Won't let me post it in the WM forums so I'll ask here. I've been using Android for the past 2 years but I'm considering a switch to Windows Mobile (8), mainly out of curiosity. However, before I do so, I want to make sure it's capable of all the stuff I could easily do on my Android device.
So, let's get to it. Is WM8 capable of:
- File managing? Downloading a .rar or .zip archive, extracting it's contents and opening them (be it music, documents, videos, anything)? Also, browsing ALL the files on the phone, not just the known formats or visible ones?
- File transfer between devices? Simply taking a picture or any type of file and sending it via Bluetooth, as well as receiving it?
- Media playback? I'm assuming it can play MP3s, WMVs and AVIs, how about some less usual stuff like MKVs or FLAC files?
- YouTube? Is there a dedicated app or is it just viewing via browser?
Some minor questions include:
- How's file transfer between PC and Phone? Can it be done via explorer like an USB device or do you need to do the SkyDive and Zune player transfers to get stuff on your phone?
- Does it have some minor apps, "Accessories" you could call them, such as Calculator, Calendar, Sound record, etc ?
- Is there anything else you'd tell and Android user transfering to Windows Phone?
Related
I'm after a media player for WM 5.0 as it seems that my Univeral didn't come with a decent one (I don't consider WMP to be decent - lacks one of my requirements). I have two real requirements - might add some if I think of them:
- Must be able to play .mp4 files, .avi (DivX if possible), .wmv and .mpeg
- Important: must be able to skip through files one after another.
Explanation: the XDA2i which I used to have comes with an 'Album' program which can be used to view photos and videos. This had two great features; the ability to view photos and videos in one program (not a problem for me as I have an even better photo viewer now) and the ability to point it at a folder of videos and then watch them one after the other, skipping to the next just by pressing on the d-pad.
Can anyone name a good media player which can meet both criteria? I've looked at some comparison charts but none seem to specify what seems to be a small feature to them but is actually an important one to me.
I have tried TCPMP and that doesn't seem to meet the second criterion.
Suggestions?
Look at TCMP again, but this time look in the settings menu and configure some hotkeys to skip tracks, there are is no shortage of keys on the Universal when it comes to picking a hotkey.
I'm willing to have another go, but doesn't 'skip track' mean to just go to the next one in the playlist?
Due to the way I use my device (take lots of short videos when out with friends) I can't be constantly adding them to playlists. The number of files I deal with is too large for me to have to organise them myself.
TCMP's playlist idea is completly different to mediaplayer. Browse to your folder in TCMP's file selector and use the select ALL option to give yourself a temporary playlist with all the files in the folder. You can even use the DIR command to select your Media folder which may have further folders below it with music, pictures and video in them and everything will be selected for your playlist.
Ahh okay, I didn't realise one could do this. Going to give it another go then report back.
Thanks.
No probs, it will also play your images too so you've got everything your XDA IIi could do, and probably more
Seems to be okay, I'm a bit confused with the buttons but I have set it so they at least change the playing video. I also managed to get it to play all the files in a folder.
Its best to pick something you will remember, like 'N' for next and 'P' for previous.
I spend quite a lot of time travelling, and find my HD2 has an ideal sized screen for watching films on when on the move.
Previously I had the Touch HD - which was also great.
I've been using a program which I found on here called MP4forHD - which works great - but all the videos are slightly out of sync. I'm processing them on a quad core 2.83ghz PC with 8gb or RAM, so its definately not the PC thats the problem. When I check them on my PC once they've converted - they're already out of synce - so its not the phone.
The program converts directly from a DVD or file - which is exactly what I want.
Prior to MP4forHD, I was using another tool I found on here which was just called Encoder. It only did files, so I had to use DVD Decryptor, then VOB joiner to make a file that it could re-encode. I've tried it just now, and its also out of sync.
Both these programs have a setting for HTC Touch HD - so they encode at the correct resolution. I've tried fiddling with settings, but no matter what I do, it always seems to be out of sync.
What programs are folk using to get a good video file - and what settings? I'm away tomorrow morning on holiday and have a pile of out of sync films to watch! I hope I can get some suggestions so that I can re-encode a couple of them to be in sync
Cheers...
Whoops - just realised I've posted this in the general / general board - not the general Windows Mobile one...
I'll repost - but if a mod sees this, please remove it.
So I like the doubletwist android player, but the desktop app fails to work on my computer.
I was wondering if anyone uses DoubleTwist for syncing podcasts and if so could you let me know what folder structure the doubletwist app uses for podcasts. My plan is to manually transfer my downloaded podcasts on to my phone, but since I was never able to get the doubletwist app running on my computer, I don't know what folder structure it uses for podcasts.
I would start by finding out where the application that recorded the podcast stores them and I would find out the file format it stores them in and whether or not they were digitally rights managed.
Armed with all this information and a simple search of the host (PC/Laptop) file system translates into select all cut/copy paste
Or delete all dirty software waste.
I'm sure you could also invert the search and google your sd card instead of your host system for similar media. Beware. Most windows users generally have no idea about the mechanisms involved in hiding files from an elementary search in a unix like environment.
NowUCMe
.NowYouDont
Sent from my HTC Magic using Tapatalk
I think my question wasn't clear.
What I need to know is what folder structure the doubletwist android app uses. I have no problem finding the files on my system and transferring them to my phone, but unless I know what type of folder structure to create, the doubletwist app won't see these files as podcasts.
I guess what you're saying is a podcast is like any other media file. I don't have double twist but I can tell you that inspection is the best answer. Explore the double twist folder on your sd card. Take notes of what you see. Acquire a new podcast using the double twist app. Go back to the sd card and compare your notes.
I'm sorry if I'm no help.
Sent from my HTC Magic using Tapatalk
The problem is that the doubletwist app on the phone doesn't create a folder structure on your SD card. It relies on the desktop app to do that, so if you're unable to run the desktop app there is now way to know what folder structure its looking for (since the phone app won't create it)
Anyway, I managed to guess it. I created a folder /Podcasts in the /Music folder. Then inside the podcast folder I created another folder for each podcast and moved the individual m4a's into those folders.
geoken said:
Anyway, I managed to guess it. I created a folder /Podcasts in the /Music folder. Then inside the podcast folder I created another folder for each podcast and moved the individual m4a's into those folders.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well done!
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Looks like I spoke too soon. That method only partially works. It allows doubletwist to see the files as podcasts (which in turn lets you browse them through doubletwists's podcast section) but it doesn't split the podcasts up. The subfolders are ignored and all podcasts get lumped under a category called other.
At this point I'm convinced there is also some configuration file I need to create.
Have you tried latest windows version of the program? If so it seems you need to contact the developer/support!
I would probly explain what happened when u tried manual correction and also suggest a less complicated app framework!
*edit: on second thought, it seems like most java developers just aren't happy if it isn't complicated!
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So after exploring a little more I realized the app has it's on db. At first I thought it just read the contents of the sd card (since it picked up all the m3u's and was able to play them without issue) but after exploring it's db I realized it created it's own internal playlists in it's db (which mirrored my m3u's).
I'm just going to move on to my plan b which is automatically creating m3u files out of the most recent podcast episodes and using songbird to sync those.
I'm sure somebody out there would appreciate a step by step guide!
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It's pretty easy to do with songbird.
First you need a podcatcher app to grab all your podcast episodes and to dump them into a folder within your music folder.
Then, in songbird, you create a smart playlist using file location as the criteria (you need to make sure each podcast has series has it's own folder for this to work). In songbird the playlist can be limited to x amount of items and that filter can be imposed by various criteria including date added (which would in effect limit the list to the x most recent files).
Then simply sync that playlist to phone as you would any other playlist.
It was mentioned in Mango announcement that it will support 'File Transfer'. Does it mean mango will provide 'Bluetooth' file transfer?? We need this basic feature in WP7!!!
I believe the "file transfer" refers to the ability for apps to perform downloads and uploads in the background.
Out of curiosity, what types of files do you want to transfer over bluetooth?
Oh.. Ok. Images, Video, mp3 transfer with friend imm is great via blutooth. every time i record a small video or take a few snaps and my friend ask for it immediately i am embarrassed that my WP doesnt support. i have to say i'll mail you or upload to fb.
Yeah, since I know you're forced to use Zune to transfer stuff on a, let's say, Lumia 800, how does it handle .pdf/word/other misc. file transfer? I know that there are no folders whatsoever. Do I really have to upload everything on SkyDrive?
Also, are there any other misc. issues out there? Heard about bluetooth transfer issues - being too hard to transfer files.
If you upload your pdf files to skydrive you can view them on phone with Adobe etc, Bluetooth only really works for headsets and contacts transfer on Nokias, Music and stuff yep through Zune but it works well.