Develop Bugs

Bluetooth issue after Marshmallow Update

Hi all.
For some reason, when playing music via bluetooth in my car, the song information doesn't appear on screen anymore. I tried deleting and re-pairing, disabling and re-enabling Google Music, tried it with Amazon Music, etc. It only shows the first song's information, then it gets stuck on that and eventually displays "no title".
The music plays flawlessly though. Just no song title, artist name, album name, etc.
It worked perfectly before the Marshmallow update, so I'm hoping I'm not the only one with this problem and that someone knows a workaround.
Thanks.

mursepaolo said:
Hi all.
For some reason, when playing music via bluetooth in my car, the song information doesn't appear on screen anymore. I tried deleting and re-pairing, disabling and re-enabling Google Music, tried it with Amazon Music, etc. It only shows the first song's information, then it gets stuck on that and eventually displays "no title".
The music plays flawlessly though. Just no song title, artist name, album name, etc.
It worked perfectly before the Marshmallow update, so I'm hoping I'm not the only one with this problem and that someone knows a workaround.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No issues here with BT. Connects perfectly to my car. Pandora shows all the title info etc. for all music. Could BT connectivity specific to your car? Don't know. Mine, Chevy 2016 Malibu 2.0T using the built in Pandora app on the 8" touchscreen. Plus no issues paring for telephone calls etc

Docmjldds said:
No issues here with BT. Connects perfectly to my car. Pandora shows all the title info etc. for all music. Could BT connectivity specific to your car? Don't know. Mine, Chevy 2016 Malibu 2.0T using the built in Pandora app on the 8" touchscreen. Plus no issues paring for telephone calls etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah mine is a 2013 accord with HondaLink. There's no other BT issue. Songs play perfectly, calls are fine, texts are fine, connectivity is fine. Just the dang song info. It's really a nuisance.

Chromecast Audio Review from a Squeezebox User

As title says, this is going to be a Chromecast Audio review from the point of view of a Squeezebox user. As such, it will mostly be comparing CCA and Squeezebox. I'm also hoping some other CCA users see this and might be able to chime in on some of the shortcomings I'm having with CCA.
Overall, I'm liking CCA better than Squeezebox. CCA sync is dead on, and I have 6 rooms going. My squeezebox setup was a mix of PC and android devices running various squeezebox player software, and the sync would always be off for the first few seconds of a song. Occasionally, audio would get out of sync and starting and stopping playback was necessary. I listen to a lot of podcasts, some of which I pay for, and Squeezebox doesn't support HTTPS for podcasts. CCA is so easy to use for podcasts, it's increased my already high amount of podcast listening by quite a bit. Another benefit of CCA and podcasts, since I'm using the same app I listen to podcasts with on my phone, playback is synced. I used to listen to part of a podcast in the car on the way home from work, then have to scrub through podcast on squeezebox to find the spot I was at. Not the largest inconvenience in the world, but it's nice that I don't have to do it any more.
Now on to the shortcomings of CCA. Two things that worked with Squeezebox that are important features to me were mixing local files with tracks from Spotify and Last.fm Scrobbling. I have a large music library and quite a bit of it isn't available on most streaming services. Google Music let's you upload your local library and stream it, so I'm trying to match the Spotify/Local file functionality this way. So far, it's working pretty well, but that leads to the scrobbling issues. If I play music from my phone, the app seems to time out and stop live tracking what is playing, thus the scrobbling app I have also starts to miss playing tracks. This happens even when the phone is plugged in to charge. As a work around, I'll play music from my PC using Google Play music on chrome with a chrome extension to scrobble. This works great, except now the only thing I can control with my phone is play/pause and volume. If I want to add tracks to playlist, change songs, etc, gotta walk over to the PC. With squeezebox, I could control the music with any device, and switch between devices doing the controlling with no issue.
There are programs, like Kodi and Emby, that have the ability to cast music. I'm pretty sure they also have plugins for Last.fm. So they would seem to solve scrobbling and controlling with multiple devices. I'm not 100% clear on whether they can play local files as well as tracks from Spotify or Google Music (or any other streaming service for that matter) on the same playlist. I think my next project is going to be setting up Kodi or Emby and seeing if I can get the functionality I want.
Another minor thing about CCA I'm not liking is that you can't control volumes until after playback is started. If I'm playing music in the evening before heading out with friends, I'll turn the volume up. Then in the morning, if I want to play something to get me moving, I have to hit play and then pause as fast as possible so my eardrums aren't blown out. I'm going to have to start teaching myself to turn down the volume when I stop playing music...

I have my personal music library on a NAS and play it all through BubbleUPnP App on a range of android devices. Best option I have found for anybody in the family being able to control all the music collection from any device.

I'm trying to match the Spotify o download music from insta-downloader.online l file functionality this way. So far, it's working pretty well, but that leads to the scrobbling issues. If I play music from my phone and I heard very nice in my app the music

Yeah this is App https://insta-downloader.online/ on a range of android devices, In my opinion is very nice

Any experience with chromecast?

I saw there was a thread back in November about chromecast issues, but no responses, so I thought I'd start a new thread.
I don't have any issues casting issues with streaming video apps like Fox Sports Go or a Watch ESPN. No issues when casting "local" videos from my SD card within VLC Player (using the cast button in the player app) . No problem with VLC Player with the HDMI connection - but it acts like it is casting (video only shows on the TV). Mirroring the screen looks fine with HDMI. Swiping screens is smooth. I can see the top and bottom of the screen. Audio apps like Pulsar Music Player and Pandora also cast fine.
Here's where it gets weird.
1) When I cast to the TV from Google Home, I get a message that my device is not optimized for casting. Then the mirror mode cuts off the top & bottom of the screen, and the casting is choppy. Swiping from one screen to another is laggy. When I cast with SmartView through settings, no message, but still cut off at the top and bottom, and choppy / laggy.
2) When casting local videos in mirror mode, both with chromecast and hdmi, MxPlayer is _terrible_ distorted and choppy. MxPlayer is fine when not casting.
3) When casting with Google Home or SmartView, VLC Player is choppy, but nowhere near as bad as MX Player
Because both the players work when not casting, it doesn't seem to be a problem with video codecs (although I have no idea which codecs I should use for MX Player - I haven't had any playback issues like I did on the S2).
Anyone know why the issues with chromecast? There were no issues casting with my Tab S2....
Thanks,
Joe

Where is the cast button in VLC? I didn't think it could do that, I just looked again and still don't see it. App is up to date.

mpappas87 said:
Where is the cast button in VLC? I didn't think it could do that, I just looked again and still don't see it. App is up to date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be on top, right hand side.

I'm using the beta version, 3.0.94 from Jan. 15th. The beta, at least, has supported direct casting from the app for many months.
First enable casting in settings, in the extra settings section - casting is between audio and advanced. Then you'll see a cast icon at the top right of the screen.
Also after a video starts, press the screen to bring up the video controls while the video plays. Again, there will be a cast icon on the top right of the video screen.
This feature may be limited to the beta.
Joe

I have the beta as well latest version I see casting in settings and enabled it but no button on top right.

mpappas87 said:
I have the beta as well latest version I see casting in settings and enabled it but no button on top right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm new to xda, but I tried attaching three screen shots of vlc, with the cast icon showing in the corner of the first two and the third where it asks which device to cast to. I'm not sure how or if I can embed them in line, but they are hopefully attached. I don't know if it helps you or not. (yes, Browns Hard Knocks... I grew up in Cleveland, a cross I have to bear)
Back on topic,
Is anyone else having issues with mirroring?
Good luck,
Joe

So I've used this more. Smart Cast and Google Home continue to be crappy for mirroring.
SmartCast is choppy, really bad contrast and distorted.
Google Home tells me "your device is not optimized for casting", the contrast and distortion are not so bad, but video plays choppy. Then after 5 minutes it drops connection. Every time.
While it is true that mirror casting is about the worst way to put content onto the TV, there are some apps that just don't support casting. This is a disappointment. You'd think a tab as expensive as this would be best in class.

music and podcast playback

I want to play music and podcasts on my watch (local files), without needing to have my phone nearby (i.e. not within bluetooth range). A few questions:
1. The Spotify app allows me to download playlists, but not albums? Does anyone know a way to directly download Albums? Or perhaps I have overlooked something?
2. I'm not aware of a podcast player app that can be installed on the watch that allows variable speed playback on the watch. I don't see a way to have the Samsung watch app music player adjust the speed of playback. Any suggestions?
On a separate, but semi related topic. If both the phone and the watch are on the same WIFI network, but NOT within bluetooth range, is there any way to control a phone podcast app and stream the audio from the phone to the watch---and thereafter listen to the audio from the watch via bluetooth headphones?

Question Media controls on lock screen

I just upgraded to as an s22 ultra from my old LG G6. On my G6 it would display media controls on the lock screen when playing videos on my Chromecast. So far it only seems to support Google products (YouTube, Google podcast) but not anything else (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) Any ideas from you beautiful people?

It is app specific, there is no global setting. Samsung Music also allows you to control it from the lock screen.