Android App Development for Motorola Devices

[microleaks]

I have had reports that the droid x and Xoom are having audio looping issues, where between loops there is a noticable stutter or gap of about 500ms.  I am unsure of the versions that are effected with the droid x (as I don't have one) but on the Xoom with the 3.2 I the issue is present.  

I have tested with various ogg and wav files and they all produce the same result a brief pause between sounds. 

I believe this is related to the new media framework stagefright where looped audio is not longer seemless. Using the following code:

Media Player mediaPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, Uri.parse(someValidPath)); 

mediaPlayer.setLooping(true);

In my testing someValidPath points to a local file stored on a SD card. 

Has anyone seen this?  I don't know that this is related to Moto hardware, but since I had two issues and they were both with Motorola, I though I would give it a shot.  

Thanks

[Peter_vdL]

Hi Micro, can you give me a small complete test program demonstrating this (and including source code) as a zip file exported from Studio or Eclipse.

I'll test for this issue on the platforms you mentioned, and file a bug if I see it.

You can message me, or just attach the zip file here.

Peter

[microleaks]

I have attached a simple eclipse project.  It is as minimal as I could make it, so there isn't any cleanup of the media player etc.   I have tested the same code base on the Nexus One, G2, G1 and Xoom.  On the Nexus One, G2, and G1 the application performs as expected.   The Xoom is the only piece of hardware (of my tests) where you get a noticable gap between the loop.  I have had reports that other Moto hardware is acting the same way.  What should happen when you play the loop is that you should get seemless audio playback without any gap in playback.  The sample is known to be good as well.

In my test I am using a the WiFi Xoom Running 3.2 with Kernel: 2.6.36-gb988528 android-build@apa28#1

Build Number HTJ85B

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Peter_vdL]

OK -- thanks for coming through with the test case so quickly.

I just tried the test on a Droid X, and I couldn't hear your whitenoise1.ogg.  So I swapped in a noisier effect instead. 

I observed the same effect that you reported on the XOOM - there is a half second lag in between repeats of the play.

I will file a bug on this, and attach the test case to the report.   I will let you know when I hear something back.    Regards

    Peter

[microleaks]

Thanks for all your help Peter, I have been pulling my hair out with this issue.

[microleaks]

Is there a public bug report that I can keep an eye on for progress?

[Peter_vdL]

We don't put that info on the web, but I do a pretty good job of keeping posters up to date, when I hear anything back from engineering.  Especially posters like yourself, Micro, who make my job easy by providing a reproducible test case.   Cheers,

Peter

[microleaks]

Any chance of getting an update?  I am having to refund alot of orders and my users are not very happy.  Was the bug at least accepted and is it fixable?  Will it make it into a future firmware release?  I would like to be able to give users or my application a bit more feedback.  I would be more than willing to provide any additional information needed.  

I can confirm from all the emails I have gotten in the past few months that all the devices are Motorola devices.  

[Peter_vdL]

I don't have any new information to report.  I will update when I hear something.   To set your expectations, when software is released as firmware (as it is for all Android products) bugs fixes usually only take place as part of a new platform release to that product.   New platform releases are few and far between - perhaps zero, one, or maybe two (that's a lot) over the lifetime of the handset.  

Please don't let my attentiveness to this issue, lull you into thinking the entire process works like that.  There are many stakeholders in generating a new platform release, not the least the carrier who bears the burden and cost of it.  And that's if the bug is prioritized as a good cost/benefit tradeoff. Looping on a sub-second sound with the intent of playing it as a continuous tone is not that common an operation.   As I say, I will report back anything I learn.  

Peter

[microleaks]

Just more information that backs up that this issue only affects Motorola devices:

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=18756