Noise from phone speaker

Support questions for Neutron Player only.
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kec
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:35 pm

Noise from phone speaker

Post by kec » Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:48 pm

Hello!
First of all, let me congratulate You on this amazing piece of software. I love the sound quality and every aspect of it except for one thing.

I've installed the newest evaluation version from market on my Motorola Defy. The thing is that when I start the player there is a hissing noise coming out of my phone speaker. Now, that wouldn't be much of a problem if it stopped when i "close" the program by pressing back or home button, but it doesn't. It stops only when I go to Android's "Application management" and shut it down completely. Also, the noise is not present when I'm listening to music through headphones.

EDIT: There is one more thing I noticed that might help solving the problem.
As You probably already know, usually when a volume rocker is pressed on home screen it changes ringer volume. When I "close" Neutron and the noise is heard, upon pressing volume rocker MEDIA volume changes, as if the player is still playing music.

I hope You will find a solution to this problem. If You do, I'm buying the program for sure. I'm not for now, because that noise really bothers me.

Thank You in advance.
Best regards

dmitrykos
Site Admin
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by dmitrykos » Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:24 pm

Hi!

Thank you for the detailed problem description.

> "close" the program by pressing back or home button, but it doesn't.
Neutron is holding audio stream opened for around 5 minutes and then switches it off. The noise shall go away then. I was thinking to minimize this idle time to some 2 minutes may be. So, in your case you just need to wait some time.

> volume rocker MEDIA volume changes, as if the player is still playing music.
Because audio stream is still opened but as I explained above it will be automatically switched off after some 5 minutes.

It looks like your device has some improper implementation of audio stack in Android OS. Normally you shall never hear any noise from the speakers. May be you shall check whether your device has the latest Android OS ROM installed.

Best regards,
Dmitry.

kec
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:35 pm

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by kec » Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:52 pm

Thank You for the fast reply, it's very much appreciated.
It's very likely that my ROM is causing problems since it's an Ice Cream Sandwich port, not officially supported by Defy. Considering the fact that I don't have this kind of problem with other players I hoped it could be somehow fixed.
I didn't try waiting for 5 minutes to see if it goes away.I will,and if it does go away I guess it's not that much of a problem then.

Thank You and keep up the good work

Solidus
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 4:22 am

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by Solidus » Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:05 am

You can also kill processes without waiting for 5 min.; not sure how in ICS but I'm sure you can.

FWIW, I don't hear any noise on Galaxy S II w/gingerbread after music stops.

kec
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:35 pm

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by kec » Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:19 am

CyanogenMod has a feature for stopping processes by long pressing back button which really comes in handy in this situation and therefore the noise isn't that much of a problem. It's a very quiet sound and is not heard when playing music so it doesn't in any way deminish the sound quality, but it is quite irritating. I reconed this kind of noise isn't normal and thought maybe the developer or some of the forum members have a solution.
Also,I googled it a little and it appears that other phones have this problem too.

dmitrykos
Site Admin
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by dmitrykos » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:16 am

> It's very likely that my ROM is causing problems since it's an Ice Cream Sandwich port, not officially supported by Defy

I would say this is the main cause of the problem because normally device producers do not release source code for drivers. Trying to use driver which does not really fits hardware functionality may lead to different problems in different areas of device functionality. It is very likely that you would not hear noise with original ROM, although if you still do then this is the fault of device manufacturer who made this as hardware bug.

> it appears that other phones have this problem too

In normal circumstances there should not be any noise. I've got Galaxy S, S II, Asus Eee Pad Transformer and none produce any noise from the speakers. Many producers are too much in the rush of releasing new hardware and thus making bugs in device design and its system software. Android platform in general is a disaster for the developers, especially if they go native, like Neutron does.

> I don't have this kind of problem with other players

Likely, because they are using Android OS standard API to playback music files and once you press stop audio stream is killed. Then once you press play audio stream created again. Neutron has own own rendering core and does not depend on Android API and thus works differently. If those players kept audio stream opened then you would hear the same noise.

kec
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:35 pm

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by kec » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:57 am

I'm not an expert on this so I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question, but is there any chance that this audio stream time gets reduced a bit in the future releases? The speaker is producing noise so I guess it has to drain some battery in order to do that. It's probably not much but still. And also, this is the kind of thing that you can barely hear, but once you do, you can never get it out of your mind :)

Anyway, I am probably still buying the app, regardless of this problem since it's hardware or ROM related and the sound is just amazing.

dmitrykos
Site Admin
Posts: 1914
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: Noise from phone speaker

Post by dmitrykos » Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:08 am

As I have mentioned above I will cut idle timeout to 2 minutes from 5 (for next release). 2 minutes of feeding zeroes is not a big deal for the CPU/battery.

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