OK, it's probably just me, but I cannot figure out the TouchFlo music player at all.
I synced 7 or 8 albums from various artists onto the storage card using Windows Media Player on my desktop. All of the albums have appropriate album art visible within Media Player.
After a bit of hit and miss, TF Music Player found the albums. But only some of the have album art. Those that do have a ~hTC_<album name>.jpg file, others have a AlbumArt_{long guid}_Large.jpg file. Any way to automatically fix this?
OK, now on to the bigger problem. I just can't figure out how to get the player to play what I want. I press Library, go to Artists, Select an artist, then an Album. Click on a track, and it starts playing that album. Do the same again, except select a different album and selecy Add to play list, and .... nothing happens.
I've messed around for quite a while. About 1 in 4 times I can get it to play what I want, but it's seems far from intuitive. I'd just like a 'Play' button on the screen that lists the albums for instance.
The only thing I seem to be able to do reliably is queue up everything, so I guess that'll have to do.
Sorry for the long winded rant, but I've been fighting with this for a while, it's nearly 1am and I'm tired.
If the album art picture is called folder.jpg the TouchFlo player will pick it up and assign it as the album cover , it creates the ~hTC_<album name>.jpg file file when it does so.
When I click on a track from within an album it plays the track and cues the rest of the album to play, but it does play the track I select. I'm not 100% sure, but from your description it sounds like yours doesn't?
But in general to answer your question: no, its not a particularly useful UI for song selection (especially compared to what I'm used to coming from the S60 music player). Really wish in particular that you could do as you say and select an artist/genre and just hit play - instead you have to select the artist, then click on the music note to bring up all the songs, click on any one and then it cues them all (same goes for playing by genre etc). Also wish you could narrow down selection with the keyboard (or virtual keypad), like in contacts, or at least have the alphabet sidebar for selection. Only thing I really like about it, other than looking quite pretty, is that its fairly finger friendly.
Thanks, the folder.jpg bit seems to have worked mostly. It's not picked a couple of them up yet, but I guess it will eventually.
As for queueing up tracks, I'm not sure what happens and when. It just seems that sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't. Mostly I can queue up a single album just fine, but if I want to add a second album to the queue it seems hit and miss.
Best way is to create a playlist and add them to that, but its hardly intuitive or user friendly, worst of all the playlist editor is not that finger-friendly either. Its adequate for me, but only just.
Related
I've removed the supplied music and added my own selection to my memory card. The touch flo music app see's this in its library and, if I go through the pages to select and album and song, will show the album art etc. in the touch flo music player but it only shows that one artist at a time, not the stacked albums as with the original, supplied music.
How do I get the touch flo music player to build the stacked view of my artists?
Thanks...
Isn't touchflo3D linked to windows media player? If so, try going to start>programs>wmp right click>Update library. I haven't had this problem so don't know much.
I don't use WMP as such though and only want to synch some files from another location, not those my laptop has access to...
2nd poster is right, you have to find a link to windows media player then go into the options and update your library. It finds all music files and adds them, and they can then be accessed by going into the music tab and hitting Library in the bottom left.
Okay, cheers. Will give it a go and sort it out.
Thanks both.
That's weird. All I did was dump a load of tracks onto my SD card in a folder and they all appeared. I didnt have to do anything in WMP etc. TF3D picked them up pretty much straight away.
EDIT: Having read your OP again, I see what you are getting at. The view of "stacked albums" you are talking about is the "Now Playing" list. You have to add items into Now Playing before they will appear there. You will not see your entire music collection in that view unless you put them all into the playist that is currently playing.
Syphon Filter said:
That's weird. All I did was dump a load of tracks onto my SD card in a folder and they all appeared. I didnt have to do anything in WMP etc. TF3D picked them up pretty much straight away.
EDIT: Having read your OP again, I see what you are getting at. The view of "stacked albums" you are talking about is the "Now Playing" list. You have to add items into Now Playing before they will appear there. You will not see your entire music collection in that view unless you put them all into the playist that is currently playing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AH, I didn't even realize that lol... I thought he meant getting them into the library, and unlike yours mine didn't pick them up automatically. I had a folder full of files with "No program assigned" so I couldn't even open them until I updated my library.
i think that the original tracks gave you the wrong ideia. I used a diamond and i could only ear one artist at the time! the up and down only changes track.
But since you mention it, try messing with the settings and choose all albums. This should do the trick because with the original track they were like albums but with only one sample track each??
Should be getting mine soon to try it out
Yep, think I'm getting the hang of it.
Some confusion too. When I was referring to WMP I meant on my laptop rather than WMP on the Touch Pro.
WMP on my laptop wanted to synch a few hundred pictures as well... Stopped that and removed what I don't want leaving only the music I do want on the Touch Pro storage card.
Have now updated the library from within WMP on the Touch Pro (you have to first change it to look in the storage card) and now things are looking better.
Yep, agree that the supplied sample tracks give the impression that the Touch Flo music app can navigate between albums a flick at a time whereas this was because there was only a single track per each of these albums...
Have also seen that I need to get a selection made in order for the stacked album covers to appear...
Getting there slowly...
Further. Have added all my music to a playlist now and that makes all the albums come up in the stacked album view within the touch flo music app.
Not quite like what I thought it would be like though, i.e. you are limited to scrolling through your music one track at a time, the album flips to the next when you reach beyond the first or last track - you can't flip through albums at a time using the interface (unless the album has only one track) to select.
Can the Touchflow built in player read flac files? I have a feeling WMP doesnt...
NutsyUK said:
Can the Touchflow built in player read flac files? I have a feeling WMP doesnt...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's just a re-skinned WMP, built around it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that why you update WMP's library and it shows up in touch-flo's library?
It is a crock, I am going to switch it off, all I want to do is browse the folders to add songs to the play list but all I get is a big long list of all the songs on there, I have multiple versions of some but I can't see which are which.......
kempas said:
Further. Have added all my music to a playlist now and that makes all the albums come up in the stacked album view within the touch flo music app.
Not quite like what I thought it would be like though, i.e. you are limited to scrolling through your music one track at a time, the album flips to the next when you reach beyond the first or last track - you can't flip through albums at a time using the interface (unless the album has only one track) to select.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, if you have 10 songs from the same album, each gesture flick will flip to the next track but the album art doesn't flip since it's the same album.
I "workaround" by creating a playlist containing multiple albums, and then I sort them in such a manner that the album tracks are arranged randomly, or at least no two track from the same album are together side by side.
Regarding album art.
I have added pics to albums that I have in WMP on PC. Synced those albums with TP. Some of the album arts does not show in TF3Ds music player, other does. However, album art shows nice when playing the same file in WPM on TP. Any clues???
Regarding album art, one foolproof way I've discovered of ensuring it appears is to make sure each album folder contains a file called Folder.jpg, then TF3D's music app will convert that JPG into it's own album art file when it next updates its library, which it tends to do either after a soft reset or after a memory card is inserted.
You may then delete all the Folder.jpg files if you want, to save space - they won't be needed any more.
Hi!
I use the Music tab in Sense to play my music, because it's really neat to have it so easily accessible. There is one feature I miss, though, and I think it could be easily added. I miss having the option to enqueue(hope that's the right spelling ) the song to the Now Playing playlist instead of playing it right away. I used to make a queue of songs I'd like to hear in all my previous music players and I don't wanna give it up or be forced to use WMP. So is there a possibility any good programmer would add that feature? It would be like: short press - play, long press - enqueue. Or something like that. I would be really grateful. Thanks
P.S. Yes I know I can build playlists, but I'd like this better.
I'll be following this thread. It's the one (major) thing missing from the music player. Let's hope there's a solution.
I also miss the option to just browse for a certain folder! The album names sometimes do not match, which results in songs being catogorized several times in the album list.... A new tab would be wonderful
Hi ,
I created a play list in zune. i dont know how to shuffle..it keeps playing albums 1 by 1 anyone knows how to shuffle ?
Shan
Press on the album art, press the shuffle icon.
In Zune music swipe sideways untill you get to songs, then select shuffle all
brummiesteven said:
Press on the album art, press the shuffle icon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry ..i dont see anything..nothing happening even after long press.
CAH000 said:
In Zune music swipe sideways untill you get to songs, then select shuffle all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but i want to shuffle songs only in my playlist not all songs in my zune
i got it now..i have to press almost at the bottom of the album art to get the option..thanx guys..
shanssv said:
i got it now..i have to press almost at the bottom of the album art to get the option..thanx guys..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whoa.
And here I thought WM7 would be user friendly. I still can't do this. I've got a playlist, some albums... Is it that hard to include a shuffle button at the bottom?
When I long-press on the album art I either get a grey "share" option or the following options: "add to play now", "delete", "pin to start".
I'm honestly not taken in by this player. How do you shuffle songs?
EDIT: The only reference to shuffling that I saw was the on the "all songs" list. But I want to shuffle an album, not the whole songs library.
I had a Zune HD for a year and the controls were spot on (music & video), I don't know why they were not ported straight to WP7 but hopefully that will be updated soon.
Check this article:
http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/windows-phone-7-vs-zune-hd-video
Peew971 said:
I had a Zune HD for a year and the controls were spot on (music & video), I don't know why they were not ported straight to WP7 but hopefully that will be updated soon.
Check this article:
http://pocketnow.com/windows-phone/windows-phone-7-vs-zune-hd-video
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you suggesting the feature is not there, or that using it is shown in the YouTube video? (I can't watch YT videos at this very moment...)
EDIT: After more Googling, I found the answer to my question. To get to those features one has to tap the album art.
I always associated "pressing" on phones with a "long press", which in this case brings up the Zune context menu for that given object, but doesn't contain the shuffle option.
Shaamaan said:
Whoa.
And here I thought WM7 would be user friendly. I still can't do this. I've got a playlist, some albums... Is it that hard to include a shuffle button at the bottom?
When I long-press on the album art I either get a grey "share" option or the following options: "add to play now", "delete", "pin to start".
I'm honestly not taken in by this player. How do you shuffle songs?
EDIT: The only reference to shuffling that I saw was the on the "all songs" list. But I want to shuffle an album, not the whole songs library.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, step-by-step
- Open Music & Videos
- Select Music
- Select your artist (Click the artist name, rather than the Play button next to them)
- Select your album (if you want to play all the album, you can just click the album art at this stage, which will immediately start playing the album)
- Select the album Art (not long press, just a tap will do)
This will make the album art gray out and 3 button will appear over the top of it, the first being Repeat, the middle is like/dislike/no opinion, the 3rd is the Holy Shuffle Button
I've never owned or used a Zune device before so can't comment on whether it's better/worse/different/the same. But it's easy enough for me.
Note: When you're in the WP7 Library, the "Play" button you'll see next to the artists name in Artist View (for eg.) immediately plays all that artists songs you have. Just an FYI as the Play button pops up in a few places and has different effects than Selecting the artist by tapping their name for example.
-
Shaamaan said:
Are you suggesting the feature is not there, or that using it is shown in the YouTube video? (I can't watch YT videos at this very moment...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The feature is there but if I remember correctly on the Zune HD it appears on the screen without the need for a long press.
The video just highlights differences between Zune on the Zune HD and on WP7, for instance on the ZHD you can fast forward a video by sliding on the playing bar.
In the "Songs" menu, once I've found the song I want to hear first, there's no way to then shuffle the rest of the songs. After the selected song is finished, it goes on to the next song in the list. A bad omission.
whilst the song is playing, where the album art is, click on it... three icons will appear over the album art... shuffle, repeat, favorite (i think).
Yeah thanks..I found it
Try this
I have a brand new Nokia WP7 and was having a little trouble finding this option, but it does exist. Yes, you can shuffle play your playlists!
Go to your playlist, pick a song out of the playlist. When the graphic of the song comes up, there are three icons on the RIGHT. The icon in the middle that looks kind of like a set of headphones/crab is the shuffle icon. I thought it was some kind of share icon, so initially ignored it. Just turn it on and you are good to go.
Aside from the little hiccup, I am loving my WP7.
Anyone know of any music apps that go to a list of artists after selecting genre? Its the way Apple does genre browsing and I think they have a patent on it because no other music player does it, they send you to all the songs in a genre which is a joke (select "rock" and get a list of 1200 songs, thanks for narrowing it down).
The ONLY app Ive seen that does this is Player Pro, and they do it in a weird way (which lets them get by the patent, assuming there is one).
I simply cannot use a music app that doesnt allow you to browse by genre and then goes to artists, its by far the easiest way to find what youre looking for since it narrows results down so much. I only use the music part of my phone when driving so finding things quickly without looking through big lists is essential, searching by artist is too difficult because I have too many artists and the list is too long to scroll through, if it wasnt for Player Pro I'd still be using my ipod touch for music. Player Pro is a good app but Id still like to know of alternatives.
I remember there being a Zune clone floating around that wasnt allowed on the google store because it was an exact copy, is there anything like that for the iPod (I know about bTunes, its not what Im looking for)?
place yHonMa
Try N7 or Power Amp
idividebyzero said:
Anyone know of any music apps that go to a list of artists after selecting genre? Its the way Apple does genre browsing and I think they have a patent on it because no other music player does it, they send you to all the songs in a genre which is a joke (select "rock" and get a list of 1200 songs, thanks for narrowing it down).
The ONLY app Ive seen that does this is Player Pro, and they do it in a weird way (which lets them get by the patent, assuming there is one).
I simply cannot use a music app that doesnt allow you to browse by genre and then goes to artists, its by far the easiest way to find what youre looking for since it narrows results down so much. I only use the music part of my phone when driving so finding things quickly without looking through big lists is essential, searching by artist is too difficult because I have too many artists and the list is too long to scroll through, if it wasnt for Player Pro I'd still be using my ipod touch for music. Player Pro is a good app but Id still like to know of alternatives.
I remember there being a Zune clone floating around that wasnt allowed on the google store because it was an exact copy, is there anything like that for the iPod (I know about bTunes, its not what Im looking for)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The MixZing media player seems to do what you're asking for, when you click on the genre section it shows you the artists, and on clicking the artits you get the albums.
So after downloading this and firing it up I ran into this bug almost immediately which sadly makes the app near unusable for me.
You see I listen to a lot of music which does not have one universal album artist. Instead thee are multiple artists per album (basically a compilation album)
The problem arises when I want to open an album. Instead of getting all the tracks in an album and having the artist name underneath each track only 1 song gets displayed for each album which is usually either the first or last track.
It isn't like the songs are split into different albums either (although that would be probably worse so please don't so that if you work on fixing this). They are just completely absent from the album section.
It seems the grouping criteria involves the folder and ARTIST to be the same in order for something to get grouped as an album which isn't ideal for someone like me who listens to mostly compilation albums.
What might be a good solution is implementing a feature I have seen in another music player called rocket player. With rocket player you can actually select how you want albums grouped. For example I have it set so that songs which are in the same folder and are listed as being from the same album are grouped under one album. The artist tag doesn't actually come into play in this way which stops this issue with the sorting from actually happening.
I really do hope this gets fixed soon as for me it is a major drawback which makes the app almost unusable. At the very least implementing an option so the user can set how albums are grouped would be ideal.
I have attached some screenshots showing this issue below. (I have also attached a screenshot of what the album should look like when seen from another music player as well as a screenshot of that album grouping feature I talked about with rocket player)
Attachment Key:
First Image is what I see in Encore
Second and third image is what I was supposed to see (I.E those are all the songs that should be displaying)
Fourth image shows the Album grouping feature from rocket player