i hate to bring up old windows mobile but i actually liked that i was able to have a video running in the background. i notice any video app whether its youtube, slingplayer, or the gallery and i go into another app or home the video stops.
I don't understand why you would need a video playing in the background when you're not actively on that app unless you want it to buffer in the background. Which is a good idea and kind of disappointed that Android hasn't implemented this in yet.
i am about to post and say that it's technically possible, an app developer would just have to correctly code the onPause and onStop function to continue the video when the app loses foreground focus. but i dont know for sure if some type of video api is limited within the OS. i doubt that, and i bet it's possible. just nobody coded their apps in such a manner.
it is useful, lets say you are watching a video and you need to switch away for a few minutes but you want to keep listening to the audio while you write an email etc.
I'd say about 3/4 of the time I have a video/TV show on I'm not really watching but enjoy having it in the background. This would be great.
Is this a phone or a PC with a 23 inch monitor? We can't window apps, so audio aside I don't see the allure.
RogerPodacter said:
i am about to post and say that it's technically possible, an app developer would just have to correctly code the onPause and onStop function to continue the video when the app loses foreground focus. but i dont know for sure if some type of video api is limited within the OS. i doubt that, and i bet it's possible. just nobody coded their apps in such a manner.
it is useful, lets say you are watching a video and you need to switch away for a few minutes but you want to keep listening to the audio while you write an email etc.
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Click to collapse
I agree. It's PROBABLY technically possible but it just hasn't been done.
I'm not seeing the allure of it either.
This is my phone after all. I would hate for video sound to be playing in the background when I get a phonecall.
bowsersoulstar said:
I'm not seeing the allure of it either.
This is my phone after all. I would hate for video sound to be playing in the background when I get a phonecall.
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That happened to me once. I was watching a....questionable flash video and an important call came in. It kept playing during the call and the caller could hear it.
Awkward....
Bahaha, that's hilarious. And yeah, I meant only audio. When I'm working at home I would rather have a TV show on in the background then music, regardless of whether or not I can see it. Hearing Hank Hill call someone a jackass helps me work more than music. I just wish we were actually allowed to bring phone's with camera's into work, and this would be doubly useful.
ok thanks for the info guys. for those who dont like it simply stop the video before u hit home. i used to do it all the time on wimo and it worked great. sometimes im watching a game and a text comes in and i dont want to wait till commercials to answer it.
The act 1 video player allows this , though you have to say 'play in background' every time you want it to happen. It's also not the greatest video player ever
This would be very useful for youtube. A lot of times I "listen" to youtube videos only for the music.
Awesome app for having video running along other apps.
Stick it!
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.myboyfriendisageek.stickit
B1ny said:
Awesome app for having video running along other apps.
Stick it!
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.myboyfriendisageek.stickit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm it's now possible with Stick it!, works with YouTube too
QR Code :
Stick it is awesome.. I've had it for a few weeks.
Related
As the title says, I am looking for a decent video player, I have tried most, if not all in the "Market", but none I have found, seem to offer what I had as standard on the iphone!
What I would like, is the following:
1. Thumbnail of each video, with it's title.
2. The ability to zoom correctly, with proper aspect ratio support.
3. Remember the exit point of each video.
Zimly, has the best interface, of the ones I have found, but it does not support aspect ratio zoom, neither does it remember the exit point! Otherwise, I think this app is definitely on the right track!
The standard app, is good, but it does not display the title, nor does it remember the exit point, and you have to go into "Photos" to get to it!
If anyone knows of such an app, I would be most greatful.
P.S. Would just like to add, that the screen on this is superb for watching videos, whites are properly white, and blacks are really black! Unlike the iphone, which is a washed out mess with absolutely no contrast! Woe betied anyone who complains to Apple about this, I was actually told by their customer services, that no one else has complained, and that "They are happy with it"!!!! Thanks a lot Mr Jobs!
Another problem with video playback is that you cant jump to middle of movie. You can only jump cca 7min into movie, it you try to jump more it resets movie, starts playback from begining.
Tryed default player and one free with full lenght movie.
Mp4 format, h264
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
Meridian is the best I've used. Whilst it doesn't tick all your boxes (eg no preview), it does remember where you left off on each individual video. It also allows you to seek to particular point in the video far more effectively than the stock app.
Regards,
Dave
This is the best Video player you can possible have on a android phone. It has all what you seek plus more. http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.hyperaware.videoplayerfull
On the fly bringnes settings, aspect ratios and it does remember the exit point also. It tells you if a file is playable. Only thumbnails are missing.
The only bad thing is no divx support on this phones. So You have to convert every ****.
Balos said:
The only bad thing is no divx support on this phones. So You have to convert every ****.
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You can play XviD/DviX movies with yxFlash player. Although it is be no means a perfect player, it is the only one(or at least was for a while) that can play these formats.
YxFlash is buggy as hell though... it doesn't even let me navigate to find files to play.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -
I am using Act 1 video player. IMHO it us awesome. Fast, remembers the position where you have left a particular movie, tells you whether the file is playable, shows batt percentage, clock etc..
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Sent from my HTC Desire via PDA-development app
th3 said:
YxFlash is buggy as hell though... it doesn't even let me navigate to find files to play.
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i agree yxflash is buggy as hell...
very bad quality when playback mp4 movie.
YxFlash is buggy as hell though... it doesn't even let me navigate to find files to play.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree yxflash is buggy as hell...
very bad quality when playback mp4 movie.
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Click to collapse
It's also been renamed to yxplayer now BTW.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -
temka said:
I am using Act 1 video player. IMHO it us awesome. Fast, remembers the position where you have left a particular movie, tells you whether the file is playable, shows batt percentage, clock etc..
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Sent from my HTC Desire via PDA-development app
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Click to collapse
+1 from me also
Still no decent video players?
They seem to lack codecs or just be horribly made. I tried XYplayer but it's out of sync.
Is there an app? Or do you have to use the touch Youtube site?
from what i've read, the first time you visit a youtube clip, it will ask you to download an extension, and after this it will play it like would any other video. it's not a seperate application persay, but merely just an extension to IE to allow you to play the youtube clips.
I could be wrong on this, but I have seen videos of youtube playing, so it's definitely there.
The Gate Keeper said:
from what i've read, the first time you visit a youtube clip, it will ask you to download an extension, and after this it will play it like would any other video. it's not a seperate application persay, but merely just an extension to IE to allow you to play the youtube clips.
I could be wrong on this, but I have seen videos of youtube playing, so it's definitely there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just read on Wikipedia it will run it in a sort of media player app, but they state that Adobe Flash 10.1 is on the way so this could be improved, or hell, there is the possibility updates will bring Youtube apps and better support.
There is built-in support for viewing the videos, but Google will need to develop a separate Youtube app if you want the off-browser experience.
Iridox said:
There is built-in support for viewing the videos, but Google will need to develop a separate Youtube app if you want the off-browser experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chances are that Google are already working on an application for YouTube.
App in Marketplace that plays Youtube over 3g is craptastic, horrible quality over 3g. Seriously over 3g the quality is worse than on a Blackberry. WTF MS?
Microsoft doesn't own YouTube, so I dunno why you're asking them.
And the quality is probably poor because it's playing 240 or 360p version of the videos instead of HQ.
That's why Google needs to release a YouTube App.
Microsoft has more important things to worry about, like, the actual operating system.
The youtube experience on WP7 is amazing.. its the first phone i ever used that didn't require a full fledged app. I sort of like it that m.youtube.com works out of the box and there isn't "an app for that" - with that being said, people are free to use the youtube api and make their own apps and google may do just that. However with m.youtube.com the quality for me is amazing. I don't watch it over 3g since AT&T rapes us with 3g bandwidth costs but over wifi the quality is beautiful. M.youtube.com also works with your login id so you can easily play your favorite and surf the website. It isn't a pretty package, but hell, sometimes its better that the web integration works this well rather than waiting for a required app
Apparently the youtube app adjusts the video settings if not on wifi. Which doesn't make sense since my 3g connection can more than handle youtube....
Maybe contact the developer and see if we can get settings adjustments.
edit: nevermind, it lists microsoft as the developer so I guess maybe an update will help?
For anyone using the file service Put.io, this app lets you stream and locally store MP4 converted videos.
This was my 1st WP7 app, learning the ropes etc - however I will not work on it in its current state (a redesign is required)
However, until the day I get my act together feel free to try this version for free and watch those videos easily
More dev updates will be found at X-Volt.com
P.s this can only run videos on a device that is not connected to the computer!
thx workshop2
I forgot to say, tap and hold items for the context menu (the only working options are stream/open video and download a video - if the file is local then it can also be deleted)
A few bugs?
Great app if I could get it to work. When I sign in an error pops up saying:
Error converting value "2558511245" to type 'System.Int32'.
I press ok and it continues to connect. I go to my files folder but I havent been able to get it to download. I get another error saying theres a problem with mediaplayer....Then it signs back in with your user key and api secret. So I start all over and try to stream the movie. That worked.....almost :/ I had picture, but no audio. I checked the movie from my laptop and the movie does have sound. It just doesnt have sound while streaming to my WP7 HTC. Another thing is there anyway that our user key and api secret can be saved so we dont have to sign in every time we open the program or it crashes? That's also happened a few times. It crashes and I get a black error screen with a lot of writing.
So I have been driving myself crazy trying to get it to work. Do you think you could fix these issues in your next update?
Thanks so much!
Oops, I forgot I had my API key being saved (bit of a security issue there...)
To stream video you can't have the phone connected to the comp, but it runs fine on my phone (Omnia 7) however sometimes put.io conversions arn't always perfect.
If you can give me some more of the error message (converting number to int) so I can fix that for you, but as I said im not planning on doing much with this application as im going to rebuild it once im less busy. You can only download/steam films that have been converted, and to download you hold down on the item to bring up the context menu, then click download.
You can find the settings saving error fixed in the latest attachment at the top of the screen.
Thanks
Reply to Post 5
Thank you for fixing the save settings. I've been filling my put.io account up with converted .mp4 movies. I bought a subscription to put.io so that I can use the app you developed. However when I open the app on my phone, the movie list shows up, but I'm not ablt to do anything with them. They wont open at all for streaming or downloading and I don't have my phone plugged into the computer when using the app. I cant hardly wait until you have the time to rebuild this app. When all the bugs ahve been worked out I think this app will be amazing. Until then I wait in frustration.........
Well I will say it could be months until I am able to do anything as this was just a research application into WP7 development (I learned many lessons )
For the moment, if you could give me more details about the movies not working - does an error appear? What does it say? Have you double checked Put.io to see if the videos are converted? All this information can help me see if I can fix anything...
I know the Mango update brings more video streaming capabilites in the near future, maybe that will help.
P.s I hope you lying about buying a sub to use this app
Workshop2 said:
Well I will say it could be months until I am able to do anything as this was just a research application into WP7 development (I learned many lessons )
For the moment, if you could give me more details about the movies not working - does an error appear? What does it say? Have you double checked Put.io to see if the videos are converted? All this information can help me see if I can fix anything...
I know the Mango update brings more video streaming capabilites in the near future, maybe that will help.
P.s I hope you lying about buying a sub to use this app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Im not kidding. I paid for a sub to put.io I've been adding .mp4 files to put.io from mobilism.org. The files are in .mp4 format. If I add them from my computer through Zune, they work on my phone, just not through the put.io app. At this time I am not getting any errors popping up because Im not able to do anything at all as I mentioned before.
Out of curiosity, I added an .avi movie to put.io and then from the site, converted it to .mp4. I wasnt able to view it from the app so I reinstalled your previous app and signed in. The .avi movie file showed in my list and I was able to stream it. However it buffered a LOT. I tried to download the file and eventually the app crashed. So I added the latest updated app back to my phone. Which puts me where I am now, still not able to download or stream my .mp4 files. Am I doing something wrong??
No, it sounds like the application isn't working. Dont hold your breath for a quick fix as im extremely busy at the moment. Thanks for the interest though, makes me want to do it even more (btw, what device are you using?)
Workshop2 said:
No, it sounds like the application isn't working. Dont hold your breath for a quick fix as im extremely busy at the moment. Thanks for the interest though, makes me want to do it even more (btw, what device are you using?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the HTC Surround. Ok, I'll just just check back now and then as I am very interested in using your app
After a lot of trial and error, I figured out how to get the movies to stream to my phone. I have to upload torrent .avi files to put.io and then convert them to .mp4 from the site. Uploaded .mp4 files wont work for some reason. However, I also found an app ~ yomomedia. With yomomedia I can rss my put.io files and stream them to my phone. The stream player lets me rewind or fast forward through the movie and also saves my place if I need to leave the screen. With the put.io wm7 stream player, I can only pause the movie. If I leave the screen I loose the movie all together.
Just thought I'd let you know
I have dl/ed Soul Player and Mvideo player to attempt to watch some of my movies, the movies play just fine in WinMo. I notice the movies (those that will load) will just do nothing, they do not give an error that the file can not play but they also do not play at all However the time does countdown on the file as though it is playing the file (like it will say 5 seconds into the movie). If I move the scroll bar the screen will show that particular frame then be stuck on that frame.
am i missing something, there doesn't appear to be a stock movie player with android.
this affects multiple movies btw and the quality is fine in winmo..
There isn't a 'stock' movie player that I know of.
This is expected behavior (if you will). The codecs in Android do not make full use of the hardware for whatever reason - hyc has pushed the libs a little farther than they are capable of currently, but he was never able to match WinMo... We're still missing something on the Android side of things.
HQ YouTube has this same issue - seems videos above a certain resolution do not play nice. I'll have to do some searching to find hyc's posts on this topic, something you should've already done...
I got a large number of hits on it when I searched the issue but nothing providing an explanation similar to what you have stated, I suppose I will just continue viewing videos in winmo then.
Thanks for the assistance!
MDavisiw said:
I got a large number of hits on it when I searched the issue but nothing providing an explanation similar to what you have stated, I suppose I will just continue viewing videos in winmo then.
Thanks for the assistance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found hyc's post after a couple minutes of searching.
Searching and reading isn't easy or simple, I don't pretend that it is. Just an essential part of working with any open source project.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13834432&postcount=28
That post basically summarizes the conundrum we have with video playback in Android.
I'm wondering if ICS does anything different with regards to multitasking and efficient managing process threads.
Will I ever be able to hear youtube in the background while switching to something else??? This is one of the most important questions in the known universe!!!
Techincally, it's possible.
Realistically, the youtube team is never going to do it.
JCopernicus said:
Techincally, it's possible.
Realistically, the youtube team is never going to do it.
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Click to collapse
Something I forgot to add. Couldn't the king multitasker, webOS, do this? I've seen it play videos (can't explicitly remember Youtube) in the background. But I don't remember if it had sound.
Flash ran in the background on webOS, because the flash plug in they developed allowed it to.
As far as I know on android the flash plug in for the browser will suspend when the browser is no longer the foreground activity.
The Android multitasking model doesn't stop applications from using all available CPU power in background (altho their process priorities will be lowered). A sensible developer would make their CPU heavy apps to cease processing when backgrounded. I figure Youtube will be among them. If you want to run YT in background to listen to music, I'd suggest using some other streaming service. YT will keep your CPU busier with video decoding, even if offscreen.
Tom Servo said:
The Android multitasking model doesn't stop applications from using all available CPU power in background (altho their process priorities will be lowered). A sensible developer would make their CPU heavy apps to cease processing when backgrounded. I figure Youtube will be among them. If you want to run YT in background to listen to music, I'd suggest using some other streaming service. YT will keep your CPU busier with video decoding, even if offscreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is correct. The reason you cannot play YouTube in the background is not because Android cannot do it, it is because the YouTube app is designed to stop when it is not in the foreground, on purpose. Sorry dude!
If there was a crying icon, I'd use it.
I understand though and it's perfectly reasonable. Part of me wants a lean device in my pocket. Part of me simply wants a small computer.
Maybe quad core improvements will help... Or the increased multitasking and encoding will just murder the battery while it ignores the battery's scream for mercy...
well, for the most part, this doesn't make sense to have full speed background processing when you move the app to the background. For the large majority of people, when they are watching YouTube and hit the home key, they want their YouTube video to stop playing.
As stated above, any smart dev will make their app slow down or pause in the background as to not eat up CPU/RAM and get killed off by the Android system itself.
OP, there are a lot of good music streaming options that don't require a video to be attached to them that just drains your phone.
martonikaj said:
For the large majority of people, when they are watching YouTube and hit the home key, they want their YouTube video to stop playing.
.
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Click to collapse
I dont know about that anymore, sometimes you just want to find a song quickly and play it. I wouldnt it mind playing the song in the background via youtube, or just listen to something else.
Cleargrey said:
Maybe quad core improvements will help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More cores won't magically drop the power requirements of a certain task.
SysAdmNj said:
I dont know about that anymore, sometimes you just want to find a song quickly and play it. I wouldnt it mind playing the song in the background via youtube, or just listen to something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most people don't use Youtube for music and it's not intended for it either so don't expect it to happen unless someone builds an alternative client for it. There are better services for discovering music.
SysAdmNj said:
I dont know about that anymore, sometimes you just want to find a song quickly and play it. I wouldnt it mind playing the song in the background via youtube, or just listen to something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to do this all the time to, to share an artist or a song with people. However, I've found that lately YouTube has been one of the worse places to go to try and find music. Majority of the results end up being covers or live cell phone captures or other useless junk. I'm sure there's a better solution out there, just haven't found it myself yet. =-/
Spotify...!
Sent from my X10i using xda premium
Tjotte said:
Spotify...!
Sent from my X10i using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed. If they are looking for a free alternative that won't cut it though since it won't allow mobile streaming. Only Premium does that. Still, I could share some invites if anyone wants to try it out free.
ICS Multitasking
I know the multitasking is similar to Honeycomb, however with the guy from WebOS, I wonder if we fling an application from left to right, will it kill the app like in WebOS?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
Yep, swiping an app left or right from the multitasking screen will close the app.
Jebus99 said:
Yep, swiping an app left or right from the multitasking screen will close the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, my understanding is that it only hides it from the multitasking view (doesn't kill the app). Android is pretty well built on not needing any kind of "task killing" from the user or from task manager apps. I don't see why they'd start now.
Since we have a couple ppl in the forum who have the Galaxy Nexus I'd like to see what their findings are.
I have one... And it just hides the app.
michael7795 said:
I have one... And it just hides the app.
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Click to collapse
something deep down inside me always wants to close unused apps.
POQbum said:
something deep down inside me always wants to close unused apps.
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Click to collapse
Don't worry. They're not bogging down the system. Android handles it!