I've long since turned in my Tilt for a Motorola Q9H but had to share with you guys. For some time now I've been on a quest to find a mobile music streaming application that would give me a nice interface and access to my home music collection. Social.FM desktop and mobile client is not quite there but head and shoulders above anything else I've found. The mobile client is a one time $20 but if you're interested I can help you get access to a promo copy. The desktop client is free. There's a station list on the mobile with access to a hundred or so genres and sub-genres.
Once you install the desktop client and point it to your local music collection it shows up on the mobile. Too easy.
What is wrong with Orb? it is free, supports video, live TV and webcams as well as music.
wizzzard said:
What is wrong with Orb? it is free, supports video, live TV and webcams as well as music.
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Click to collapse
Ummmm...
ORB is nowhere close. I tried it. The web interface is kludgy. And why would you want to have to switch to a different application to change to a different album or artist. The interface of the Social.FM client is iPod like. One of the things about Orb that was frustrating was that the streaming format was not supported in all players, or at least the one I wanted to use. It's been a while since I totally dismissed it so I can't remember the details. I tried them all. The best streamer was 40th Floor iPlay with the server option running on my desktop. But the interface on that is made for a stylus. I have no need to use a stylus, ever.
Incidentally, that's why I gave up the Tilt for the Q9H. And I need to be able to type with one hand which is not possible with the Tilt. As soon as the I-Mate 8502 comes out I'll switch to that.
Don't get me wrong. The Social.FM player is not quite there. You can't pause and there is no AVRCP support. I imagine that pausing is coming soon. I just had a full workout at the gym while streaming from my desktop at work and had zero skips. I found an interview with the CEO of Social.FM (http://www.onuiq.com/) and he said that they're using Ogg Vorbis encoding. Says they can get full quality over EDGE.
You really should give it a try.
I see its mercora. They are the ones who wanted to charge you for streaming your own music collection. Major fail.
Surur
Sounds pretty cool in spite of its short-comings. It will be great when this concept is fully dialed-in.
surur said:
I see its mercora. They are the ones who wanted to charge you for streaming your own music collection. Major fail.
Surur
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Click to collapse
Well, they must have seen the light cuz right now I'm streaming from, not only mine, but my buddy's desktop for free.
Side note:
If I had my way I'd be streaming Slacker.com to my phone. They have, hands down, the best content available. The stations (genres/sub-genres) are put together by "music experts". And I can vouch for them. I even wrote an application to sniff their ID3 tags and automatically download full quality MP3's (theirs is 128kbit) and then sync that to my iPod automatically with ml_iPod. They have aspirations to release their own hardware player but not only hasn't that happened but I think it's misguided. I would [so] pay to stream their content to my phone.
I have converted from an iPhone to the HTC Fuze. I still have some audio files that are .mp4. I am interesting in playing audio more than video. Can I get the stock player to play these?
If not, what is the best player to download (for free) for playing audio .mp4 files?
Thanks
If they are DRMed, you'll have to search on how to un-DRM them (I wouldn't ask about that here though). If they are not DRMed, you can play them in Windows Media Player.
I know about the DRM thing, but last time I checked, Windows Media does not play mp4. Am I wrong?
With regard to audio files from iTunes (m4a/AAC/mp4 or whatever you want to call them), they will play just fine via the music player interface in Touch Flo 3d. The only problem I've encountered is that for some reason the audio manager will not sort songs in track order. As yet I have not found a fix for this (and no one else seems to be asking about it either). Still, at least I didn't have to convert my iTunes library into MP3 files ; )
Purchased tracks will not play (in fact they will not even be visible).
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a coding/decoding algorithm mainly used by iTunes to protect the artist and to ensure that the artist gets money for his work since you as a consumer ay have purchased a song or album online. All your own CD's which you may have read-in (ripped) through iTunes will play without any problems.
DRM files, though they appear as MP4 files, cannot be played without the appropriate decoder (iTunes for example).
Ways and methods HOW to bypass this mechanism MUST NOT be discussed here in the forum, do a google research if you interested in.
BTW same issues may happen if you go from iPhone to iPhone or transfer files from PC to PC even if you backed up your iTunes license.
You may bear an Apple store a visit or call Apples cust. support they can provide you with a special key that you do not have to purchase all your songs again.
Ouzo said:
The only problem I've encountered is that for some reason the audio manager will not sort songs in track order.
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Click to collapse
Track sorting seems to be a general problem of the TF3D player. If you for example have an album which contains two CDs the TF3D player is not able to sort it correctly. It's stupidly sorting:
Track 1 CD1
Track 1 CD2
Track 2 CD1
Track 2 CD2
[...]
Therefore I'm using Pocket Player instead.
DeepThought said:
Track sorting seems to be a general problem of the TF3D player. If you for example have an album which contains two CDs the TF3D player is not able to sort it correctly. It's stupidly sorting:
Track 1 CD1
Track 1 CD2
Track 2 CD1
Track 2 CD2
[...]
Therefore I'm using Pocket Player instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a way to launch Pocket Player from TF3D in place of the in-unit player?? I have been searching for an answer for a week here and found not a clue. Any help with this would be appreciated, otherwise I will just launch from programs as I am now doing, but it seems a waste to have a nice tab wasted!
rac
rac said:
Is there a way to launch Pocket Player from TF3D in place of the in-unit player?? I have been searching for an answer for a week here and found not a clue. Any help with this would be appreciated, otherwise I will just launch from programs as I am now doing, but it seems a waste to have a nice tab wasted!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't think so. Unfortunately the only think you can do is completely disabling the TF3D player by removing it with AdvancedConfig.
I wonder if it's possible to at least get the Audio Manager to play tracks according to file name. At least that way if tracks were numbered 01, 02 etc that would get around the problem of it not seeing the track number in the tag.
Trouble is I can't work out how to do this.... I've been rumaging in the registry under HKLM\software\HTC\AudioManager_Eng but there doesn't seem anything obvious to me. Maybe a key could be added? Anyone got any ideas?
How about mp4 video?
It took 20 minutes to load a video mp4 file onto my microsd card, but it's there. Windows Media Player won't recognize it. The video player app portion of the camera will actually play the file, but it takes several seconds to launch and is generally choppy after that. It's a shame, too, because the video quality is great ... it's just very choppy.
Is there Windows Mobile player out there somewhere that plays these mp4 files SMOOTHLY? I knew the Tilt had issues with the driver not playing video smoothly, but I didn't think it was a problem with the Fuze. Sure would like to watch some quality video in mp4 mode on my Fuze rather than my video ipod.
I love this forum, alot of smart people here (usually).
To talk of disabling software or this drm would be wrong. But Itunes itself posesses a way for you to back up your music. Its totally legit, and a common problem out there. (itunes not playing on winmo or other devices).
So if its a totally legit way of using the itunes program itself, to simply create a backup of your songs... why is it so horrible to discuss?
No one is suggesting hacking or disabling the drm, simply getting the music they paid for to work.
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).
I'm trying to make the switch to WP8 from my beloved Android for a few reasons: the awesome smoothness and fluidity of WP8, simplicity, less clutter. I have a new Nokia Lumia 810 on T-Mobile. Not too happy with the build quality but a new case helps overlook that.
But there is ONE thing I noticed, that will make me go back to my Android real quick: If an app is using audio on WP8, and it hides or goes to back (or whatever the correct term is), it stops playing the audio! So essentially if I'm streaming music or trying to sleep using the sounds of Sleep Bug etc, and I try to do something else like browse or FB, the audio stops until I go back and bring that app to the front.
Is this just how Windows Phone works or am I missing something? This is driving me crazy, using audio in background is a very important feature for me. I can deal with all the other little bugs of WP8 but I will get rid of this thing if I can't run audio while the app is not at front.
Any input on this? Much appreciated, thanks. I looked and looked but I really can't find anything on this issue anywhere...
Deeva said:
I'm trying to make the switch to WP8 from my beloved Android for a few reasons: the awesome smoothness and fluidity of WP8, simplicity, less clutter. I have a new Nokia Lumia 810 on T-Mobile. Not too happy with the build quality but a new case helps overlook that.
But there is ONE thing I noticed, that will make me go back to my Android real quick: If an app is using audio on WP8, and it hides or goes to back (or whatever the correct term is), it stops playing the audio! So essentially if I'm streaming music or trying to sleep using the sounds of Sleep Bug etc, and I try to do something else like browse or FB, the audio stops until I go back and bring that app to the front.
Is this just how Windows Phone works or am I missing something? This is driving me crazy, using audio in background is a very important feature for me. I can deal with all the other little bugs of WP8 but I will get rid of this thing if I can't run audio while the app is not at front.
Any input on this? Much appreciated, thanks. I looked and looked but I really can't find anything on this issue anywhere...
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Click to collapse
What applications are we talking here. Remember in Windows Phone there is a difference if you hit back and not the home button. So if you fire up some music make sure to hit the home button to make sure you do not suspend the app and stop the music.
If they are older apps not compiled for WP7.5/8 then it might not work but I think most if not all apps have been recompiled.
Bjd223 said:
What applications are we talking here. Remember in Windows Phone there is a difference if you hit back and not the home button. So if you fire up some music make sure to hit the home button to make sure you do not suspend the app and stop the music.
If they are older apps not compiled for WP7.5/8 then it might not work but I think most if not all apps have been recompiled.
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Thanks, that is a good tip for Windows Phone use, because the back key on Android doesn't close out the app. Gotta get used to that. But I tried the home key and some apps still stop audio, example I use Sleep Bug and Soothr a lot. Sleep Bug will not play while other audio is running and Soothr WILL play while other audio is running but has to stay at front. It will stop playing even with home button only pressed. I guess this has to do with the way the apps are created? This will totally kill my desire to convert to WP8... :crying:
Deeva said:
Thanks, that is a good tip for Windows Phone use, because the back key on Android doesn't close out the app. Gotta get used to that. But I tried the home key and some apps still stop audio, example I use Sleep Bug and Soothr a lot. Sleep Bug will not play while other audio is running and Soothr WILL play while other audio is running but has to stay at front. It will stop playing even with home button only pressed. I guess this has to do with the way the apps are created? This will totally kill my desire to convert to WP8... :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apps don't run in the background- they can have daemons which have limited functionality (minimizes battery and resource usage). So when an app is minimized, it is frozen, and it's ability to update live tiles/etc in the background is more or less independent of the running status of the app.
There is a system music player- apps can connect to it and direct music at it, and it will continue playing the music regardless of if the app is running. If the app doesn't use the system to play audio, then it is entirely within the app and thus gets frozen/killed with the app. If music apps are doing this to you, there are one of three reasons: the developer is retarded, the app is ancient, or the music content isn't supported by the system's player.
It depends on how the app was built. Apps can implement background audio agents, which can play music even when the app isn't running (be it tombstoned or inactive, or simply closed).
Other apps, like youtube, use a media element object to play what they play. These kind of apps are entirely dependent on being in the foreground. Usually, you can tell which app uses what by pressing the volume buttons: if the volume bar displays the music played by your app, it means you can safely go out of the app. If it doesn't, it means it is local, and leaving the app kills the player.
link68759 said:
There is a system music player- apps can connect to it and direct music at it, and it will continue playing the music regardless of if the app is running. If the app doesn't use the system to play audio, then it is entirely within the app and thus gets frozen/killed with the app.
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This sounds terrible.
If this is true, it may be impossible to write a working music player, where working requires:
-gapless playback
-support of common audio formats
Since the system music player has neither.
I was planning to get a WP8 phone but if I will never be able to play my music even on a 3rd party app, I will definitely think again.
Can someone confirm or deny this?
CSMR said:
This sounds terrible.
If this is true, it may be impossible to write a working music player, where working requires:
-gapless playback
-support of common audio formats
Since the system music player has neither.
I was planning to get a WP8 phone but if I will never be able to play my music even on a 3rd party app, I will definitely think again.
Can someone confirm or deny this?
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Click to collapse
I'm no dev, but yes, that sounds right; at the current time, unsupported formats means the app has to stay in the foreground.
I believe there is a dedicated decoder chip for supported audio formats, the usage of which saves battery (whereas the CPU decoding would be wasteful on the battery), so it's not just an arbitrary limitation. Unsupported formats can be decoded by the CPU, perhaps at the cost of better battery life. I don't think it's terribly significant though, because afaik android has no proprietary media decoding circuit and therefore all of its music operations use the battery suckin' CPU, and android phones don't just drop dead when playing music.
If you're just listening to music, there's no reason unsupported formats can't play in app while the screen is off and the phone in your pocket- you just can't multitask. There is currently only one flac player afaik and it sucks (also it's in Japanese so I have no idea what's happening).
I'm not so sure the system player doesn't support gapless.
I like my flacs as much as anyone, but no phone is going to have a good DAC where it'll actually be worth it. All you're accomplishing with flac on a phone is a false sense of satisfaction and wasting space- just convert what you want to MP3 or if you must, lossless WMA, or that weird HQ m4a format.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro
CSMR said:
This sounds terrible.
If this is true, it may be impossible to write a working music player, where working requires:
-gapless playback
-support of common audio formats
Since the system music player has neither.
I was planning to get a WP8 phone but if I will never be able to play my music even on a 3rd party app, I will definitely think again.
Can someone confirm or deny this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you need unsupported formats? As far as I know, WP8 supports quite a lot of formats. So unless you come up with some obscure algorithm nobody heard about, you shouldn't have any issues.
As for the built-in player...well...what the other guy said is partially true. Yes, you do direct music to it, but the player only plays the music. It is entirely up to the developer to decide how he directs the music. Hell, I think I can make it play music backwards with a little effort.
I all likelihood you won't need a third party app. And if you do, just hold on a few more weeks till I get mine done xD
mcosmin222 said:
Why would you need unsupported formats? As far as I know, WP8 supports quite a lot of formats. So unless you come up with some obscure algorithm nobody heard about, you shouldn't have any issues.
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How about any lossless codec ever, besides wma? You must not be an audiophile. I did say it's a waste of space (and it would be) but if you have space to spare, it'd be nice to not have to convert and manage an entire second library just for the phone.
I think you are terribly and unfortunately misinformed.
WP8 supports, as far as i know, every single codec available to the music industry. If there is one missing, that is .ogg.
take a look here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff462087(v=vs.105).aspx
So, codec support is really something you don't need to worry about, as opposed to Android.
mcosmin222 said:
I think you are terribly and unfortunately misinformed.
WP8 supports, as far as i know, every single codec available to the music industry. If there is one missing, that is .ogg.
take a look here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff462087(v=vs.105).aspx
So, codec support is really something you don't need to worry about, as opposed to Android.
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Click to collapse
You really don't know what you are talking about. At all.
Missing from that list are flac, alac, ogg, ape, wav, hell I don't even see wma lossless in there. So there is zero support for lossless audio codecs. Flac, ogg, and wav are very popular formats, so don't tell me they're obscure.
Missing from video is mkv and flv! extension support. mkv is pretty much the best container, but I'm not surprised it isn't supported. Video support is pretty good all things considered- though I'd like On2 decoding because those pop up with some frequency.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro
link68759 said:
You really don't know what you are talking about. At all.
Missing from that list are flac, alac, ogg, ape, wav, hell I don't even see wma lossless in there. So there is zero support for lossless audio codecs. Flac, ogg, and wav are very popular formats, so don't tell me they're obscure.
Missing from video is mkv and flv! extension support. mkv is pretty much the best container, but I'm not surprised it isn't supported. Video support is pretty good all things considered- though I'd like On2 decoding because those pop up with some frequency.
Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flv is a dieing format. If you want to play flash videos, use third party apps.
WAV is supported: my game uses WAV files for sounds, so it is supported.
OGG is indeed not there, i've already agreed to that.
As for MKV, microsoft has copyright issues with matroska, as do many video player developers, and that usually requires a dedicated player, or codecs provided directly by Matroska.
You also need to look at the specific processor type you are using. WP7.5 for example, does not support WMV, whereas most WP8 do.
With the real multitasking available to WP8, people can develop codecs for missing formats. The developers, however, need to know that they effectively have to change the way their application work, in order to run in the background all the time. You as user, also need to explicitly agree to said app running in the background. The same can't be said about WP 7.5 users, however
If you buy a WP8, you will be fine as far as music players in concerned. You might need to wait for a decent developer to make a proper player.
As a developer who has played around with this sort of stuff for Windows Phone, it is possible to write support for new formats in both WP7.x & WP8 but it isn't an easy task. You would have to implement a streaming audio application as written about here.
Hi,
I've been an android user for ages, but I'm also a photographer and I'm very very intrigued by the Lumia 1020....but there is one particular thing that really keeps me from trying it...it's media player capabilities. I watch video on my android phone ALL the time. This is not an exaggeration. I watch videos going to and back from work, I watch videos when I'm waiting for a doctors' appointment (or any appointment). And the best part is that is nothing that Android won't play either straight away or simply by installing the right codec and a good player from the google app store (some of the best are free). I've the Lumia 1020 review and one of the main complaints were that there were A LOT of video formats and codecs that had to be converted before hand so the phone would play it. That is absolutely out of the question for me as sometimes I will copy like 8 seasons of a show directly to my phone.
Is there an app, codec, hack or whatever that will allow a windows phone the same flexibility when it comes to playing multiple formats or would I be stuck with converting videos before hand?
I just checked: there is an app which already supports playing MKV, but it's $4.49 US and I don't know if it's available in all regions, so you should check the WP8 store from your browser before buying. It also doesn't have great reviews (plays MKVs but some people say they lack subtitles, for example) although the dev is responsive to feedback according to some reviews. Alternatively, wait for VLC to be ported, which is a work in progress (once they have it working for Windows RT, the Windows Phone 8 port will be fast).
There are also media streaming clients on the phone which require you to install server software on the PC, but don't require that you convert the files. These also have the advantage of not using up phone storage. However, you will need to have very good bandwidth (both download to phone and upload from PC) to stream video.