I would like to maybe use my 8125 as a MP3 player when riding my bike. I tried it out yesterday using the default Mobile Player and found it to be a bit unfriendly. Actually it was a PITA and I had to take off my helmet and gloves to get it playing. I finally figured out my MS voice command... "play everything", which also played ring tones. LOL Should have looked into it before heading out for a ride I guess.
Anyway, I've looked through the forum here and found a few "players" I might try.
TCMP
MortPlayer
PocketMusic
Question is this, does anyone use their phone as an MP3 player? Are there any issues I should be thinking about, i.e. does the battery drain pretty quickly, does the screen stay on and so forth.
Otherwise I have my eye on a nice SanDisk 2GB player that has a FM receiver that is of course designed to be a MP3 player.
I use mine as a mp3 player. Either with the headset or through my car speakers (K7 adapter + 2.5->3,5 jack adapter). I use only TCMP which is generally considered as the best you can get, and no significant battery drain, nothing like having Wifi on!
Same here. I use PocketMusic and TCMP. Both work very well. The larger buttons on PocketMusic make it easier to use your fingers to play the music when on the go. I use it for hours at the beach with minimal battery drain. I havent got Voice command to work with either player though, but i havent really looked into it very much either.
I use GSPlayer. It works well for audio and I can use the navigation pad and soft buttons to do all of the play/stop/next commands.
I have used WMP with Logitech wireless BT headset when riding a bike. Not the best player but I usually set up a long good playlist and then just let it play.
Thanks for the replies... I've been a busy bee today. Did all the prep work (backups/unlocking) to upgrade the phone and loaded a 217 ROM from the ftp. I am toying with MortPlayer and TCMP and I think I like MortPlayer so far... but TCMP looks powerful. In addition to loading some other toys... and the necessary games my wife and girls like to play.
In toying with MortPlayer it seems to do exactly what I want. I'm thinking it should keep me entertained on the motorcycle. I need to find some more comfortable ear plugs though... especially since I am wearing a full face helmet.
i know this is off topic, but i remember someone once posted a today plugin for WMP. can somone repost that?
i cant seem to find it anymore, thanks!
and i too use my phone as a mp3 player, but i use WMP with playlists.
Mort player is good, but when u go underground it seems to pause when it searches for a network.
pocket player was good too, but, certain mp3s has static on it.
TCMP is also good, but i use that for movies, so i don't use it.
Related
The version of Windows Media Player in my Exec doesn't allow me to control playback unless it's the foreground application. This isn't good when I've got music playing with TomTom in the car and I want to switch tracks or pause the music. The new TomTom 5.1 forces itself to full-screen mode which means I can't quickly flick back to WMP to change the music. Pain in the Ass. :evil:
There are several solutions to this problem:
- use an alternative music player that allows me to assign persistant hot key combinations that work even if the application isn't in the foreground
- stop TomTom forcing itself to full-screen mode, like I could do in TT3 perfectly :evil:
- learn how to achieve this with the existing setup. I've tried mapping obscure key combinations in WMP but they just don't work unless WMP is in the foreground.
I really don't like this latest version of TomTom. My v3 was much more flexible In the good old days of XDA2 I could tell WMP to keep the button mappings while it was in the background too, I think.
Anybody got any suggestions?
Edit: Title of post changed to reflect the outcome of the thread, in case it's useful for someone else...
Have you tried phm keys?
V
Trying it now....
Thanks for the tip. Will report back asap.
Edit:
Nope. Doesn't work. Doesn't have any effect while TomTom is running.
Also, only allows me to map the four hardware buttons. Was hoping that I could use keys on the standard keyboard to control WMP. WMP allows me to map any key to its controls and I want these to be persistant.
Should I try TCPMP? Does that allow button mapping? Can't find any info on their website(s).
Found one solution, but it's not elegant: The Task Switcher (Alt-Tab) control of PocketPlus works in TomTom so I can use it to switch to WMP and control the music, then swap back to TT.
It's a fiddle though, and I'd still like to find a way of doing it with one button press
I think TCMP does allow persistent button maps, and pocket music I think as well. GSPlayer also, from memory. Hopefully one of those should work!
GSPlayer is free and open source, so well recommended. However, no idea how WM5 compatible these are.
I'll try to have a look into the phm keys issue, should be quite feasible, but the problem is using the keyboard to launch progs - I've not got a universal, so it's not an issue I've ever looked into (hopefully getting one soon though, to develop on).
V
Sorted! TCMP has wonderfully flexible persistent button mapping, it works perfectly, and I'm happy!
I can control my music playback with keyboard keys while TomTom is running. As well as this, TCMP allows me to boost the volume of its playback so the music volume is higher than the TT voice directions (so TT doesn't interfere with the music too much).
My final hope is that TCMP automatically pauses playback when an incoming call comes in, but I'll have to test that later.
So, I'm close to achieving the perfect set up in the car: TomTom giving me on-screen directions and TCMP giving me shuffled non-stop music. Audio output is played from the Exec headphone socket to my car's head unit except when a call comes in, when it switches automatically to my BT headset. One day I'll also play movies through TCMP so my wife doesn't get bored on long journeys!
All I need now is a powered car mount.
I think TCMP does pause playback as soon as it loses focus, eg reminders or calls. Tell us how it goes though!
V
Yeah, just tested it on the way home and TCMP worked exactly as planned. Driving along with music playing and TT nagging me, I pressed my headset button, got the voicedial prompt, spoke the number, the music paused, I had a conversation, pressed the headset button again, the call ended and I was back to The Verve and TT. All automatically
The whole thing got confused when my wife rang me, but I think that's because the Exec wasn't powerful enough to handle everything that was happening when the call came in. I suspect that TT5.1 isn't fully WM5-compatible yet and so it's much slower and more demanding than it will eventually be when TomTom eventually release an approved WM5-compliant version.
Interestingly, when I made the call the call audio was coming from both the car speakers (via the Exec audio jack) AND my BT headset, so all passengers can join in the phone conversation too.
SiliconS - what kind of gprs are you using?
V
vijay555 said:
SiliconS - what kind of gprs are you using?
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm... the regular kind? The kind that O2 set up in their settings. GSM, not UTMS, btw.
Sorry, my doh. GPS, not GPRS!
V
Ahh. All is now clear
I've got the TomTom Bluetooth one, bought in the box with the software. Works fine with the Exec and the (cracked, until TT release a genuine WM5-compatible version) 5.1 version of the software.
You can go one better here with your automation I think, if prepared to try it. I use it on my Jam but havent tried it with the JasJar yet. If you use Microsoft Voice Command it has commands for WMP. You can hit the voice prompt button and say "Start Windows Media Player" - it will start WMP if not already opened, or switch to WMP if already open. Nice thing about Voice Command is you can issue commands to WMP, such as "Play the Verve" or "Play Coldplay" or "Play X&Y" for the album - saves you having to scroll through searching for songs while driving.
BTW just hit the Voice Command button and say "Start Tomtom" and it will revert back to TomTom.
admisi said:
You can go one better here with your automation I think, if prepared to try it. I use it on my Jam but havent tried it with the JasJar yet. If you use Microsoft Voice Command it has commands for WMP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a very interesting idea. I wonder how it would work, though, if there is music playing in the background when trying to use the voice commands. I already find voice dialling through the BT headset is unreliable if I'm driving so more ambient noise would screw things up even more, I'd have thought.
Would be interested to hear others' thoughts though.
Has anyone else tried to use their xda exec/jasjar/universal in the car as a music player while using tomtom5. I've been doing this for years with various editions of the xda, using the headphone output to a cheap under dashboard amp - but am getting a bit frustrated with how my old setup doesnt seem to work as well with the xda exec(wm5) and tomtom 5.
I've found that tomtom 5 seems to "hog" all the cpu usuage, which means that whatever music player being used that is running in the background - e.g. windows media or mortplayer for example, it is impossible to have constant playback while tomtom is running onscreen, when each track ends there is a massive delay before the next track starts (sometimes never).
I have noticed though, that if a route is planned on tomtom, then the screen is pressed, then the windows button, and task switching back to the player, that the music player then goes to the next track ok, as long as it is displayed, and tomtom does seem to keep running in the background... but I'd rather see the map display than the player controls!
In the past I did find it useful to map the hardware buttons to each program, but again, it doesnt work unless the animated display on tomtom isnt running - so its damned fiddly. The old hardware buttons on the xda2s were so much easier to press without looking at them, being more tactile. But the exec generally is so much better its such a shame after upgrading my killer app setup now doesnt work seamlessly... what makes it even more of a shame is that recently I got a really cheap 4gb sd card which means there's lots of music to listen to on long journeys.
Does anyone have any suggestions to solve this priority issue? Are there any tools or tweaks that can make tomtom 5 run with less cpu priority?
Otherwise I guess I'll have to resort to buying a cheap sd based mp3 player for the car and some kind of audio mixer under the dash (groan) its so frustrating when this could be perfect if it only worked seamlessly, my old xda2s had no such problems with this setup
Regards
Derek
Tomtom 5 and Windows Media Player
I have the same problem - i have a TYTN WM5 and TOTOm 5.21 installed. I can listen to my media player and have tom tom displayed and working, however the media player stops after each track and doesnt start until i press play again. It works fine on a wired headset but not on my HTC stereo bluetooth. I use this on my motorcycle and the wired option is very distracting with the wire flying around all over the place!!! I do not think it is a cpu problem otherwise it wouldnt work on the wired headphones. I think its a bluetooth problem - anyone any ideas - maybe a registry tweak.
Gary
I tend to listen to audiobooks on Mortplayer and sometimes have Tomtom 6 running; I haven't noticed much of a problem.
grayme said:
I tend to listen to audiobooks on Mortplayer and sometimes have Tomtom 6 running; I haven't noticed much of a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you not notice that Tomtom halves the volume of other outputs?
apd said:
Do you not notice that Tomtom halves the volume of other outputs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm, nope I haven't.
Maybe because I use an FM transmitter it compensates somewhere..... ?
Any searches on audio quality return phone call quality.
What about the audio quality, judged against a stand-along mp3 player, using a good pair of headphones (e.g. Etymotic Research, Sennheiser 580's)?
(No comments about Bluetooth audio, please. The current choices aren't anywhere near the two phones listed above...)
Is the output powerful enough? Flat frequency response? Low noise?
I was hoping that, with an 8525 + 4GB microSD, I could dump my current phone AND my flash mp3 player...
What sounds good to you for a MP3 player? There is no way any phone in the market can sound as good as a standalone player.
Why not? It all depends on the choice of components. I can imagine that the analogue-to-digital convertor chip in the Hermes is better than that in many cheap and regular standalone mp3 players.
You have to test to make sure though, and then there's personal preference...
check SONY ERICSSON W800i
check SONY ERICSSON W800i
i think all mp3 players are just like the built in mp3 players on your phone. I'm using my xda trion with logitech headphones and the bass and audio is thumping man! I swear, i see no difference from my friend's ipod video, my logitech earphones give me all the bass and treble and whatever else u can think off, it's awesome! depending on the mp3 (quality etc), when i listen to really good downloaded songs, i feel like i'm hearing it live! it's a matter of earphones/headphones man! whatever ur mp3/ipod/whatever is, if they got crappy earphones/headphones, u'll get crappy sound, if u use ur hermes with good quality earphones/headphones, i swear u'll enjoy ur audio experience
Good application to use
A good application to use is pocket player by conduits. Costs a couple of bucks off handango, but with the skin of version 2.8(available on their sight) it is soooo easy to use. I can use it with out a stylus. You can't listen to more than 100 mp3s in a week. Sure you probably won't be able to store your entire library on the pda, but it is so convienient. Plus, if you have a pda/phone, you won't miss a call at the gym!
Check out conduits pocket player though... make sure to get the skin of version 2.8 or 2.0 on their website.
Short answer.. No
I have a few different sets of decent headphones (Shure e2c and e3c, and Grado's SR80's) and the phone doesn't sound anywhere near as good as my iRiver.
I use my Jasjam as my music player and I find it great. When a call comes in the music pauses and then when your done it starts no stopping you MP3 player then answering your phone all just one simple operation. I find it great!
i also picked up the 8525 after my dell jukebox's headset jack started having problems and causing undesireable amounts of static. loved that player, had it for many years, replaced HD to give it a few more gigs of space, and i have absolutely no complaints about the 8525 as an mp3 player. i use headphones all the time and i havent had any problems with it.
the phone slows down a little bit when using BT and windows media, but a lot of the time i'll use the standard headphones and it runs fine. its real nice to be able to have the music pause automatically so you can take a call
4gig isnt as much as a lot of mp3 players, ie i used to have a 20g, but as long as your a little more selective in your songs you can still virtually have an endless supply of music (ie picking the songs you really like instead of just droppin full albums into it)
Hi,
I was hoping for a little advice from someone who has the Vario III. I am on T-mobile in the Uk and I am currently thinking of getting shut of my N95 and getting one of these. I primarily want a smartphone that has good music playback facilites as well as a good web browsing phone. The N95 can play Mp3's through headphones but the quality is noticebally not as good as on my Ipod.
Is the Vario III a good music player , it seems to have a high spec in all other areas. Also do you use the built in MP3 player or is there a better third party app that can play them. What's the battery life like when just playing back music and what is currently the largest memory card it takes.
Lastly, am I right in assuming the Vario III is the same as the Kaiser? Is it just rebranding?
Thanks for any help!
The Kaiser/TyTn II/Vario III/whatever else they want to call it has pretty decent audio out.
I personally use a stereo bluetooth headset for listening to music which is damn near perfect.
The hands free kit that comes with it has... well... what you expect from a hands free kit - fairly bad audio reproduction.
I haven't tried many of the audio adapters found in this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=332164 thread but I'm thinking of buying one of them for when I connect it up to an external source.
Hope this helps..
I find the audio on the Kaiser to be excellent - a definate improvement over my old Blue Angel.
For example, when I have TomTom going as well as music, the voice directions mix in perfectly with the music - no crackles, no distortion etc. In fact, at times we miss the directions cause they mix in so well we think it is part of the song
I use Pocket Player as it plays WMA and has a much better interface than windows media player - all the functions can be controlled by keys, plus you do not need to make playlists, it will auto scan the tags and build a database from that.
I don't know if this is the right section but.............
I have a bluetooth earpiece paired with my device (elfin) wich works great for calls but i would also hear music with it but can only get it to work with a stereo one. Is there any way to get music through my "mono" bt headset???
It is impossible for me to use a stereo headset so i would like some help from you all.......
Thanks
Well it seems that i'm the only one having this problem since 30 of you have seen this post but untill now no answers............. i'll wait a bit more
becosemsaida said:
Well it seems that i'm the only one having this problem since 30 of you have seen this post but untill now no answers............. i'll wait a bit more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well you can use music over bt software.. do a googling nd u can find the same....
Thanks, found something will try it out
alright
The way I solved the same problem was by installing Conduits Pocket Player. I installed to my card, just to save space, but can be installed to the device, not too hungry memory-wise. It is actually a very nice player overall with finger scrolling and full selection and browsing features. I use it instead of WMP and wish someone would integrate it into a ROM and remove the blasted WMP altogether. It has an option of sending your music to your bluetooth mono headset. In fact, I installed it on all of my WM devices for that very purpose.
But the question I have is whether someone knows of Java software that will send music to a mono bluetooth set on my LG Prada. Or... a working java mp3 player with the same function. Anyone?
works great, best solution so far thank you very much
Glad to be of assistance