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Astro Player Beta

Astro Player is a media player with audiobooks and podcasts support. AP has advanced bookmarking functionality. It introduces several unique features like fast playback, equalizer, and non-unicode tags support. Moreover, it shows lyrics, supports scrobbling, album art, has convenient file browser with play folder option. It's still in beta and could be unstable. Any suggestions or opinions are welcomed!
New thread in "Android Apps and Games": http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7268951
Download: http://www.astroplayer.com/download/Astro Player Beta.apk
2010-07-16 1.40
Playlists: add several files or folders
Fixes in the music browser
New actions: fforward/rewind 1min, 2min, 3min, 15sec, custom
New skin TestSkin.xml has been created
2010-06-25 1.39
Album/artist browser
Stability fixes
2010-06-25 1.38
Stability fixes
2010-06-20 1.37
Lock screen widget with gestures and album art
WVGA screen and quit button fixes
Stability fixes
2010-06-04 1.35
Overall speed improvements
Audio stuttering fix
Background mode fix
Multiple covers per track
Stability fixes
2010-05-15 1.34
Stability fixes
2010-05-08 1.33
Hotkeys, buttons, actions organizer
Fetches missing album art
Podcasts improvements
New landscape design
Stability fixes
2010-04-10 1.32
Menu organizer fixes
Stability fixes
2010-04-03 1.31
Menu items configuration
Fixed long delay between tracks
Tags instead file names in the playlist
Adapted new design for Droid
2010-03-23 1.30
Widget fix
Loading screen fix

Initially it looks good. I'm still going through it and will edit this post i'm sure. The first thing I noticed was your directions on how to add files. Anyone with common sense would be able to figure it out, however, for those that can't figure it out- you need to darken the text. White instruction text on a light background is hard to read. Other than that, so far so good!

Thanks, Ok it will be addressed in the coming build. We have no such issues in other skins: e.g. menu > more > select view > main view.

Just installed. Initial impressions are good.
The UI when the screen is rotated 90 degrees is a bit off-putting (ran that way for five minutes before re-orienting and getting the WAY pretty interface).
EDIT: Just read your reply about other skins. Fixed my issue. I'm retarded.
I dig it. More to come and I use and abuse it.

I'm been looking for an audio player that displays lrc lyrics. Otherwise some basic tag editing out be a nice touch as well.

There's a lot potential in this player and what it can do when it is fully developed, I love the equalizer, I think, one of the first, if not the first music player that offer eq that works! but some presets are always welcomed to be more user-friendly.. just my 2-cents

Christopher3712 said:
Initially it looks good. I'm still going through it and will edit this post i'm sure. The first thing I noticed was your directions on how to add files. Anyone with common sense would be able to figure it out, however, for those that can't figure it out- you need to darken the text. White instruction text on a light background is hard to read. Other than that, so far so good!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fixed in #31

Why does it need location and phone state permissions? I think I'll stick to the stock, non stalker player.

Phone state (READ_PHONE_STATE) is used for handling the headset button (we don't handle it while incoming phone call)
Location (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) is used for ads

xaueious said:
I'm been looking for an audio player that displays lrc lyrics. Otherwise some basic tag editing out be a nice touch as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lrc lyrics and tag editings are on the way.

Andrew Terekhine said:
Phone state (READ_PHONE_STATE) is used for handling the headset button (we don't handle it while incoming phone call)
Location (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) is used for ads
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the clarification. I wish every dev listed out the exact use for each permission request.
Tried out the player and it's great. I tried "Music Folder Player" many times but it never worked properly with CM (wouldn't populate the playlist). This app creates a playlist from my default music folder and play them as designed...

Astro Player's new version 1.33 is now available.
Changes:
Hotkeys, buttons, actions organizer
Fetches missing album art
Podcasts improvements
New landscape design
Stability fixes

Does it still cut out and/or stop playing when you switch to another process such as gmail?

Hi,
I can't seem to search my music via Artists or Album, am i being stupid ? Most likely i am.
It just lists all songs in Alphabetical order according to Artist name.
I do like it though, works well on my HTC Desire, no bugs so far, screen works well, landscape and Potrait. Artwork is correct. HTC Headphones controls work. Will play more with it later tonight.

I can't seem to get m3u playlists to work.

When I added my music folder, I noticed that it lists all the invisible Mac-related metadata files that start with ._ If you could hide those files, it will keep folks from trying to play them - it looks like it might be locking up the player if I try to open one of them.

The fetch album art function does not always fetch the correct art if there is more than one .jpg present. I have some folders with both front and back album art and it has been selecting the back album art. All the other music players I have tried have selected the correct .jpg or have an option to change the art. Is the program looking for a certain filename such as "folder.jpg" or "albumart.jpg"? Also, is the program able to fetch art from the internet? I have not been able to do so. I have only had art show up in folders that already have it present.
Other than that the player is excellent and I love the EQ! However, I second that presets would be very nice to include and get people started, as would giving frequencies for the EQ bands instead of just "High" and "Low" if this is possible to achieve.
Hope these suggestions are useful to you to improve what is one of the best media players I have tried (and I have tried every one that I can find!)

Thx great app !
Also be cool if you made reset to dafault button in equalizer settings.

Very nice. Two thumbs up, friend.
As for the lyrics option, is there a way we can have them to be possibly read from a txt file on sdcard? I'm just assuming you're going to use it with a website, of course. However, a lot of music, heavy metal for example, commonly lacks lyrics online.
Just a suggestion, and should be easily enough implemented.
Still, very nice application. =]

iHaos said:
Thx great app !
Also be cool if you made reset to dafault button in equalizer settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's already there: Eq screen > menu > Reset

Windows Phone 8 questions

Based on what I've seen today it still has no:
- system dictionary for definition lookup(only for predictive text). The Kindle App does nothing when I press & hold on a word, unlike on my iOS device.
- hi-speed media scrubber for music. you know the little round knob on the progress bar that allows you to move the time index to any point in a song or video.
- unified search aka Local Search(apps, music, videos, contacts, emails)

The music app is pretty bad. I had several attempts to build a proper one, but the developer can not interact with the music library, other than playing existing playlists or songs.
You can't make custom playlists(actually you can, but it very, very, VERY complicated and prone to error and simply does not worth the shot), change the order of music inside the list and stuff like that for a third party app, and that sucks.
There are no new APIs for XNA (which is used to access the songs in the phone) so there is no way of making one.
If there is something I can say it is not right on WP, that's the music app.

mcosmin222 said:
The music app is pretty bad. I had several attempts to build a proper one, but the developer can not interact with the music library, other than playing existing playlists or songs.
You can't make custom playlists(actually you can, but it very, very, VERY complicated and prone to error and simply does not worth the shot), change the order of music inside the list and stuff like that for a third party app, and that sucks.
There are no new APIs for XNA (which is used to access the songs in the phone) so there is no way of making one.
If there is something I can say it is not right on WP, that's the music app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does that imply that there´s the same limitation for video? ...and ...as a result of that a videoplayer with support for more codecs is very unlikely to ever happen?

TarKin said:
Does that imply that there´s the same limitation for video? ...and ...as a result of that a videoplayer with support for more codecs is very unlikely to ever happen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.

StevieBallz said:
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok. i was mainly into psp dev. before, and never had a winphone in my hands so far.
but if you say that´s possible, then i´ll go for the lumia920, reg. for a dev account and see what i can do

StevieBallz said:
The File-Assosciation feature in WP8 works like this. Your App can define certain file endings (e.g. .mkv) which it can handle. If those are found on a SD-Card or downloaded the according registered App is then started for those files. The App can then do whatever it is it does as long as it keeps to reading the file (the original can't be manipulated although the app could copy it into it's isolated storage and manipulate it their). But there is one Caveat - there are several file extensions that are reserved for the OS which means that 3rd party Apps can't register for them. One of them is .mp3. Avi is another one of those (you can look them up in MSDN).
.mkv on the other hand is an extension that Windows Phone itself does not know so people could build Apps that would be able to consume them. Given that we now have Native Code capabilities writing a decoder or recompiling one written for another platform is possible, though it remains to be seen wether anyone will put the effort into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the chance to look over what the native code can do and what it can't do, but it is to be expected that it will have limitations, just like C# has.

You can render images (obviously) and output them using Direct3D which is pretty much what e.g. VLC does on the Desktop. You have complete read access to files on the SD-Card for your registered filetypes. MKV could be registered, MP3 or AVI could not (because they are in use by the system already).
But of course you would not be able to offload processing to the dedicated decoding units like with the built-in Codecs, which will mean more processor utilization and worse battery life. Still as a programmer I don't see too many actual road blocks (but it's a bumpy road to do this to be sure).
@TarKin: before you drop the money perhaps it would be best to start looking into the SDK. I'm not an expert in Multimedia-programming by any measure so you might be able to spot problems in there beforehand.
If you're still going for a L920 with these uncertainties for your use-case: welcome to the family, I'm anxiously awaiting mine.

What in built libraries I can use to protect my videos ?

I want to write my own c#/XAML/javascript code for phone 8 (so that I learn a bit of coding related o phone 8) for keeping all my videos safe by a password.
I want to create a app which will ask user a numeric password when user tries to play a video from my phone. So, how can I implement it ?
p.s. I'm not asking for exact code to do it. I want to know how I can achieve this feature through c#/XAMl/javascript code

1. Create screen for entering password on open of App
2. If it's true, open the Application isolated Storage area
3. If not, quit it.
4. If you want to add a video [secure it], open the library and ask user to select the video, copy it to your app isolated storage area and remove from original library.
5. to un-secure it, you can follow the reverse step.

That is not locking a video .
I want to lock a video in its present location, I mean without cut-paste soln. you gave. . But my intent behind asking question was, is it possible to have a lock on a video or all videos together without copy-paste or cut paste from it's original location ?

Apps have no way of interfering with system functions: that includes access to the image/video library. So: you can't implement that feature in the way you described.

there are some apps in the store that can insert media into the system media folders like music videos etc..
How do they do it? That's a very good question....

They do something similar, that is they import files and then you have delete the video from original location .
And this is one reason for me to develop my own app to protect my videos.

StevieBallz said:
Apps have no way of interfering with system functions: that includes access to the image/video library. So: you can't implement that feature in the way you described.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, you mean I cant develop it . So, is it possible to develop something like applock (for android) which lock apps but not individual video. I'll lock the video player itself if it is possible

[Q] Things to know before beginning a music player app for WP8

First of all, hello to everybody. I have just joined xdaDevelopers.
To business now..
I recently bought my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 520). One of the reasons for getting it was for developing my own WP8 apps.
I would like to start with a music player app - one that can play mp3 files from phone memory and SD card; arrange songs according to name, albums and artists; create playlists; have capabilties of fast foward and rewind (seeking); and recognise album arts.
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
I have zero experience in app development; I am a web designer.
I noticed that there are very few "polished" music players (which function properly as well as have a nice UI) in the WP store. Any particular reason for that (other than the platform being relatively new)?
I created this post mainly because the lack of quality music players appeared a bit strange to me. I have heard that a particular file type can be accessed by only one app (please correct me if I am wrong). So does it mean that one has to somehow uninstall the default music player in order to use the newly downloaded one?
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Please note that I come from Android, and am very new to Windows Phone platform. So kindly point out if there's something incorrect about my assumptions.
Thanks and regards.

Hi,
Welcome to Windows Phone. The Lumia 520 is a great choice in my humble opinion. In regards to why there are so few music apps, there are probably several reasons. One such is the fact, that the easiest way to make one is to integrate with the built-in music features, which however limits you in several ways, like not being able to add more file types, not being able to customize the experience too much, playlisting is limit as far as I know, which basically puts you in the position, that the only actual improvement you can do upon that is implementing a new streaming service. The other route is to implement your own music player, but then you're going to have issues making it work in the background (not to mention, that implementing a music player isn't entirely simple).
gdebojyoti said:
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Make sure you have hardware for it. I recommend a minimum of Windows 8 Pro 64bit, but you can find instructions for Windows 7 on this forum as well. You'll need VT-x support on your CPU, plenty of RAM.
2. Download and install the WP8 SDK.
3. Once you open Visual Studio, you can start by creating a new project, you'll need a UI project (I recommend Windows Phone App or HTML5 App templates) and a music playback project (WP Audio Playback Agent -OR- WP Audio Streaming Agent).
4. For tutorials on how to get started I usually go to Pluralsight.com, because I have a subscription there, and they're plain awesome, but I'm sure there are a bunch of other sources as well, which are for free.
gdebojyoti said:
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have both Adobe Reader and PDF Reader installed, once you tap on a PDF file (say after downloading one in IE) an option should appear for you to select which app you wanna open it with.
gdebojyoti said:
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install and use as many audio/music apps you like, but obviously only one can have the background music feature used at one time. (You can only have one music playing in the background).
Also:
"Developers must pay an annual subscription fee of $99, (this, according to Todd Brix, the General Manager for Windows Phone Apps and Store team, is currently on an ongoing promotion at $19) to become an App Hub member and submit apps to the Windows Phone Store. There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps. There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps." - Wikipedia
Hope I helped, and happy coding!
:fingers-crossed:

@TheGoldrocker: Thank you for your reply. It did clear up quite a few things.
As of now, I am okay with "integrating with the built-in music features" as you said.
What I want to do is modify the UI and UX a bit. Some of the features can be as follows -
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Am I allowed to do the above?

You're welcome.
"Integrating with the built-in music features" doesn't mean you get to rewrite the UI/functionality of the current Music+Videos app. What it means is, you get to use the built-in classes for simplifying music playback in your new app. You'll still have to build up a new UI around your classes, you'll also have to write quite a few lines of code for the playback functionality (but obviously way less than if you tried to write your own music player from scratch).
Now sadly I cannot answer all of your questions with absolute certainty, because I haven't tried writing a music player yet, but I'll give them a shot.
I numbered your list:
gdebojyoti said:
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, since you'll have to make a new UI from scratch, and you'll have the ability to include any logic behind it you want.
2. Yes, the grouping can be avoided AFAIK.
3. Same as 1.
4. Same as 1.
5. Don't think so. Someone else with more knowledge will have to answer this to be sure, though.
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
7. Same as 1.
8. Same as 1.
Hope I helped.

Thank you for your reply.
TheGoldrocker said:
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
I do hope that Microsoft introduces interactive tiles in some future update. Sort of start screen widgets.

gdebojyoti said:
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deeplinking is launching an app with a link toward a specific page with parameters. Imagine it as a URL to a specific page on a website. If your app and pages support it, you could tap on a tile (say on the start screen), which opens your app, and instantly navigates to a playlist, album, song, whatever you made that tile link to.
Pinning items to the start screen can be triggered by anything you want. You, the coder, decides how you're gonna allow the user to pin their songs/albums/playlists/artists/whatever.
Here's a little tutorial on this topic:
http://wp.qmatteoq.com/first-steps-...-links/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Okay, thanks. I'll have a look at that.

To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
There are a couple fo things the guys here forgot to tell you:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.

mcosmin222 said:
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
mcosmin222 said:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?

gdebojyoti said:
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can not integrate with the built-in player.
There are too many limitations to explain. You will see.
Yes, learn C#

Okay.

Enhanced Spotify Management

The stock media remote app seems to work fine with Spotify playing on the phone, however it would be pretty cool to see a spotify-specific app, maybe with the following features:
- like track
- albumart
- track/album name
- playlist selection
There are a few remote apps on the play store, but they are PC to phone, an existing phone to phone one may work, if one exists?
Any one have any idea's if the above is possible?

Aghh I just asked this on a different thread!
I don't know if a "Remote Control" app exists for Android, but if it does, it would still probably looks awful on the Gear, since it won't be optimized for it.
Hopefully there could be something created or "hacked" to, at least, transmit song info to the Gear native application. An Xposed module would be awesome!