Hero music player 'skipping'

[Elpelco]

Perhaps someone here can help me

Sometimes when I'm istening to music, the player 'skips' and sometimes stops all together, until I get it out of my pocket and hit the home button to wake the screen up. I think it's caused by my phone dropping the signal completely, but it only happens when I've got the phone in my pocket. Is there a way to stop this? I've switched from the HTC player to MixZing lite, which has helped a lot, but it still does it. Any ideas? It's pretty annoying.

 

[steve/]

I get similar when I run with my phone and I think its due to the phone pocket on my running belt being too tight, maybe the buttons are getting pressed.

It didn't seem to happen when I use a different holder but I havn't tested this fully yet

 

[peterc10]

Your reference to dropping the signal suggests you may be using BT headphones. Is that correct or are you using the standard wired ones?

 

[Elpelco]

Your reference to dropping the signal suggests you may be using BT headphones. Is that correct or are you using the standard wired ones?

Standard wired ones.

 

[robogo]

Happened before to me too, but I sadly cannot explain how I fixed it, cause I didn't it just stopped altogether.

 

[hexskrew]

This may have something to do IMHO with apps updating at the same time that the phone is seeking for the next amount of audio bits, causing some oddness..

Happens to me too. Have not figured it quite out yet though.

 

[bauer]

could it be last fm scobbling in the background??

 

[StuartTheFish]

This happens to me too, and it's NOT anything to do with headphones or earpieces as it even does it using the loudspeaker!

It's a software issue somehow, but is it just a case of an app or two being very resource hungry and crippling playback, or could it just be that there's a better player on the market that doesn't do this? It seems to happen most when it's just finished changing to the next track, so a file access or process issue.

 

[elyhero]

This probably isn't your particular problem as you say it's software but I had simililar symptoms using Spotify. I'm very pleased to have found the solution so I'm sharing it here.

Tracks would skip forwards or backwards seemingly randomly. Finally figured out tonight it didn't happen with loudspeaker, only with headphones.

I had switched the headphones that came with the phone with an alternate pair with a 3.5mm jack, this was the problem. Use the phones that come with the phone and the problem went away.

For further technical reasons why .... read on ... for a fix skip to the end ...

Reason is, the headphones supplied have 4 connectors (or poles) on the jack. Look closely and you can count three black plastic rings that separate the different areas. This is a TRRS design rather than TRS design and is the same as the iPhone, but not the iPod.

The first two connectors are audio L&R, the third is the ground, and the fourth is for the microphone. However, the fourth connector is also used for the remote control - the skip and pause buttons that are on the wire.

The Hero is listed as having a standard 3.5mm jack, and this is true, but if your 3rd party earphones or audio cable has only two black rings (like 99% of stereo cables!) the slightest touch may cause a connection between the mic and ground connector, which seems to the phone like you are pressing the remote buttons - and the result is annoying and random skipping.

So, when exercising I can use the supplied headphones. But I have a similar problem in the car - I'd like to listen to offline Spotify using the aux input on my stereo but I thought the input lead was dodgy.

The answer is a cheap converter like this:

Zooinc Audio Converting Cable for Apple iPhone: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
or this:
Brand New 3.5mm to 3.5mm Jack Stereo Headphone Audio: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

These have a 4 ring plug, and a 3 ring socket, so they will make normal headphones "safe" to go into your phone.

Given that this problem must affect iphones and presumably a bunch of other smartphones I'm amazed there isn't more on the web about it!

 

[Hoos]

My stock Sprint Hero "skips" during the first couple of seconds of every song using the stock music player.

The Cubed music player does not skip. So, I think it is an issue with the stock player on some devices.

The one downside to the Cubed music player is that it does not support skip/repeat buttons on bluetooth headsets. Otherwise, it works very well.

To get Cubed, just search for RockOn in the marketplace or scan the QR code in this review.

 

[brentswsa]

I have the music skipping problem in the beginning of the music track with my HTC hero. It happens when the phone has been on for a day or so. The quick solution for me is turning the phone off and then on again which clears the memory! This leads me to believe its software related! Could be the music player itself or maybe last.fm or just the Andriod OS.

I did try another music player but I cant remember if it had the same result, but then again it wasnt compatible with last.fm so whats the point.

One of these days im going to build up enough energy from the annoyance to find the exact cause, until then Ill just keep turning it off and on again. Its just a pain because my pc boots up faster than the phone

 

[Elpelco]

I've found, actually, since installing Mort player, that I don't have this problem any more. Plus it's a nice app.