yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Great, Thanks ! :)

Stereo always has more noise than mono, so for very low or noisy signals, mono is better.

"Force stereo" keeps the audio in stereo mode, despite low or noisy signals.

"Switch" will switch automatically between stereo and mono mode as needed.

The default of "blend" gradually blends the stereo channels together to make it more mono as noise increases.

I'm not sure why you'd want "switch" instead of "blend" but some chips offer this, and it may work better in some situations. For example, if you hear a switch to mono, you might be able to move the antenna for better reception.

But, if your device is Galaxy S, you only have Force Mono, and all the others end up selecting Blend Stereo I think.

Broadcom chips offer all 4 modes, using low level API or OEM API. TI chips in low level mode offer 3; they don't have a "Force Stereo" and selecting it is the same as "Switch".

The TI & Motorola OEM APIs only provide mono and stereo.

I may be able to enhance some of these, but haven't revisited it yet. But I'm pretty sure Samsung Silicon Labs is only stereo or mono.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Sorry I forgot and saw you sent me logs recently from the free version. :)

I have an email report of theme setting problems from the Light version and I'm looking into it.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I was going to say I haven't seen this, but I just did now.

It can happen if you pause for more than 3 seconds, likely because the audio is shut down to save power. My tests are usually quick pause/unpause. ;)

From what I see you can just pause/unpause again, or switch Speaker/Headset.

All the more evidence that proper solutions require reliable ROM audio library support. There are just too many weird things that can happen otherwise, and adding hacks on hacks on hacks makes the whole stack fragile.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I presume you're using Audio Method "qdsp5v2 Plus/ICS" and that plain "qdsp52" doesn't work ?

I'll try to look at these methods again tonight on my Desire HD. But the Desire Z is somewhat different I think...
[Spirit FM] sp1980:
Both audio methods show the same behavior.

Don't know what happened to the buttons like settings, seek forward an back, but they don't work either. All those things worked ok before. Thanks for looking again.
[Spirit FM] cba1986:
In fact i have a galaxy s. So if i understand you correcly it would be no diff between blend and switch. But i can choose to force stereo or mono.

Is that right?
[Spirit FM] onesolo:
Too bad you choose the "hard way"

I just don't understand why you released a crippled version of your app... I guess that if you just had only the paid version on the market it will do the same... this is a non version app...

Was it so hard to put a version of the app with ads for ex, instead of this non app version?! I guess I'm going to stay with the last "free" version of the app... just feel sorry for the ones that gave out here a lot of feedback... for you to make this move...
[Spirit FM] cba1986:
uhhmmm.

I cannot find this option:

Media button & CM lockscreen support for mute, volume & frequency.

Where is the option to activate it?-
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
That's right.

I look at the data sheets for the Silicon Labs FM chip and I see that it's possible to set the RSSI at which blending starts and stops. But the Samsung driver doesn't seem to provide access to that.
[Spirit FM] cba1986:
Thanks for the an answer. In that case i have a suggestion. A button or text in the main window to show in which mode is the radio. To know if i'm listening to mono or stereo.

Another thing could be to have an option to search via web the song that we are listening.

And to have a similar option in the lockscreen, that we have with the cm9 player. For example to change preset, pause, stop and show the RDS info.

Oh and this:
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
If you don't understand now, I'm not sure any amount of explanation from me will help.

I work ONLY on this app, around 80 hours per week. I can't keep this up unless I make a livable income, and I'm not making that much yet.

Today, due the introduction of Light, I've made more than I've ever made on any single day in the last year. If I could make this amount every day, I can keep development moving forward indefinitely. Yet it's still only one third or 33% of what I can and have made in private industry.

I've tried ads before. Ad revenues suck, unless millions of people are using the app. Do you have ad based apps out and are they doing well for you ? For the $10 per month ads were bringing in, I felt it was not worth annoying so many people for such little revenue.

You feel sorry for the people who gave feedback ??? Because they are unwilling or unable to pay 99 cents or find the old free version on one of the many download locations or ROMs the old free app can be found on ?

I feel absolutely no guilt for working 4000 hours on this app and giving a very useful free version away for 1 year, for a total income in the 4 figures of Canadian dollars.

I feel absolutely no guilt for trying to earn a meagre income creating and advancing a unique app that unlocks FM capabilities and has made so many people happy that their phone/ROM now has FM, or now has RDS or many other features.

I COULD have unpublished or effectively disabled the free app. But I decided to keep it available, and I'm sure there are plenty of people in less developed nations who will be happy to have even that basic level of functionality. And for many of them, forced mono is probably preferable to the stereo mode, given that their broadcasts are more likely to be low powered or distant.

I have no idea why you would think that I owe people indefinite on-going updates, technical support and easy access to a highly functional free app just because they gave feedback. Please feel free to explain yourself.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
OK, I'll look into the audio issues.

Perhaps you have the free app and didn't read the new introduction.

The free app now has only limited capabilities. For a limited time, 99 cents buys the Light version with the former free capabilities, plus 3 new ones.

Menu->About or the Market/Play listings, under "What's new" should explain this pretty well.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Those are only supported on the Unlocked version.

Settings->User Interface->"Media Buttons Prev + Next" and "Media Button Pause/Play" allow you to customize the actions. Some headset cables only support one button though: Pause/Play.

The upper right of the screen is reserved for Mono/Stereo indication. It used to be functional but there was a bug that caused it to flash so I disabled it long ago, and never got around to fixing it yet.

For the web search, on the Unlocked version that supports RDS, you can enable Settings->User Interface->"Radiotext Web Search". :) It's disabled by default because it's too easy to accidentally hit and that is annoying to me.

I don't have CM7 loaded on a test phone now, and I don't recall if the lock-screen functions are still working. But if, or when, they work, you can use the lock-screen controls exactly like the Media Button controls.

I used to show frequency on the lock-screen but will also offer options for RDS data. I disabled the code because there were some strange problems that would activate the CM7 media player when using media buttons or the equivalent lock-screen controls.

Sometimes when there are problems with a function, I just disable it. And often nobody notices or complains. I prioritize by whatever people are asking for or complaining about the most. So, for example, I worry more about enabling new phones or ICS ROMs than features that aren't a big deal for most people.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
GalaxyS alsa/DANGER mode headphone problems ?

I've now had the first report ever of headphone damage. Since it's only 1 report over the last 6 months, and I've now had 15 speaker reports, I have some skepticism, but anything is possible.

My own original Galaxy S earphones sound awful, compared to HTC at least, so for all I know, my earphones might have been damaged long ago. I rarely use the earphones and I have a very low ability to discern audio quality, so it's hard for me to say.

I'm going to strip the wires on my OEM earphone cable and see if I can create the DC bias that I suspect is behind the damage problems. I was going to do that for the speaker, but the connections are so fragile and tiny, I gave up that idea. But I'll try to get some EBay speakers still and open at least one up to see if test wires can be attached.
[Spirit FM] cba1986:
I have the unlocked version. And when i activate both radio text and radio text web search, i get this.

and when i touch that i get this:

Respecting the media button i can't find them anywhere
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
The search Google searches for whatever is in the Radiotext area. At startup that area often has the startup debug info that starts with "Fm:"

Your RSSI signal strength number at upper left is showing 0. I usually see 0 only when the earphones are not connected, because the earphone cable is the FM antenna, and even between stations there is enough RF noise here to show at least 1-3.

RDS data is transmitted with only about 10% of the power that the audio is transmitted with I think. So even if you hear a station, if it's noisy, the RDS may not come through.

And because RDS is error prone, I have code that tries to ensure the Radiotext (RT) is valid before displaying it. It does so, more or less, by requiring two consecutive identical strings of up to the 64 characters that RT provides. The alternative is to see a lot of messed up text. In many cases the RT will be delayed longer than is desired, such as a minute or so into a song. In some cases, you may never see the RT.

But I think the fix for you is getting better RSSI signal strength. Ensure there is something plugged into the earphone jack (even on speaker mode) and you can try to position this "antenna" so that the number is high, and the audio sounds it's best.

But consider that there is never any guarantee about what a station may or may not transmit via RDS. PI or Program ID (4117 for you) is generally there; it's the most important and identifies the station. PT or Program Type for you is showing ".." which means it may not be transmitted. At least one local station does this. I see PS Program Service there as "STOP" which is likely part of the song name. Many car radios don't have the room to show 64 characters of Radiotext so some stations don't transmit it. Even our national broadcaster CBC here never sends RT. Often the RT type information is just scrolled in the 8 character PS, so you might see: " Song " then " Name ", "By Band", "On WKBW" etc.

If you still have trouble seeing RT, send me a log with Menu->Email Logs and I can see what your RDS error rate etc. look like.

The config for the media buttons is at Menu->Settings->User Interface, but the defaults should be fine. The OEM Samsung earphone cable for Galaxy S has only one button, and by default it's used for Pause/Play (IE: Mute/Unmute). Using an earphone cable for another device may not work, and sometimes it's best to ensure the cable is installed when the phone starts.

I'll see about the lock-screen stuff.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Here's how you can get the ICS theme colors on Gingerbread and earlier. For anyone else, this work on Light and Unlocked, but not on Free.

This won't change the icons like Quinny's mod did, but I'll add the ICS icons and a way to customize them as soon as I can:

- Select Menu->Test->Preferences and then the bottom selection "Import from spirit_icsg.xml".

- If you restart the app you'll get a blank screen due to a bug I have fixed for the next release.

- To work around this bug, select Menu->Settings->UI Elements then scroll down a page and select "T All Force" which should be set to "ca d d db". Change it to "ca def def cb". IE, change the 2 "d" parts to "def".

- While you are in UI Elements you can reduce the text size for Radiotext. Flick all the long way to the bottom. Then go up 1 page and set "T RadioText" to "def def def def 10".

- Now hit Back 3 times to leave the settings and the app.

- Return to the app and you should see the ICS colors.

- If anything messes up and you get a blank screen, you can just hit Menu->Settings->User Interface and disable "Custom Elements", then leave settings and app with 3 Back presses and return to the app.
[Spirit FM] Elmar1801:
After last Google Play Update (3.5.15) i cant update the App (Not supported device) on my HD2 (CM7).

With older Market/Play no problems.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
The new Free version is available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?1x6j70m43bj84m3

This is going to be a common problem unfortunately.

Most phones can't support FM or my app will never work with them. To spare people with impossible phones the bother, and to spare my app from 1 star reviews, I excluded 759 of the current 1215 listed phones from the Market compatibility list, as app devs are supposed to do.

I'll be happy to add devices back if/when it's determined that they work. Custom ROMs can misidentify a device though, and I'm not sure what the HD2 ROMs identify it as.

So, do you know how your ROM identifies your HD2 ? If you've bought the Light or Unlocked versions, and I get enough info from you to identify the time and date of the sale, then I think I can find out, assuming the purchase was done from that device. For free apps, Google does not provide that info.

EDIT: I've re-enabled some likely candidates:

unknown(leo)

unknown(htcleo)

Let me know if Spirit is visible now. I should look more closely at the "Unknown" category. Most HTC's are enabled.
[Spirit FM] Elmar1801:
Manual update works, thanks.

Goolgle Play (after cleaning cache and restart) shows still incompatible.

ro.build.date.utc=0

ro.build.type=user

ro.build.user=root

ro.build.host=proxmox

ro.build.tags=test-keys

ro.product.model=HTC HD2

ro.product.brand=htc_wwe

ro.product.name=passion

ro.product.device=leo

ro.product.board=htcleo

ro.product.cpu.abi=armeabi-v7a

ro.product.cpu.abi2=armeabi

ro.product.manufacturer=HTC

ro.product.locale.language=hdpi

Gesendet von meinem HTC HD2
[Spirit FM] Kess78:
It works well ! Thanks !
[Spirit FM] Elmar1801:
Works now. Thanks!

Directly bought the unlocked Version.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Great, thanks ! :)

Device compatibility might take a little longer to trickle through than an app update, which can take up to 15 minutes.
[Spirit FM] cba1986:
thanks for taking the time to answer me.

Today i noticed that the radio text works better in some station than another. For example in one station show the name and freq of the radio. In other show the music name and the artist ans some station it doesnt work enterily.

Could be the regional band a factor?

I live in argentina and i have to choose either Brazil or World.
[Spirit FM] Davidban64:
He's kidding surely, people like Mike spend hours of their time, missing family/personal time to create these apps, for those of us who aren't quite as smart that we could do it ourselves. Also the developers here are "Human", they eat, sleep and have all the usual human needs. We all need money to survive in this world, and there is nothing wrong with people earning an income from something that they have created!

Mike has done a great job in getting "Spirit FM" out on devices, and in doing so has sent (hopefully) Google a message, that FM Radio is still alive!

If it wasn't for these developers, then the phones you are using today would be just that, phones.

I fully support Mike (and any other developer) when they levy a charge for something I use. Why not!!!
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I don't think regional band is a factor. North America (Canada/US/Mexico) uses RBDS instead of RDS, but about the only difference anymore is how PT Program Type is encoded. This is used for "Rock", "Pop", "News" etc.

Stations can transmit any Radiotext they want, or none at all. And there are different RDS encoders that provide different features. Most radio stations don't make much money so they might have old equipment that a technician last looked at 3 years ago.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:D Thanks !

He may not be kidding though. There are surely people who just assume developers are getting rich since smartphones and apps exploded.

I've read a number of blogs and articles about other Android developers experiences and finances. The Angry Birds story is like the lottery stories; rare but some luck out, although skill and ability to start a larger company is always a factor too. Many (most ?) independent devs are just struggling to hit $1,000 a month, about half of minimum wage here.

And some popular utility devs are making what I'd call "comfortable money", which is likely close to what they'd make as top devs in private industry, or at least usually no more than 2 times as much.

But I think it's important to note that devs generally need millions of active users to make enough from ads, unless they are good at selling ads directly to many clients, in which case they may not have much time for development and then aren't really devs much.

And you can't judge "active users" by number of downloads, especially for a free app. Even for paid apps, the numbers of cancels and payment declineds can be high. Mine is roughly 33% now I think. And now that I'm looking at model stats I can see quite a few people bought my app from a device that I'm pretty sure is incapable of FM. They might have other devices, or they might not have tried to bother with a refund.

And ads are worth more with average users. Technical users are I think more likely to ignore ads or have ad blocking software. My app is still, and will likely remain, more valuable to the technical user who installs custom ROMs.
[Spirit FM] giesenst:
I bought Spirit FM light today, it's really great!

I used Spirit FM free before so I did know that it's working great with my SGS and ICSSGS RC 4.2

Today I purchased the light version. It also works fine (audio method Galaxy s / danger ;-)).

Thank you very much for a great app!!!
[Spirit FM] nchall:
Lg Optimus p500

Hi. Great work on the app. When my phone was on CM7 I used their radio app, but as it is now on CM9 and there is no radio app yet I was going to use yours, but it doesn't seem to work. Is it supported on LG Optimus p500 on CM9? Thanks.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
On my LG Optimus One P500h, I tested "ics beta4" around March 5 and it seemed to work OK, using the Audio Method "msm7x30 LGp500" if I recall correctly.

These "lesser" phones with their simpler audio systems are much easier to support than the complex systems found on more expensive and recent phones. :)
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Thanks for your support. :D

I've had a better than expected response to the new Light version; Only 1 complaint has appeared on this thread so far.

But I see now that the 4 "Most Helpful" reviews for the Free app are the lowest 1 star. I'll post them and some responses in the next post since they're not directed at you. My point is it's nice to read good comments to offset these bad reviews. :)
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
There are the 6 "Most Helpful" reviews for the Free app.

Email me and perhaps I can help. Yes, presets require the 99 cent version now.

I do my best to help people who email or post, even with the free version.

Yes, there's a bug that makes it look like the Danger mode is now selected, but it isn't and pressing Back makes that cosmetic bug go away.

Not entirely useless, but otherwise true if you consider working FM to be just one function.

4 star:

People who contact me will learn that they likely just have to enable Debug->BC 4330/20780.

Of course it's free. I appreciate the "beautiful app" comment. It's also too bad that we don't live in a Star Trek utopia where food and housing is free. If the beauty is not worth 99 cents to you. there are other free apps out there or you can write your own or modify an open source app to your liking.

Overall, I find it hard to take too much offense at some of the lower reviews. Yes, the free app is significantly less functional now, so it makes sense that the rating should be lower.

I may consider un-publishing the free app, on the Market at least. Or I might rebrand it as more of an "FM Testing application".
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Off topic personal issue deleted.

Thanks !
[Spirit FM] True_n00b:
mb this help

For Desire Z.

Now in virtuous sense rom for desire Z works radio, without your programm. May be you can use they rom for create working application.

This is url to they rom: virtuousrom.com/2012/03/virtuous-primo.html
[Spirit FM] CR5N:
Mike, a request :rolleyes:

As one of the non-market customers, I am unable to update the app via google-play. Could you sign it differently or something to stop the update appearing?

While it is useful to know an update is available, I follow this thread to keep up to date with progress. And I suppose I could pester you to e-mail an update to me but if it ain't broke... :D
[Spirit FM] Eisboer:
Hi, I have myself a SGS too, but am scared of possible damage it could take :/

Is there ANYTHING I can check before using it, to make it statistically safer for me?

Like "None of those broken sgs where from germany"?

If this app will work, i'll totally give you money for it! :-)
[Spirit FM] fadhli7:
Compatibility

Hi, I just install the free version. I'm not sure if LG Optimus 3d P920 is supported.

I tune in to many frequency but there is no sound... anyway I select Lg for the method...
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Please try the new methods: LG2 and LG3.

These are for stock ROMs, but might work on custom ROMs too, if they use stock audio libraries.

There are other methods to try on custom ROMs.

The list is getting longer but after tuning and ensuring a wired headset plugged in, you can stay in the settings screen and try each method in turn.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Germany ? LOL. :)

I wish I could say yes, but I can't. (Too much at least.)

I think if you stay away from speaker mode, and keep volume on the low side, that may improve your chances.

Also, if you hear any loud speaker click, you could reboot your phone. A loud click could be a warning sign.

You could also remove the speaker from the phone, but that's not too practical.

Running the latest March versions of the app are safer I think.

There may also be a co-relation with age of the device. The earlier built devices are known to have several defects.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Hmmm.... I hadn't thought of that issue.

I could create a different package name...
[Spirit FM] nemanja066:
FM Radio: Add support for FM Radio in Android 4.0.4

Creating interface and framework for using FM Radio

RX and TX from different vendors.

:)
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
You made me Google for it, huh ?

So the ST Ericsson proposed FM API is officially in Android now I guess.

EDIT: I see the status is still "Review in Progress", which is technically not too much different than it's been for 15 months now, I think. But the new entry for ICS is a promising sign, even if the code is unchanged since 4 July, 2011.

Now all we need now are:

1 - Implementations for the various FM chips on various phones. And...

2 - FM apps that use this API.

I can't imagine (1) will ever be done for most older phones, especially those that will never see ICS. But we will see what is possible... Some libs might be backward compatible by mistake or design.