[General Topics] Menneisyys:
The settings dialog is under Options / Settings / Select Page / Lyric. It’s also in here that you can disable sliding (that is, fine scrolling), which will considerably reduce CPU usage (from around 38 to 30% on a 624 MHz Intel XScale PXA-270/310). Doing this is pretty easy: just uncheck the Slide checkbox:

2. Comparison charts

Now follows the most important & informative part of my Bible: the two charts. The first elaborates on the more common issues like price, compatibility with the current lyrics formats, how an in-app search for Madonna's Material Girl fared etc.; the second compares the CPU usage and media format compliance. I've paid special attention to benchmarking the CPU usage (which, on several mobile platforms, has a direct impact on the battery life.)

2.1 Generic features & lyrics tests

Note that I haven't listed stuff none of the players promise (and, equally, not deliver); for example, ID3 tag-based full (!) library support. (None of the players support it, unlike, in non-lyrics-specific respects, much more advanced players like CorePlayer, the just-ported Pocket Tunes or Pocket Player.) None of them support AVRCP (Bluetooth remote control) either - not even LCG Jukebox on Symbian. (On Windows Mobile, I've tested this with both the MS and the Widcomm BT stacks to be absolutely sure.) TCPMP over Widcomm IS AVRCP-capable under WM2003SE – but who uses WM2003SE anymore?

(original HTML chart HERE)

2.2 CPU usage and format compliance

(original HTML chart HERE)

I haven’t devoted a separate row to TCPMP because I’ve already benchmarked its media playback CPU usage HERE. MP3 playback with lyrics results in a whopping 38% CPU usage with finescroll (more than three times more than the default ~11%!). Fortunately, you can disable fine scrolling if battery life is of extreme importance to you and you can put up with the less spectacular row-based scrolling; then, the CPU usage decreases to 30% “only”.

3. Verdict

If you're a Windows Mobile user, give a try to the (mostly) free MiniLyrics or (if you don’t need for example downloading capabilities) TCPMP first. The also-free WinVibe may also be a good choice if you can put up with the not-so-spectacular lyrics display (of course, TCPMP is vastly superior to this player in most respects). If you're ready to pay, LCG Jukebox might also be of interest if you like the interface (I, personally, don't). Lyrics Magic should be forgotten altogether - it's not only commercial, but also buggy and no longer supported.

If you're a Symbian user, LCG Jukebox is your only choice.

Again, note that CorePlayer will only later receive lyrics support. Until then, you can forget advanced functionality like library or Bluetooth AVRCP support altogether, unfortunately - along with the very low CPU usage and compatibility with most audio formats (except for, of course, HE-AACv2 a.k.a. aacPlus - as of the current, 1.2.5 CorePlayer version).

4. What next?

In the near future (1-2 days), I publish another article on multimedia apps, further elaborating on other, ID3 tag-based issues like album art, finding , mass-entering and changing artist / title / etc. info. I also thoroughly compare the advanced library handling capabilities of Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Symbian multimedia players.