[REQ] Good podcast/audiobook player? - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

Most everything is geared towards music. I don't tend to listen to music, I like listening to my podcasts and audio magazines.
Currently I'm using RSS Hub with TCPMP which allows me to jump forward/back 10 seconds if I missed what they said or need to skip forward thru commercials. It works ok, but not great.
I'd really like to find software that stops when I get a call and restarts when the call is completed, has bigger on screen buttons, has the ability to automatically add the newer podcasts to a playlist (might be dreaming...). If I could control it with a Jabra 8010 BT headset that'd be even better!
Any suggestions? I tried MortPlayer but had some issues with it glitching, also that it went full screen - I need to see signal strength, other running programs, battery power, etc...

I'm not sure these would meet all of your specs
but I've used Pocket Player for podcasts with good results, I remember it would pause playback for a call. I like Kinoma for audiobooks, as it remembers where you left off in the file. For a free audio podcast app, you could try the new version of Viigo, it seemed much improved from the last time I had used it.
Good Luck

MortPlayer works great for audiobooks and podcasts.

PocketPlayer. Pauses on calls and has a bookmarking facility. I use it for Audiobooks and podcasts using AllwaySync to sync the podcasts from iTunes on my network to the external card on my Touch HD
Regards

Pocket Tunes can automatically save where you were when you exit the app. It also does manual bookmarking. My only complaint is that it often reverted to the last auto bookmark when there was "activity" like a phone call or text message.
Pocket Player also does manual bookmarking.
I've used those two, and I like the Pocket Tunes interface better.

PocketPlayer doesn't appear to be able to download podcasts automatically as they're available, nor on demand - only when you select the podcast to play it (unless I'm missing something). I have HSDPA at home, but not typically while I'm driving...
Pocket Tunes has a nifty feature that allows for automatic delete of a podcast once listened to, but I can't find any other information about it. It also doesn't appear to be able to skip forward or back 10 seconds instead of next/previous track.
Any comments?

I currently use Mortplayer. You can choose a skin which leaves the topbar uncovered. You can even have a skin which superimposes a narrow bar on whatever screen is underneath. Bookmarks work reliably and fast on audiobooks and podcasts. I use AEButton to map the down volume to play/pause (MPpause.lnk - included with Mortplayer) which works even with the screen off. Pause/Resume on phone calls works well. It cannot download podcasts. I use RSShub or MediaMonkey (on the desktop) for this.
Kinoma has a great interface (with it's own topbar, it is full screen) and bookmarks. The free version can stream podcasts, the paid version can also download them. It can also download and play audible.com content, and lots of other sources. Well worth checking out. I found the book marks less robust than Mortplayer, if you didn't exit the player properly it lost them. Also to exit you had to click back about 6 screens to get to the home screen.
Both seem to use a lot of CPU cycles and hence battery. I would like to use TCPMP which seems to use less but can't find a resume/bookmark addon for it. There is an addon for WMP on this forum (search "WMP resume") but it didn't work for me on a Touch HD.
Hope this helps.

Related

AOL Music Subscription Works on Hermes!

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I've been wanting to get a subscription service that will stream to mobile devices (I mainly use Rhapsody on my pc, and it too will NOT work with mobile devices even though you have the option to use it through a browser-based interface) so I read your post and signed up for the 30 days trial, and sure enough it works over 3G as well.
The only problem I have is when I go to the main page through PIE on my Tytn, it automatically goes to a mobile version of the site, and I can only select certain artists that have been pre-selected based on my genre settings. There is a search line at the top where you can enter artist or album, but there is no Enter or Go button, and pressing Enter on the keyboard does nothing. In other words, I can't navigate to any specific artist, I can only listen to the pre-selected ones. Do you know how to get that search bar to work? If I go to the page on my desktop pc, the interface is totally different and getting to a specific artist is no problem.
I'm not sure what to tell you on the WMP thing... I have no issues with WMP thus far...
Neither of you have tried orb? I can't say enough about it...all of your mp3's on your PC at home are available to you on your phone 24/7. The only drawback is getting the mp3's and always leaving your PC on. It works the same way- you choose your song and it streams to WMP. This will also work for Videos and TV (with the proper setup, slinbox is far better though).
I haven't had any problems with this using wmp.
Patman,
Yes I do have Orb and use it quite a bit, and I do love it!! I stream my music and my recorded TV from my media center pc at home. BUT, the reason I wanted a subscription-based service on my phone is because you can stream any song, any artist any time. I own about 6,000 mp3's that are on my harddrive on my pc at home that I can stream on Orb, but with a subscription-based music service like AOL or Rhapsody, I have the choice of about 2.5 million songs, on-demand, at my fingertips.
stpete111 said:
Patman,
Yes I do have Orb and use it quite a bit, and I do love it!! I stream my music and my recorded TV from my media center pc at home. BUT, the reason I wanted a subscription-based service on my phone is because you can stream any song, any artist any time. I own about 6,000 mp3's that are on my harddrive on my pc at home that I can stream on Orb, but with a subscription-based music service like AOL or Rhapsody, I have the choice of about 2.5 million songs, on-demand, at my fingertips.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I figured there was a reason.
Does it cost anything per song, or is it a time-based ($xx.00/month) service?
I'm glad others are interested. Subscription music means you pay a flat fee per month (usually around $10) and you can listen to any artist, any album, any song in their entire library whenever and (hopefully soon) wherever you want. It's the holy grail IMO as far as portable music. Especially when you don't want an iPod/MP3 Player, but rather a convergence device like this. The problem is that the flash memory is very slow, and very space limited. Streaming music from a subscription service is the way to go. Orb is a great idea, but you still have to download the songs first. Me personally, I'm fed up with downloading organizing and managing music files. It's just become tedious. I'd rather have a jukebox available at all times with every artist in existence. In other words, I'm sick of collecting music. The new technology has made me look past that.
As I mentioned, AOL Music Now is the only web based service, thus the only one that can work on Windows Mobile (Rhapsody has a web browser plugin but it only works on certain desktop browsers).
Good news though. I just discovered (or is it brand new?) that Music Now supports RSS feeds. This could really be the answer to a having a solid experience using the streaming from a subscription music service on a PPC.
You can save an RSS feed of just about anything. All the artists in your library, your playlists, all the albums, all the songs, top 20 lists, etc.
I'm about to try and find an RSS reader for WM5 that might make this a reality. Even if one doesn't exist that works well, the RSS provides an open source for others to make a music browser type interface. Who knows what will happen. One could potentially make a program for WM that reads the RSS feeds and lets you browse, select, and play music much like the interface on an iPod or something. The difference being you have up to 2 million songs to choose from at any given time.
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recommend an audio player with resume from bookmark?

I listen to audio books, and the default win player, doesn't allow me to bookmark my spot when i finish & resume from the same spot. Is there a player that does, paid or free, doesn't matter which
I don't know about the audio format but Mortplayer used to let me resume a song from the position it stopped playing, would that work?
Hi,
I use Conduits Pocket Player. This program gives you the option to choose to automatically bookmark (and thus resume) one track or all tracks. This player also has an automatic screen off function and sleep timer.
For me, this is a great player for audio books.
if you have visual studio 2008 you can compile the one from here. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/audio-video/abcPlayer.aspx
Thanks for the replies, Conduits Pocket player looks like the sort of thing I need
I can recommend you pocketMusic, it has bookmarks and I like it more that PocketPlayer. Only issue with it: dousn't have Coverart and doesn't have WVGA-theme, you'll see it when you use it. But for Music and for listening to biiks, its awesome. Just try it out
Greets, cad^^
Kinoma Freeplay (or the paid version) works well with audio books. Even works on Audible content, it can log in, stream or download audible books - if you use audible of course. It seems good quality and works well on the HD. It bookmarks any file and retains a history log.

Playing Gapless Albums in Media Panel

Greetings all!
I have the entire collection of MDB's Beautiful Voices Compilations, which consists of 40 gapless albums - so far - of Chillout bliss of different genres; essential for driving down the crazy streets of Cairo. I recently lost my iPod so I gave my X1 a try as a music player in my car today; copied one of the albums to my memory card and I was all set. The sound quality through AUX was pretty much the same (if not slightly better when it comes to bass) as that of the lost gadget.
Moving on to the important point, I noticed when playing this gapless album while the phone was on the “Media Panel” (Bluetooth Headset connected) that the files don't switch smoothly; sound stops for almost two seconds between tracks. The freeze is also there if I play the album from the “On the Road Panel”. I didn’t experience any noise what so ever when both players would move on to the next track.
I used the search function and couldn't find any threads about this. Has anyone else encountered the same problem? Is it well known? Is there a fix?! It's something that I can live with but I have like a 100 gapless albums in my library so it would be nice if I can manage to fix it.
Running R3A Generic UK ROM, no junk, no cracked software!
Note: Gapless Albums:
I'm quite sure you're all familiar with the term but for those who are not gapless albums are supposed to sound like one long connected track with no breaks what so ever, like listening to a live concert, or an Electronic music set, e.g. Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise, etc...
I know only 2 players who play gapless : Pocket Music, and Pocket Player. I use Pocket Player, it's pretty as nice as my iPod nano 2G.
+1 for pocket player. The only thing I don't like about it is that it takes a few seconds to open and is a tad slow to redraw when switching orientation. Great player though. Media browser as nice and easy to use as an ipod. Download the free fully functional trial. To turn gapless on, turn crossfade on and drag the overlap slider to zero.
Thank you all!
Thanks for the tip. I purchased Pocket Player. It sure works its way around gapless albums. But I'm in love with SE's media panel. I hope someone may find a solution for that soon.

What formats can the built in streaming player play

I have a bunch of radio channels that I love to use. Unfortunately my standard players (Pocket Music and Pocket Player) won't work. The HD2 turns off after a few minutes no matter what I set the power settings to. So I tried to stream with the built in Streaming Media Player, but couldn't get anywhere. The stations I use are OGG. what formats can this player play? Only the rather obscure RTSP from streaming media players?
Try TCPMP.
But isn't OGG a wave format?
No idea... But TCPMP doesn't work because it turns off after a few minutes, like all other third party players. But I have heard that Kinoma play doesn't do that. I may make an attempt with a trial version of that.
Yeah I've noticed this morning that it does stop playing if you turn off the screen. What works for me is to leave the screen on. It doesn't fall asleep while playing. Would that be an option for you?
Yeah, that would be an option. Just not a very good one, since it will eat the battery faster. I guess I may have to get myself an extra battery. Totally idiotic to have an error like that in such a great phone!
I don't think it's an error. I think it's some sort of timeout that the Sense player can handle (reset) but other players can't.
I have solved the problem! Turned out that it could be fixed by using the cab from this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5353195 That keeps the WiFi connection alive even if the phone is suspended or whatever you want to call the "sort of sleeping" that happens when you're playing something. Now I stream until the battery dies!
Nice find!
But... isn't keeping Wifi on the whole time more energy consuming than leaving the screen on (dimmed) when playing music?
Regular music playback isn't affected of this problem. That will keep playing if you suspend. The problem is streaming, and at least for me streaming means WiFi. So it's actually a step down in power usage from having both the screen and the Wifi on to only the Wifi.
In that case you and I have different problems. My music (from the storagecard) stops playing after about 2 minutes but only if I use my bluetooth carkit to listen. If I play music on the HD2's speaker the music stops almost immediately after turning off the screen. I read that Mortplayer shouldn't have this issue.
It's probably the WiFi and the bluetooth connections that keep the HD2 alive for some minutes and after their timeout puts the phone to sleep.
There's probably a similar registry key hack that will fix that for you. I hope somebody finds it!
Mastiff said:
I have a bunch of radio channels that I love to use. Unfortunately my standard players (Pocket Music and Pocket Player) won't work. The HD2 turns off after a few minutes no matter what I set the power settings to. So I tried to stream with the built in Streaming Media Player, but couldn't get anywhere. The stations I use are OGG. what formats can this player play? Only the rather obscure RTSP from streaming media players?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Mastiff, what app did you find best to use with streaming radio? Would be great if you could share some setting or xml file that contain radio stations list, so that I do not need to collect them from scratch (I live in Norway too..)
Actually I think I remember you from earlier! I use Windows Media Player, "Det enkleste er ofte det beste". Of course I use Pocket Music for anything else of music (video I watch in my home theater with a 2,5 meter wide screen, not on a cell phone!). As for my sttaions I simply use a reg file that puts the few stations I listen to (I'm a boring dude, I prefer news and facts, not music programs). Make this into a reg file and import it (P3 is there before I do actually listen to Pyro sometimes...):
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences\OpenUrlMRU]
"3"="http://straumr.nrk.no/nrk_radio_p3_m"
"2"="http://straumr.nrk.no/nrk_radio_alltid_nyheter_m"
"1"="http://straumr.nrk.no/nrk_radio_p2_m"
"0"="http://straumr.nrk.no/nrk_radio_p1_m"
Editing Registry... Thought some text or xml file with all settings could be kept... Anyway, I went to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences , but there is not OpenUrlMRU key there. Should I create new one? Not sure how to enter those HTTP references into registry...
No, you don't have to edit anything. The text is in the correct format to be imported, you copy from "REGEDIT" and down, with the last ". But you ned a program like Tascal RegEdit to import reg files. I didn't mention that because I'm so used to it. Sorry.
To my surprise I found out yesterday that turning off the screen while playing music over my bluetooth car stereo did not affect the music. It kept playing, while previously it stopped after a couple of minutes. I'm still using TCPMP.
And you haven't changed anything? I guess it's those HTC Gremlins again...or was that leprechauns?
Well I was forced to perform a hard reset a week ago, enabling myself to make a decent tweak list for my phone. As long as the HTC Langoliers stay away I'm OK with it . I'm still using a stock 1.66 Dutch rom.

Music player

Anyone know of a good music player which has a resume function for each track?
I had Pocket Player on my HD2 which allowed me to stop one track, play another and then go back to the first track and continue where I left off. Used it a lot on audiobooks.
Alternatively, something that will allow me to set a bookmark on different tracks.
Even better would be one that does that and also still has music controls on the lockscreen like the stock player.
Not sure if I've come across anything like you want specifically for music.
If it's just for audiobooks, then try Ambling BookPlayer. It's pretty good at auto bookmarking what you are listening to, and comes with a widget too to play and pause books.
I'm using Ambling BookPlayer now and it's very good, particularly for my audiobooks and recorded drama. It's a bit of work to load the mp3 files into its library as it doesn't recognise the m3u playlists I have and it does not natively support album art but I liked it enough to buy the Pro version.
Mortplayer
Mortplayer Audiobooks in the market. Free. I used to use Mortplayer in WinMo and this seems much the same. Very reliable at saving where you are in each track. I have only used the android version for a few days but it seems OK and the WinMo one was rock solid, even picked up where I left off before a soft reset. Oh and there's a widget for it and it shows in notifications.
Worth a try.
im using mix zing lite

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