AVTS 4.3, WinCE 3.0, and MP3 TSText

["Ken Clark" <ken@gesn.com>]

The move to Windows CE 3.0 is necessary for a couple of reasons.  First, WinCE 2.11 costs roughly $85 per copy, while WinCE 3.0 costs roughly $15 per copy.  That makes for some impressive math when you sell a few thousand units.  Second, the software we are using for MP3 compressed VIBS audio requires WinCE 3.0.

 

The move to AVTS 4.3 and WinCE 3.0 is unfortunately going to result in what is called a Flag Day in the biz.  AVTS 4.3 will not run on WinCE 2.11.  AVTS 4.1-2 might run on WinCE 3.0, but we do not support this configuration.

 

TSText 1.18.9 has the MP3 compressed stock audio clips.  The size of the package has gone from about 10.5MB to about 1.4MB.  MP3 audio is about 1/10th the size of the raw PCM.  This will vastly improve the download time and AVTS memory card size requirements.  It will also allow longer audio at higher quality.

 

If you are running VIBS AVTS 4.1-2, keep in mind that the new TSText will not work.  We will release shadow TSText PCM packages for a while until the transition to AVTS 4.3 is complete.

 

Ken