Develop Bugs

[Q] HTC Music Player doesn't do well with WMA files after Android 2.2 update

Hello everyone,
I have an issue that is driving me CRAZY, and I hope some of you are having the same issue...or at least suggestions for how to fix it. I am running the new Android 2.2 update on my Evo. (It's just the normal, plain software from Sprint/HTC...nothing custom, none of that root stuff...just regular).
I always keep a few gigabytes of music (in WMA format) on my SD card. I noticed that after the update, the HTC Music player would no longer recognize (and sort) the music by Artist or Composer. The only things it could identify about each file were the Title, Album, and Genre. I miss the option of browsing through my music by Artist and/or Composer. This was not a problem with Android 2.1, but it is now. I even tried deleting all the music from my SD card and re-syncing it from my PC...same result. I also tried music from a different PC...same result.
So here's what I discovered this morning: If I convert my WMA files to MP3s, then the music player works just as before!! It recognizes all the ID3 tags within each file. This is a big problem for me. First of all, my music library is nearly 40 GB in size, and I do not want to have to convert EVERYTHING to MP3 before I sync. This is tedious and unnecessary. Secondly, the original specs/documentation of the HTC Evo state that it supports the WMA file format. I made sure of that before purchasing, because it was one of the big factors for me in making the decision to switch to Sprint and the Evo.
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to solve this problem? I'm about to call HTC now and complain. Thanks.

Why are you so attached to WMA? IME/IMHO it's not a very good format because the quality of the mp3 format is a little better plus the DRM that gets embeded in the tracks. Every track that I have *ahem* acquired or even recorded myself has time bombed on me at some point. I should be able to play the music I record at any time!
/Rant
Don't take what I said too personally. I'm just pissed off at Microsoft. That said, I do not know what is causing your files not be played back properly as I do not have any to test.

Just a guess but, perhaps the new player in froyo doesn't read id3 tags from wma files correctly.
sent from my HTC evo

Well, that wasn't the purpose of this post, but since you asked...
I've been ripping my CDs to my hard drive for about 10 years now. Windows Media Player made it sooo easy to organize my music library. Way back in the day, you could only rip to WAV or different varieties of WMA. To rip to mp3, I would have had to use a different program, or purchase a plug-in for Windows Media Player. Only in the last few versions has Windows Media Player had the "rip to mp3" option built-in for free.
When I originally started my collection, I read about the differences between WMA and mp3. I got the understanding that the two formats essentially offered the same quality and features, but WMA generally used about half the file size for the same bitrate. So I chose WMA and stuck with it all this time.
Even when I buy music from Amazon or iTunes, I've gotten in the habit of converting it to WMA...just for consistency.
I just got off the phone with HTC, who says they haven't heard of this issue before. I was advised to perform a factory reset. But if I can't resolve the issue soon, I'm considering just converting every piece of music I have to mp3. (Sigh). But at nearly 40 GB, and various bitrates, who knows how long that could take!? (Sighing again). I wonder what program could handle that amount of music all at once. And I pray it won't screw up all the ID3 tags and the ratings I've so carefully given.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I have a couple of WMA files on my SD card. They have always been listed under "Unknown Artist" along with a few mp3's.
when I click on unknown artist, the files show up listed under their correct names. When I click on the wma files (both by the same artist), they expand into individual file names.
After updating to 2.2 nothing has changed. Everything works normally. That would suggest HTC's advice may work for you.
On another note, don't you love it when you post a question, and the first response is, "I don't know how to help, but I don't like that kind of file anyway, and neither should you!!!

Hmmm...and your WMA files were never fully recognized? Not even on Android 2.1? Interesting. I guess I'll attempt a hard reset tonight, or maybe tomorrow.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I had the exact same issue and can report that a hard reset had no effect. I'll be looking to convert my library to mp3 as well. Froyo has its quirks.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Wow!! Thanks, pstar...I was literally 3 minutes away from starting the hard reset process and restoring everything. What is we gon' do? :-(
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helpwithmy8525 said:
Wow!! Thanks, pstar...I was literally 3 minutes away from starting the hard reset process and restoring everything. What is we gon' do? :-(
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's an idea: Go into a Sprint store with your Mini SD chip and see if they'll put in in another Android phone. See if it exhibits the same issue.

Good idea. I might try that tomorrow.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

ptsar said:
I had the exact same issue and can report that a hard reset had no effect. I'll be looking to convert my library to mp3 as well. Froyo has its quirks.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't resist finding out for myself; I also tried a hard reset, to no avail...
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Funny, my wife is using the rooted stock froyo, first leaked build and all wma look fine with embedded art using HTC player. I am using cyanogen latest nightly and it still can't read wma tags at all. But I do like playing with the new DSP settings--worth the switch. As a workaround I converted the wma to mp4 and they read just fine.

I'm surprised anyone had success with wma on any version of android. For me, on 2.1, wma files wouldn't play (but a few DID, which confounds me to no end). Now on rooted 2.2, I experience the same behavior. Just for fun, I used astro and simply renamed the file type of some wmas to .mp3. Surprisingly, it seemed to work. I thought I was on to something. Then I tries that with some Audioslave songs. No worky. So probably the ones I did 'get to work', were some of the few that for no discernible reason, to me, already worked.
I would like to hear more about this issue, actually.

Its a problem in Froyo with both WMA and AAC encoded files. Reported in Google Code, so please go there, sign in to google, then star the issue so it gets some attention:
http://code.google.com/p/android/is...ag&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars

WAV Files not supported in Froyo ?????

I'm running CM6 RC1 and when I try to open a wav file (sent to me through Cisco Unity Messaging and gmail), the music application pops up and says:
"sorry the player does not support this type of audio file"
Is this a 2.2 bug or a CM6 bug ??? Can someone check the OTA 2.2...

Get remote wave yea its a paid app but it works .wav isn't popular amoung phones I think... BTW its never been supported as far as I know
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

It definitely used to be supported in CM5 and definitely doesn't work in CM6 and I'm on the newest nightly

Hmm never knew that... I've never used CM roms. Well if u wanna make sure u alwaz have it remote wave has alwaz worked
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Bump
Bump - Help!

bkfitz said:
Bump - Help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why bump? you were given a sufficiant answer. Try a few of the other free media players.

not a solution but I can confirm 2.1 played ULaw encoded wav files with the native media player and now 2.2 does not, so the codec seems to have been dropped in the upgrade.

I've never had any of my Android phones play wav files. If I get vmails in my email, and try to check, they always say unsupported. Didn't work on previous phones before my evo, and has never worked on my evo, 2.1 or 2.2
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Just wanted to chime in that I've never had this problem with my Hero phone on 1.5 or 2.1 or with the Fresh ROM. Now, I know this only partially applies here, but since CM6 works as well on an Evo as it does with a Hero phone, if the bug is fixed in one, it should be fixed in the other too.

I know wav files play on the incredible 2.1

It's the way the WAV file is being encoded. Area you able to configure your messaging server to use PCM or another Android-friendly format? We've had to make an easy adjustment here on our corporate exchange server so the execs who are testing the Evo can listen to their voicemail.

star this and it might get some attention
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=8730

can i play .mov files

I have tried Google and searched this forum, no joy. My wife has an iPhone and emailed me a photo she took on it, its a .mov file. My hd7 sees it fine, but states it doesn't have an application to play it. Any ideas, I know I can convert the video and sync using Zune software on my of, but would like to see the videos directly on my phone. Any ideas would be very helpful.

i'm guessing she sent it to you via MMS? iPhone has the most wacked way of sending imagines and videos over MMS. What I would suggest is to find the iPhone app which sends them in accordance with every other phone that exists. Then tell her to send it to you using that app instead of the generic iPhone MMS sender.
.mov isn't exactly a standard format either, for example a stock windows 7 desktop machine might have issues playing .mov without a codec.

Yea. That's a Quicktime Format. Not going to have much luck with that. I know 3GPP is based on an Apple format, IIRC, but MOV files are pretty much off-limits unless Microsoft licensed it from Apple (which I'm more inclined to doubt).

Ringtones

You can MMS an audio and save as a ringtone, but I'm having trouble with mp3 and wma..
# What are the supported ringtone formats?
WARNING: Once you save a ringtone, you cannot delete it!!

You can delete ringtones.... You just have to reset.

lol thanks..
I've tried mp3, wma, wav, ogg, still can't save any..
Am I doing something wrong? Been trying all the free online MMS sites..

greenlndr said:
lol thanks..
I've tried mp3, wma, wav, ogg, still can't save any..
Am I doing something wrong? Been trying all the free online MMS sites..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those online "free" MMS sites aren't actually free. You still pay for receiving the MMS/SMS.
Try sending from another cellphone.

Antonpup said:
Those online "free" MMS sites aren't actually free. You still pay for receiving the MMS/SMS.
Try sending from another cellphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alternatively you can send an email with the file attached to [email protected] but remember that there is a limit to the file size.

dezgrz said:
Alternatively you can send an email with the file attached to [email protected] but remember that there is a limit to the file size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mm, doesn't work for me. Email sends fine but nothing happens.
Don't have another phone to send from.

sometimes you need to turn the device on then off for it to save the ring tone and the file format you need is a .MID
myxer.com is a pretty decent site.

Try phonezoo.com
I've used that site on multiple devices and it works fine with the Kin 2m. It saves the ringtones as "unknown" so you can't save more than one ringtone at a time, but its better then nothing. Its free btw.

Iggy95 said:
Try phonezoo.com
I've used that site on multiple devices and it works fine with the Kin 2m. It saves the ringtones as "unknown" so you can't save more than one ringtone at a time, but its better then nothing. Its free btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
myxer.com works on the Kin TwoM and it'll save the ringtone as what you name it as. For example, if you label it Ring - Tone, you'll see it like that in your ringtones in a slightly different font than the standard.

Thank you! ^_^ Myxer does a 40 second cut, while phonezoo has a 20 second cut.

Just a thought on ringtones. I put my first custom ringtone on my phone (sent it from my wife's old phone) and found the music quality was poor compared to the old phone. The file is a MIDI file, so that might have something to do with it.
Since we can't delete ringtones, I would suggest using the same test filename for every ringtone you want to "test" on your phone to see if it works or not. Once you're satisfied with the quality/volume/length of it, then change the filename and send it again, to make it a permanent tone on your phone.
From my understanding, MP3 and MIDI files work. I don't know about other file types, but if an MP3 isn't working, then use something like Audacity to chop it down to a 20-30 second clip.

Does anyone have a mp3 to mid converter that I can use?

Blackhawk199666 said:
Does anyone have a mp3 to mid converter that I can use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not possible, as MIDI files don't use the same structure as an MP3 file. You're better off looking online for a MIDI version of the song you want (someone else spent the time creating it) or just use an MP3 file.

dezgrz said:
Alternatively you can send an email with the file attached to [email protected] but remember that there is a limit to the file size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That won't work. The email isn't correct. It's supposed to be [email protected]. (not vzwPICS). And the file size limit is 500 KB.

Verizon Ringtone Audio File Format
Verizon supports the Qualcomm QCELP (.qcp) file format for ringtones. The sound quality is horrible, but it works. The KIN allows you to save MMS-attached .qcp files directly as a ringtone.
I can't find a codec for this format, but there is a free web site made specifically for ringtone conversion at makeownringtone.com (used to be "ringtuna.com", which unfortunately got purloined by a domain squatter).

gsearle said:
Verizon supports the Qualcomm QCELP (.qcp) file format for ringtones. The sound quality is horrible, but it works. The KIN allows you to save MMS-attached .qcp files directly as a ringtone.
I can't find a codec for this format, but there is a free web site made specifically for ringtone conversion at makeownringtone.com (used to be "ringtuna.com", which unfortunately got purloined by a domain squatter).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Kin supports MP3 ringtones as well, doesn't it?

codymws said:
The Kin supports MP3 ringtones as well, doesn't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, officially it supports MIDI, MP3, and QCP. I've only tried MIDI and MP3 on mine. MIDI is really tinny sounding, compared to my old Moto e815 phone. And the MP3 files, the only way I've found to get them on the phone is through MMS from another phone. I tried multiple "send a ringtone to your phone" sites, but Verizon stripped the file from the message upon delivery. I had to reactivate my old phone on another number and message it to myself, to get it.
From my understanding, Verizon's site allows you to upload and send MIDI and QCP files to your phone, from their site. I haven't tried it yet, since I have not been able to get a QCP file that sounds decent, and the MIDI files I have don't sound good in my tests.
(if you want a decent program for converting to QCP, look for QCP Converter by D.R Software. I used version 8.05 and it was okay, but I think it had a limit on the number it converts before you register/pay for it. If you have access to a virtual machine, snapshots before converting are your friend.)

klamation said:
Yes, officially it supports MIDI, MP3, and QCP. I've only tried MIDI and MP3 on mine. MIDI is really tinny sounding, compared to my old Moto e815 phone. And the MP3 files, the only way I've found to get them on the phone is through MMS from another phone. I tried multiple "send a ringtone to your phone" sites, but Verizon stripped the file from the message upon delivery. I had to reactivate my old phone on another number and message it to myself, to get it.
From my understanding, Verizon's site allows you to upload and send MIDI and QCP files to your phone, from their site. I haven't tried it yet, since I have not been able to get a QCP file that sounds decent, and the MIDI files I have don't sound good in my tests.
(if you want a decent program for converting to QCP, look for QCP Converter by D.R Software. I used version 8.05 and it was okay, but I think it had a limit on the number it converts before you register/pay for it. If you have access to a virtual machine, snapshots before converting are your friend.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried emailing the MP3 file to [email protected]? That seems to work for me.

deezer (orange swapables)

Managed to get deezer working as an orange swap able on my nexus. This gives me a premium account and therefore the ability to download tracks for offline listening. Very impressed so far. Music choice seems varied but bear in mind I'm 40 so my tastes might not be everyone's ....
The android app seems a little clunky and I can't see any way to play downloaded tracks in any other app.... has anyone managed this???
To get the swap able working use dolphin browser and convince it you are on a GS2. Will post the string later if anyone is interested ......

I've been very impressed with the deezer service.
I to looked for a way to play offline music in another app. My guess is the deezer app caches the files in an unreadable format. Similar to how google music does. There is an app available now that is able to convert cached files from google music into a readable format and let you play them in another music application. I doubt it would work with deezer. But someone could release something similar.

cjward23 said:
I've been very impressed with the deezer service.
I to looked for a way to play offline music in another app. My guess is the deezer app caches the files in an unreadable format. Similar to how google music does. There is an app available now that is able to convert cached files from google music into a readable format and let you play them in another music application. I doubt it would work with deezer. But someone could release something similar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Struggling to understand how the "my mp3s" bit works. It doesn't seem to find existing music on my phone and half the instructions are in french

it didnt find any of my music.

I have a question for you guys. Can you play songs on the Deezer website? I'm getting really frustrated with how it changes all the time!
At first I couldn't, then it started working for a few weeks. Then it stopped working again for a couple of weeks. And then since then I've been using the Deezer website for unlimited music for ages. At least I think that's how it's been, basically it's been on and off!
Now today I went to play music and it had put me on to a free account and I had to activate my Orange subscription (for like the 3rd time now, does it do this every month or something?!), and now I can't listen to music on the website. It's killing me because I use it allll the time on my laptop!

if it is still actual:
i've been looking into the files deezer stores lately and found out:
they are mp3s!
they just hash them before they save them and then somehow decode them when it's playing.
if someone is interrested to know more about it and understands java quite good let me know and i'll hook you up with the info you need

I'd be interested in finding out how to save the hashed MP3. There are quite a few albums on there I've downloaded and as I swap my phone regular but the limit on freezer mobile devices is two.
Cheers
Gurry
Sent from my cyclone Titan using Tapatalk 2

There was an app called cloud music sniper that would do exactly what you are asking for but i cant seem to find it now.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Should call it Scotch mist. I can't find it either
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Any news?
Hi guys.
Any news on deezer decrypting music?
I also found out they're mp3-s, but can't get a way to dehash them by any possible chance, Anyone had any luck?
Regards