MP3 > OGG for Android
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:15 pmAs many mobile users know, 3g bandwidth can vary greatly. One of the best solutions is to transcode everything to ogg for use over 3g as it retains great quality at very low bandwidth.
I've been trying to get this working again and have had some success by reverting to version 4.4 of SS and getting it to work fine on an HTC EVO 4G. Great - that solves the problem for me, but it doesn't help one of my users who has a Samsung Galaxy IIS. He gets nothing on his phone trying to stream mp3 >ogg, the data transfers, but he gets no sound. His phone uses Android 2.3.6
Yes, I have the transcoding selected for his Android Player and the same settings work fine on the EVO which also runs Gingerbread.
Transcoding to ogg is the perfect solution for 3g and Subsonic, but I'd really like a solution for all Subsonic version and all Android phones that works consistently. I have tested virtually every setting variation poted on these forums.
If anyone has this working on their SS site, please share the details.
Thanks
Gary J
EDIT: Mystery solved. Newer versions of ffmpeg are the problem. Taking the old ffmpeg that comes with ver 4.4 and dumping it into a ver 4.5 site enables the mp3 to ogg transcoding for both phones tested.
ffmpeg -v 0 -i %s -f ogg -vn -acodec libvorbis -ar 44100 -aq 5 -ac 2 -map_meta_data 0:0 -
was the transcoding setting used. -aq5 setting determines the quality level and bitrate. q2 lowers the bitrate to 96kbps and still retains great quality for 3g connections. I was able to playback on my EVO and stay 2 tracks ahead of playback on a 150kbps 3g connection.
The complete settings to bitrate chart is on the following page, page down a bit and on the right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis
The problem with using the old ffmpeg is that it is not as good at handling video, but if all you need is a way to improve performance to your phone, this is the way to go. I've only tested this with Android, but if someone with an iphone wants to see if it works on their phone just send me a PM and I'll give you access to the site for testing.
I've been trying to get this working again and have had some success by reverting to version 4.4 of SS and getting it to work fine on an HTC EVO 4G. Great - that solves the problem for me, but it doesn't help one of my users who has a Samsung Galaxy IIS. He gets nothing on his phone trying to stream mp3 >ogg, the data transfers, but he gets no sound. His phone uses Android 2.3.6
Yes, I have the transcoding selected for his Android Player and the same settings work fine on the EVO which also runs Gingerbread.
Transcoding to ogg is the perfect solution for 3g and Subsonic, but I'd really like a solution for all Subsonic version and all Android phones that works consistently. I have tested virtually every setting variation poted on these forums.
If anyone has this working on their SS site, please share the details.
Thanks
Gary J
EDIT: Mystery solved. Newer versions of ffmpeg are the problem. Taking the old ffmpeg that comes with ver 4.4 and dumping it into a ver 4.5 site enables the mp3 to ogg transcoding for both phones tested.
ffmpeg -v 0 -i %s -f ogg -vn -acodec libvorbis -ar 44100 -aq 5 -ac 2 -map_meta_data 0:0 -
was the transcoding setting used. -aq5 setting determines the quality level and bitrate. q2 lowers the bitrate to 96kbps and still retains great quality for 3g connections. I was able to playback on my EVO and stay 2 tracks ahead of playback on a 150kbps 3g connection.
The complete settings to bitrate chart is on the following page, page down a bit and on the right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis
The problem with using the old ffmpeg is that it is not as good at handling video, but if all you need is a way to improve performance to your phone, this is the way to go. I've only tested this with Android, but if someone with an iphone wants to see if it works on their phone just send me a PM and I'll give you access to the site for testing.