Database Develop

Audiobooks?

I listen to a lot of audiobooks during my work commute and used to use my iPod for this. Since I have a decent sized memory card in my X1, I'd rather use it instead so I only need one device with me. The problem is that all of my audiobooks are in .m4b format, so I need something that runs on WinMo that can:
1. Play this .m4b format (I think it's just AAC)
2. Bookmark where I am in each book so if I close and re-open the player, the book continues from where I left off
3. Allows fine tuned rewind/fast forward as I often rewind 5-30 seconds to hear some part of a book a second time
I've found tcpmp/core player can play .m4b's, but it's not great at bookmarking. That is, if I'm listening to a book, close the player and re-open it, the bookmark works fine and it continues to play where I left off. However, if I open any other file in between, the bookmark is lost. This is made worse by the inability to do any fine tuned rewind/fast forward. The only option is to use the progress slider, which tends to jump in VERY large increments.
Any suggestions? Is there another audiobook format I should try which would work better?

Convert to MP3 then use something like:
http://motorola-windows-mobile.hand...id=1093&for=Motorola+Windows+Mobile audiobook
Unfortunately m4b is a gash Apple format and so needs to be converted...

You could also try Kinoma (www.kinoma.com). Not sure if it plays .mb4, I use it for books from audible.

I personally just use the standard windows media player, I also listen to alot of audiobooks usually a few hours a day and when I get to and from work I use the notes program to make a note of where I am. This isn't necessery all the time because I can just minimize windows media player and then start it back up when I want to carry on listening (the program doesn't fully close when pressing x)
I have never used an audiobook on an ipod so im not sure what type of support it has though it would be nice to have the feature but it isn't something I really need, it's easy to do without.

bump for more opinions.

I use CorePalayer for my audio books.
http://www.coreplayer.com/

Resco Audio Recorder allows you to bookmark MP3 files at specific points (Store lots of bookmarks for various MP3's), it's also got a finger friendly fast forward/rewind.
According to the website it plays the following files
MP3 — The most popular audio format ever. Widely supported by all platforms. Ideal trade off between quality and hardware requirements.
Ogg Vorbis — Alternative to MP3 with higher quality, but requires faster PDA.
Speex — Outstanding speech compression ratio, but also needs fast device.
WAV — Lossless quality, low hardware requirements, but huge memory consumption.
RAF — Minimal hardware requirements, minimal energy consumption, compresstion ratio 4:1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It also can do standard voice recording and phone call recording
Edit: Just looked on their site. They have a Codec pack addon that allows recording/playing of AAC files
Second Edit: They also have a seven day demo (I'm assuming you can add the demo of the codec pack as well) So that you can test it to see if you like the software

THJahar said:
Resco Audio Recorder allows you to bookmark MP3 files at specific points (Store lots of bookmarks for various MP3's), it's also got a finger friendly fast forward/rewind.
According to the website it plays the following files
It also can do standard voice recording and phone call recording
Edit: Just looked on their site. They have a Codec pack addon that allows recording/playing of AAC files
Second Edit: They also have a seven day demo (I'm assuming you can add the demo of the codec pack as well) So that you can test it to see if you like the software
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooooh, now this is what I was looking for. The bookmarking feature works very well for my audiobooks and the touch friendly controls are exactly what I was looking for. It doesn't seem to like the m4b files, even with the AAC codec, but I can easily convert my m4b's to mp3's and everything works wonderfully.
Thanks!

Or have a look at MortPlayer.
With favorites (easy navigation through your music/audiobook folders), special audio book support (auto bookmarks for audio book files/folders, auto rewind when continuing, ...), bookmarks, finger friendly since the first beta (somewhere in 2004, iirc), skin support (including WVGA since 3.31b73), ...
However, the AAC/MP4 plugin from GSPlayer (included in beta installers) doesn't work properly on all devices, and I'm not sure whether m4b is included...

Hey, I found out, that Audiooboks in the m4B Format can't be handled by the Mort Player.
BUT
If you rename the file from m4b to m4a the player can handle them.
Cheers
Jens

I was very excited to try this as I have a number of .m4b audiobooks I would like to listen to on the Android. But I just tried renaming an .m4b file to an .m4a file on my Android G1 and it still did not play I have been using the Ambling BookPlayer which works well with mp3, oog, or m4a files, but renaming the m4b to m4a didn't work.
The Ambling BookPlayer has worked very well for playing audiobooks even those that have a lot of individual audio files, and it has a bookmarking history with undo and redo so you can jump right back to each place you started or stopped listening. The Ambling BookPlayer Lite is free on the Android Market and it supports automatically downloading the free LibriVox audiobooks directly to the Android.
I would be interested in knowing if anyone else been able to successfully play an m4b file after renaming it to an m4a? and if so which Android phone does it work on?

I found that there is a request for Google to add support for the m4b format to the Android at http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3923 You can boost the priority of this request by going to the page and clicking on the star to cast your vote in favor of adding this feature.

Audiobooks from iTunes in M4B are encrypted. Simply renaming the files from .m4b to .m4a will not help. You need to decrypt the files first. Google for Requiem.

The m4b format does support encryption. Some m4b audio files are encrypted but others are not.
If you get one of the conversion programs (there are many available) that will convert mp3 files into m4b files, the resulting m4b files are not encrypted. Other m4b files, such as those sold by some stores, are encrypted.
If you purchase an audiobook on CD, rip it to mp3s, combine them and convert them to an m4b (just for the purpose of getting bookmarking to keep track of your place in the audiobook), the resulting m4b file is not encrypted.

new player app
Here is a new Android app Akimbo Audiobook Player that has m4b support with chapters and artwork. Finally I have got back to where I was years ago on the ipod

Audio Player??

Is there any Developer working in a new audio player, with a lot of new features including just play songs from the folder you select.
I use my g1 on my car alot and the stock audio players sucks!
for example I can't play songs from a specific folder, the player takes all the songs from the g1 sdcard. the shuffle option don't work right I have about 1500 songs and it playes the sames songs when on shuffle etc.
I'm desperate for a new audio players with good features, specific to use the g1 as a real mp3 player, and for car mp3 play use.

TuneWiki perhaps?

^^^ I hate tune wiki. It never displays the right album artwork.

Hey there! Not trying to hijack your thread, but I got a quick question...I noticed that you said you use your G1 in the car. I have Ford Sync and I have heard the music/navigation broadcast over the speakers, but only when I was actually on a call. How are you connecting? Bluetooth doesn't work and I've also tried using the usb cable.
I also second your "request" for a new music player. The G1 is lacking in the music/video department. My boyfried has an iPhone and I just can't argue when it comes to the media part of the phone...my only argument is having to use iTunes.

Perrosky, have you tried aPlayer?

I'll agree with you on those points. I have a lot of poorly-tagged music and just being able to browse by folder/file would be helpful. Shuffling a folder would be nice as well.
I ended up creating a ton of playlists to accomplish this with the current players. Tunewiki is a step up from the bundled player, but it is still quite lacking.
Some other features I'd like to see:
1. Audio controls like EQ, Balance, etc.
2. Bookmarking. If I'm 15 minutes into a 30 minute audiobook track I'd really prefer to not have to remember where I left off when I start listening again.
I'm sure it is only a matter of time before somebody ports an open source audio player to Android. If they can do it for Rockbox, they can do it for android...

JonFolse said:
^^^ I hate tune wiki. It never displays the right album artwork.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny it does for me. Best player out there right now. Coreplayer should be coming out with one soon for android.

Perrosky said:
Is there any Developer working in a new audio player, with a lot of new features including just play songs from the folder you select.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMEN! I Have been searching for a media player that could do that.
That is the ONLY thing I miss about my windows mobile phone is the windows media player!
I hope coreplayer can do this. Almost 80% of my songs are poorly tagged (ID3) and being able to play an entire folder would be perfect!

Popular media players

I was thinking of making this a generic discussion thread on what the going media players are. There are a couple of subjects I'd like to bullet-point:
1) (HD) video players
2) Music players
3) music/video streamers
4) Remote control functions for media players
To elaborate, and I'll start of with asking questions so people can add their comments/suggestions/questions/et al to the thread. If we can keep it tidy maybe we can turn this into a sticky at some point.
1) I guess there are plenty of (HD)video players around. Could someone tell me which ones are the more popular ones currently?
2) Same question for music players
3) This one applies to both points 1+2 I guess: Are there any players that can stream directly from your shared music/video folders wirelessly?
How about iTunes integration? I'm kinda considering an Apple TV kind of approach, where you can play all your music and videos stored somewhere on your network. This may require additional hardware though if the gTab is to be used as remote. Though another option would be to hook up the gTab to your TV and have it function as the Apple TV, and use for example your iPod/iPhone, or better yet, your Android phone, as a remote.
Another option would be to use the Viewsonic VMP75 (or similar media player) for the desired functionality (web browsing/streaming music/streaming video on your TV) and use the gTab as remote control. However, I actually did look around and couldn't find an app that allows an android device or apple device to control the VMP75 from Viewsonic.
This leads us to the final point:
4) Remote control functions: Are there any apps that allow this unit to control for example iTunes
So any thoughts/ideas/opinions/etc will be welcome...

Can't answer much.
2) I've tried these so far:
winamp
mortplayer
simple player
I actually like the widget that comes with tntlite, since it just works and doesn't take up a lot of space. On my phone I like to have more than one program so my music listening doesn't throw off my audiobooks.
I haven't messed around with winamp much but it is supposed to have some type of music integration with winamp on windows. I think it will sync wirelessly somehow.
3)upnpplay, might not have the spelling correct. I've gotten a few things to play, but don't think the interface works too good on a larger screen. But again I will admit to not trying it much.
4) someone on here had a post on reconfiguring the XBMC remote for use with the bigger screen. I don't use itunes so can't comment on that at all.
Hope that helps.

I have tried winamp and realplayer beta. I like the realplayer better and it scans pictures/movies/music from a SDCARD2 (micro SD card).

My review of Google Music

http://techmaderelevant.blogspot.com/2011/05/htc-evo-3d-and-view-4g-preorders-are-go.html
Still uploading all my songs lol, but so far I'm loving it! Who got their invite?

Can you just post your review here instead of linking to your blog for hits?

Here ya go:
Google's cloud-based music service was announced at this year's I/O conference to much fanfare and no surprise. While rumors of a music store had been rampant for quite some time, that wasn't quite what we got. Yet. But enough talk about what is not present, here's a quick sneak peak into Google Music Beta!
Before I get into this review, I'd like to make 2 disclaimers. The first and most important is that this entire service is Beta. There are imperfections that will no doubt be addressed. The second is that this is really 2 sneak peaks: One for the webapp and uploader, one for the Android app. Now, the good stuff.
First up is the meat and potatoes: The web interface and uploader. The uploading is incredibly easy. After a quick download and install, the Music Manager will scan your computer for the music. To avoid getting the random sound effects on your computer, you can have it scan through iTunes, Windows Media Player, or specific folders. Everything is done in the background, so you don't need to pay attention to it at all. You can also have it automatically run upon start up, keeping this truly out of sight and out of mind. The average library has a lot of music, mine being about 19.5Gb of tunes. At the time of this writing, I'm at 387 track uploaded after a few hours in, so completing this task will take a long time. The good news is Google promises each user 20,000 songs. My 19.5Gb accounts for roughly 4,000 tracks. The one issue I have is that I use iTunes, which means I don't really keep track of what the files are actually named. Since many tracks have numbers in front, and as far as I can tell the Music Manager uploads in alphabetical order, some albums can't be listened to in full.
The web app will look very familiar if you've used the web version of the Android Market. Everything is very tab-centric, making it incredibly easy to use. On the left side, you have the traditional ways of sorting through your library (Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres). Under that you get to the mixes and playlists. The auto-playlists sort out the songs you've Thumbs Up'd, your recently added stuff, and the free music Google is giving out. There's not a lot of it, and it's mostly a song or two per artist, but it's nice to get free stuff.
There are two kinds of playlists. You have your traditional playlists that you custom make by drag-and-dropping songs. The Music Manager also pulls your playlists from iTunes, which is very cool. You can also create Instant Mixes (a la Genius Mixes from iTunes) from individual songs or albums, adding in similar jams. Along the bottom is the Now Playing bar with the familiar Play/Pause, track navigation, Shuffle, Repeat, and Volume controls. I think the Now Playing bar could be a bit thinner. The width of it and the banners at the top make the song and album lists seem a little cramped. While the overall look isn't as visually impressive as the Zune player, it looks a lot better than iTunes but still has the information that iTunes has. Overall it's a very easy to use service while still looking very nice.
Now the dessert. The Android app is very basic, almost to a fault. First thing's first, it works pretty well. It decided to scare me by force closing the first time I tried to play a song, but every time after it worked well. Songs take very little time to load up on WiFi, though it does take a little bit longer on 3G. Swiping left and right switches through album, artist, etc. views. When on the now playing screen, you see the album cover, Play/Pause, song and artist name. One cool thing is being able to make custom playlists in the Now Playing screen, though it would make more sense to be able to make Instant Mixes from this screen. Maybe we'll get that later. You can also download songs or albums from the Library view and Now Playing screen.
The main problem with the app is a visual one. It's just boring. Like really boring. You're given a blurry, boring background picture. There's no animation between screens, nothing. It's just blah. It would have made a lot more sense to keep the color scheme and overall feel of the web app, while tweaking it a bit for smaller screens. The other small problem is that the name of the app is Music. So is the stock music app for Android. While the icons are different, this can be a bit confusing. They should made it Google Music for differentiation.
The biggest problem facing Google Music is the complete lack of a store. Google Music, as it is now, is just cloud storage and streaming. What's weird is that in both the web and Android app, you can "shop for artist", but it just does a Google Shopping search for that artist where you can buy the songs from somewhere else. This may work for now, but it isn't a longterm solution when Amazon is offering very similar services. Google is trying to get the labels to get on board in some fashion, but how long it will take and in what form we'll get the music remains to be seen. I'm hoping for a subscription service, and knowing how Google does things (and a fair amount of rumors supporting this theory), it's very likely that that is what we'll get.
Overall, Google Music is the best solution to having too much music to fit on your phone. While I'm also a big fan of subscription services like Rdio, they just don't have everything I listen to. Amazon's cloud storage is good, but it lacks a well done web player and uploading your stuff is obnoxious. Google nailed the upload and web version for sure. Once they lock in the record deals and make the Android app visually appealing, Google Music may just be the best music solution yet.

Everybody outside of the USA should have a look at 4shared music in the android market.
The most underrated and probably best international cloud service around

Has anyone tried to play it through a different player like PowerAmp. I don't want to listen to music on a lesser player, not since I've heard the difference. Also, are the playlists recognized by other players like PowerAmp?

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
got my beta invite today...yippe

got my invite but didnt see a download for the android app????

vampir4997 said:
got my invite but didnt see a download for the android app????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to set up the app on your PC. There is a link from the music.google.com page near the top right for the android app.
For me, I think the biggest opportunity for the android app will be mire management features. Currently you cannot thumbs up it down a track from mobile, and you cannot delete one either. Also it does not appear to be updating the play count when tracks are played via the mobile app. Overall , the app feels more alpha tech demo than it does an actual beta.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using Tapatalk.

I would love to try this out but unfortunately my library is larger than 20,000 songs :/

i'm trying to figure out the best balance of bitrate and battery. my V0 mp3s eat battery. i think pandora streams at q.2 48kbps AAC. i'm trying out flac-->q.25 63kbps AAC right now.
i think slacker, pandora, and lastfm are all around 48kbps. this might be an agreement with mobile providers--they all stream higher bitrate to the desktop than mobile.
or maybe i should just use it as a locker, and download from it? can't imagine when i would need that. don't really see a good use for this yet. the only reason i would stream is for discovery or lazy mix, and those services don't sound great. if they were higher bitrate, they would eat battery.

All my music is either uploaded to amazon mp3 or on amazon's cloudshare storage. I wish there was a way to get the music over to google without downloading and then re-uploading.

q.25 aac (63kbps) sounds like doodoo. i guess i would only use google music when on a ac or car charger, so that i can afford to play higher bitrates
i don't know, maybe it's my phone's audio chip. the m4a files sound better on my pc than my phone. htc thunderbolt

Not to promote piracy, of course... HOWEVER, for those people who may not have purchased all of their MP3's, am I right in assuming it could turn into a legal issue if Google is asked by the RIAA or a law enforcement agency to turn over records?

sfreemanoh said:
Not to promote piracy, of course... HOWEVER, for those people who may not have purchased all of their MP3's, am I right in assuming it could turn into a legal issue if Google is asked by the RIAA or a law enforcement agency to turn over records?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no - uploading your files to the cloud and streaming to your device is not "sharing" copyrighted material. no matter how dubious your music sources may or may not be, there is nothing inherently illegal about accessing through the cloud. in fact, it is only the act of sharing/uploading/seeding copyrighted material that is illegal.

i think its prety sweet so far. abiltly to deleted tracks from phone and some better 3g speeds would make it that much better. Anyone have this on multiple phones?? downloaded the player from the market to put it on my wifes phone but it is not in the settings to add an account. downloaded mine from the market and it has a different options menu.

I'm enjoying it so far. I was previously using AudioGalaxy to stream my collection from my home pc to other devices, but I definitely prefer the cloud storage method.
Took roughly 40 hours to upload 5k songs, not too bad. Had to convert some files to aac, but not many. Ran into 1 glitch where the uploader claims that a few song files don't contain anything, which they clearly do.. still not quite sure how to fix that problem, but it's only on 4 songs that I never listen to, so not that big of a deal.
At the end of the day, big thumbs up from me.

Im in beta but no streaming
I'm in the beta, installed android app via beta invite link, uploaded music. but can not find a way to stream from the cloud to my android phone. HELP!

c_urbanek said:
I'm in the beta, installed android app via beta invite link, uploaded music. but can not find a way to stream from the cloud to my android phone. HELP!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out "Settings" and there should be an option to link it to your Google Account. I linked it and it still wasn't streaming though. I rebooted my phone, but that didn't seem to work either. Then randomly, a day or two later, it spontaneously started showing my music to stream. YMMV...

Offline music question ...
Here is a question for the Google Music Beta experts ...
One thing I love about Google Music on my phone is the ability to pin music. This allows us to play the 'pinned' music even when there is no 3G or WIFI service. The way I manage my offline music is through a playlist I made called "My Favorites". I have this playlist pinned, so anytime I add new music to it, it will automatically download when I am connected to WIFI. The question I have is ... what happens if I removed songs from the pinned playlist? Will they be removed from my phone? Or do they stay on my phone? I am hoping they are removed. I would hate for my SD card to get filled up with songs that I don't care to be available when I am offline.
Thanks

I have 30k+ songs in my itunes library, how do I pick and choose which songs to add/delete?

[REQ] Audio Book Player app for WP8

Hey all. I listen to Audio Books a LOT. I have a lot of Idle Time when I am on a bus or a plane.
I know that back in WP7 days, they had to do all of this strange crap to get the media files on the phone to get them to work since there was no direct write access to the phone's Media folders. I am using LyndyAudio right now, but in order to get the books on there I have to upload them to DropBox then download them through the app. Also, no multi-tasking, if I leave the app in any way, it stops playback.
With WP8, we now have access to these media folders and can put the files directly on the device for use.
The app does not have to be flashy or anything but just very simple functions:
Set default audiobook folder (include subfolders)
Play
Pause - This action bookmarks your place for resume later
Fast FWD/Reverse
Skip FWD/Reverse
Pause on phone ring/answer
Resume on call end
(Any other features that can be thought up)
I'll even pay for this app and whoever can come through with this will have a huge advantage as I know many people within my company are looking for a similar app.
Please feel free to PM me or reply here if there are any questions.
Thanks!!

I agree, we need audiobook functionality back. I know we have Audible, but most of my audiobooks are mp3s burnt from CDs. +1 for an audiobook app that will let me add my own files.

Audible
Did you try Audible?
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/audible-audiobooks/bdc813dd-c20b-41f8-8646-de72fa0b365d

MethodGT said:
I agree, we need audiobook functionality back. I know we have Audible, but most of my audiobooks are mp3s burnt from CDs. +1 for an audiobook app that will let me add my own files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, please. At least with WP7 you could convert MP3's to a podcast and transfer it and then control it with the built in media player. Can't even do that now. This is one area where 8 really hosed us.

I would love one as well. One that lets you use your own files as audiobooks without having to use their library. All I need is a bookmark feature really.