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Playing and navigating media

Once any media task is started, to play media, if you are not already there you need to move the focus to the Player control by pressing the 'Focus' [Tab] (3) key.

The Player control enables the user to listen to audio and text using a speech synthesizer. The function of the Player control is explained below:

Player control

The Player control enables the user to control the Player. Media are available in the Player in the form of media collections. This is similar in concept to the familiar 'playlist' associated with other media players but allows more sophisticated navigation as described later. Media such as newspapers, music playlists, internet radio stations etc are presented to the Player as collections. For example, a newspaper is presented as a collection of articles with optional section and sub-section navigation.

The Player is controlled by keys, as follows:

The units available for navigation depend on the media used. Text media navigation units always include paragraph, sentence, line, word and character.

If the text file is longer than 50 lines an extra '50 lines' navigation unit is available and if the file is longer than 500 lines an extra '500 lines' navigation unit is also available.

Audio media navigation units always include 5 seconds, 15 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and 15 minutes.

An audio file, audio stream or text file is always part of a collection. Additional navigation units are available to jump between items in the collection depending on the type of the media collection used. For example, in a newspaper publication, additional section, sub-section and article navigation units are usually present; in an audio playlist, an additional 'media' navigation unit is present; in an podcast feed, an additional 'media' navigation unit is present. Please note that in some situations such as listening to a single MP3 file, there is only one item in the collection and in this case no navigation units are present to jump between items in the collection.

When you end any media task, the Player remembers the media file you are playing and the position you are at unless you are playing streams. When you start the media task again, the Player if possible will load automatically the media at the position you left it.

Depending on the type of media played, other play options may be available and these can be found in the Play sub-menu of the Main menu. For example, if you play music the options available are Shuffle, Sort (tracks) by name, Repeat (the whole playlist), and Speak track information during play.


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