What formats does Samsung music player support?
Samsung has been a major player in the portable media player market for over a decade. The company first entered the mp3 player market in the early 2000s with devices like the Yepp YP-60V and Yepp YP-T7J [1]. Over the years, Samsung has released popular mp3 player lines like the YP series, Galaxy Player, and Z series under its Samsung Electronics brand [2]. Key innovations include high-capacity internal storage, touchscreen interfaces, apps and Android compatibility [3]. As of 2020, Samsung holds a substantial share of the global portable media player market alongside other major brands like Apple and Sony [2]. This article provides an overview of the audio, video, image and other formats supported across Samsung’s music player models and product generations.
[1] https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/portable-media-player-market-105004
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hi-fi-music-player-market-anticipating-ztrzf
[3] https://www.millioninsights.com/snapshots/music-app-market-report
Overview of Samsung Music Players
Samsung has produced several popular lines of portable music players over the years. Some of their most well-known models include:
The Galaxy Player series – Samsung’s line of Android-based PMPs (portable media players). Models include the Galaxy Player 4.0, Galaxy Player 5.0, and Galaxy Player 50.1
The YP series – Samsung’s line of hard drive-based PMPs before the Galaxy Player. Models include the YP-Q1, YP-Q2, YP-P2, and YP-Z5.2
The R0 series – Samsung’s line of flash memory-based PMPs before the Galaxy Player. Models include the R0, R1, and F2.3
Many of Samsung’s music players run Android as their operating system, making them quite versatile and customizable devices. They often include features like WiFi connectivity, microSD card slots, touch screens, and long battery life.
Audio Codecs Supported
Samsung Music supports playback of the most common audio formats including MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, OGG, and more. According to Samsung’s support page How to download Samsung Music Player app?, the app supports the following audio codecs:
- MP3 – The most popular digital audio format, using lossy compression.
- WMA – Windows Media Audio format, also lossy compressed.
- AAC – Advanced Audio Coding format used by Apple’s iTunes.
- FLAC – Free Lossless Audio Codec, an uncompressed format.
- OGG – Open source container format for compressed audio.
This means you can play back music downloaded from various sources, ripped from CDs, or your existing digital music library. Lossy formats like MP3 offer smaller file sizes by removing some auditory data, while lossless FLAC preserves full fidelity.
Video Codecs Supported
Samsung music players support a variety of popular video codec formats. This allows users to play video files in addition to audio files on their devices. Some of the key video codec formats supported include:
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a widespread video compression format that is commonly used for posting and sharing videos online. Samsung music players can play MPEG-4 video files, allowing users to store and watch videos in this format.
H.264
Also known as AVC, H.264 is an advanced video coding standard that allows high quality video at lower bitrates. Samsung devices support H.264 encoded files for excellent video playback performance.
DivX
DivX is a popular video codec known for its ability to compress long video segments into small sizes while maintaining high visual quality. Users can enjoy DivX-encoded videos on their Samsung player.
Xvid
Xvid is an open-source video codec that is a derivative of DivX. Samsung music players can play back video files encoded with Xvid compression and decompression.
Image Formats Supported
Samsung Music supports several common image formats like JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF.
JPEG or JPG files are one of the most popular image formats used for photos. According to Samsung’s support page, JPEG files up to 20MB in size are supported. JPEGs use compression techniques to reduce image file size which can result in some loss of image quality at higher compression levels.
PNG is another common image format that uses lossless compression. This means PNG files preserve image quality while still offering good compression. PNG files up to 20MB are supported by Samsung Music.
BMP files are uncompressed bitmap images that offer no compression at all. This leads to large file sizes but maximum image quality. BMP format is also supported in Samsung Music.
GIF is a format used for simple images and animated GIFs. GIFs use lossless compression and up to 256 colors. Samsung Music can display GIFs up to 20MB in size.
By supporting these major image formats, Samsung Music provides compatibility with most standard digital image files people are likely to have in their personal media libraries.
Playlist Formats Supported
Samsung Music supports a variety of playlist formats that allow users to organize and play their music collections. Some of the key playlist formats are:
M3U – This is one of the most common playlist formats used on Samsung devices and many other media players. M3U simply contains a list of locations for media files, with each file path on its own line. M3U playlists have the file extension .m3u.
Sources indicate that the Samsung Music app supports importing and playing M3U playlists.
PLS – The PLS playlist format is another popular option. It uses an indented text format to list media file locations along with metadata like title and length. PLS playlists have the file extension .pls.
WPL – This Windows Media Player playlist format contains an XML file that points to media locations. WPL files have the extension .wpl and work on Samsung devices.
ASX – The Advanced Stream Redirector format uses an XML file to define a playlist of media files. ASX playlists have the .asx extension and are also usable on Samsung Music.
Beyond these key formats, Samsung Music can play a wide variety of other playlist types as well. Using common playlist formats ensures seamless music management across devices and platforms.
Audio Book Formats
The Samsung Music app supports playback of audiobook files in the AA and AAX formats. These are proprietary audiobook formats developed by Audible, an Amazon company and the leading provider of audiobooks globally.
The AA format, also known as Audible Audio format, is one of the older formats first launched by Audible in 1997. It uses a low bit rate but is still of reasonably good quality.
AAX, or Audible Enhanced Audio format, is a newer and more advanced format launched in 2012. It offers higher audio quality and supports audio chapters for easier navigation. AAX files can have bit rates up to 320 kbps.
Both AA and AAX files are encrypted with DRM to prevent unauthorized copying. Users have to download the files via the Audible app or website to play them on supported devices like Samsung phones.
The ability to play DRM-protected AA and AAX audiobooks gives Samsung Music a key advantage over some other Android music apps. It allows users to access their Audible library without needing a separate Audible app.
However, Samsung Music does not support audiobooks in open standard formats like MP3. It also does not support audiobooks from other providers besides Audible. But with Audible being by far the most popular source, AA and AAX support covers most audiobook listening needs for Samsung device owners.
E-Book Formats
Samsung music players support several common e-book formats for reading e-books and digital texts. The main e-book formats supported include:
EPUB – The EPUB format is a standard open e-book format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum. EPUB files contain reflowable text and images, can support embedded fonts, and are designed for flexible display on different screen sizes. Most modern e-readers support EPUB files. Samsung devices natively support opening and reading EPUB e-books.
PDF – The PDF format is the most common format for e-books, documents, forms, and other digital texts. PDFs maintain the original formatting and layout of a document or book for reliable cross-platform viewing. Samsung music players can open and display PDF files without the need for additional software or apps.
TXT – Plain text files in the .txt format contain only text characters without any formatting. TXT files are supported on Samsung devices for reading basic text documents. The simple formatting allows for quick opening and searching of text files.
Additional Supported Formats
In addition to audio and video file formats, Samsung Music players support other formats like lyrics, subtitles, and images:
Lyrics – Samsung Music can display lyrics for songs in LRC file format. LRC is a common lyrics file format that contains the song lyrics with time stamps for syncing.
Subtitles – Video files with subtitles in SRT format can be played back in the Samsung Music video player with synced subtitles. SRT is a common subtitle format used for displaying subtitles in videos.
Images – JPG, PNG and other common image formats can be viewed in the Samsung Music photo viewer. Images can be loaded from folders on the device storage.
Playlists – Samsung Music supports M3U and PLS playlist formats for creating playlists on the player. Playlists can contain both audio and video files.
Overall, in addition to core audio and video playback, Samsung Music provides support for viewing images, displaying synced lyrics and subtitles, and building playlists – allowing for a robust media playback experience.
Conclusion: Summary and overview of supported formats
Based on our exploration of some of Samsung’s top music players from various product lines, we’ve seen the diverse range of media formats they support. While specific supported formats can vary by model, most Samsung music players can handle common audio codecs like MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, and WAV for music playback. For video, MP4, WMV, and DivX are widely supported. JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF allow you to view image files. M3U and PLS playlist formats help you organize your media library. Formats like Audible AA/AAX, TTS, and EPUB provide audiobooks and eBooks capabilities. And additional niche formats like MIDI, OGG, M4A, and more expand what you can play and view.
In conclusion, Samsung music players aim to be versatile media devices. Their support for numerous major formats, both open source and proprietary, allows customers to easily play their existing media libraries. And niche format support provides power users with added functionality. Knowing what formats are supported can help buyers pick the right Samsung music player for their needs.