Help Using the Desire as an MP3 Player

[Phileas]

Is anyone else slightly annoyed by the soft ticking sound there often is in the background when playing music using the stock player?

It seems to be earphone dependent, i.e. the supplied 'phones have the sound whereas my Sennheiser HD580s don't.

 

[Xenaz]

XENAS, you have to factor in the fact that many of these things were running concurrently. I had over 2hrs of mp3 in one burst, but with the mobile connection on. Likewise, the 1hr+ call also had Wifi running simultaneously. Some of the app use was games, with a much higher rate of battery use. I forgot to mention about 15 photos taken throughout the day, most with flash as indoors. I also play about with RobotView app, that links pics with the phone location and lets you see them in realtion to where they are taken with the viewfinder on (it's a lot of fun, pointless, but fun), which is probably using a fair bit of power. The screen is very efficient, but using it that way will suck up power. It is also possible that the Wifi was on overnight, or at least half of it.

My point is, that you may well get 20 hours of music playback from the Desire if you turn everything else off, including the calendar, and I mean 'OFF'. My estimates are based on having the phone on as a phone, alongside the other loveliness that 'super'/smartphones offer. I am very impressed by the battery life, but am no 'power user'! Nevertheless, it is an interesting thread you are following here and I think I see what you are getting at, but I feel that it is wrong to think of this in the terms of a single point of use. The time that Ninetothesky quotes is probably from BatteryTimeLite (or similar), which reports a similar amount on my phone, but it is an estimate as the app does not have a specific setting for the Desire. It is likely a reasonable estimate, but not related to it being an mp3 player exclusively (i.e. disregarding everything else. I had an SE C902, which had a very respectable battery life under heavy use, but in no way has the functionality (or screen) of the Desire. If you want a phone that will last forever playing mp3's, whilst also working as a phone for calls and texts, I'd go way back to the SE W810i!

Anywho, sorry for the long post and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think you need to think of the Desire as a phone with a music player, rather than as a music player with a phone. Moreover, any comparison with the iPhone is unclear, as the iPhone was developed from the iPod and, latterly, iTouch, and is set up to handle the music player accordingly as a core 'function', the reliance on iTunes further implies this... I would argue that the iPhone (as lovely as it is) is essentially an iPod/Touch that makes calls (and only recently, texts). Either way, I'll follow this thread with interest.
best
k

Good stuff, and a very valid point. Sometimes you look so far towards a gadget achieving one end that you forget what it's really there for. I think it may be worth holding back on, and the Desire looks so much better than the Apple equivalent. It's far too easy to want it all

Thanks again.

 

[kboya]

XENAZ: no worries (and soz for always getting yer name wrong!)

I doubt there is a finer phone on the market just now. It is my 1st Android, but I've been through a lot of other good handsets. This thing is just lovely. I think you can get it to do as you wish (i.e. long mp3 playing) with a bit of jiggery-pokery, which is exactly what it allows you to do. You will not be disappointed!
best
k

 

[Xenaz]

I'm sure that if I go for any smartphone, it'll be this one. It does look lovely for a number of other reasons beyond mp3 usage that have me convinced its the best choice available at the moment.

 

[kboya]

I'm sure that if I go for any smartphone, it'll be this one. It does look lovely for a number of other reasons beyond mp3 usage that have me convinced its the best choice available at the moment.

Groovy. Remember, it takes a few charge cycles to get the battery really working

 

[NZtechfreak]

Is anyone else slightly annoyed by the soft ticking sound there often is in the background when playing music using the stock player?

It seems to be earphone dependent, i.e. the supplied 'phones have the sound whereas my Sennheiser HD580s don't.

I think it may be due to the curvature of the phones shell actually, because some of the connector is exposed - may affect different headsets differently?

 

[Phileas]

I think it may be due to the curvature of the phones shell actually, because some of the connector is exposed - may affect different headsets differently?

So you hear the ticking sound sometimes as well?

I'm trying to discover if my phone is faulty.

 

[franchise]

Xenaz, if it helps I've been listening to an audiobook on my phone all day today. In total i got about 10 hours before it went flat from 100%, about 8 hours of this time spent listening to the audio book.

Also there was maybe 20 minutes of web surfing and an hours worth of messing around with random apps, wifi and account sync on the whole time.

 

[marshalex]

just to add some extra info in here, i use my music player on the desire for around an hour (too and from work) and battery drops around 6-8% in total (measured using battery lite app) which i think is pretty good. plan on seeing how it goes playing music and using google maps navigation once i get my car mount sorted

 

[chicgeek]

No input on how to get tunes from an iPod to the Desire? (Maybe I'll create another thread elsewhere... )

 

[NZtechfreak]

So you hear the ticking sound sometimes as well?

I'm trying to discover if my phone is faulty.

No, I don't get that at all, was just speculating. Try some different headsets and see?

 

[NineToTheSky]

Just out of curiosity, using a fully charged HTC battery, at 7:00 yesterday evening I started playing music. At 7:00 this morning, the battery was at 40%, suggesting a total playing time of about twenty hours. I didn't use it for anything else while playing music.

 

[Elsie]

Don't know where you got this, mine plays them fine in the stock app.

I cannot see WMA files using the music player application. The folders / files are in the same place on the SD card but the music player ignores them. I can use OI File Manager to browse to the MP3 folder on the SD card, choose a track and then play it but that's only a single track. If I want to play another WMA file I have to access it via the file manager again.

I wish I knew what was causing this?

 

[hippy247]

I find the stock player good and have copied all my itunes albums and then sent them to my desire and they all play ok, even the protected ones. I find the battery to be good on the player. Not had one problem with the desires stock player and it plays all my continuous mix albums without gaps.

 

[The_Verse]

This thread has had a fantastic response. Excellent! I'm going to have to give this a go in the near future.

 

[WozzaX]

I find the stock player good and have copied all my itunes albums and then sent them to my desire and they all play ok, even the protected ones. I find the battery to be good on the player. Not had one problem with the desires stock player and it plays all my continuous mix albums without gaps.

what format is your music encoded?

my continuous mp3's seem to have gaps in them.

 

[lekky]

Ok used my BT headphones today.

I can confirm that voice dialling works for me, either pressing the search button on the google search widget or long pressing teh search key allows me to voice dial.

Battery life as follows:

8am: Phone off charge, mild use of phone for 30 mins
8:30: Heavy use of phone begins, together with BT headset to listen to music
10:35: after 2 hours of continuous BT music play, and heavy internet use (ie screen never off)

= Battery 48%

 

[The_Verse]

Hmm... so 2 hours of music AND internet = half drain.

Not bad. I'd probably not do both at once in most cases.

Thanks lekky!

 

[lekky]

Hmm... so 2 hours of music AND internet = half drain.

Not bad. I'd probably not do both at once in most cases.

Thanks lekky!

Yeah, remember i have lots of widgets and apps running in background, and use auto brightness (quite dim lighting on the train). I should have checked the battery usage actually, I have a feeling screen would be the biggie, oh and this was using bluetooth headphones, so counter that in too

 

[The_Verse]

Wow, that seems excellent.

I shall worship lekky as my own personal God. What would you like sacrificing, oh Holy one?

 

[lekky]

I'll have another check tomorrow, and remember to check battery usage

Sent the Nokia's back (the most painful earphones i've ever worn, my ears were so damn sore) and got a pair of Plantronics Backbeat 903's, which are brilliant!

 

[kboya]

just a note: I spent 1hr 15mins watching streaming video on beebplayer (Dr Who then Have I got News) over Wifi, and my battery went from 74% to 51%.

 

[psionguy]

I use Windows Media Player to sync with my Desire, works a treat.

 

[matttye]

It's probably the easiest and quickest way to add music I've ever had in a phone. No need for bloated software, just mount the phone as a disk and copy/paste your files to the device just like you would a floppy or USB flash drive.

With the pending release of 32GB MicroSD cards, I think it makes a great music player. And if you have a truly massive collection, don't forget that they're hotswappable. There's no reason you couldn't carry 10 MicroSD cards with you and just switch them to match your mood.

Music is dead easy to access with the music widget too.

 

[kboya]

matttye: Desire microsdcards are not hotswappable--you have to remove the battery to swap. Otherwise, though, you are quite right (although a number of phones for some time allow you to cut n paste in the way you describe!!)