Chapter 6. Playing Music, Audiobooks, Podcasts, and Videos
For those of you who love to read, almost nothing stirs up as much nostalgia as the thought of listening to some nice music while reading a good book and maybe sipping a nice glass of wine. Your NOOK Color can’t make wine, but it can provide the other two ingredients to this nostalgic scene.
Note
You can also listen to music via the online radio service, Pandora. To learn more about using Pandora, see Chapter 7’s section “Playing Music with Pandora on Your NOOK Color.”
Adding Audio Files to Your NOOK Color
The Music folder on your NOOK Color is used specifically for audio files (whether on the NOOK Color itself or on the microSD card). When you add audio files to this folder, your NOOK Color recognizes the files and enables you to play the audio using its built-in audio player.
Note
Your NOOK Color supports the following audio file types: MP3, AAC, MID, MIDI, M4A, WAV, and AMR. The best options are MP3 and AAC given their ubiquitous presence.
Playing Audio on Your NOOK Color
To play audio on your NOOK Color, you first need to copy the MP3 files to its memory or to a microSD card in your NOOK Color. Audio files should be copied into the Music folder (My FilesMusic). If your microSD card does not have a Music folder, create one before copying audio files to it.
If you haven’t done so already, first load your music into a music player on your desktop or laptop (iTunes, Media Player, and so on). Doing so enables you to set album and artist name, and so on, which affects how easy it is to navigate your music in the Music Player on your NOOK Color.
After you copy your audio files to the Music folder, you can play them using the music player on your NOOK Color.
Using the Music Player
The Music Player on your NOOK Color is a basic music player. So if you’re expecting an iPod on your NOOK Color, you’ll be disappointed. However, for playing background music while reading and for listening to audiobooks and podcasts, your NOOK Color’s Music Player is a great feature.
To launch the music player, from the Quick Nav Bar, tap Apps and then tap Music. The Music Player has two views for you to interact with your music: Browse and Now Playing (see Figure 6.1). If Browse appears in the top-right corner, you are in Now Playing view and vice versa.
Figure 6.1 Browse view in Music Player.
Tip
The speakers on your NOOK Color are mono and don’t produce great sound. You’ll hear better audio if you use headphones or ear buds plugged into the mini-jack at the top of your NOOK Color.
The following buttons are available just above the typical music control buttons in the Music Player in Browse view from left to right:
• List: Displays your music is alphabetical order (by name of the file). You can scroll through this list. Additionally, a small, fast Scroll icon appears on the right as you begin to scroll (see Figure 6.2). You can use this to scroll faster by pressing and dragging it up and down. You can use the Resort buttons on the left to drag a specific track up or down in the order. This last action permanently alters the order in this screen. Tap a track to begin playing.
Figure 6.2 Viewing your music in a list.
• Artist: Displays your music according to artist. Tapping the artist name shows the albums associated with that artist. Tapping the album takes you to a List as in the previous bullet but only with that album. Tap a track to begin playing, and you go to the Now Playing view with the music playing.
• CD: Displays your music according to albums. Tapping the album takes you to a List as in the previous bullet but only with that album. Tap a track to begin playing, and you go to the Now Playing view with the music playing.
• Browse: Displays your music by most recently added.
• Search: Tapping this lets you search for artist, album, and so on. Tapping a track starts playing the track and takes you to Now Playing view. Tapping an album or artist takes you to the appropriate Album or Artist screen in Browse view.
You also have your typical music player controls:
• Location in Track/Total Track Time: Informational items only. The time listed on the left shows the time location within the track. The time on the right shows the total track time.
• Play/Pause: If the Music Player is playing audio, tapping this button pauses the audio. Otherwise, it resumes playing the audio.
• Previous/Next Track: Tapping this button takes you either to the previous or next track.
• Scrubber: The scrubber enables you to change the position in the current audio file quickly. Drag your finger on the scrubber to change the position. When you lift your finger from the touchscreen, the track plays from that location.
The following buttons (see Figure 6.3) above the typical music control buttons are available in the Music Player in Now Playing view:
Tip
If the button color is red, that feature is activated (that is, in use). If the button color is white, that particular feature is not active.
• Shuffle: Toggles shuffle mode on or off. Each time shuffle is toggled on, a new random order is created for the currently playing tracks.
• Repeat: Tapping once colors the button red, but the repeat is not activated. Tap again. A 1 appears in the center of the button. Repeat is now on. Note that it repeats the track endlessly...not just once.
• Artwork: The artwork for the track being played. (If none is available, a large music icon appears.)
• Browse: Displays your music by name. Additionally, a small, fast Scroll icon appears on the right as you begin to scroll. You can use this to scroll faster by pressing and dragging it up and down. You can use the Resort buttons on the left to drag a specific track up or down in the order. This last action permanently alters the order in this screen.
• Search: Tapping this lets you search for artist, album, and so on. Tapping a track starts playing the track and takes you to Now Playing view. Tapping an album or artist takes you to the appropriate Album or Artist screen in Browse view.
Figure 6.3 Now Playing view in Music Player.
You also have your typical music player controls as indicated earlier.
While playing audio, you can tap the X button in the audio player to close the audio player interface. Your audio continues playing, but you can interact with other menus on your NOOK Color. To stop the audio from playing, tap the Pause button prior to closing the audio player.
Don’t want to mess with opening up the Music Player, and such? From the Quick Nav Bar, tap Library, tap My Files, navigate to the Music folder, find the track you want to play, and tap that file. The Music Player opens and begins playing that track.
Playing Podcasts and Audiobooks on Your NOOK Color
In addition to listening to music, you can also use the audio player on your NOOK Color to play podcasts and audiobooks.
Podcasts
Podcasts are audio programs released on a regular schedule. You can subscribe to a podcast using any number of software applications, and when a new episode is released, it’s automatically downloaded to your computer.
Podcasts are available that cover just about every topic of interest that you can think of. For example, podcasts can help you use your computer or help you take better pictures. Some podcasts deliver the news daily or weekly and some podcasts cover entertainment gossip. Other podcasts enable you to listen to your favorite radio shows on demand whenever you want.
If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, you almost certainly already have iTunes on your computer. iTunes lets you easily subscribe to podcasts. You can search or browse for podcasts in the iTunes store. If you own a Microsoft Zune, you can subscribe to podcasts using the Zune Marketplace. If you don’t already have an application that you can use to subscribe to podcasts, you can download Juice, a free podcast receiver that makes finding and subscribing to podcasts easy. Juice is available from http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net.
When you subscribe to a podcast, each time you launch your podcast application (whether that’s iTunes, Zune, Juice, or some other application), it checks for new episodes. If it finds a new episode, it downloads it automatically to your computer. You can then copy that episode to your NOOK Color. You need to check the documentation and options for the software you use to determine where it stores podcasts it downloads.
Tip
Be sure that you subscribe to podcasts in MP3 format. Some podcasts offer an MP3 version and versions in other formats. Only MP3 podcasts work on your NOOK Color.
Podcasts should be copied to the Music folder on your NOOK Color. The podcast will be available when you start the Music Player on your NOOK Color.
Audiobooks
Audiobooks are recordings of someone reading a book out loud. They are the digital version of books on tape. The most popular source of audiobooks is Audible.com, but your NOOK Color is not compatible with Audible audiobooks. However, you can enjoy plenty of sources of MP3 audiobooks on your NOOK Color.
Following are sources of MP3 audiobooks you can use on your NOOK Color:
• Audiobooks.org: Free audiobook versions of some classic books. There aren’t many books here, but the ones they offer are of good quality.
• Simply Audiobooks (www.simplyaudiobooks.com/downloads): For a few dollars per month, you can download as many audiobooks as you want. Simply Audiobooks offers both MP3 and WMA audiobooks, so be sure you choose the MP3 versions for your NOOK Color.
• B&N Audiobooks (www.barnesandnoble.com/subjects/audio): B&N offers a wide assortment of audiobooks. If you’re a B&N member, you can get some great deals for your NOOK Color.
• Google Product Search: Google Product Search (www.google.com/prdhp) is an excellent way to locate MP3 audiobooks. Simply search for “mp3 audiobook,” and you can find a vast assortment from many merchants.
After you download an audiobook, copy it to the Music folder on your NOOK Color. You can then play it by selecting the file from the Media Player playlist.
Tip
You can listen to most MP3 tracks in your music player. Check out the Teaching Company’s (www.teach12.com) courses, many of which are available as audio downloads. As noted, always choose the MP3 version of files.
Playing Video Files on Your NOOK Color
No similar video player exists for videos as for music; however, watching videos on your NOOK Color is easy. The ideal video format is MP4, though 3gp, 3g2, m4v, and OGG also work. You may want to have QuickTime Pro or another bit of software available to convert video to the MP4 format (assuming it is not DRM protected).
Although the B&N website says that only MP4 is supported, the user manual included on the NOOK Color indicates that the other formats are supported. The user manual is more correct because the NOOK Color does support those formats.
I have had trouble getting some video to play—a blank screen with a Back button shows and that’s it. I had the most success, by far, taking my Flip camera videos and converting them among the various formats and getting them to play with sound. (Though, I had more trouble with the OGG format than any.) DRM protected videos are even more troublesome. If you have a video that you can copy, rip it to your computer using MP4. That’s your best bet. I expect improved video support capabilities will be available with future firmware updates.
To play a video on your NOOK Color, you first need to copy the files to its memory or to a microSD card in your NOOK Color. The files should be copied into the Videos folder (My FilesVideos). If your microSD card does not have a Videos folder, create one before copying audio files to it.
To play a video on your NOOK Color, from the Quick Nav Bar, tap Library and then the My Files tab. Open the My Files folder in the list, navigate to the Videos folder, find the video you want to play, and tap the video (see Figure 6.4). The video opens with controls familiar to videos and a Back button. (Tapping this takes you back to the Videos folder.)
Figure 6.4 Navigate to the Videos folder and tap a video to play it.
Tip
Have a TiVo? I do (actually, more than one). You can transfer the TV shows from TiVo to your laptop and then place these (in MP4 format) onto your NOOK Color—TV wherever you go!