Android app feature requests

[sindre_mehus]

Anyone else having this problem?

What language settings are you having?

Version 1.2 of the Android app is also available here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/subsonic/files/android

Sindre

[trondis23]

Anyone else having this problem?

What language settings are you having?

Norwegian. There are quite many apps I can't get on the Tattoo through the Market, even if they work.

[sindre_mehus]

Please read this post.

Regards,
Sindre

[trondis23]

I have now installed and tested the latest version on the Tattoo. This is my impressions:

1) Online mode: played back a single album. Sounds good, no problems. Perfect
2) Offline mode: Played back the same album. Tracks are sorted alphabetically. Not perfect
3) Played back a gapless album. Gaps are introduced, and they are quite long also. So I can't use this application for this kind of albums.
4) Played back a double album. Tracks from CD 1 and CD 2 are shuffled.

I noticed some lags here and there. I don't know if it was because of unstable wifi, or if it is a problem with the system. Perhaps it needs to buffer more before starting playback? I will try to set a max bitrate on the server and see if that helps.

So this is my suggestion for a priority list for fixes:

1) Get the playback order right, for both offline mode and multiple disc albums. Perhaps the program could make a playlist automatically for the offline files?
2) Fix gapless playback. In my opinion this is the single most important feature that any player should support, after playing back the music with a good sound quality and in the right order. I have quite many gapless albums, so it is very important. Is this feature impossible or very tricky to implement, or is it just a low priority?
3) Tag based library. I prefer a tag based library over a library based on the folder structure. A tag-based library should of course support "album artist" tags so deal with multiple artists albums. Perhaps the player should support both folders and tags, since some also prefer folders.
4) DSP plugins, like xfeed, parametric EQ and reverb effects. The most important is xfeed, since it reduces listening fatigue and makes listening through headphones more natural.
5) Lyrics support. (Not really important for me, but for some it is.)

[bengrulz]

I see your point, and I'll consider changing the naming scheme in the next version.

The thought behind the current naming scheme is that temporarily cached files in Subsonic shouldn't be recognized in other players.

If you select "Save on Phone", however, they are named properly (and the shared music database on the phone is updated with metadata).

Thanks,
Sindre

Just thought I'd point out that there is another way to do this

http://androinica.com/2009/08/28/how-to-hide-non-music-audio-files-from-appearing-in-android-media-players/

Basically, if you create a file called .nomedia in any directory, that directory will be ignored by the music player. Not sure if it needs to be in every folder or just the parent folder though...

[plexus81]

Only use Wifi would be a great feature, so I don't have to ruin my dataplan when wifi suddenly drops / stop working.

[AmazingLarry]

2) Offline mode: Played back the same album. Tracks are sorted alphabetically. Not perfect

I would love this.

3) Tag based library. I prefer a tag based library over a library based on the folder structure. A tag-based library should of course support "album artist" tags so deal with multiple artists albums. Perhaps the player should support both folders and tags, since some also prefer folders.

I would really dislike this, I took great care to keep my folders organized properly and it's tough to find players that don't force me into using a library meaning I have to go back and "fix" tags that weren't wrong, but now when you have "Artist A" on one song in a folder and "Artist A feat. Artist B" now I have that split into two different artists for no good reason.

I'm still using Winamp for this reason, drag and drop playlists from folders and no bloat like iTunes, etc.


Dynamic playlist changes would be awesome!

Thanks for the great software.

[ootuoyetahi]

An Exit button would be nice, as well as the ability to create playlists.

[gravelhead44]

I would love to see a random play for the android app

[jeffers]

An Exit button would be nice, as well as the ability to create playlists.

+1 for this.

I just noticed that if you pause and exit the app it still downloads the rest of the playlist in the background. This is fine over wifi but I dont want it downloading tons of music over 3g. It even resumes if you kill the app and then relaunch it. There should be an exit button which clears the download/cache queue and exits the app.

jeff

[psycocoffey]

First off, Subsonic and the Android app are amazing. Setup was quick and painless. I will definitely be donating to continue using this.

Would it be possible for the Android App to support Bluetooth playback controls (AVRCP)? The stock media app and pandora can both be controlled with the play/pause, previous, and next buttons on my cars head unit. Additionally, when head phones are removed, those aforementioned apps will pause playback, preventing the music from blasting out of my phone's speaker.

Thanks!

[datajosh]

An Exit button would be nice, as well as the ability to create playlists.

+1 for this.

I just noticed that if you pause and exit the app it still downloads the rest of the playlist in the background. This is fine over wifi but I dont want it downloading tons of music over 3g. It even resumes if you kill the app and then relaunch it. There should be an exit button which clears the download/cache queue and exits the app.

jeff

Agree with this 110%, I've been stuck with downloads in my queue and no way to get rid of them many times.

[dcastellani]

I also think low bandwidth situations need to be addressed.


I have a Google Nexus One in Florida, on the T-mobile network. The phone is awesome, but T-Mobile in my city is pretty horrendous. My phone will have HSDPA then 3G and then drop to Edge. This causes serious issues with subsonic if its trying to grab a track.

Could some work be done to help out people like me who can really only pull 30-50 KB/s at best, but usually much less on average because of my shitty carrier? Maybe a user definable buffer time, or something else?

EDIT: Oh, I wanted to mention that my home server has a 2mbit uplink to the internet, and my user account in subsonic only streams out at 192 kbps. So my bandwidth situation from my home is more than enough to support my streaming.

[hbjastad]

3) Tag based library. I prefer a tag based library over a library based on the folder structure. A tag-based library should of course support "album artist" tags so deal with multiple artists albums. Perhaps the player should support both folders and tags, since some also prefer folders.

Yes, please! I have my music somewhat sorted in folders, but due to other players using tags, I got my tags in better order So, with Subsonic, I now have to go back and fix the folder structure and naming. Also, some characters are illegal in folder names, which makes the tags better suited. Since some users prefer to use folders, it should be easy to switch between the 2 modes.

Sindre, is the Android app open source, so you could get contributions?

HB.

[cooperg21]

I would love to see a random play for the android app

+1

Random Albums to choose from would be awesome!!!!

You have that feature on the homepage and it would be great to get a random list of albums to choose from.

Also, like others have said, a tag based structure would be nice. I have everything sorted by genres and it would be nice to sort by...
genre then
album artist then
album then
songs

It would be nice but not necessary.

Oh yea, and as far as that exit button goes. I would recommend exiting by holding the back button. Simple and pretty universal.

However, great program overall!