Kinoma Player 4 EX is delivered as a Universal Binary providing optimal performance on both Intel and PowerPC based Macintosh computers.

Kinoma Player 4 EX can be purchased through the Kinoma Web site for $24.99. Kinoma Player 4 EX may be purchased directly over-the-air using Treo smartphones or using a Windows or Mac OS X personal computer. Kinoma Player 4 EX is compatible with all Palm Powered handhelds running Palm OS 5.

Kinoma Producer 4 can be purchased through the Kinoma Web site for $29.99. A free trial edition of Kinoma Producer 4 is available for download with registration. Kinoma Producer 4 requires Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Mac OS X.

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WTF No Trial Period Again?

Gekko @ 11/1/2006 6:58:15 AM # Q

Can it stream this???

http://www.bloomberg.com/streams/audio/radio_live.asx

WTF?!!!

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Gekko @ 11/1/2006 8:25:00 AM # Q

Also, WTF is the MEMORY SIZE for this application? Article nor site lists any.



RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Colormeweb @ 11/1/2006 8:48:20 AM # Q
Have you tried downloading the trial and trying it or is the demo limited in some way?

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Gekko @ 11/1/2006 9:30:54 AM # Q

What part of "No Trial Period" don't you understand?

If there is one, please point me to it, because I sure as hell couldn't find it.


RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Colormeweb @ 11/1/2006 9:32:46 AM # Q
Calm down.
I didn't look into into enough to see that there wasn't a demo.

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
hkklife @ 11/1/2006 10:13:23 AM # Q
I think a Kinoma vs. CorePlayer head to head shootout is in order...especially with the lack of trial versions lately.

I'm glad to see Kinoma still alive & kicking after a period of relative dormancy.



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Gekko @ 11/1/2006 10:49:42 AM # Q

hkk - can you or Ryan get Kinoma to give you a free trial of 4 EX for a review? This no trial BS is getting ridiculous.



RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
hkklife @ 11/1/2006 11:06:16 AM # Q
Gek;

I'll see what I can do. If they are not offering it through the PIC software store, then Ryan and I have to appeal to their willingness to grace us with a reg code or an evaluation version and some companies are funny about that sort of stuff.

The trend towards the remaining "name" or "big ticket" Palm OS software being released with no trial version available (or a trial that's so limited you cannot use it enough to gauge functionality) is worrying.

But then again you are seeing a lot of PC games without demos beforehand etc. I suppose it's a cost-cutting measure for the companies as a demo version is one more thing to troubleshoot/debug/test/host...but what it saves them in upfront $ it's likely to cost them tenfold in sales down the road.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

Atten: GEKKO RE: The Bloomberg Stream
ScottG @ 11/1/2006 11:29:36 AM # Q
Can it stream this???

http://www.bloomberg.com/streams/audio/radio_live.asx

I just upgrade my Kinoma Player 3 and Mac OSX Producer 3 - Both to version 4. They Charge $14.99 each (Great Deal) The New Version is worth it.

I did try the link here for Bloomberg Stream, and I get "Unsupported Media Format". Just wanted to let you know that someone did try this. Other then that I can stream a ton of other things, Google Video, UTube, even my own online movies I have posted on a training site I built. This has a FANTASTIC New Interface, and the Black format is a welcome feature for the interface, the white was just to bright prior. The player still has that white line to the outside of the Player window - I know that is a Palm Issue. I thought I had heard that this was resolved (White Line Border) by some App though. I have never found it.


ScottG

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Gekko @ 11/1/2006 2:21:22 PM # Q

Scott G - Thanks for trying.

It looks like I need to go Windows:

http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=20556



RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
bcombee @ 11/1/2006 4:33:27 PM # Q
I expect that the "no trial" issue for both Kinoma and CorePlayer are due to the licensing agreements needed for some of the patented algorithms used for decoding video. They probably have to pay per unit for the right to include those in their products, and those agreements may not make a differentiation between a trial and full version. That makes each trial download much more expensive.

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
vinnie-lo @ 11/3/2006 5:34:31 AM # Q
It won't stream Bloomberg, only because Bloomberg uses the WMP *Voice* codec, which isn't supported in Kinoma.

RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
Gekko @ 11/4/2006 11:40:29 AM # Q

V-Lo - thanks for the info.

Any chance of this Bloomberg codec ever being supported by a PalmOS player?

Or do I have to switch to the "Wild Side"?

Kneel down ye sinners, to
Streetwise religion
Greed's been crowned the new King
Hollywood dream teens
Yesterday's trash queens
Save the blessings for the final ring-
AMEN

Take a ride on the Wild Side
Wild side


RE: WTF No Trial Period Again?
vinnie-lo @ 11/11/2006 4:48:04 PM # Q
Send Kinoma an email - they might have plans in the future. Maybe with enough demand!

Reply to this comment

Flash Video?

clevewaterman @ 11/1/2006 8:06:17 AM # Q
What do they mean by "Flash Video"? Are they referring to .swf or somehow just playing .flv files?

RE: Flash Video?
Ryan @ 11/1/2006 11:46:51 AM # Q
It supports flash video from sites like Google Video and YouTube.

The press release says:

"Kinoma Player 4 EX supports Flash Video (.flv) files containing the Flash H.263 variant and MP3 audio. Kinoma Player 4 EX does not support Flash vector graphics or interactivity."

Reply to this comment

Good to see

asiayeah @ 11/1/2006 10:02:02 AM # Q
It's always good to see serious software being developed for the Palm OS. Go Kinoma!

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.
Reply to this comment

RMVB?

batmon @ 11/1/2006 4:25:44 PM # Q
How about real video? I which one of the player can support rmvb.

RE: RMVB?
vinnie-lo @ 11/3/2006 5:38:34 AM # Q
Proprietary Real Networks codecs are not supported, if that's what you mean.

Reply to this comment

Can it stream this...

princehifi @ 11/2/2006 9:44:34 AM # Q
Can it stream this...?

http://www.warpradio.com/player/embed.asp?id=14147&gatewayID=71

If so, a TX and Kinoma 4 will be a Christmas gift to my dad this year! If not... no sale. Try this out for me if anyone can...

princehifi

RE: Can it stream this...
vinnie-lo @ 11/3/2006 5:35:36 AM # Q
I would say so, yes. You may have to find a more deeplinked address, but I can double-check for you when I get home to my Palm. I can also dig out the deeplinked address for you.

RE: Can it stream this...
monkeyking @ 11/3/2006 7:17:39 AM # Q
Tried out the link that you gave, and yes, it works. Btw you have to input this url instead. http://64.92.199.94/EndlessSummerNetwork-IN?.wma



RE: Can it stream this...
princehifi @ 11/3/2006 3:42:23 PM # Q
Thanks monkeyking,

How did you dig that address out? I had to view several page sources just to get the address I provided...

I'm very impressed that Kinoma has accomplished Windows Media streaming on the Palm. Well done. I will purchase.

princehifi

RE: Can it stream this...
monkeyking @ 11/4/2006 4:14:05 AM # Q
I just clicked the link on a PC, then it launches winamp to play the streaming feed. On winamp, I just clicked on File, then media info, voila! It then shows the URL.

Reply to this comment

Google Video / YouTube

sfmacintosh @ 11/2/2006 12:31:06 PM # Q
Does this tie in as a plugin to Blazer or some other browser? The power of Google Video and YouTube is the ability to search through video clips and view on demand. Without that aspect, you would have to explicitly define what the URL of the video clip is...

Reply to this comment

Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com

drbuzz0 @ 11/3/2006 12:48:31 AM # Q
I created this website...been working on it for a while actually:

www.mgvids.com

Easy to navigate google video interface for Palm devices. Search videos. Download in Mp4 or AVI format (where avaliable). (incase you don't have an FLV player)

Or STREAM FLV with Kinoma 4EX easily with one click!

I'm working on a similar type of deal for Youtube. Give it a week or so. I just added Kinoma to my website today. Currently works by passing an M3U file (make sure kinoma is associated with the file type).

This is new so I'll try to make it even nicer and work out any minor bugs that may still be in the mix ;-)


Feedback appreciated...It took me a long time to write the CGI for this...especially considering I didn't know PHP at all before hand and had to learn it for this (it's an easy language thougb)

Stephen M Packard, Jr.

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
monkeyking @ 11/3/2006 7:07:34 AM # Q
Nice job! But I seem to be having problems getting the kinoma link to launch kinoma, you mentioned that I have to associate kinoma with .m3u files, right?

I used resco explorer and made kinoma the default handler of m3u files, so I click the link and choose "save the file to device", then "save and open file", ptunes pops up and attempts to play the file. Am I doing something wrong here? Btw I'm using a TX not a Treo.

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
drbuzz0 @ 11/3/2006 10:56:16 AM # Q
I've heard this from others too...


it seems maybe M3U was not the best way to pass the files. I'm going to try changing it to a Kinoma media bookmark or a PLS file.

I'll try to play around with it a bit in the next few days and see if I can work something out that won't have this problem

Stephen M Packard, Jr.

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
drbuzz0 @ 11/3/2006 11:31:01 AM # Q
Try it now.

(Replaced M3U file with ASX file...by default should open in Kinoma 4 EX)

:-D

Stephen M Packard, Jr.

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
monkeyking @ 11/4/2006 4:10:00 AM # Q
Here's what happens now, tapping on the link and saving the file to device, a message will popup saying "opening file with documents", if you tap ok, nothing will happen, tapping on the link again and saving it into device the second time will then launch Kinoma and play back the file.

A bit of a roundabout way, but no problem, it works! Good job! Hope to see the youtube version soon!

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
drbuzz0 @ 11/4/2006 10:30:46 PM # Q
Yeah...I've heard some of this. Or rather... a lot of this.

It has to do with the file associations between Palm OS and blazer's Helper Apps.

Apparently different versions and such handle it differently. Kinoma *should* grab the association adn make it work smoothly.

Apparently, however this is not always the case. You could try changing the extension association using Reseco Explorer or something similar.

Hopefully, if Kinoma 4 is the default asx handler, it'll allow you to open it without going through that.

I'm not sure getting it to be seemless on everyone's device is realistic...

Stephen M Packard, Jr.

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
monkeyking @ 11/4/2006 11:12:38 PM # Q
Guess what? After the first two instances of it using documents to open the file, it now works perfectly, saving and opening the link will automatically launch Kinoma, then when kinoma finishes the stream, it will automatically quit and launch blazer again! Cool!!!

Great work! Really appreciate the effort you put into this, browsing for feeds on google video is now a blast!

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
matt_laughs @ 11/5/2006 1:13:13 AM # Q
this is a very professional product. thank you.


weixler

thats what she said!

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
matt_laughs @ 11/5/2006 7:49:34 PM # Q
what i did was i went to the edit categories from the main menu toolbar and i edited categories, and moved kinoma from main to multimedia, but i have noticed it will try to download, buffer and play an .asxx file only to say media format not supported....and the ms widnows media site doesnt wana work either....probably because it knows i am not using a windows mobile player...dunno......

it doesnt seem to find the music on my card cause of what directory i put it in, i think. other than that....it has anti pirating activation, online one click updates, winamp-esque looks, kinoma is planning on premium channels by the free premium channel preview on there, wouldnt be surprised if something i tunes style was in the future. had trouble loading youtube.

but any of these problems could be because i am in the boonies of tennesee at the present, where the term 'bandwidth' only refers to how fat your country band's guitarist is. 3 kilobytes a second.


thats what she said!

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
drbuzz0 @ 11/5/2006 8:44:14 PM # Q
oh yeah...something I should have mentioned. If you are playing a video in Kinoma (via the link) and decide you want to quit and imediatly return to the site, without having to go home->Blazer->go, justy hit the backspace (arrow back) thingy.

Should throw ya right back

Stephen M Packard, Jr.

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
ijulian @ 11/5/2006 11:40:49 PM # Q
ABSOLUTELY FREAKIN AWESOME!!!
I know you said plans for 'youtube'... what about www.metacafe.com ?

Anyhow, its brilliant!

julian
Cali!

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
matt_laughs @ 11/6/2006 4:58:26 PM # Q
<<<<<<>>>>>


here are some bugs i found.

1. i cant get some .asx files to work, most do
2. have not gotten one .wmv to work.
3. i downloaded a .mp4, not found by program searching media folder.
4.program will not find on scan or open from net .asf files at all

thats just in relation to .asx, .mp4, .wmv, and .asf.

*********** havent tried m3a23gpp, flash video, quicktime movie or vr so can not speak to them, or mqv files.****************

most everything i went thru so far in the guide seems to work, which is not in any way related to the bugs above, the guide seems to be tailor suited to work around the bugs, the guide is pretty flawless, except youtube and cnn videos, but its a big guide, so there have to be more.


more bug description-if i click on a .asx file from the 'files' program, or media folder, it will say no programs know how to open this kind of file (.asx) but if i go into kinoma it will scan, find it, as long as i saved it in media folder, and has no problem with it. downloading of an .asx and kinoma recognized as file association handler is not problematic.

i get a similar message trying to open cnn and youtube video in the guide.

for some reason the device (t5) would re-name it. example.asx would become example.asf.

audio on podcasts and videos play in mono only most of the time, going in and out, on a fresh startup of the program they usually play in stereo for a little while then cut out, i thought my headphones were broken.

i went to many wmp sites and couldnt get a one to work.

this is too neat a program, ...to not support it..... and that goes to the developer and the palm users, i would have commented sooner, about bugs, but 1. i was listening to podcasts and google videos. and i didnt want to scare people off from getting it.

when do you expect an update to be avalible?

thats what she said!

RE: Google VIdeo for Palm Page! mgvids.com
drbuzz0 @ 11/6/2006 10:44:31 PM # Q
"I know you said plans for 'youtube'... what about www.metacafe.com ?"


Well I can't make a fullblown site for every media site :-P

Actually...there are some generic FLV downloading sites around. Just copy and paste the URL of the site you want to get the FLV's from and it'll link it for you.

(sorry..I don't have it on hand. I'm on my Treo now)

Stephen M Packard, Jr.

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(Degree of) integration EX4 Player <--> Blazer 4.3 on Palm Lifedr

velorg @ 11/19/2006 10:44:49 AM # Q
I've been waiting these past 2 weeks for a more extensive/ in-depth review of this product... especially how WELL it is/ is not/ integrated with (any default) web browser -- in my case the Blazer 4.3 on a Lifedrive. Has there been such a review somewhere?

http://www.kinoma.com/index/player4

Kinoma website only mentions Blazer 4.5 bundled with newer Treos; and there doesn't seem to be any upgrade path of it for earlier models.

So, after installing EX4, when youtube.com link clicked in Blazer, will it seamlessly launch the Kinoma app, fetch and render that content?

Or will one have to go through a manual, and seemingly recurrent, manual re/configuration, explicit file-aliasing and whatnot?

(and the same mis/behavior for Google Video?)

Reply to this comment

On the fence...

MCStayFly @ 12/6/2006 2:50:42 AM # Q
I'm debating if I should purchase the Palm Media Studio 2.0 or the Kinoma Player X4. I tried to read the reviews on both programs, but it's still hard to gauge the pros and cons of each one. The most important factors to me would be how user-friendly it is, the amount of dvds/movies I can fit on a 2GB memory card, how many different formats the program is capable of handling, and least amount of bugs! Can someone help me out with the pros and cons of both programs?

Thanks!
Mia

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