yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Apparently, the issue bugging the ogg decoder is an old .net 4.5 bug/condition, which messes things up with memory consumption during IO asynchronous calls, eventually casuing a stack overflow exception. Since all calls to files and folders outside the app storage are asynchronous, well, you get where this is going.

SInce the app is sandboxed, all comunication with the musiv/video libraries are done through a runtime broker (a second process running with the same privilage level as the user). This broker then reads the file and returns the results I was asking. Since the ogg decoder is pretty damn complicated, it appears to cause the stack overflow exception faster than the flac one (theorectically, flac should crash the same way if i am right, but I can play flac files without obvious issues). I am going to try implementing the decoder in the same fashion I did with the sd card reader in 8.0 and see if the issue still persists.

The runtime broker is also the guy casuing the library to load very slowly. Most of the execution time i spent transfering data from the broker back to the app.

UPDATE: the ogg files play again. There are still a few bugs here and there but i hope to fix them. THis is just a fix until i can get a new rendering engine on.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I will release a new update with more stability fixes today.

I am not exactly sure wtf is going on with windows phone lately, but the system is becoming increasingly incapable of managing its own memory.

I am simply going to remove ogg rendering until i can get a native solution in place. This is getting a tad annoying.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
A roadmap for the month(s) ahead (in order of priorities):

Re-writing the music library algorithms to use SQLite database. This will reduce overall memory consumption by a few megas. The usuall all songs/albums/artists/genres views are highly unlikely to come back, simply because the tagging still needs to be done at some point, and there is no reliable way of doing it quickly, cosidering the app needs to support non-system formats as well. This will be an aglignment with the windows 8 version (which can't be published in beta version due to microsoft store limitations, so it only stays in internal build).

Re-writing the rendering engine to support additional formats. This includes both audio and video formats. The imidiate targets are rendering engines for flac, ogg-vorbis, flac in ogg container, ape, wavpack, mkv and others.

Integration with onedrive. At the moment, the app shows onedrive in the file/folder picker, but that is simply because the system puts it there. That particular feature is not yet implemented.

In-house implementation for DLNA. Windows phone does not support DLNA out of the box.

Integration with cortana.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] JLowe:
Thank you for your very nice program and your ongoing efforts! Are there any plans for HiRes 24bit Flac support or 16bit and higher but rates?
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I am not sure if the phone would allow that. But I will test when the new decoder is ready.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] JLowe:
Great! I would love to test this out :)
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] bYOndo:
(hello! my first post :))

another exception: LAME encoded MP3 can achieve gapless playback too, or am I wrong?

just search for "lame tag"

I have my whole music collection encoded with LAME and I desperately need a good player for my new Lumia!

(I even don't mind multi-format support or equalizer...)

thank you for your work, keep it up!

Massimo
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
It depends on many factors.

1) how files are encoded: some encoders leave a blank gap of data at the end of the file. Flac files tends not to do this. Most mp3(and most other lossy) encoders do.

2) how fast the player changes tracks: this app changes tracks very fast.

So youn can try it out and tell me of any issues.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] bYOndo:
Yes, I know, in fact LAME adds these information in the file header ("encoder initial delay" and "encoder final padding") to achieve the exact gap dimension. It adds other useful information, too, like Replaygain..
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Well, then, it should work fine.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I've fixed some display bugs and reduced the app memory foot print as much as possible. I still have some ideas to reduce it even further.

The live tile functionality is slightly changed. Now it will pick random tracks and cycle between their album art/cover. The tile itself updates every 30 minutes or so.

There are some more bugs to fix around, but I don't really have much time do reproduce them all. Overall, the app is stable, and so is the OGG decoder now. Yes, next update will bring OGG decoding back. I;ve been able to play ogg files for about 50 minutes now without any issues. I still need to test OGG for a few days before re-enabling it.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I am now done with exams, so I can start working on this project again.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Weekend update:

bug fixes in theme engine.

Some UI changes in the control panel interface.

The player can now also remember history playback lists. This will be disabled by default and one has to enable it from settings page > player options. History will be presented to you in the favorites view.

OneDrive+other file manager apps integrations.

The new rendering engine is 1/3 ready.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
New update coming this week. Nothing interesting, other than wireless transfers using infrastructure (didn't bother with BT since phone already supports that).

You are probably wonderng why it took so long to do this, since it was already present in the 8.0/7.8 version.

I had to re-write the code to match the new windows runtime for starters, and then I also created an underlaying protocol and networking stack for other network and wireless related features.

So basically, you can transfer file between compatible devices., similar to how the desktop client works with the 7.8/8.0 version. However, unlike that, you can do phone to phone transfer, and when the PC/tablet app is ready, phone to tablet.

The usage principle is simple: the tools view will have a new shortcut for networking settings. There you can opt to turn off or on the network coms. You might want to turn it off when you do not want to be bother about transfers or related networking operations.

When network coms are on on several devices, and each device is connected to the same network, devices will detect each other. By default, a device is identified by the IP adress it uses in said network. You can opt to change the name if you wish to something that is more recongizable. after you pick files, you will have the opportunity to send files to other devices. When picking music files, the operation is hidden in the app bar menu. When picking video files, you will be greated by a message box.

Once you get to the file transfers page, pick the destination and send the files. Do not move away from the app, although you can move away from that particular page. The screen will also not time out during the transfer to prevent the OS from "accidentally" killing the connections.

You can opt to have the network coms automatically managed by the app. That means turning them on when you start and transfer (or when you get to the transfer page) and turning them off when you are done.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Next update: theme engine fixes and improvements.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Next update: some display fixes for light phone theme (some pages did not render correctly).

The favorites list in main page is now affected by the theme engine.

New default background images for main page.

The posibility to consider folders as playlists. This is closely tied to the background maintance task which tags files. Changes in foder structures or any changes made in the background maintance task view from settings page will usually require the task to run again.

Several bug fixes.

we are in a bit of a pickle with the rendering engine. Getting it to work is more troublesome then originally estimated. It might be possible to resort to adding a new codec every 2 weeks or so, instead of doing them all at once.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
New update brings small UI enhancements

And the network discovery should be now more effective. If network comes are on on both devices, just wait up a few seconds. The discovery routine occurs at a 15 seconds refresh intervals.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
The install package of the app will start getting really fat really fast due to the native decoder objects that will be used for new codecs are really fat due to optimizations :)

First one to go to new rendering codecs will be flac. All flac files should now be supported regardless of encoding values. This should be available in the next update.

Next up will be OGG, then APE then WV

I will be submitting a hot fix update first.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] bYOndo:
and no mp3? we are condemned to use WP internal api forever..?

anyway, thanks for your work

Massimo
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
What is wrong with the internal one?

Replacing the internal ones is not yet the top-most priority. That will eventually happen too.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Next update

New flac rendering engine. All flac files should play now.

Fixed a bug that was preventing new installations from playing something before plugging the device in to DC power.

Seeking through flac files is now possible.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I am aware there are some issues with the app on first start up. Those issues will be fixed in the next update.

There is also a dormant feature implemented in this new update which you won't be able to use (it will be completely hidden) till next update. This feature takes time to be effective.

The issue is caused by a new version of a framework used in the app.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] stealth21:
Hello i'm using a lot of playlist files with my Lumia.

As im still adding this year's tracks to my playlists (i do write them as a code with notepad so the file actually never changes just dinamically expands)

I'm looking for a proper way to sync my tracks and listen them in the order that the playlist mentions.

WP 8.1 player is stupid and cannot do the job properly, a 300 mp3 track playlist in time seems to be 900 track whatsoever..

Is there a way to try it with your app?

(As my device is now in service i cannot try) :(

Or will this app support playlist files as i asked later on?

;) Thank you for your efforts ...
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] bYOndo:
- glitches at the end of the files

- no gapless support, even with lame specific tags

- random fade-in at the beginnings

for me it's the only priority (but hey, it's just me..)

thanks for your attention, bye

Massimo
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
The problem with mp3 files is system related. Not the codec itself. All codecs glitch at the end, but it is now always visible. The fading in and out is also due to system and not codec.

The issue with implementing an mp3 decoder is that parts of it are patented and nobody really knows what the patents are going to come to an end (in USA its 2017, in EU things are already not patented anymore). If I were to implement an mp3 codec, it would mean the app will no longer be free, cause I would have to pay for the patent.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Can you send me an example of such playlist? So i can write a proper parser?

I know the system messes things up with playlists, which is why I do not expose the system ones and only use internal playlist.

By your description, we are using the same format, I just need to be sure.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] stealth21:
Of course..

Every week i'm creating a new temporary pls file for my mp3 using AIMP!

i open the static file and the temp pls files together using notepad++

And all i do is copy the content without the header from the temp to the end of the static one!

It works.

Windows Phone 7.x was working perfect!

Windows Phone 8.x really sucks when it comes to sync audio files.

Here is the playlist format..

#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:245,Armin Van Buuren - Precious (Mike Saint-Jules Bootleg)

Precious (Mike Saint-Jules Bootleg).mp3

#EXTINF:237,Max Graham Vs. Maarten De Jong - Lekker

Lekker.mp3
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Upload a complete file somewhere and PM me the link to it.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Next update

m3u file support.

new ogg decoder implemented.

If you use album art background, you now have a live background on main page.

Some more bug and stability fixes
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I've been thinking...

I could try out a new (more like building a new one from scratch) equalizer framework...
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
The time till next update will probably be bigger, on the scale of 2-3 weeks. *unless major bugs are found*

Among the new expected features, an experimental equalizer, new codec support, and more networking related stuff.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] VSparxx:
Nu știu ce numești "major bugs" dar pe telefonul meu aplicația nu mai pornește după ultimele 2 actualizări.

Scrie loading pentru 3 secunde si ma arunca înapoi la ecranul cu aplicații, sau intră in aplicație dar nu pot interacționa cu nimic.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
According to the marketplace reports, there was a spike in crashes around 2 weeks ago, but the particular issue described there has since been fixed.

I will simulate a new clean install and see if things go wrong again. it might be possible that the install files got corrupted during phone updates.

EDIT: I just tried a clean install from the marketplace (so the actual release version). It all works fine. If you have any issues, consider uninstalling then reinstalling the app. There have been some breaking changes inside in the past few weeks :)
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
BREAKING CHANGE in next update.

The now playing queue won't be saved during the update process. Sorry about that, changed the way now playing is being managed, with regards to memory consumption (the app should now handle large playback queues better on lower memory devices), and there is no way of doing the transition nicely from the old system to the new one.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] VSparxx:
Dupa fiecare actualizare nu mai rulează, o reinstalare ajuta, doar ca e cam enervant, mai ales ca la căutare in magazin nu găsește aplicatia, doar din link-ul de aici o pot găsi.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Nu vad de ce s-ar intampla asta. Plus ca in marketplace nu imi apare crashul tau.

Ce telefon folosesti? Este aplicatia instalata pe card SD? Ce versiune de software ai?
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] VSparxx:
Nu stiu si eu ce-ar putea fi, ma rog...inteleg sa se produca careva erori la una din actualizari si sa fie necesara reinstalarea, dar la mine se primeste ca de cate ori actualizez aplicatia data nu mai ruleaza dupa, sau porneste si ramane blocata dupa care se inchide si daca mai intru arata animatia ca si cum ar vrea sa intre si dupa 1-2 secunde cu ecranul ” ....loading ” ma arunca din nou la lista cu aplicatii.

Am incercat sa actualizez si prin wifi si prin 4G, acelasi rezultat.

Acum despre telefon si versiunea SO:

- Nokia Lumia 920 RM-821

- Nu exista expansiune pentru card pe acest telefon.

- Stau pe PfD cu ultima actualizare disponibila si ultimul firmware public disponibil ( Lumia Cyan ).

Incerc poate la urmatoarea actualizare sa filmez totul plus sa creez un dump prin Diagnostics sau Field Medic ( daca te ajuta cu ceva ).
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Am descroperit un comportament ciudat in aplicatie dar nu stiu daca este legat de ce patesti tu. Apare atunci cand se incearca extragerea imaginilor din fisiere in cazul in care task-ul de indexare a fisierelor nu a rulat inca. Daca intr-adevar asta este problema, la update-ul urmator nu va mai trebui sa reinstalezi.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] VSparxx:
Poate fi asta pricina, deoarece atunci cand pornea aplicatia si se bloca la primul ecran, in loc de imaginea asociata piesei scria doar Loading si dupa 1-2 min poc si murea.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I found a bug that might be causing your issues. Should be fixed in next update.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] GoodDayToDie:
Just a reminder of forum rule 4 (http://xdaforums.com/announcement.php?f=1937): Please post in English, or include English translations (machine translation is fine if that's all you have). Somebody else having the same issue would not be able to search the forum for it, or know if it's being worked on.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] VSparxx:
Ok...sorry for this, we were discussing about an event that would stop the program from running after an update, if the program is reinstalled it works fine after another update it wouldn't load again.

Now mcosmin222 has made some corrections in the code and i'm waiting to test what the result will be after the app. updates.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Opus format support in next update.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] TheIronMaiden:
Maybe get to choose the accent color or have it transparent.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
What exactly are you referring to?

If you are referring to the color pickers, there is transparent in there (just be careful not to use it when replacing any text colors).

I phone accent brush is a little tricker. I will get it going in next update.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Well, it is done. You can pick the phone accent brush in settings.

.opus file support is available starting with version 1.3.2.0
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] TheIronMaiden:
I'm sorry that was an incomplete thought. I meant some of the items and icons look out of place because it's highlighted in the phones accent color. The icons looks good, but the headers are highlighted and it doesn't look good, at least in my opinion. Plus the background doesn't change when I select a custom background picture. If I misunderstand that feature and its meant to display the current tracks album cover while playing, I'm sorry, but either way I can't revert it to a custom photo after I stop the track. I couldn't find that in the FAQ section. I love this app, which is why I want to see it succeed. Great job. And listening to fellow users makes it that much better
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I will look into it.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
The windows phone 8.1 app is now visible in the store.

The 8.0/7.8 app will still be available until 31st of December. I encourage everyone to update to 8.1 by then.

I will be slowing down with new features in 8.1 for a while. I am still deciding if the windows 8 app should be a store app or a stand alone desktop app.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
New update coming soon. Brings a new feature
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
After a tiny conversation I had with Microsoft's media guy, it appears that equalizer support was not meant to be possible in the current release of windows phone, and he warned me that any attempt to implement one may result in unexpected errors. The good news is I managed to convince him to get this feature in the "TO DO" list of windows phone 10, so keep your fingers crossed :)

The new update brought about NFC tag support. Which is kinda easy to use: find a playlist, tap on it, bring a NFC tag close to the phone (you need to have nfc turned on) and then in thew details page, at the bottom of the app bar lies the "scribe to NFC tag" button. Tap it and wait for the succeeded confirmation dialogue to pop up (if the nfc tag is healthy and supports scribing, then this should happen almost instantly).

Put the nfc tag somewhere (like in your car). If you want to play music without even starting the app yourself, unlock the phone and put it on top of your NFC tag: the first time you do this the OS will ask for confirmation to open the app and read the NFC data: you can opt out of asking this every time. The app will start and will play the playlist or folder your pinned in the NFC tag.

The app only needs 2-3 seconds of proximity with the NFC tag. after that you can move the phone around willingly, as it got all the info it needs.

Be careful though, each time the tag is near your phone, it will trigger the app playback.

I wanted to do this for some time now, but never got the chance to do it. This is why the app needs proximity permissions.

There is one more permission the app asks and does not use it :) it will come in a future update.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] thanhvudev:
I need a video player, not a music player. Could you develop it?
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Depends on what you need from it

The app already has a video player in the 8.1 version.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] dheophe:
Hi, I just try your app on my Lumia 730 since it support Flac. But after I browse files it not showing in your apps.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Flac files not showing?

make sure you use the file browser. There is a difference between the file and the folder browser.

Just checked: it works fine.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] dheophe:
Thanks for the explanation.

Now I can play my flac collection.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Next update to bring additional features and improvements.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
However reliable or *unreliable* the background maintenance task is, I am looking into building an alternative for it. I am not exactly sure what should it be or how will it work, but I want to figure out a way of indexing files faster, and on the run.

I may have found a way, but this is going to take a while.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
The first step towards achieving the above goal has been completed. There's still the issue of mining out the album art.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Ok. I found another way of digging out the album art. It is not going to be as fast as the maintenance task (when it actually wants to run). It will be done in the background while the app is running in the foreground (i hope there won't be any noticeable performance degradation, it runs with lower priority anyway).

This still needs *internal* testing, however.

The third important thing that background task was performing was indexing folders as playlists. I am not sure if this feature should persist though.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Internal testing found a nasty bug. Architecture needs rethinking :(.

Never mind that. So now album art will be automatically mined out from files from now playing queue while the app is in the foreground.

Additionally, a background task will run every 15 minutes (give or take a few minutes) and will extract exactly 4 files (to make sure the task doesn't accidentally get killed by the system).
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
I will send a new update and see how the system fares. This is still not the final version.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] thals1992:
How many downloads are you at now? You've been working on this for a while now!
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
The 2 apps combiined have over 100 000 downloads
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Thank you everyone for your feedback. It seems the new s system has some issues. I hope to fix them til Sunday.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
Don't exceed 500 kb image size.
[Windows Phone 8 Apps and Games] mcosmin222:
If you have too many images in a file or if the file images are too big it will crash the player. Make sure you don't have images worth more than the upper limit of 500KB. Use external album art instead.