Help A Newbie's Travails

[Ali Shibaz]

This thread's about music players. The next two paragraphs contain some background info. You can skip them if you like.

Hello. I'm a newbie to t world of smartphones. About 6 weeks ago, I bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 on a two-year contract with a Canadian corporation called FIDO. They are a subsiduary of Rogers which is one of the three big corporations that make up the Canadian Oligopoly. The three big Canadian corporations are: Bell, Telus and Rogers. FIDO is owned by Rogers.

Anyway, I thought I'd start a new thread because I seem to have nothing but problems and questions and I decided that maybe it would be best to isolate them all here in this one thread. I'd like to begin with playing music. I've seen a few sites that seemed like they might help. But one big problem I have with my phone is that things change incredibly quickly. It seems like every time I try to get some help on t web, they describe a version of an app that is different from the app installed on my phone. I bought some books with "Samsung Galaxy S4" in t title. But most of t time I try to consult those books for help, t text is out of date as compared to my phone. Those books have been pretty much a big disappointment and a waste of money.

When I first started to use my phone, there were two music apps already installed. One was Samsung's "Music Player" and t other was Google's "Play Music". I tried "Music Player" first and have used it for most of t time since I purchased this phone. Occasionally, I tried t 2nd app when I ran into difficulty with t first one. So, I have a lot more experience with "Music Player" than I do with "Play Music". But I have t same basic problem with both of them.

I have gone through all my files by AC/DC and changed all t folder names (above their albums) to "AC DC". Then I changed all t album names to begin with "AC DC -". For example, "AC DC - Back In Black". Then I changed all t file names to begin with "AC DC - ". E.G. "AC DC - Back In Black".

Finally, I used Winamp to change t info attached to each file - t ID3 info. When I press "Alt-3", Winamp displays the ID3 info which includes t song's Name, Artist's Name, Size, Album Name, etc.

But, when I try to do a search for "AC DC", t results are just a mess. They either include all kinds of other songs I didn't want. Or, they only include a few of their albums and only a few songs on those albums. I have a total of 66 AC DC songs taken from 5 albums. But, I believe t problem may be that both music players are accessing another source of info to get t names of t band - possibly from a data base stored on t Internet.

When I look at t results of t search, I see t band's name shown in several different ways. They are: "AC DC", "ACDC", "AC/DC", "AC-DC" and "AC_DC". I have examined and changed t band's name in every possible place that it can be changed except in some offline source. Or maybe there are other fields attached to t files that I can't see. For example, when using Windows Explorer, I can see around 20 different fields and three of them contain t names of t artist or singer and sometimes they are shown to be "AC DC" (or one of its other spellings) or Brian Johnson or Bon Scott. T last two are two different lead singers t band had at different times.

My goal is just to get a list of all t songs I have by this band. I don't want to mess with Google's stores that try to sell me music. I already have all t music files I could ever want for t present. More than 20,000 files. I have stored them all on my various hard drives and have copied them to my Micro SD expansion card (64 GB). Can anyone advise me of t best way to accomplish this?

Also, I sure would like to have a good "Help File". I am continually puzzled by all t various icons in t music players. I've guessed that some mean to "Shuffle" t order and others mean to produce t list of songs. But one of my biggest problems is that I'd really like to have a compact list of all t songs I have selected and t apps seem to have decided I'd really like to see all those songs displayed in a "grid" style - 4 to a page. That just seems to me to be ridiculous. I don't want to page through one hundred pages to see all t 400 songs I selected - four at a time. Actually, I have exactly 66 AC DC songs from about 5 albums. I'd like to see a list that takes up as little space as possible - ideally, one title or one file name per line.

But there are still several other icons for which I can't find any description. Why does it seem so difficult to find any decent Help files for these apps? I haven't been able to find any.

I did find an Internet file that promised to be a "Help" file for Google's Play Music app. But most of it just seemed to contain advertising for Google. Most all t techniques seemed to be about supplying Google with my account info so that I could download music and radio stations from Google and then use their apps to transfer music between my device and PC. I'm really not interested in any of that at this stage.

I'd really just like to find a Help file that explains Samsung's Music Player and some of its basic functions. Then, after I understand how to use those, I'd be happy to look at other apps and their functions. Is that not reasonable?

 

[chanchan05]

Basically, music players ignore file names and folders. They use the ID3 data. Honestly I don't recommend fixing these on a phone. I generally recommed getting a full music player on a PC like MusicBee, WinAmp or even WMP, and use those to edit all.

 

[Ali Shibaz]

Basically, music players ignore file names and folders. They use the ID3 data. Honestly I don't recommend fixing these on a phone. I generally recommed getting a full music player on a PC like MusicBee, WinAmp or even WMP, and use those to edit all.

Oh. Thank you so much.

The label "NEWBIE" really fits here in this thread because I never even considered that I could get t Winamp app installed on my phone.

So, here is the first of what I expect will be many ... DOHS!

If I was to download Winamp onto my phone, that would be most excellent because I really like Winamp and - more importantly - I understand Winamp.

If I was to download Winamp to my phone and then to install it and use it, would I be able to use Winamp to play my music from my SD expansion card? And, would it use the names of my files, just like it does on my PC? And, would it operate in a manner similar to the way it operates on my PC?

Anyway, I guess I will try to D/L and install Winamp to see how it will work on my phone.

Thank you very much again.

 

[chanchan05]

WinAmp for Android syncs with WinAmp to PC, so you could try.

 

[Ali Shibaz]

I searched for "Winamp" on both Google "Play Stores" and "Samsung Apps" but couldn't find the full Winamp package. All I found were some remote controls for Winamp. Blah!

I also found some albums by bands whose names started with "Winamp". Isn't that funny? My guess is they were hoping people would download their music after confusing them with the Winamp App.

However, all told, I D/L'ed and installed about a dozen diff music players. Most of them were just terrible - ugly and stupid. One wouldn't even run. Two of them spent so much time showing advertising BEFORE they even got around to playing any music, I had to uninstall and delete them with great haste and glee. The objections I had to others were that they showed ads at the bottom of their screens. Some even showed flashing and strobing ads. Maybe some people would be drawn to those ads and send the authors money. But I just immediately stopped, uninstalled and killed those horrible things. They truly made me ill. They were just putrid! Ugh! How incredibly foul they were! I just hated, hated, and hated them more! They were incredibly putrid and hateful! Just freaking awful!

However, I did find two really good apps (at least, they were good at first appearance). There were only these two who found all 66 of my AC DC songs (Poweramp and Shuttle). Poweramp is a fine looking app. It tells you right up front that you are only getting a two week trial. I respected that very much. But if it turns out that Poweramp works as well as it looks, I'd be perfectly delighted to pay them $20 or $30 for to buy it. That would be a very easy decision. After all, after trying 20 or 30 different apps, spending $4 would be a very easy decision. If the Pro version of this app works as well as the Trial version, that decision will be a complete no- brainer for me. I'd be just delighted to spend $20 for to buy this app. However, FYI, t first Android app that I will pay for will probably be t advanced version of Nova. I'd be just tickled pink to pay for that app. Yes, indeed!

The other good app is called "Shuttle". I didn't spend much time with it. But it found all 66 of my AC DC songs right away and seemed to be most excellent.

The help system for Poweramp is unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's context-sensitive help and IMO, it is a thing of dazzling beauty! I truly love it. If you've never seen a "context-sensitive" help system before, I'd recommend you D/L and install it just to have some fun playing with the help system. Doing that will not cost you a penny and it will easily be a real fun adventure for you. At least, IMO, I think it certainly will be that.

The authors of this Help system did a fabulous job on this "context-sensitive" Help system. Again, this is only my opinion, and, I'm a newbie who really knows almost nothing about what he is talking about. So, please take what I say with a big old grain of salt.

P.S. Neither of these apps have any advertising. At least - none that I can see. If there are 20 music players available and only two of them have no ads, it tells me that the two with no ads are likely the best of the bunch because they must compete with all the others and expect people will pay for them (although Shuttle appears to be free). If I was going to write a music player, I would never have it show any ads because it would just get lost in the crowd of crappy music players that show advertising. I'd try to make it superior to the other players and then not have any ads. I might try to ask people to pay for it after a trial period. Or, I might have two versions, the basic version for free and an advanced version for sale - similar to t way Nova does it.

 

[chanchan05]

Hmm. I used to use PowerAmp before, but since moved to Spotify. From what you say, interface must have changed. It used to be ugly.

Anyway WinAmp pulled from the Store.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=375164

They have download links there. Try Neutron and Apollo players. Some people say that they're good.

 

[Ali Shibaz]

I would just like to add the following text because I think it may be of some help to someone else trying to understand how the ID3 info is organized and how they can change it using the app "Windows Explorer" aka "Windows File Explorer".

I started to write t following post, but gave up on it after reading Chanchan05's post above. This info may be of use to someone considering using Windows Explorer to change some of the info in folders containing MP3 files:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When using Windows Explorer to display a folder full of any kind of files (MP3 or others), I can right-click on the bar at the top of the list of files that contain t attributes: "Name", "Size", etc. and I can display another dozen or so fields. At the bottom of that list, there is a selection called "More" and when I click on "More", there are a total of about 300 different fields that I can list (and hopefully modify). They include fields like "Album", "Contributing Artists" and "Album Artists".

I'm guessing only a small number of these 300 fields are applicable to MP3 files. But when I use Winamp to edit the ID3 info, most of these fields are not shown and so I can't change them using Winamp. Specifically, I'd like to be able to change the fields "Contributing Artists" and "Album Artists". Can anyone tell me if it's possible to change those fields using Windows Explorer? If not, is there any other app I can use to change them?

I know of one Windows app called Mp3tag that permits me change those fields. But when I try to use that app, it causes AVG to produce error messages warning about the possibility of "malware". So, I've been afraid to use Mp3tag and afraid to install it.

Would anyone know of any other way for me to change those fields? I'd especially like to know if there are any automated ways to change them. By that, I mean I'd like to change those fields for all files in a folder at once (at a single stroke).
.

 

[funkylogik]

PowerAmp was the first app i actualy payed for and it's excellent. Great EQ and tone controls and it works well with music arranged in folders. There are also themes or "skins" for it (mostly free) in Play to change the look drastically

 

[Ali Shibaz]

PowerAmp was the first app i actualy payed for and it's excellent. Great EQ and tone controls and it works well with music arranged in folders. There are also themes or "skins" for it (mostly free) in Play to change the look drastically

Well, since we are talking about newbies, can you tell me the next few apps you paid for? I'm guessing this info could be very valuable to me. I'm thinking about paying for PowerAmp as well as the advanced version of Nova (excuse me because I don't recall the actual name but it's the "Paid" version of Nova.

And please can anyone living in Canada tell me how it works if you purchase something that is listed as $4 US. How badly do they charge you to convert that amount into Canadian dollars?

The last time I recall doing something like that on a credit card, the conversion costs were just astronomical. At the time, the actual rate was about 90 cents per dollar (the US dollar was higher than the Canadian dollar). But I bought something that was listed at say $100 US dollars. But when the bill came, I was expecting a bill for about $110 plus some minor charges.

But the actual bill was around $150. It shocked the BLEEP out of me and I vowed that I would try almost anything to avoid getting soaked like that in the future.

My service provider is FIDO. That is a Canadian company. So, I would assume they are all set up to be able to do this. Do they really need to soak me for a few dollars just to line their pockets? They are already incredibly wealthy. They are all billionaires and the companies are all already worth billions and billions. Do they really need my $10 so badly that they will ... Gosh! ... I don't know the right word to use. I suppose it is all perfectly legal. But it's a form of legalized stealing. It just makes me cringe to think of how badly they cheat me (still legalized cheating I suppose). But they make the laws and they control the laws and so there is nothing the little people can do.

I still would like to know just how badly I should expect to get hosed when they say the cost is $4 US. What should I expect to pay when my bill arrives? Surely it won't be more than $10. Will it?

Would anyone know if I could avoid getting hosed so badly if I "bundled" my purchases into one big purchase and bought several apps at the same time? Or would that not make any difference?

 

[funkylogik]

Lol I think it may just have been Nova "Prime" I bought next but I'm really not sure. I just remember adding my debit card to Play Store to buy PA and it was years ago (before that I used pirated apps which I DONT recommend since seeing the error of my ways)

Doesn't Play Store display the price in your local currency (Canadian dollars)?
In UK it displays it in £ (pounds)
(and the pounds I pay convert exactly to the US cost. £0.69 for a dollar app for example)

And apps are bought individually, no "bundle" option that I know of..

Ps if you want to earn some free Play credit, install the Google Opinion Rewards app which pays you credit for answering surveys
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.paidtasks
The amount people earn varies WILDLY and I think is dependent on the initial survey..
I lied and said I'm a 25yr old female paralegal thinking they would find that attractive but I've earned around equivalent of $3 where as I've seen people earn over 100!
So I'd say just be honest

 

[Ali Shibaz]

Hello,

I want to let you know that I purchased the full version of Poweramp. I decided to buy it well ahead of the expiration of the 15 day trial period so that in case I had any problems or questions, I could try and get some help before the expiration date.

Seems like that was a good idea. I'm not sure I want to ask for help now. I think it would only be fair for me to read through as much of the text that I could so I could try to understand what is going on.

But, I've experienced some real strange mysteries. One funny kind of thing is that when I terminated the app and tried to use a different app, Poweramp would seem to keep coming back from the dead somehow. I would go into

Settings -> More -> Application Manager and I would Force Stop and Uninstall the app. But it would still start up somehow whenever I tried to play a song. I figured I would do everything I could to kill it so that I could try to learn what was happening. I actually deleted it from my Home Screens and then deleted it from my App screens. I deleted and uninstalled this app from everywhere I could see it. But it still managed to return "from the dead" - so to speak and managed to show up playing music when I tapped on a song. Or I would start the Samsung app "Music Player" and when I tried to play a song with "Music Player", "BANG"! Poweramp would show up as the app playing the song. It was very strange. But I didn't really care much. I just wanted to try and figure out what was going on so that I could learn from this mystery. But I never did figure it out.

I even went so far as to Power Off the unit overnight and then, when I powered it back on in the morning, Poweramp was still present somehow. I purchased the full version (or whatever it is called). I hoped maybe that would resolve this problem. But, no such luck. Anyway, I'm not really too concerned about that. I just wanted to tell you about this in case some of you have experienced the same phenomenon.

But the thing I am concerned about now is that I don't understand how to use the "Unlocker" to transform the original "Trial Version" into the Full Version. I don't know how to do that. My first thought was just to load the "Unlocker" and hope it would know what to do and it would automatically transform the "Trial Version" into the "Full Version".

But I can't tell whether it did that or not. I can't figure out if the version I am running now is still the Trial Version or if it is the Full Version. All in all, Poweramp strikes me as a very unusual app. I have never before seen an app that behaves in the way that it does.

I am going to study the all the text that I can find to try and figure this out for myself. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any user forum where I can post questions.

Perhaps I could ask you all just for a small hint or two. If the answer lies somewhere in the documentation, perhaps you could point me to the doc where it is contained?

Anyway, I'd like to thank you all for your help so far and hope I might prevail on you again. Thanks very much.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah you just have the trial version installed and the unlocker and that should be it, you now own the app for life.
No need to open the unlocker or anything. It just has to be installed
Sorry I'm short of time so only scanned your post.
Tell me if there's something else I missed or I'll read properly later

 

[Ali Shibaz]

It's OK. It's my fault for making the post too long. I included some stuff that I thought you might find interesting.

From now on, I'll try to keep my posts real short and not include anything but the necessaries.

Thanks very much for taking your time though. Seriously. I very much appreciate.

 

[Ali Shibaz]

I've been struggling with Poweramp for the past week or so. I found it very difficult to master this app because I kept finding myself in this one window where it showed "Library" and "Folders" and there was no easy way to get to the window that showed the "Pause", "Next", etc. controls.

But then I discovered after I purchased the unlocked version, I had some beautiful widgets. I'm just exploring with them now. But I find it so much easier to work with Poweramp once I placed a few of those widgets on some Home Screens because now, I have devoted two home screens to each use one of these Widgets. In this way, I can always get to the Poweramp controls.

For any experienced users, this is likely no big news. But for people who have just recently purchased the unlocked version of Poweramp (for the cost of $4), it makes life so much easier. I'm just beginning the exploration of these widgets. But I just want to tell those people who may not realize, if you have purchased the unlocked version of Poweramp, I suggest you pull down a few of the Poweramp widgets and install them on some of your Home Screens. I find it makes things much easier and I'm liking Poweramp more and more all the time now.

Thanks for listening.