G1 Does not "support" Audio Streaming

[marvingreenberg]

After many googles and spending 30 minutes on the phone with an android G1 "specialist" I can only conclude that Tmobile is deliberately disabling support for audio streaming. On the official T-mobile forum, a simple question about audio streaming (http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/boar...746&format=one (http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/print?board.id=87&message.id=3746&format=one)) was deleted. It's still in google's cache at http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=1&gl=us (http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:-pZoahxdYMwJ:forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/print%3Fboard.id%3D87%26message.id%3D3746%26format %3Done+g1+audio+streaming&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us))

All I'm asking for is the ability to play an mp3,real audio, or windows media STREAM. E.g. http://wamu.org/streams/live/1/live.m3u or http://wamu.org/streams/live/1/live.ram or http://wamu.org/streams/live/1/live.asx from the web browser. Just like you can on iphone web browser or any web browser. On g1, it downloads the "file" and then says it can't play it.

(Please don't tell me about Imeem. Its just some service to stream some music that someone else picks for me to like. But it indicates this isn't a TECHNICAL problem, just another phone company deciding what I should do.)

[PCTechNerd]

You can, and the standard android music player does allow streaming. Download orb, or have someone with an orb account give you a link to their public music listing, and you can go to it on the browser, click the stream, android will then open up the music player, and play the stream.

[andonnguyen]

Yes, you can stream music on your G1. Go to www.orb.com and download the desktop client. Then go to http://mycast.orb.com, enter your username and password, then you can access your home music collection and stream it to your phone through your G1 web browser. I've been using it for a few days and it works excellent. I read in another forum that orb is going to release a native application into the marketplace soon to make accessing your home music collection easier. I'm currently in san diego, and I'm accessing my music collection that's about 120 miles away.

- currently typing on the G1

[andrews240]

Orb streaming only works over WIFI for me. Has anyone got it to work over 3G? If so, please share.

[RotaryXperiment7]

i thought i read somewhere where someone was streaming audio off of espn website and they were able to hear it fine and even skip forward in time?

[crazythunder]

Yes, you can stream music on your G1. Go to www.orb.com (http://www.orb.com) and download the desktop client. Then go to http://mycast.orb.com, enter your username and password, then you can access your home music collection and stream it to your phone through your G1 web browser. I've been using it for a few days and it works excellent. I read in another forum that orb is going to release a native application into the marketplace soon to make accessing your home music collection easier. I'm currently in san diego, and I'm accessing my music collection that's about 120 miles away.

- currently typing on the G1

what you say is true. but, why should we have to leave our computers on to do so? if i want to stream at work, i have to leave my pc on for 10 hours a day on top of it's normal use? racking up my electric bill uselessly. when, on the other hand, i could stream shoutcast all day on my old winmo phone. and could leave my pc off. and i could type into shoutcast specifically what i wanted to hear,be it talk radio,news, or megadeth,lol. i will not be happy untill i have my shoutcast back. i like listening to coast to coast am and various other news\talk programs. can't do that with orb. TMO-GOOGLE- GIVE US WHAT WE WANT! wth i'm paying 300 bucks for my phone,25 bucks a month on top of my bill for internet and expecting my money's worth. soon. very soon. imeem is cool, as someone mentioned. but,if i type in something like,say,metallica, it plays some music totally not in the same genre. shoutcast was much better and had way more choices. as you can see, i miss it badly. so badly,among the many other things(bt stereo,tethering,having access to all my files to delete at will etc) i'm starting to really regret this so called purchase. seems more like i got a revolutionary piece of 80's technology.

[andrews240]

Actually, I am pretty sure you can stream anything that streams over the internet through orb. They have preloaded internet radio stations and you can create a custom station from any mms or, I believe, http web stream.


what you say is true. but, why should we have to leave our computers on to do so? if i want to stream at work, i have to leave my pc on for 10 hours a day on top of it's normal use? racking up my electric bill uselessly. when, on the other hand, i could stream shoutcast all day on my old winmo phone. and could leave my pc off. and i could type into shoutcast specifically what i wanted to hear,be it talk radio,news, or megadeth,lol. i will not be happy untill i have my shoutcast back. i like listening to coast to coast am and various other news\talk programs. can't do that with orb. TMO-GOOGLE- GIVE US WHAT WE WANT! wth i'm paying 300 bucks for my phone,25 bucks a month on top of my bill for internet and expecting my money's worth. soon. very soon. imeem is cool, as someone mentioned. but,if i type in something like,say,metallica, it plays some music totally not in the same genre. shoutcast was much better and had way more choices. as you can see, i miss it badly. so badly,among the many other things(bt stereo,tethering,having access to all my files to delete at will etc) i'm starting to really regret this so called purchase. seems more like i got a revolutionary piece of 80's technology.

[lance713]

I have been using seeqpod just fine without any issues.

http://www.seeqpod.com/m

make sure to add that M when you visit it on your G1 for the mobile non flash version.

[wbexpress]

Andon: I downloaded ORB, however, in the "classic rock" genre there is only one choice. I would like to know whether there is a program/app that allows you to put in the URL and choose specific stations. The only thing I can compare it to (coming from WM6) is "Pocket Player", which worked great on that OS.

[wbexpress]

Can you please give specifics? I'm clicking on USA, then classic rock, it only shows one station. Is there in fact a way to put in a specific url and have that play? Thank you.

[djdanska]

Can you please give specifics? I'm clicking on USA, then classic rock, it only shows one station. Is there in fact a way to put in a specific url and have that play? Thank you.Yes, you can add stations. This is how to do it.
Login to http://mycast.orb.com
Go to Open Application, then Audio
Click on Internet Radio
On the top, in the white, click on Add Custom. Enter the stream's address.

[wbexpress]

Unbelievable! It works! Thanks so much! Now if we get a pdf viewer and a backup for apps on the phone I think my G1 experience will be complete. One last thing: maybe a stupid question, but, the player working is not dependent on being within wi-fi range of the host/home computer, is it?

[sti3]

The mycast situation is far from ideal IMO. No metadata and it actually plays the stream on your home PC and uses your home upstream to stream it to your phone, which doesn't make much sense to me. There's also Nagare.

[anon123456]

I was messing around for about 45 minutes this morning and I discovered why I could not stream mp3s off my website.

The website is password protected.

I can access the website just fine, but when I clicked on a song to play (or even manually entered the address), I would get an error.

I moved a test song into a non password-protected directory on my website and it played just fine. It seems that the web browers is equipped to handle password-protected content but the media player is not.

It presents me with a dilemma as the website is password protected so that only I can access it to avoid any legal issues. I hesitate to remove the passwords on the music directory, but the desire to point at Iphone users and laugh as I tell them I just stream my music is overwhelming :(

[inportb]

If you just want to show off, why not just post some free audio for the purpose?

[secrecyguy]

i have no idea what you are talking about.

Go to Android market on your G1 and click on multimedia. There you will find, Antplayer, LastFM, Nagare, and StreamFurious. It will do what you want it to do.

[Albatross]

No, Antplayer, LastFM, Nagare and StreamFurious do NOT do what people want. If you do not have any idea what someone is talking about, it is rather arrogant to pretend you know what will address their issues.

The problem is that I should not need to subscribe to some website in order to listen to arbitrary streaming audio. If my buddy Tim decides to hook up a microphone in his house and stream his guitar practice off of his home web server, ShoutCast isn't going to have that on their list, and I don't see why I need to tell Orb about Tim's webserver in order to listen to Tim. I should be able to open

http//timswebsite.con/myguitarpractice.htm

And the asf file linked there ought to be able to stream live audio of his practice. Without talking to ShoutCast. Without talking to Orb.

This is a TRIVIAL process. The app for this would be tiny and trivial to write. And yes, I COULD write it, but I'm not going to reinvent the wheel if this functionality is already out there (which it ought to be). I could do this with my Windows Mobile phone three years ago - why can't I do this with my Android??

[sti3]

But if Tim encoded in .mp3 and there were a .m3u or a .pls linked there you would be able to open in Streamfurious or Nagare (these programs can be set to automatically open these file types).

So you are basically complaining that your preferred format is not supported. I happen to think aac+ is the best format for streaming but none of these programs support those streaming formats even though the music player can play local AAC+ files natively. Yet am I frothing at the mouth over this? Not really.

I'm guessing you could play that stream with your winmo phone because Microsoft pushes their audio format above all others.

[Albatross]

But if Tim encoded in .mp3 and there were a .m3u or a .pls linked there you would be able to open in Streamfurious or Nagare (these programs can be set to automatically open these file types).

So you are basically complaining that your preferred format is not supported. I happen to think aac+ is the best format for streaming but none of these programs support those streaming formats even though the music player can play local AAC+ files natively. Yet am I frothing at the mouth over this? Not really.

I'm guessing you could play that stream with your winmo phone because Microsoft pushes their audio format above all others.

I don't have a 'favorite' audio format, and I don't really care about the politics of the situation. My concern is that I have a set of radio stations that I used to listen to on my Winmo phone, and now they don't work. Apparently I 'upgraded' to the Android in order to lose functionality. And that's all I care about - functionality. I don't care what's "best," and I don't care if Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is the bigger jerk, I care when I discover I've spent money only to lose functionality.

But okay, I appreciate your filling me in that the problem is that the ASF format is not supported. Therefore if I REALLY care, I can find a Linux-based ASF player (like Mplayer) and adapt it to the Android.

[humblehyper]

I have some videos and what is the ideal format so it will show up good in my G1? 3gp? mpg?.......

[ickyfehmleh]

I was messing around for about 45 minutes this morning and I discovered why I could not stream mp3s off my website.

The website is password protected.
...


In your 45 minutes of pondering, did you consider making a directory for your music and simply not telling others about it? Google et al won't index it if you don't link to it publicly.

[ickyfehmleh]

I don't have a 'favorite' audio format, and I don't really care about the politics of the situation. My concern is that I have a set of radio stations that I used to listen to on my Winmo phone, and now they don't work. Apparently I 'upgraded' to the Android in order to lose functionality. And that's all I care about - functionality. I don't care what's "best," and I don't care if Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is the bigger jerk, I care when I discover I've spent money only to lose functionality.

But okay, I appreciate your filling me in that the problem is that the ASF format is not supported. Therefore if I REALLY care, I can find a Linux-based ASF player (like Mplayer) and adapt it to the Android.

Your cheap shots about losing functionality are unwarranted and unnecessary -- a simple glance at what Android supports (http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html) could have alleviated your worries (and need for this thread). It's frustrating when companies decide to use a non-standard format such as ASF or even QuickTime. I'd urge you to contact them and ask that they move to MP3, a universally supported format. Everyone wins when others use standards.

That being said, try contacting other Android developers (http://code.google.com/android/groups.html) and ask how to make a codec. You may want to start here (http://groups.google.com/group/android-framework) as there's already a discussion about the WMV codec (http://groups.google.com/group/android-framework/browse_thread/thread/b641b6ca43156f15), which I assume would handle ASF.

[rynosaur]

I have some videos and what is the ideal format so it will show up good in my G1? 3gp? mpg?.......

there are already threads about this but to sum up: mp4 (is the container) h264 (is the video coder) aac (audio codec). 480x320, 23/29 fps, 480kbps video rate, 4:3 ratio (unless you have wide DVD content) . . . I use Super. It was recommended to me by other users on this site, for good reason. It's free and it works to make rock-solid videos for the G1. I can even give you the profile I use for G1, but it would be fun if you experimented with Super, wouldn't it?:D

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

[humblehyper]

there are already threads about this but to sum up: mp4 (is the container) h264 (is the video coder) aac (audio codec). 480x320, 23/29 fps, 480kbps video rate, 4:3 ratio (unless you have wide DVD content) . . . I use Super. It was recommended to me by other users on this site, for good reason. It's free and it works to make rock-solid videos for the G1. I can even give you the profile I use for G1, but it would be fun if you experimented with Super, wouldn't it?:D

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

I tried using the "Super" program but for some very odd reason after I install it and restarts my PC it loads up fine, then when I close it and load it again it wont load even after restart. Buttomline is, it only works one time :(

I have Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1. But thanks for the mp4 format :)