Equalizer app for Windows Phone (Lumia 520) - Windows Phone 8 Development and Hacking

Hey guys,
I have a Lumia 520, and I feel really frustrated about the lack of an equalizer. Nokia says that it's a hardware problem, and I am really skeptical about that. I am pretty sure a couple of software tweaks would allow for there to be an equalizer. I hope to essentially code a music player that comes with an equalizer, and would like to know if that is a possible endeavor (im not pinning much hopes on it)
I know that a system wide implementation of an equalizer is not possible with the current set of APIs microsoft provides, and thus, am only creating a music player with an in-built equalizer.
Any help or comments about this would be appreciated!
I will probably start coding and stuff after my exams lol. (november, probably)
Also, for those music lovers out there who hate the lack of an equalizer, fret not, you can buy an external amplifier that boosts bass or whatever you want. Just google it There are brands like Fiio and stuff that will probably help you out.
Thanks!
p.s. I know a little of C++. Other than that, I have no experience, so...... this is kind of like a project for me haha.

You may start by reading Charles Petzold article on MSDN and native audio APIs for Windows Phone 8 overview.
However you still should decompress mp3 files to uncompressed PCM to be able to modify frequency domains (or do something useful).

Related

WM2003PE and MIDI/polyphonic ringtone

This topic seems to get little attention here in the forum and im sure alot of people are interest in it. 8)
As posted here before, WM2003PE support MIDI and polyphonic ringtone, a very cool feature
This is interesting because as far as i know, the XDA's sound hardware is a simple 44,100/16bit DAC. not like the PC souncards which has a chip for FM tone generator or wavetable DSP.
In order for the XDA to play MIDI, there has to be some software part which does that.
There are 2 types of software that can do that. the first one is based on a set of audio samples which are stored in memory and mixed in a different pitch to make music, this method makes a good quality music and uses a relatively low CPU time. but it need alot of memory to store the samples.
And as we know, memory is a precious resource in our PPC, so this method is likely not to be used.
the second method is to produce the music using a software FM synthisizer. this means creating sound waves using mathematical procedure and doesn't need extra memory but uses alot of CPU and music quality is low.
if anyone of you gurus has toyed with this cool feature of WM2003 and can light up the subject, e.g what method is used and how does it sound, what is the size (if there is any) of the sample file.
just a though ... 8)
SoniC

Windows Media Player who's using it reliably?

Hi there,
Is anyone using Windows Media Player to play music on their SD card ?
At first glance Windows Media Player seems great being able to sync with your playlists and have Album covers displayed on the player similar to an ipod. A2DP works and you can control music with AVRCP ..but.. It seems to be the most unreliable piece of software out there. From personal experience syncing seems to hang after 4-5 songs unless you tap the device screen. The song library on the SD card suddely disappears and you have to delete the MSMETDATA directory and the WMDRM directory on the card to be able to get WM player to find the files and add it back to the library.
So what other Players are people using instead?
Hmm, this may not be helpful to you, but I use WMP with no problems, BUT, I manually transfer my music to my SD card. I know there are other players out there that most people here like better than WMP, but for my purposes and what I do (listen to music on my SD card but no synching ever required, and also stream music/video from my home pc to my Tytn) WMP works more than fine for me. Even though the other players are hands-down more rich in features, I'd rather not use up precious storage space when WMP works great for me.
Sorry if that doesn't help, I know your question seemed to be more geared toward synching music. If you're synching DRM'ed music files, good luck, sometimes nothing can be more of a pain in the a**!
By the way, I'm assuming you're talking about version 10 of WMP as far as what you have on your desktop? Microsoft just announced today that WMP 11 is out of beta and is full release version now. It specifically talks about addressing issues with synching to Pocket PC in the description of the updates that have happened since it's first beta. Give it a shot.
Everyone complains about WMP on PPC or SP; but I love it. It does everything I need, sure it uses a lot of ram, but if I'm just listening to music, do I need it to do anything thing else?
All my music is mp4a. WMP won't stream mp4a out an A2DP connection.
I refuse to buy music from iTunes, so I don't have that problem
Yeah, but mine's got album art that gets displayed by CorePlayer
Does CorePlayer support AVRCP?
I use PocketPlayer to listen to music from the SD card without problem, although the interface can be a little 'laggy'. It plays gapless .ogg vorbis files so that is a major boon. I've tried PocketMusic which claims to have gapless but doesn't work correctly. WM10 is just too much of a pain in the ass when trying to load music, and has no EQ etc.
I do use WM10 for watching movies though (until Coreplayer gets divx/xvid support for the TyTN that is!). I have been playing mp4 films with some degree of success, however if I pause the film at any time the Audio disappears. I need to restart WM10 to get it working again. Very annoying!
My T-Mobile VARIO II together with Windows Media 11 and HP Bluetooth Stereo Headset (well I know there are better ones)
A Golden combination.
Stereo music easy sync and the best the Album art is also included when you sync via the Windows Media. Also I am using the Windows Media today plugin which was published somewhere here in the Hermes forum (it comes from the iMATE ROM) Perfect!!!!!!!!
The Windows Media Player eats up a lot of memory but I do not complain, even with other things running I seldom see my device having less than 17 MB of program memory .
A2DP and AVRCP work a treat without any tweaks.
For me Microsoft Rules!
And in regards to Apple, well I find it ancient that you have to convert files to different format if you want to use the songs on more devices. I mean guys if I rip my CD into iTunes then this is it only the iPOD can use it.
Anyhow when Zune is there then I am afraid Apple can kiss their arses goodbuy in regards to jhaving the majority of the market in hands.
P.S. BTW I also use my QTEK 8500 in the same setting and that is even more sweet then VARIO II because you can see everything without opening the device.
Sleuth,
WMP displays album art for all of my mp3's and wma's as well.
Churchill,
As much as I'd love to agree with you and see the Ipod get taken down by the Zune, I think it will be a cold day down south before that ever happens. Tech analysts the world around are predicting the Zune to be the biggest failure of Microsoft's ventures, ever. I hope I'm wrong, but as much as I hate the proprietary nature of Apple's music platform, the sheer style of the Ipod, IMHO, cannot be beat. And the new full touchscreen Ipod that is coming out will just re-solidify that.
Anyway, sorry to hijack... this thread is about Windows Media Player
stpete111!
I totally agree with you about the styling of the ipods, but as they say "looks might be deceiving" I mean Of course looks are important but if because of it I have to have less functionality or incovenience, man I would walk around with a brick around my neck
I agree totally. I'll just bet though that very few of the people that the Ipod has reeled in since 2001 will be pulled away from it by the Zune.
You should have had another choice for "don't use PPC for media" or something to that effect... I still say GET AN IPOD!!!!
I really think I'm the only one who absolutely hates everything that is Apple...
stpete111 said:
Sleuth,
WMP displays album art for all of my mp3's and wma's as well.
Churchill,
As much as I'd love to agree with you and see the Ipod get taken down by the Zune, I think it will be a cold day down south before that ever happens. Tech analysts the world around are predicting the Zune to be the biggest failure of Microsoft's ventures, ever. I hope I'm wrong, but as much as I hate the proprietary nature of Apple's music platform, the sheer style of the Ipod, IMHO, cannot be beat. And the new full touchscreen Ipod that is coming out will just re-solidify that.
Anyway, sorry to hijack... this thread is about Windows Media Player
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I owned an ipod briefly and was so disappointed with the sound quality I took it back to the shop for a refund. I did some research and settled on iRiver in the end. Far better sound quality and styling than the ipod IMO.
I also personally don't think Zune will be a failure... People said xbox would be a failure, and to some degree it was (I read in the press they lost millions on it) but as that's just pocket change to Micro$oft they just come back again with something bigger and better, e.g. the xbox 360. And boy what a device that is. If the Zune loses money they'll just go back to the drawing board and make it better until it becomes a success. That's the great thing about having a bottomless pit of money.
I actually think the Zune sounds like a great device so far anyway - and with the Wifi option to share music with other people, how can they go wrong? Assuming they don't DRM sharing music files somehow. If they do some clever bugger will just create some custom firmware for it anyway... guess we'll have to wait and see!
darkjedi said:
I really think I'm the only one who absolutely hates everything that is Apple...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're probably right!
Until iTunes runs on PPC (which I don't see happening anytime soon), there is no way I'd give up my iPod -- it simply sounds better and it's easier to use... imagine that!
Darkjedi - you are NOT the only one who hates everything that is Apple. I'm not saying that I hate everything Apple... I used to, then I saw the 24" Intel Core Duo Imac in CompUSA and almost sh** myself. Wow, what a friggin piece of equipment. And don't even get me going on their G5's and rumored Octocore sets coming out. BUT, I know a good number of people that DO hate everything Apple. Anyway, I just hate DRM and proprietary platforms, and while Microsoft bows to the RIAA with DRM just like Apple does, Apple's platform is much more restrictive, in my opinion.
Goesto11 - I definitely cannot argue with the fact that Itunes is about the easiest and best organized app to use for digital media, and, I had an Ipod Shuffle for a few months and I couldn't believe the sound quality coming from that thing. They definitely have that down.
goonerz - just so you know, there will be DRM imposed on the Wi-Fi sharing with the Zune. Once you share a song with someone, they can only listen to it 3 times, then they are given the choice to purchase the track (or more like the DRM key) or it gets deleted. I agree with you totally though, it likely won't be long until that's cracked. I of course would never condone stealing in any shape or form And trust me, if the Zune isn't a failure, I'll be the first to gladly eat my words. I truly hope that it is not.
Sorry, I know this thread has taken a left turn (or a hijack if you will) but I don't care... I love talking about this stuff
I love the look, design, and feel of the Zune, right down to the UI, but DRM is going to CRIPPLE the Zune, and people aren't going to like it at all.

[Q] Music on Android

I really want to buy an Android device ( d: ) , but I'm not sure if there is that big of variate of mods and programs to make listening to music easier on Android.
I am used to an iPod Touch (jailbroken) with music controls over the volume rocker (I've read CyanogenMod has that !) and a real fast/easy way to listen to music.
After researching on the net, I have found some really nice programs like PowerAMP, but since I don't own an Android device, i can't really tell how good everything works and what else there is.
Of course I'd read myself into how to root and so on, and I'd do anything to make my next phone a good music player !
So what do you think are really important mods/programs for making music on Android easier and better ?
In my opinion, PowerAMP is the best music player for Android. You modify everything on the equalizer. Of course you've got presets (this way is easier for my). The biggest problem with the application is its price !! you've got a free trial period, but after, you've got to pay...
the default music player on Android gets the job done it just doesnt look good. Id advise just buying a Zune HD or and iPod Touch for your music
Well I have an iPod Touch, but i HATE carrying both an iPod and a phone (a brick right now )
Would it be possible to get the volume-rocker control for music to work with PowerAMP (<-- i dont care if it costs a little. As I've said, I'd do almost anything ) ??
Music controls do work with the volume rocker, track up and down, with PowerAMP. I'm sure CyanogenMod has an impact on that feature though. I think the mod is the fact that the command for blue tooth track next is mapped to the long press volume function, same with the lockscreen controls.
So you are saying that skipping (short hold of up/down) and pausing (power button ?) songs works on PowerAMP "out-of-the-box" (without root ?) ?
And also if I'd like to put CM on my device, it's possible that the functions would interfere ?
No, like I said, not stock. I use trackball wake so I can't comment on that.
so what would i have to do to get the functions like that to work with PowerAMP ?
Root and install CM6x
I use Lithium Player and I love it. It has a unique UI and can fetch album art as well. The player allows you to make playlists and customize the color of the UI. The player also finds playlists from other music apps on the phone, so that you don't have to keep remaking playlists. If you have any problems or concerns, just email the dev and he will reply back in a timely manner. Me and the dev are actually working on something big right now, and if you want to help, please visit my site at futurinnovations.blogspot.com.
Youll have A TON of options. Different players with different feature sets etc.
Trackball/vole skip etc are all available. Dont be afraid to root. Most of the time your device will have a simple one or few step solution.
If youre on here then you are already part of a tremendous community and have a stack of info and help at your fingertips.
With PowrAmp options , the interface , the widgets , lock screen controls etc and most of all the custom EQ make it a much better music experience than an Iphone/Ipod.
DoubleTwist makes Itunes syncing easy if its a MUST.
Winamp features wireless syncing.
Again really a no brainer. Music/sound quality will vary from device to device.
If you just want the best sound neither Android/Apple offer that. Perhaps theres an Android device that does have some great sound hardware but all in all smaller portable players with better sound chips will be a better choice in audiophile terms.
Good headphones + Poweramp are the next best thing. Plus you get the best damn communication OS/devices available off a desktop so go for it.
Mortplayer
One really good FREE Solution to all the features i read about PowerAMP is
MortPlayer... (DL widgets separately).
- lockscreen widget, playing from folders, playlists, volume controls etc.
d.ward said:
In my opinion, PowerAMP is the best music player for Android. You modify everything on the equalizer. Of course you've got presets (this way is easier for my). The biggest problem with the application is its price !! you've got a free trial period, but after, you've got to pay...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you have a problem with price are you a broke ass?

[Q] Get Adapt Sound To Work Globally?

Adapt Sound for any of you guys that didn't know makes the sound quality 20 times better. I listened to a song in the Samsung music app and then listened to the same song at the same volume in Winamp and it sounded terrible.
I'm trying to find a way to make adapt sound global, because I absolutely hate the Samsung music app. I'd much rather use Winamp or Poweramp because of all the extra features.
It'd be AWESOME if someone figured out a way to make adapt sound global and put it into a custom ROM, or even made a MOD out of it.
Edit: If you don't believe me test it out for yourself. Go to Settings>My Device>Sound>Adapt Sound, once you get there do the little hearing test, and then play a song in the samsung music app.
gharb0129 said:
Adapt Sound for any of you guys that didn't know makes the sound quality 20 times better. I listened to a song in the Samsung music app and then listened to the same song at the same volume in Winamp and it sounded terrible.
I'm trying to find a way to make adapt sound global, because I absolutely hate the Samsung music app. I'd much rather use Winamp or Poweramp because of all the extra features.
It'd be AWESOME if someone figured out a way to make adapt sound global and put it into a custom ROM, or even made a MOD out of it.
Edit: If you don't believe me test it out for yourself. Go to Settings>My Device>Sound>Adapt Sound, once you get there do the little hearing test, and then play a song in the samsung music app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW!
Was using Neutron thinking it gives the best possible sound.. Until now!
It's unbelievable the difference!
Adapt sound and Neutron would be a killer combination!
+1 here!
+1
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandroidapps.equalizer
Does equalizer app work universally for you? Granted with some eq adjustments, it seems to lower the output level, but I'm still curious if it fixes your issue. Yes, you will have to disable or freeze the built in eq app in touchwiz, for it to work properly.
I might have stumbled on a clue towards applying Adapt Sound globally or with different music apps.. I was fiddling around with it the other day, and then I was testing the Samsung music app and Google Play Music. Of course, music played through Play Music did not enable the Adapt Sound.
However, when I was listening to a song in Play Music, I thought I'd open the Samsung music app to try to run a comparison, and as soon as I opened it, it applied the Adapt Sound to the music that was playing through Play Music! It seems that when the Samsung music app opens, it enables the Adapt Sound regardless if it's actually playing anything or not, and simply keeping it open in a second window (I'm on a Galaxy Note 3) kept the Adapt Sound enabled! As soon as I closed the Samsung music app, the Adapt Sound was disabled and the sound reverted to the default. Perhaps this may give a clue on how Adapt Sound is applied through the Samsung music app, and perhaps make it possible to make a widget with a button that can enable or disable the Adapt Sound feature.
Lars
Any news on this? Maybe a similar app that does the same thing and works on all apps, or a root method to apply Samsung's feature globally?
I hope this is not too late :0
There's only one complicated way to use adapt sound globally... I'll try to explain as good as I can.
You WILL need a rooted phone to make this work.
There's an equalizer app called ViPER4Android, which doesn't only have kick-ass features, but also has a built in "convolver"
So what's a convolver? Basically it lets you simulate effects on audio. It works by having an audio clip, and and another one which has effects on it (in our case adapt sound) and comparing them together to see what changes occurred
You basically take a sine sweep (an audio clip that goes from low frequency to high), and record it paying on your device with adapt sound on (connect your phone to your microphone port by a 3.5mm cable)
Then you import these two clips to an app that can generate convolver presets (Aka impulse response samples)
The result you get is a .Wav file that you put on your phone and select as your convolver presets. And that's it!
What's even more kick-ass is that Viper4android works on neutron. So you're basically combining them three together. You can even think how this sounds.
Hope you found this helpful!
theormex said:
I hope this is not too late :0
There's only one complicated way to use adapt sound globally... I'll try to explain as good as I can.
You WILL need a rooted phone to make this work.
There's an equalizer app called ViPER4Android, which doesn't only have kick-ass features, but also has a built in "convolver"
So what's a convolver? Basically it lets you simulate effects on audio. It works by having an audio clip, and and another one which has effects on it (in our case adapt sound) and comparing them together to see what changes occurred
You basically take a sine sweep (an audio clip that goes from low frequency to high), and record it paying on your device with adapt sound on (connect your phone to your microphone port by a 3.5mm cable)
Then you import these two clips to an app that can generate convolver presets (Aka impulse response samples)
The result you get is a .Wav file that you put on your phone and select as your convolver presets. And that's it!
What's even more kick-ass is that Viper4android works on neutron. So you're basically combining them three together. You can even think how this sounds.
Hope you found this helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking for way so replicate the benefits of Adapt Sound (as it works on the Note 7) on my Nexus 6P. The key to adapt sound is the way it creates a profile based on my subjective input (testing my hearing with a given set of headphones; this varies per headphones even). The rest of the eq's and fx processors out there are gimmick to me becaues they are TOTALLY subjective and/or just fluff. You hit the nail on the head with your post; a convolver that is based on the profile created by Adapt Sound. Can you explain more how you have acted on that idea? Ideally (and I might have to try this with Pro Tools), I'd run a sweep on the Note 7 with my profile, record out out the headphone jack, then compare to the sweet and I'd get a diff I could feed to a convolver. If I understand you right, I would do just that, then Viper4Android (which I don't know much about) could apply that andn give me the same effect on my Nexus 6P?
Same idea... I think it can be do next simple way- there is several apps like audiologia.pl that is can make yours audio metrics to left and right channels. All we need to do next it's manualy change eq. setting in V4A or else to normalize sound... BUT there is NO 2 way (two channels L/R) or two different equalizers to left and right channels. Maybe someone can give me information why it is so? Mayby it's hardware impossible?
Adapt sound is a killer feature of samsung phones. I miss it in any non samsung phone I have.
I believe there is a simple way to port it but I never dug the problem.
It's weird that nobody did it until now.
+1

Idea for a best WP app ever

Hi guys ;D
Sooo, I do not post very often, lol, I do not post at all due to constant lack of time, you know, daily job, family and stuff, anyways, here is the thing and I need your professional advice.
I've got a brilliant idea to make an app for a Windows Phone 8, basically, there is no application which syncs music using wireless, right? Yeah, so that will be an app like that, you know, easy sync, you can view music library from the phone, one click to transfer you songs to a phone, browse playlists, made by different music players, syncs them as well (I am aware of that there is no way to actually sync playlist object though).
Now, what I'm concerned about, is that a good idea for an app? Or maybe that's a stupid idea and no single person on planet earth will ever use it?
I am not really sure, because I do not want to invest a huge amount of a time to find out that. Can you help with making a right decision and give some advice maybe?
Thanks
I believe XBox music does this. Install it on your computer and it will scan your files and add them to your 'collection'. Which, in essence is your cloud collection. You can then retrieve anything you download through your xbox music pass on your phone / pc that is in your collection.
sukanaher said:
Hi guys ;D
Sooo, I do not post very often, lol, I do not post at all due to constant lack of time, you know, daily job, family and stuff, anyways, here is the thing and I need your professional advice.
I've got a brilliant idea to make an app for a Windows Phone 8, basically, there is no application which syncs music using wireless, right? Yeah, so that will be an app like that, you know, easy sync, you can view music library from the phone, one click to transfer you songs to a phone, browse playlists, made by different music players, syncs them as well (I am aware of that there is no way to actually sync playlist object though).
Now, what I'm concerned about, is that a good idea for an app? Or maybe that's a stupid idea and no single person on planet earth will ever use it?
I am not really sure, because I do not want to invest a huge amount of a time to find out that. Can you help with making a right decision and give some advice maybe?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My app already does that. Sort of.
@Plazma1
I was basically thinking about completely offline software, - all this cloud stuff does not appeal to me. I am the guy who prefers to have my stuff 100% private, you know So do a lot of people I think
@mcosmin222
Can you post a link to your app or is it in your signature?
sukanaher said:
@Plazma1
I was basically thinking about completely offline software, - all this cloud stuff does not appeal to me. I am the guy who prefers to have my stuff 100% private, you know So do a lot of people I think
@mcosmin222
Can you post a link to your app or is it in your signature?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signature.
@mcosmin222
Yeah, I've seen your app some long time ago, when it was pretty much "young"
But your solution differs quite a lot But I was just curious - are you using default WP8 music player mechanisms? Or maybe xaudio2 for example? With last, you can do more stuff - equalizer, lets say, nice controls for audio playing - you know, track bars and stuff. The only drawback is that you really do not have any access to WP audio library and that limitation sucks big time
I was thinking about such player but that is just too much hassle with storing music in isolated storage
sukanaher said:
@mcosmin222
Yeah, I've seen your app some long time ago, when it was pretty much "young"
But your solution differs quite a lot But I was just curious - are you using default WP8 music player mechanisms? Or maybe xaudio2 for example? With last, you can do more stuff - equalizer, lets say, nice controls for audio playing - you know, track bars and stuff. The only drawback is that you really do not have any access to WP audio library and that limitation sucks big time
I was thinking about such player but that is just too much hassle with storing music in isolated storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default the app uses the built-in player but you can switch modes to make it use a different player with more features. Go to Help+Settings, last tab.
I found ways of getting music in isostore faster for the user, one of them involves downloading from skydrive, the other involves direct file transfers between the phone and a desktop companion.
For WP7, what you propose is pretty difficult. But I can do this on Windows 8 + Windows Phone 8 app (I am building a companion app which runs on Metro). Once I can get myself a windows phone 8, this will get sped up considerably
I'm not sure third party apps can change things in the music library. Still, even if it would require its own player, I say go for it, because the native WP8 player makes me sad.
SilverHedgehog said:
I'm not sure third party apps can change things in the music library. Still, even if it would require its own player, I say go for it, because the native WP8 player makes me sad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app is almost ready for public release. I am just waitting to finish the 8.1 version and make them both public at the same time.
You can download the phone version from the link in my signature.
@mcosmin222
Yes, I was talking about WP8, - I didn't realize that your app is for WP7 actually ;P Dunno how things looks like on WP7 regarding xaudio2, on WP8 you got C++ support for it, and I have tested playing some random music with it and in fact, it works. Equalizer works - not the best EQ I've seen in my life but its something.
@SilverHedgehog
Nope, there is no write access to the music library on WP8 device, you can only read songs names and that's it. Not a big deal. But anyways, with a custom player there are following issues:
1. Player has to have its own music library within app isolated storage, so now you have 2 places where you have your music stored and that is inconvenient.
2. Player must be put in a background, and yet there are no "legal" ways to use proper multitasking. And even if we put this app in a background as geolocation app (so it need to use GPS time to time as well), - there will be no integration with a system itself - so no quick controls and stuff.
I was talking about completely custom 3rd party audio player, without any single standard mechanism used.
sukanaher said:
@mcosmin222
Yes, I was talking about WP8, - I didn't realize that your app is for WP7 actually ;P Dunno how things looks like on WP7 regarding xaudio2, on WP8 you got C++ support for it, and I have tested playing some random music with it and in fact, it works. Equalizer works - not the best EQ I've seen in my life but its something.
@SilverHedgehog
Nope, there is no write access to the music library on WP8 device, you can only read songs names and that's it. Not a big deal. But anyways, with a custom player there are following issues:
1. Player has to have its own music library within app isolated storage, so now you have 2 places where you have your music stored and that is inconvenient.
2. Player must be put in a background, and yet there are no "legal" ways to use proper multitasking. And even if we put this app in a background as geolocation app (so it need to use GPS time to time as well), - there will be no integration with a system itself - so no quick controls and stuff.
I was talking about completely custom 3rd party audio player, without any single standard mechanism used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
C++ for WP8 only works for native games. You can not build a player app that will run in the background using C++. So your library is useless, unfortunately.
My app fully supports WP8 as well.
As I said, there are ways to legal ways to go around the problems you just mentioned, and my player does that already. But you can not use C++ to do it. My decoders are written in pure C#.
You can not avoid "standard" mechanisms when working on an operating system. Even if you wrote all with ANSI C++, you would still depend on the system.
if you want, we could collaborate and use your library for winRT.
@mcosmin222: You can create native "component" (a C++/CX DLL) which is usable by non-game apps just fine. It *should* even work with background agents (there's no technical reason it wouldn't; is there a policy against it?) so I don't think that would be a problem. Marshaling data across the ABI does impose a small performance penalty but it shouldn't be significant for audio data.
Yes, that is what I was saying, C++ component, which implement all audio functionality using xaudio2, it completely manages all buffers and offsets and just plays audio All the rest is C# code, which calls component in a separate thread - there is no such requirement when calling xaudio2 engine from games, but from regular app it has to be in a separate thread. I am not really sure right now because I was doing this research almost a year ago, just when got my ATIV S; from what I can recall, C# CG impacts in some way audio buffers processing by the system, basically that is what GoodDayToDie said. So this rest of the code is also responsible for working in a background by implementing pseudo geolocation functionality. And thats it! We got a background app which plays music
I've done this - I know it works
But, there is always some but, there is always something that just not play nice.
1. Music must be stored in app iso storage.
2. No integration with quick controls for music playback
3. Additional desktop app, that will transfer music to WP8 app iso storage
I really don't think that a regular users will ever go after such solution, which requires additional app to be installed. Another thing is that is requires user to learn new way of playing his/her music, - such app will never succeed. By success I mean attraction of at least half of a million users.
@mcosmin222
I am not saying that your solution will never succeed, if you are using standard methods and do not require user to change his/her habits - there is a good chance
GoodDayToDie said:
@mcosmin222: You can create native "component" (a C++/CX DLL) which is usable by non-game apps just fine. It *should* even work with background agents (there's no technical reason it wouldn't; is there a policy against it?) so I don't think that would be a problem. Marshaling data across the ABI does impose a small performance penalty but it shouldn't be significant for audio data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh well...it is worth the try...
But I don't think it will work(just a guts feeling xD).
But I expect some stupid policy to stop it, especially those related to p/invoke.
EDIT: Hmm...this might actually work. I tried adding a reference to a C++ runtime lib project from a C# background audio agent and surprise surprise, it worked.
I stand corrected then
not sure how this all relates to dll's written using ANSI C++ though.
I do not believe the marshaling overhead would be too great. It probably would be small enough to work even with apps requiring better performance.
@sukanaher,
Do you have the component already ported to WP8? If so, can you share it please? It would speed things up considerably.
@mcosmin222
I haven't understood correctly - you were talking about using background agents, I was talking about multitasking by imitating geolocation tracking app, - well, I am not sure if this will work with background agents due to the fact, from what I remember, there are 2 types of background agents on WP8 - I got no idea how things look like on WP7. So, there is a local music playing agent and music streaming agent - in both cases you do not have access to a raw audio data, to raw bytes, you just specify network source or local source and thats it.
If you are planning to use xaudio2 and all its benefits - you will need to extract audio PCM data from file and audio stream as well, so you will need your algorithms working with a raw bytes (an actual file) - it is not possible in case of background agents on WP8 - they just load your file or stream and thats it - you cannot access its data.
For proper music player, you will have to implement everything from scratch, no background agents, proper, android like multitasking, access to a music library, access to a system, system integration, basically you need everything that is not available on Windows Phone 8 and from what I observe will not be available in 9 - MS just holds this functionality for them selfs, thats it, we are limited to the minimum.- that is why I am thinking more about dumping my WP device.
Yeah, I have an xaudio2 wrapper lib written a year ago somewhere on my PC - it is a mess, it depends on my other libs and it is just a static linking lib, it is not a component. If I would ever share this, I will have to prepare a proper static library or component, but at this moment, besides daily job, I'm involved into other projects.
sukanaher said:
@mcosmin222
I haven't understood correctly - you were talking about using background agents, I was talking about multitasking by imitating geolocation tracking app, - well, I am not sure if this will work with background agents due to the fact, from what I remember, there are 2 types of background agents on WP8 - I got no idea how things look like on WP7. So, there is a local music playing agent and music streaming agent - in both cases you do not have access to a raw audio data, to raw bytes, you just specify network source or local source and thats it.
If you are planning to use xaudio2 and all its benefits - you will need to extract audio PCM data from file and audio stream as well, so you will need your algorithms working with a raw bytes (an actual file) - it is not possible in case of background agents on WP8 - they just load your file or stream and thats it - you cannot access its data.
For proper music player, you will have to implement everything from scratch, no background agents, proper, android like multitasking, access to a music library, access to a system, system integration, basically you need everything that is not available on Windows Phone 8 and from what I observe will not be available in 9 - MS just holds this functionality for them selfs, thats it, we are limited to the minimum.- that is why I am thinking more about dumping my WP device.
Yeah, I have an xaudio2 wrapper lib written a year ago somewhere on my PC - it is a mess, it depends on my other libs and it is just a static linking lib, it is not a component. If I would ever share this, I will have to prepare a proper static library or component, but at this moment, besides daily job, I'm involved into other projects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, long story short:
Yes, you can access the stream of raw bytes from local storage. You may or may not do the same with online sources.
No, MS does not use a different kind of multitasking system. The difference is the MS player can actually access to user library.
Maybe, we can implement an equalizer filter which can be applied before the raw bytes get to the player. This can be done with C# too, so it is not required to use C++ at all (the difference in performance is minimal anyway) However, in order to do such a thing, one must implement media stream sources for the file formats which usually do not require streaming (like mp3, mp4, wav etc), so we can have access to the raw bytes sent to the player. This is very time consuming, and the reward isn't really all that big. Sure, if you have codecs in CX that are usable in WP apps, we can do this...
The only thing MS does to impair a proper music player is access to the user library.
double post failure
Anyways, we have strayed off topic a little bit, but from what I can see - there is no interest in such application, that will sync music to PC using wireless

Categories

Resources