This build was made specially for the European empeg Owners Meet in Amersfoort, 2003. It has now been released - in the most unofficial of senses - as the first ever public alpha. The intention of the release is to satisfy the curiosity of everyone who did not make the meet.

Do not load this release onto your player unless you are prepared for everything to go horribly wrong. As the release notes state, this is an alpha release and may not be stable. It could spoil your day in any number of ways! Also, there is no Mk.1 version of v3 as yet.

If you're feeling lucky, load up the release notes and follow the instructions carefully to enter ..

.. the 3.0 experience!

http://www.empeg.com/v3alpha/

THERE WILL BE NO SUPPORT FOR THIS RELEASE BEYOND THE GOOD WILL OF THE BBS MEMBERS.
Warned have you been.

I don't feel special anymore.

EDIT: I'm just kidding. Congratulations on the 3.0 release. Even in the alpha state, it is stable enough to be used everyday (as I have been doing since the meet). I only have to back down to 2.00 when I want to reliably upload new tunes.

Daring. I suspect we'll get a deluge of grumpy people when their players stop playing, and their databases get destroyed.

Be careful what you ask for. (Isn't that an ancient Chinese curse?)

-jk

What problem do you have with uploads?

Putting v2 back and rebuilding the database should recover, though, so, heck with them.

It may be more of an Emplode 2.00-final problem working with 3.00-a3, but lots of times the uploads will just die after a few tracks and leave the database somewhat corrupted to the point where on next boot a rebuild is forced. At that point, there are a bunch of files that are in the DB, but the tunes aren't actually there because the upload got screwed-up. This happens on both my Mk2 and Mk2a over ethernet. I have not tried USB with 3.00-a3 yet.

I am using emplode 2.00-final because the one provided with 3.00 likes to crash before even loading the player database and I have no OGGs, so there is no need.

Word of waning to those who have extensive bookmark collections. Installing this alpha seemed to erase mine, as I am guessing the dynamic partition changed in 3.0.

Hummm... after seeing 3.0 at the Colorado EMPEG meet, I don't know if I wanna pop this on my empeg.

Yes, I LOVE the crossfading *drools*, and really wanna get rid of all of the MP3's and go to OGG and FLAC, but I saw this thing crash multiple times during a 10 minute period (incudling to the point where we had to hook it up to AC to get it to boot back up!).

Hummm, and I guess this gives me an excuse to buy a new serial cable

As spoiled as I am by crossfading on the Karma, I am going to hold off on the Alpha for a little while. I have enough fun with exploding software at the office. (Yes, mostly Microsoft.)

Am I missing something? the emplode zip file, only contains the emplode exe, where do i find the latest version of the kernel flasher so i can install this alpha

Also, you guys rock!

If this is the exact same build from Amersfoort, then I think it's important that everyone know that low-bitrate files (sub-128 kbps in my experience) tend to cause the encoder to lock up. The player doesn't crash, but you need to reboot the empeg to play tunes again. What I did to get around this (temporarily) was create a Wendy filter called "hide low bitrate" and tag all of my low-bitrate MP3's with the low bitrate Wendy flag. Of course, the 3.0 alpha doesn't remember Wendy flags across reboots, so every time you load another playlist, you'll have to make sure the Wendy flag is properly set.

Otherwise, I agree with those who've said 3.0 alpha is pretty good for everyday use. Not perfect (occasional crashes not related to the low bitrate problem as well) but good enough for me.

I just upgraded and all of my equalizer settings are gone. They are all back to flat. Is this normal? If so, let this be a warning to all you still thinking of upgrading.

You just use the v2.00 updater to flash the empeg.

For emplode, you replace the files in your emplode directory with the ones in the zip. Backup your old emplode.exe first though.

DOH! i already uninstalled it

Thanks for the tip

Ok, well this has just ruined my productivity for the day! I'm having our network guy search for a null modem cable as we speak.

Thanks for making this public Rob, though I do hope that this goodwill doesn't come back to bite you (no good deed going unpunished and all). As for me, I'm soooo stoked. I can't wait to try the crossfading out, bugs or no bugs.

Thanks for making this public Rob, though I do hope that this goodwill doesn't come back to bite you

Anyone who reads my warning, downloads v3, and then complains about it is going to be thoroughly and ruthlessly ignored! If that should happen to be someone who has been bitching about getting it for the last six months then so much the better

Rob

"Yes, I LOVE the crossfading *drools*, and really wanna get rid of all of the MP3's and go to OGG and FLAC, but I saw this thing crash multiple times"

Didn't see anything in the release notes about FLAC support. Does it?

Wow, this is pretty nice. at least on my empeg
I even added 2 cds with the new emplode via USB.

But, after looking at bit at my empeg, i noticed the button leds are not turned on is there a hijack for 3.0 alpha 3?

I did notice once after the player rebooted, it was playing music. But the screen was off, and the standby LED was blinking. A button press got the screen to come back on.
So, if your playing a track, and just hold the top button down, empeg is in standby. Now, kill the power, and plug it back in. And it will continue your track, but with the screen off like in standby.

Oh, and the % counter when the empeg has to build the database is nice. Lets you know its actually doing something.

Oh, and how the seek tool doesn't need to play a song anymore to generate the graph.

Very nice guys, can't wait to see what’s next

is there a hijack for 3.0 alpha 3?

The latest Hijack works with v3

WEEEEE!!!!

Install...

*BOOM!*

ehehe

Nice, you’re just full of great suggestions. Thanks again!

Yeah tell me about it... about to downgrade back to 2.0, then try going to 3.0a-3 again :P

<edit>

But see I wasn't the one complaining about getting 3.0-a hehe so I don't mind. And I fully saw the problems it can cause when I saw it at the meet...

Wooooot!

Thanks Rob! You guys are awesome!!! (Damn... Now I gots to start the long jurney of re ripping to ogg...)

Hey I got one question though... The 2.10 version of Emplode that's on the site is what we should be using to synch with 3.0 Alpha, right? No Alpha of RMM yet?

Edit: Yeah, ok, so maybe I should RTFM next time... I just read the Release Notes. Question answered.

I got a question...

In the 3.0 Alpha realese notes, in the Emplode instalation section, it says "Install the v2.00-rc2 version of emplode..." blah blah blah.

Do they really mean RC2, or does it also work with 2.0 final?

2.0 final is fine.

Hmmm, I must be doing something wrong. I downloaded the image, copied the empload exe into the empload directory, and then applied the updgrade. The new version comes up but rebuild the database every time. Then the cross fading doesn't seem to work. It cuts of the end of the first song and just starts playing the second one. I have the value set at four seconds. And then when I try the new empload I get an error message about not being able to read the database. For the moment I've returned back to 2.0, which works fine. Any help from the bbs out there?

The new version comes up but rebuild the database every time.

Most of the alpha testers have had to revert to emplode 2.0 and re-synch once or twice to fix that problem.

Alternatively, you can do this. Note that this FAQ entry was updated quite a while ago so that it also applies to 3.0 (note the 3.0-specific file names).

The new version comes up but rebuild the database every time.

Synchronize once.

Thanks Tony!

Quick on the draw, as always...

Thanks Rob.

I want to listen to the radio again and use the RDS, so I am taking the risk: I'll install in few minutes. I promise I will not complain when the radio is the only thing left to listen in my empeg

Just kidding. Right move, I am happy 3.00alpha3 was released.