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...
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Related
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.
Click to expand...
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 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
Good morning,
it seems like microsoft added a bunch of new video codecs in wp8 but no .mkv support.
i´m new to winphone but from my understanding there´s no 3rd party video player for winphone7 that supports it.
does anybody know the reason for that? and most important: is there any chance to see an app for that anytime soon or are there any development restrictions that would prevent that from ever happening?
Windows Phone 7 does not allow for Apps to consume external files. That would make an alternative Video player pretty much impossible. Another problem would be that most likely MKVs would not contain Codecs supported by the device and WP7 only allows for Managed Code which is not really what you would use to implement a Video Codec.
Windows Phone 8 on the other hand does allow for both: file associations and native code, so it's definitely doable. We'll have to wait and see wether someone will implement an according App though.
Support for MKV and all the other pirate bay friendly file formats is all that's keeping me from WP8
Hi,
I am making a Foobar2000 control app by using the foo_httpcontrol add-on. I figured out how I can run certain commands, but I am completely blank on how to get information back from the server like playlists or current playing song. Does anyone have exprience with this on Android or knows how to do it on wp8?
Also: currently I am using a hidden browser for executing the commands, would it be better/possible to use webrequests or something for that?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tweekzor said:
Hi,
I am making a Foobar2000 control app by using the foo_httpcontrol add-on. I figured out how I can run certain commands, but I am completely blank on how to get information back from the server like playlists or current playing song. Does anyone have exprience with this on Android or knows how to do it on wp8?
Also: currently I am using a hidden browser for executing the commands, would it be better/possible to use webrequests or something for that?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't say I could help you with foo_httpcontrol. I haven't used it that much.
I'd recommend using the DLNA plugin instead. Using the DLNA app made either by Nokia or HTC (it was that way with wp7, not sure on wp8) would be a similar experience to playing music that's in the music+video tab. Most DLNA apps have the capability to play music from the phone to another device, play music from another device and share it to a third device, e.g. Phone Music -> foobar, foobar -> WP8 -> Bluray player.
Also the album art will display if its in the same folder as the music (the dlna plugin on foobar looks for the folder.jpg first.)
thals1992 said:
I can't say I could help you with foo_httpcontrol. I haven't used it that much.
I'd recommend using the DLNA plugin instead. Using the DLNA app made either by Nokia or HTC (it was that way with wp7, not sure on wp8) would be a similar experience to playing music that's in the music+video tab. Most DLNA apps have the capability to play music from the phone to another device, play music from another device and share it to a third device, e.g. Phone Music -> foobar, foobar -> WP8 -> Bluray player.
Also the album art will display if its in the same folder as the music (the dlna plugin on foobar looks for the folder.jpg first.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your answer, but I don't think that is what I am looking for. My desktop has a music collection that is far greater then the 32gb of my device, and the sound quality is a lot better as well. So I don't want to be streaming from or to my device. Also since my library has about 50.000+ songs I'd prefer to use my well known and set-up music player over searching through my windows folders.
I have seen a couple of android apps that control Foobar2000 by using the plugin I use as well, and they are able to get the song info etc. So it is possible, I just can't figure out how.
(I did download the Nokia Play To app, because streaming like that is also useful at other times )
Tweekzor said:
Thank you for your answer, but I don't think that is what I am looking for. My desktop has a music collection that is far greater then the 32gb of my device, and the sound quality is a lot better as well. So I don't want to be streaming from or to my device. Also since my library has about 50.000+ songs I'd prefer to use my well known and set-up music player over searching through my windows folders.
I have seen a couple of android apps that control Foobar2000 by using the plugin I use as well, and they are able to get the song info etc. So it is possible, I just can't figure out how.
(I did download the Nokia Play To app, because streaming like that is also useful at other times )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well most of my foobar collection are chiptunes, (vgm/sid/gbs) modules (mod, xm, it) and album in a single flac with cue files (flac doesn't always play, but mostly works) so I need it to stream WAV 48khz (its the highest I've tried) over wireless N using that dlna plugin. I have seen some foobar apps thats in the marketplace, but nothing that I'd seen work. Also somthing else that works, is the foo_touchremote plugin. It uses the boujour service (also in Apple's iTunes, but used in other things as well) and works simply with entering a pairing code.
If you still would like to use foo_httpcontrol, I'd ask over at http://www.hydrogenaudio.org.
thals1992 said:
Well most of my foobar collection are chiptunes, (vgm/sid/gbs) modules (mod, xm, it) and album in a single flac with cue files (flac doesn't always play, but mostly works) so I need it to stream WAV 48khz (its the highest I've tried) over wireless N using that dlna plugin. I have seen some foobar apps thats in the marketplace, but nothing that I'd seen work. Also somthing else that works, is the foo_touchremote plugin. It uses the boujour service (also in Apple's iTunes, but used in other things as well) and works simply with entering a pairing code.
If you still would like to use foo_httpcontrol, I'd ask over at .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That touchremote plugin sounds like it could be what I need, I will look into that when I have a bit more time. Thank you for the answers.:good:
*I couldn't commit my post because I quoted your hydrogenaudio link *
I've posted my Chrome App late last night and has been a big hit on Reddit. Anywho, while we've ran into a couple people with issues it's been a pretty smooth rollout.
If you want to try it, here it is. It's, rather cleverly, called "Chromecast Video" .
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chromecast-video/cnciopoikihiagdjbjpnocolokfelagl
Let me know how much you love it, hate it, and want to see your bug fixed
-----------
Known issues:
// TODO
Mat.
Great start! So far gives me about a 50% success ratio, at least with mp4 files. And some of those that start successfully die after about 30 seconds. But the ones that stream successfully are smooth.
Reddit comments thread, that should be added in OP:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/1ybzw3/chromecast_video_a_chrome_app_that_streams_local/
Could you also add download link that does not require google account login?
PS if you want to know literally everything about acidhax start HERE and dig google
Avia does that
I'm going to check this out tonight, but given that there doesn't appear to be any transcoding going on, is it safe to assume that you still can't play .mkv files with audio?
I keep holding out in hopes that I don't need to convert my huge collection of media to h.264 in an .mp4 container.
mkhopper said:
I'm going to check this out tonight, but given that there doesn't appear to be any transcoding going on, is it safe to assume that you still can't play .mkv files with audio?
I keep holding out in hopes that I don't need to convert my huge collection of media to h.264 in an .mp4 container.
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LOL, well, if anyone here is good at NaCl development we can get some ffmpeg transcoding happening
Yet another reason to run Chrome... I may be converted yet...
BTW, added your extension to the FAQ.
It seemed to work but would stop after a few minutes
mkhopper said:
I'm going to check this out tonight, but given that there doesn't appear to be any transcoding going on, is it safe to assume that you still can't play .mkv files with audio?
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Doesn't play mkv at all as far as I can tell. I just get a spinning circle forever if I try.
enricong said:
It seemed to work but would stop after a few minutes
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Some users have this problem. I honestly don't know what it is, it could be a Chrome bug or a WiFi driver bug.
Edit:
All I'm really doing is creating a Webserver on the Chrome App, and the Chromecast requests media from you. It'll just drop randomly for certain people.
acidhax said:
Some users have this problem. I honestly don't know what it is, it could be a Chrome bug or a WiFi driver bug.
Edit:
All I'm really doing is creating a Webserver on the Chrome App, and the Chromecast requests media from you. It'll just drop randomly for certain people.
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Is there an option to show debugging info or logging to try to determine the cause?
acidhax said:
All I'm really doing is creating a Webserver on the Chrome App, and the Chromecast requests media from you. It'll just drop randomly for certain people.
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Could also be other extensions or antivirus
On this thread the tab casting problem (yes, I realize it probably uses a different mechanism, but it's still within Chrome) ended up being Adware Antivirus, and reinstallation of the Cast extension.
enricong said:
Is there an option to show debugging info or logging to try to determine the cause?
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Not that I'm aware of..
enricong said:
Is there an option to show debugging info or logging to try to determine the cause?
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Fixed it. Update is being processed as we speak!
Thanks
MKV plays fine, but without sound.
Also, is it possible to support subs?
acidhax said:
Fixed it. Update is being processed as we speak!
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Confirmed - all better now. With version 0.9.6.5 all mp4 videos play without interruption.
Another minor problem: if I attempt to play a video that doesn't load successfully (for example one of my mkv files), the Chromecast remains stuck on a blank screen and I cannot cast any more videos successfully until the Chromecast Video extension is shut down and restarted. It looks like the UI is still functioning, but maybe the background http server is stuck?
DJames1 said:
Confirmed - all better now. With version 0.9.6.5 all mp4 videos play without interruption.
Another minor problem: if I attempt to play a video that doesn't load successfully (for example one of my mkv files), the Chromecast remains stuck on a blank screen and I cannot cast any more videos successfully until the Chromecast Video extension is shut down and restarted. It looks like the UI is still functioning, but maybe the background http server is stuck?
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Guys MKV is a container, and have slim to none information about whats in it.
Really think the developer would love to know which Audio/Video codec you use
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MediaInfo <- Download that tool and the codecs will show up, they would help the developer understanding which codecs works and not.
bormeth said:
Guys MKV is a container, and have slim to none information about whats in it.
Really think the developer would love to know which Audio/Video codec you use
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MediaInfo <- Download that tool and the codecs will show up, they would help the developer understanding which codecs works and not.
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Generally my mkv files are all H.264 video generated by Handbrake, the same as my mp4 files. The difference is likely to be in the audio tracks. My mkv files all have either a single AC3 DD5.1 sound track, or else an AC3 DD5.1 sound track plus an AAC stereo sound track like the mp4 files. I stopped including the AC3 DD5.1 sound track in my mp4 files because I found that many (if not most) mp4 players will only accept a single AAC stereo sound track and nothing else. I sometimes wonder what was the point of designing container file formats that allow multiple sound tracks when so many players seem to choke on files that use that capability! Even Microsoft Windows Media Player doesn't have the basic ability to select which audio track to use when there are multiple tracks.
DJames1 said:
I sometimes wonder what was the point of designing container file formats that allow multiple sound tracks when so many players seem to choke on files that use that capability! Even Microsoft Windows Media Player doesn't have the basic ability to select which audio track to use when there are multiple tracks.
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Yes, that's the general problem with containers... Having multiple streams requires additional logic on the player's side that takes it more toward a DVD/BD player, while most media players are more simple. In some cases players "cheat" and their "support" for a container is simply "pretend it's just a raw media stream."
While it does often work, it's bad practice because the kludge fails once the container is actually used as a container.
It's much like how people often like to rename VOB files to MPG to make them "work" but run into trouble when things leave the most-simple cases as VOBs also contain other data like navigational data, subtitles, etc. A proper demux works, but of course requires actual understanding of the container format.
bhiga said:
Having multiple streams requires additional logic on the player's side that takes it more toward a DVD/BD player, while most media players are more simple.
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Exactly! MKV was pretty much invented as a Universal Library container format to better support the different media that would normally be on a DVD/BR disc such as Multiple Language, Commentary tracks and Multiple Subtitles all in one tidy package.
But to support all that it requires Client side support that allows you to pick which tracks to actually use.
Unfortunately the player apps on the CCast are still very young and not yet mature enough to deal with this complexity as most developers are more focused on the communication and linkage needed to cast than they are with developing a full featured player on the CCast side.
This is why Subs and Multi Audio track content have hit or miss issues when sent to a CCast.
It gets even worse if transcoding is required.
And the fact that MKV can contain just about any codec it's even harder to write a transcoder profile or CCast player that can deal with it all.
There is no hardware I know of that supports MKV on chip. All the devices that play them without transcoding use software decoding built into the player. and I suspect in time someone will create a CCast player capable of doing that at some point as well as the capability to select Subtitle Overlay and Audio Track from the client side.
Once someone does that most if not all of our MKV issues will go away. Transcoding will no longer be needed and the selection of what gets seen and played will all happen where it should on the client side.