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Author Topic: any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?  (Read 4065 times)

Target

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any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?
« on: January 20, 2010, 08:36 PM »
anyone here have any knowledge or references for working with media (music) files on a nokia mobile?

I've just started using the 'music player' functionality on my Nokia 6120 and I'm finding the whole experience a little frustrating...

I added a 4G memory card (not unreasonable I felt) and sometimes the handset seems to hang/choke when scanning for files.  Sometimes the phone will recover after a while (5-10 minutes), and sometimes I have to reboot it to get back to normal operation.  Once it's working it's fine...

managing files using the supplied software (Nokia PC Suite - now OVI) is OK, but it's not inspiring confidence in me...

OVI is slow to just to load (a couple of minutes?), and scanning the device is also slow, and on occasions it also seems to choke (it scans and scans and scans)

Initially I copied files by removing the card and using a card reader, but the phone seemed to have a great deal of difficulty, ie some tracks wouldn't play at all, some would play partially, and some would cause the above hang, etc.  I then redid it using the supplied software which was marginally better (the tracks all play now) though the initial load took an extroadinarily long time (90 minutes for about 450 files - though subsequent attempts seem to have been much quicker) but the problem hasn't been resolved.

once completed OVI reports 349 files which clashes with the handset which reports 708 - browsing the phone using the 'file manager' would seem to indicate that the handset is correct, ie there are folders/track listed that don't appear in OVI

can anyone tell me if this is normal behaviour for these things or if I'm just fortunate

FYI both software and firmware are up to date...
 

nosh

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Re: any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2010, 02:23 AM »
This is more of an excuse for me to rant and isn't going to be any specific help to you but the OVI suite is, without exaggeration, one of the lousiest pieces of software I've _ever_ come across!

I recently got an N86 (mainly because it has a decent camera) and had all kinds of issues getting started - bugs with importing contacts, faulty reporting of number of contacts, fcuking up my contacts on PC while syncing, (legit) songs downloaded from the OVI store coming with DRM so secure they refuse to play on the (officially purchased, non grey-market) phone they're meant for... a bazzion things added to my add/remove programs list and startup, other stalls and crashes... the list is endless.

I understand a cellphone is a versatile piece of equipment and uses a lot of different technologies but how hard would it be to allow users to add/remove components under one main entry like MS Office does. And does the software have to completely overwhelm and almost hi-jack a PC because it's used to sync some data to the phone?

I got rid of the OVI crap and am using PC Suite 7, which seems much more sane. Thank god for the hacker community that lets us retain some dignity while using these draconian ( :P ) devices and thank you (for once I don't feel guilty saying it...) bittorrent!

Target

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Re: any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2010, 04:41 PM »
I got rid of the OVI crap and am using PC Suite 7, which seems much more sane.

did you go back to an old version (7.0), or are you using the current version (7.1.40.1)?

the 'latest' version defaults to OVI 'player' for media 'management'

I thought afterwards that my post wasn't particularly clear - it was supposed to be a request for assistance/advice, but ended up being part rant.  Trouble is I don't really know what it is that I'm looking for here...

I mean is this normal behaviour for these devices?  I have a digital audio player and have never had an issue with it in >3 years (and you can't tell me the technology isn't the same)

I also appreciate that OEM software often leaves something to be desired, but in the case of these devices there doesn't appear to be a lot of choice.  The damn things aren't visible to your OS (windows in this case) except through their tools(why is this?  even if you wanted to protect the device, wouldn't it be simple enough to expose the memory card?), which means that you're basically stuffed and that this is as good as it's ever going to get...

does anyone know of any alternatives?

There seem to be no end of developers building alternatives for that other closed shop (i), but for some reason very few for any other brand device (why is that?)


Stoic Joker

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Re: any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2010, 05:09 PM »
I've got a Nokia 6555 and copy of PC Suite v7.1.18 that I used while making some ringtones for the wife & I (Damn if I'm paying $4 for a 3 second sound byte). It was a year and a half ago, so I don't recall how well it went... But it's still installed so it couldn't have pissed me off that bad.

Never thought of using it for an MP3 player, I've got a Zune I never use for that.

Target

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Re: any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2010, 05:46 PM »
I may have identified the issue, but it's going to cost me to find out...

I noticed a reference in something I was reading (for another device) about the stated card capacity being 2G

On checking the spec's for my device it also states 'expandable to 2G', so maybe that's the problem

Gotta admit this never occurred to me (what's with the apparently arbitrary limt?)

Never thought of using it for an MP3 player, I've got a Zune I never use for that.

likewise I too have an audioplayer (an aging iRiver S10) but if I'm listening to that I can't hear the phone ring (on the odd occasion that it does), so using the phones functionality seemed like a natural solution

nosh

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Re: any (Nokia) mobile phone maven's out there?
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2010, 10:41 PM »
I may have identified the issue, but it's going to cost me to find out...

I hope you've asked about this issue on a phone forum too.

did you go back to an old version (7.0), or are you using the current version (7.1.40.1)?

I'm using v7.1.30.9 which I downloaded a few months back for another phone. I am able to see the memory card directly using a vanilla file explorer and don't touch Nokia software for transferring data. The only thing I use their software for is to backup contacts, and even then I create a new file every time, rather than risk using their sync functionality.