Inexpensive Tablets. Possible new music App creation?

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Old Quad Guy

Old Quad Guy

Quadraphonic Preservation
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Say, wanted to pass this info on about inexpensive Tablets. I just wanted a simple e-reader for under $100. I looked at a basic Kindle for $69, but wanted to do more, like just read the web, don't intend to post from Tablet. Anyway, I’m still waiting in the mail for this, but I’m going to try the Coby 8048:
http://www.cobyusa.com/?p=prod&prod_num_id=10687&pcat_id=3001

It was $99 shipped from Toy-R-Us website. You can hook this to a HDTV with proper HDMI cord, not included. The Apps it comes with are supposedly lame. It supposedly will do the Amazon App store without “Rooting” the unit. But if you want Google play Apps, you need to “root” the unit.

Google this for "Root" link:
Root and Gapps for telechips, 7032,7034,7036,7048,8048

Anyway, I have no experience with tablets, but thought I’d share this info. It would be nice to make Music Android/Apple Apps at some point. Any thoughts about “rooting” Pro/Cons or any other Tablet info would be cool. Thanks.
 
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A couple of suggestion:

http://www.slatedroid.com

is a good place to learn a lot about android devices, especially tablets.
As a "cheap music player", the only BIG drawback of ANY tablet is the lack of a DIGITAL AUDIO OUT: you have a headphone connector, but the sound is kinda lame. Using the HDMI connection will require a HDMI-enabled receiver and in a lot of cases the video is NOT mirrored - so if you connect the hdmi of the tablet ONLY for audio you DON'T have a working screen on the tablet.

Changing the settings should be possible, but it does require software skills.

AFAIK only in Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) there are specs for multichannel audio, NOT in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Something can be solved using a external USB 2 Spdif for stereo playback; for mch we're still in deep waters.
 
There are some very good apps available for the IPad/IPhone. I'll assume folks here have heard about Brian Eno's wonderful new "Scapes" app, in which different shapes and colors you drag onto the screen act as "rules" for an ongoing ambient piece. Absolutely love it.

TouchOSC acts as a control interface of sorts for different audio programs, including Plogue. Interesting from a "hey, look at what I can do!" perspective, but not one I pull out often for pure practical purposes.

Looking through my Apple Store, I find everything from a fully functioning Korg synthesizer app for $14.99 to a simple beatmaker for $0.99. The scope of what's out there is probably even bigger than that.

Bjork has also made extensive use of Apple devices in both creating and enhancing their music.
 
So is anyone using an android device as a normal stereo music player? Is there anything that approaches Foobar as a player in layout and operation? I have a couple of 2TB discs that I have transferred most of my music to in FLAC, ALAC, APE, some MP3, etc. I am just wondering if there is a suitable app as I'm getting an Android tablet tomorrow.
 
Poweramp is a good android player that can do flac+cue and various other things.
 
Well worth.
If you have a server, you can use the Cifs Manager app to mount the shared music folder as a local disk and Poweramp can play happily the streaming media.
 
Thanks mate. Just coming to grips with the Android interface as I've not had anything to do with it before. I love my iPad but I wonder whether the "open" nature of the Android, and the ability to interface with USB and HDMI out of the box compared to IOS will enable it to increase in popularity. I seem to remember a similar reason being given years ago over the rise of PC over Mac. Also, similarly, the lower prices don't hurt either
 
Android is a world where not everything has been already implemented, so there is a big margin of improvement even for no-brand devices (=cheapest).
One very amazing thing is the whole CyanogenMod project rom, basically is a alternate firmware which is updated frequently and available for a ton of devices. While stock firmware from the manufacturer may or not have a upgrade, with CM you can update and add capabilities well beyond the original software.
HDMI works out of the box for Android tablet/phones with HDMI support, just need a cable and you can plug the phone into a 50" TV and enjoy a movie in full hd.
 
Well I'm fooling around with Poweramp and mostly it seems okay. I'd really like a player that just reads cue files. Even Foobar doesn't do this properly. I had hoped that if all my music was organised in cue files then that would be what the software would read. Foobar does this fine but can't help itself with reading extra tag data from the individual files even though they excluded in preferences and cue is the only type selected. I'll keep fooling with this but I can't seem to filter out filetypes? There's probably only another 1000 or so players to try yet!
 
Since i have only flac+cue i have no idea on how Poweramp behaves with other kind of files... both in phone and tablet i have a specific /MUSIC folder and on settings i set to look *only* on this folder.
BTW, if you find out another android player with flac+cue support, let me know.
 
Poweramp seems to work well enough but I would like it to look only at the cue files. It treats cue files like a folder but up to know its a little confusing for me. If I were doing it from scratch I suppose I could just make a cue directory separate to the actual audio files but with 3TB of FLAC, APE & ALAC I don't have the time to redo it. I will keep looking. I am trying another called AnsLess next. Seems to cope with the filetypes but doesn't see the USB drive. Androidnis another learning curve it seems
 
I finally got an HDMI cable for my Acer Iconia 500 and hooked it up to my receiver. Because I have a bunch of Logitech Squeezebox devices scattered around the house, I run software on the tablet which effectively makes it emulate a hardware Squeezebox.

Sound was just fine for standard 2-channel material, though it's apparently not bit-perfect as attempts to pass DTS and AC-3 resulted in a failure to decode.

Am curious if there's an app out there that will properly play multichannel FLACs.
 
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I have got my tablet sorted to my liking with JB 4.1.2 and CM10 whatever that means. What I'm really after is an app that readsd cue files like Foobar. In Foobar I have the info I want displayed in cue files and let Foobar read it so that is the basis of the library. Poweramp reads them but just the song it seems. It seems not to give you the artist or the album, just a list of the tunes. Android generally appears to be only based on tagged type files?
 
Old Quad Guy said:
Say, wanted to pass this info on about inexpensive Tablets. I just wanted a simple e-reader for under $100. I looked at a basic Kindle for $69, but wanted to do more, like just read the web, don't intend to post from Tablet. Anyway, I’m still waiting in the mail for this, but I’m going to try the Coby 8048:


It was $99 shipped from Toy-R-Us website. You can hook this to a HDTV with proper HDMI cord, not included. The Apps it comes with are supposedly lame. It supposedly will do the Amazon App store without “Rooting” the unit. But if you want Google play Apps, you need to “root” the unit.

Google this for "Root" link:
Root and Gapps for telechips, 7032,7034,7036,7048,8048

Anyway, I have no experience with tablets, but thought I’d share this info. It would be nice to make Music Android/Apple Apps at some point. Any thoughts about “rooting” Pro/Cons or any other Tablet info would be cool. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Hello Old Quad Guy need bit of information. Which is the current best tablet for playing games and music?
 
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