At last: resume support for Windows Media Player!!
The built-in Windows Media Player has always suffered from a major flaw: it didn’t support resuming the song from the last position after restarting the player. XDA-Devs forum member Wolfman-XP (the same guy that has also developed AVRCP support for GSPlayer) has fixed this: he has released a plug-in that remembers the last position where you press(ed) the Pause button. (Note that you MUST press Pause; as opposed to players natively supporting resume, this is a restriction – but not that a big one.)
Compatibility
I’ve tested it on the following devices:
- HTC Wizard with AMP’s WM6.1 ROM and custom WMP skin
- HTC Universal with WM6.1 Tomal’s ROM version 7.7
- HTC Vox / s710 MS Smartphone with the factory WM6.0 ROM (this January)
- HTC Oxygen / s310 MS Smartphone with the factory WM5 AKU3 ROM
- Dell Axim x51v standalone (no-phone) PDA with WM6.1
- HP iPAQ 210 standalone (no-phone) PDA with factory WM6.0
Of these devices, it was only on the HP iPAQ 210 that it didn’t work at all; all the others did, even the WM5-based models and the non-phone x51v.
Installing, using
Just download the hack HERE, in the first post, install it and off you go. Remember pressing Pause at the position you want it to remember.
After restarting WMP, it’ll take you to the Library (and not the Now playing) screen. To quickly return to the latter, on touchscreen-enabled PPC’s, click the Back arrow in the upper right corner; on MS Smartphones, just press the Back hardware button. (Alternatively, you can go to Now Playing / Play.)
Restrictions
In addition to not being compatible with the HP iPAQ 210 (and, possibly, some other devices), it isn’t able to correctly re-position in AAC files (I’ve tested both standard and HE-AACv2 files). WMA’s and MP3’s, on the other hand, work just great.
Note that...
I’ll publish a LOT of multimedia-related articles in the near future – stay tuned!
- Login or Register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
It is good to see this.
It is good to see this. I've always been surprised that Microsoft didn't make the Media support better since this would be one way for them to push the advantage of their devices over other prooducts, such as RIM devices - by taking advantage of the flixible nature of PPC's.
To that end, I've also long been surprised at the move away from dual card slot support. One slot could support the device with memmory upgrade/room for work storage, while the second slot essentially becomes a media slot for cards holding movies, music, etc.
On top of that, most PPCs do not provide host USB support either so there doesn't seem to be a good workaround to this issue. And that leads me to a question.
Is there an OTG hardrive (or perhaps even better, a smaller device that provides OTG/OTG bridge support that holds SDHC cards and provides battery support - that may bemore expensive in total but provide longer battery life) that would provide media and file access to a PPC, in effect acting as an external hard drive to which it can read/write? I have seen a few actual OTG hard drives or OTG hard drive enclosure, with LION battery support that provide 2-4 hours of continuous use. But it isn't clear to me whether these devices support true access from a PPC or whether the access is limited to certain functions like backup. Has anyone tested this?
I domn't think plain OTG
I domn't think plain OTG would be sufficient for non-backup (making a backup of the card in the handset) purposes.
Dunno if there're now suitable, battyer-operated HDD enclosures with Wi-Fi-support, though. There used to be some (I've even created a separate category for them on my blog) but I'm not sure whether they were battery operated. Your handset will surelly be able to access the media on them. Did you Google for them?
UPnP (together with Wi-Fi) enclosures are also a good idea to look for. They, however, are far less versatile than plain Wi-Fi ones s you neeed a UPnP client like CorePlayer (or, as far as other mobile OS'es are concerned, a UPnP-capable handset like the Nokia N78, N82 or N95) to access their multimedia(-only) content for playback.
Hi, I did not Google for HDD
Hi,
I did not Google for HDD wifi enabled enclosures, although I had seen information on the Seagate D.A.V.E. which looks like it may never come out at the rate it is going. I will try Googling for others.