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Help Using the Desire as an MP3 Player

@eske

Thanks for posting the videos, I was just thinking that I should have mentioned that. It drove me totally mad that when I first started using MM it put all the tunes in the root folder.

The only issue I've found so far is a bug with the player itself and it appears to be with that it doesn't fully support 2.X version tags. I had MM set all my tags to only v1 and clean the V2.X out and now all my genre's show up. Previously most of them would only show up as Unknown.

I guess there have been quite a few complaints about this. Hopefully google will address it.
 
vicedens2002 said:
Finally the thread i was looking for... :D
how about the sound quality comparing to walkman phones of sony ericsson..?
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I'm very very impressed with the sound quality. Might actually persuade me to ditch the separate Cowon I carry around (for sound quality reasons - it's something I'm extremely fussy about!) The Desire is still not as good as the Cowon but it's closer than any other phone I've had. The SE Walkman phones have been fairly rubbish in my opinion, especially when you factor in the 3.5mm conversion dongle that all the ones I've owned have needed.

As for the general mp3 player question, the built in one is fine for me, but my requirements are pretty basic: I generally listen to full albums in PCM format, copy music manually to the SD card rather than using any sort of sync, and couldn't care about shuffling, album art, flicking pictures around to advance tracks and all the rest of it.

(Tested using ACS T2 in-ear monitors. Tried a couple of pairs of bigger over-ear cans but it doesn't have the guts to drive them convincingly, as with most portable players, and an external amp isn't really feasible given the lack of line out)
 
I've never used a separate mp3 player, always used a phone. My last 2 phones have been a samsung jet and an omnia hd2 and imo the desire pisses all over them in terms of audio playback quality.
I was a bit nervous at first with the desire not having any preset equaliser settings but to be honest i'm more than happy with the stock player, i hope there will be an update from HTC in the future but does it really need one?

the most important thing is the quality of the headphones you use, a decent
 
Thx guys.. for the feedback...
now my likeness to desire to in full speed... :D
By the way how is the bass..? Forgot to ask before itself.. :p
I have good pair of headphones sonys XB series costed me 30 pounds, so will be a good addon to Desire..
 
Just a bit frustrated with the Desire as it won't play WMA files ... but that is the single drawback to owning the phone!
 
Ok my issue is this.

I have an album that continuously plays from track to track, as in the music continues from track 1 to track 2 like it would on a mix cd.
My iPhone used to play without a problem, it was seamless.
The Desires stock app seems to put a small gap in-between each track and its quite annoying.
I cannot find any settings that go into this option for the stock app.
Is there an app that plays music without the gap?
 
WozzaX said:
Ok my issue is this.

I have an album that continuously plays from track to track, as in the music continues from track 1 to track 2 like it would on a mix cd.
My iPhone used to play without a problem, it was seamless.
The Desires stock app seems to put a small gap in-between each track and its quite annoying.
I cannot find any settings that go into this option for the stock app.
Is there an app that plays music without the gap?
Click to expand...

Search around the market place for a media player app, might have an added cross fader setting. If you find one let me know! and vice versa, if I find one I'l repost.
 
Re getting the music to the device, I actually used Windows Media Player.

Connect to your computer
Open up WMP
It see's it as a device
Select the files you want to sync (I grabbed all my 5 star rated files)
Drop them in the sync list
Click Sync

I was also amazed at how quick it copied them across.
 
I use my Desire as a MP3 battery is OK, but I get to use it as a MP3 for about 3hrs a day. I transferred my music from folders into my SD, also in the folder is the album cover, the Desire attaches the cover also. Pretty good sound quality, using the 3.5mm with my Altec Lansings, no problems, yes it would be nice for some kind of EQ but it isn't a must.
 
tbl said:
Micro USB is to be the de facto charging/sync standard on all new mobile phones.

The reason they apparently agreed on Micro vs Mini is that Micro USB is rated for more disconnects/connects than Mini USB (odd, given that it's smaller)
It's also engineered in a more robust manner.

However, I think it's more likely that they wanted people to have to buy one last charger before standardisation set in! :)
Click to expand...

Most new(ish) mobile phones, especially Smartphones, seem to have micro USB now as standard. Which is a pain, as I've reverted back to my N95 and of course that has mini USB - but doesn't charge through that anyway. Would imagine that as phones become more and more sophisticated, the ways and means of connecting to other devices will need to be standardised. The iPhone will of course ignore all of this and use it own rules.
 
If you collection is tagged properly, as mine is, just copy it all to the card, everything is taken care of. Its well worth the effort tagging your music properly (I use mp3tag), makes everything so simple, and then you're not reliant on any particular software for compatibility etc.
 
Hi guys, felt I had to get on here in order to participate in this thread - nowhere else seems to cover mp3 player usage for the Desire, and to me it's a fairly important point before I commit to buying.

I've noticed that a lot of you have said battery life is 'good' or 'ok' when using the Desire as an mp3 player, but do any of you have some good hard numbers I could use as opinions like that are all relative to your own needs?

At the moment I'm thinking of getting a Desire and replacing my mp3 player and old Sony-Ericsson. I'm happy to charge every day in the evening, and I appreciate that turning off Wi-Fi/3G etc when not in use is necessary. But I'd need the phone to handle around 8-10 hours of mp3 playback between charges. This is what I'd consider 'good'.

So my question is, how long can the Desire handle continuous mp3 playback for, given that unnecessary features are turned off when not in use, and allowing for the fact that I'd still be likely to use the phone for web and calls for around 60mins a day too? Also, how much battery would be left over? And what are the maximums I can drag out from the phone in terms of audio usage?

Cnet did similar testing with the iPhone, iPhone 3G battery results: Music and video | Crave - CNET, which seems to be the only phone you can get close to real-world info from on the web. The times look great, but Apple's ruthless and fickle control over their products are not my thing.

Any help you could give on the matter would be great!

Cheers guys,
 
NZtechfreak said:
If you collection is tagged properly, as mine is, just copy it all to the card, everything is taken care of. Its well worth the effort tagging your music properly (I use mp3tag), makes everything so simple, and then you're not reliant on any particular software for compatibility etc.
Click to expand...
Ha...nice to see you here after jumping from the i8910 ;)

I'm about to do the same after initially reading about the Desire on the thread posted by dainesefreak on the i8910 user forum, as tbh, I'd never heard of it until then.
 
Another ex-i8910 user here! Although the Desire isn't perfect, (see my thread on a firmware wish list for some of its shortcomings) it's streets ahead of the i8910. It's like going from Windows 3.1 to Windows 7.

I have an app on my Desire that lists the amount of time remaining for various tasks, and at full charge it says that audiio playback will last for about 7.5 hours. I don't know how accurate it is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not too far out.
 
@ Xenax

OK, not as scientific as you may like but here goes.

Charged to 100% Friday mid eve. Some wifi browsing/emailing/market downloading and app-playing use that night, maybe 1.5 hours, in bursts. couple of texts, 1 brief call, <10mins.

Saturday: alarm wake up, mobile network on most of day--multiple updates and surfing (1.5 hours in bursts), >2hours mp3 playback, >1.5 hours of calls, 15 texts, Wifi on 1-2hours-surfing and downloading apps. brief gps use (<10mins).

Sunday: battery died this morning around 930am whilst playing a game!

I have no doubt that the calls (single call over 1 hour) and mobile network were the big drains. The music playing made only a small difference to the battery %age (using BatteryTimeLite).
 
Thanks NineToTheSky & kboya, you've already helped me get closer than hours of trawling has. :)

Running the MATH on kboya's post - it looks like he's got ~4-5 hours of app use, calls and browsing, in addition to 2 hours of mp3 use over a ~36 hours charge period. 7 hours total.

Linking this to the 7.5 hours reported on Nine's post, one might suppose that on average, audio playback uses just as much juice as browsing the web or using any other app does, which is a shame for my purposes. It's still a very interesting topic, as I know a lot of people who are looking into smartphones as a way of integrating gadgets, and this sort of info isn't widely reported on (unless you're iphone of course).

I'll keep my eye on this forum unless someone places a contradiction in our midst. =)
 
Xenaz said:
Linking this to the 7.5 hours reported on Nine's post, one might suppose that on average, audio playback uses just as much juice as browsing the web or using any other app does
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One thing I am positive of is that listening to music uses a fraction of the juice that web browsing does. Unscientifically, I'd say that web browsing might last for only two - or fewer - hours, whereas I've never seen the battery severely dented by my music playing.

ETA: I'd say that in this, the Desire's not very different to the i8910.
 
Now this is interesting, cnet have posted audio playback battery lifetimes for the Nexus One, at 20 hours. HTC Nexus One by Google (unlocked) Smartphone reviews - CNET Reviews (last para)

I thought the Desire had a very similar battery and spec to the Nexus One. If we go off the fact that Nexus One's playback time is at 20 hours, you could at least assume the Desire would stand in at around 14 hours (based on talktime figures, which I admit are best case scenarios). 7 hours of playback time in total when doing nothing else seems a little low? Has anyone tested this?

Nexus One
Talk time Up to 10 hours
Standby time Up to 290 hours

HTC Desire
Talk time Up to 7 hours
Standby time Up to 340 hours
 
Xenaz said:
Thanks NineToTheSky & kboya, you've already helped me get closer than hours of trawling has. :)

Running the MATH on kboya's post - it looks like he's got ~4-5 hours of app use, calls and browsing, in addition to 2 hours of mp3 use over a ~36 hours charge period. 7 hours total.
Click to expand...

XENAZ, 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':rolleyes:! 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:eek:). Either way, I'll follow this thread with interest.
best
k
 
Related query. (Feel free to split off into a new thread if it is deemed more appropriate.)

Bought my Desire with the intention of ditching my iPod Touch. I have all my music on my iPod Touch with the perfect playlists, information, and all the cover art. My old laptop died months ago and I haven't synced my iPod since to preserve these settings.

Unfortunately Apple is dumb and doesn't store the cover art in the ID3 tags. Is there any way I could export this info intact from my iPod touch (with the intention of importing it all to my Desire)?
 
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