MUZECAST FORUM

Android started to support FLAC decoding since version 3.1, so all today's smartphones have native FLAC support, some are capable of playing hi-res songs and the ones who don't just downscale the song to 44.1/16 while it's playing, so what's the point?.

Why would I select any of the available options if the phone is going to downscale any unsupported resolution anyway?.

What's even worse is if I turn the option OFF, everything gets transcoded to MP3!, why would I want that!?.

Edited by user Monday, September 7, 2020 3:34:19 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

That is what "Mobile Sound Quality" and "WiFi Sound Quality" are for, it's really an unnecessary option.

Edited by user Monday, September 7, 2020 4:42:39 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Another reason to ditch that option is something I already mention in my initial commentary:

When "No FLAC support" is selected, all FLACs are transcoded to 320Kbps MP3 (something the "highest quality" option already does) even when "Original" is selected in WiFi/mobile qualities, which makes no sense and it may be confusing for newcomers.

I hope you analyze the situation and decide to move those options to the WiFi/mobile qualities.

Thank you.

Edited by user Wednesday, September 9, 2020 8:23:29 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

That's OK but it's still confusing, Original is Original and it shouldn't be modified by any reason whatsoever, that's why you should move the options to the WiFi/Mobile data quality menus, trust me, it will be much better.

Please!?

Edited by user Friday, September 11, 2020 8:53:03 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Original is Original

Sounds good!, so it would be:

Hi-Res

HD

Lossless

Highest quality

Near CD quality

Optimal quality and file size

Good quality

FM Radio quality

But I would use the word "CD quality" instead of "lossless" because it helps to understand the difference between "Near CD quality", users should immediately understand that the quality is better.

Allow me to provide an in-depth analysis of why you shouldn't ignore the "original" quality option:

Let's say that you implement your suggestions:

if I select the Hi-Res option to reduce transcoding as much as possible and turn ON the OGG option as well, all FLAC songs will still play in its original quality but MP3 will be transcoded to OGG.

I really would love all my music to be transcoded to OGG when using a mobile connection to save data using the "Optimal quality and file size" option, because OGG has better audio quality compared to MP3, but I don't want my original MP3s to be converted to OGG when Hi-Res option is selected along with OGG option when using WiFi, because that would be exactly the same as it currently does with the FLAC support menu when it's OFF. In this case you may think and say: "Well, you can turn the OGG option OFF when you don't need it", but the idea here is also to "Set and Forget" this settings, it's a hassle going back and forth to settings just for that.

Now, since the other idea is to help SAVE SPACE AND BANDWITH for users, I still believe there shouldn't be too many quality options, therefore, why would I want to convert a 192KHz/24 FLAC song to 96Khz/24 if that still takes up a lot of space and bandwith, and instead select only a "Lossless" or "CD quality" to save more space but keeping the lossless quality.

In this vein, the following list of quality options should be the only available:

Original: every single song should play in its original quality and format, even if OGG option is turned ON.

CD quality: you can keep this name or change it to Lossless, whatever you feel like it's better, but it should be only 44.1Khz/16bit, a 24bit option is NOT necessary.

Highest quality: this option and the rest below transcode FLAC to MP3 or OGG if it's turned ON, and MP3s to OGG if it's also turned ON.

Near CD quality

Optimal quality and file size

Good quality

FM Radio quality

Edited by user Friday, September 11, 2020 4:00:02 PM(UTC)  | Reason: added some words.

Yes. that is what I am doing now. OGG option will be removed.
Here are upcoming changes:

1. Variable SEEK option - when turned off, first song will be streamed without seekable flag, but next song to buffer (while playing the first one) will be seekable;
2. OGG is removed and ON by default, but if original file is MP3 and quality is set to Lossless or above, original MP3 will be streamed in MP3 format. Otherwise it will be streamed in OGG format, Since ExoPlayer does not support OGG format, if ExoPlayer is truned ON, streaming will be done in MP3 instead of OGG for lossy formats;
3. FLAC option is removed. Instead 4 new quality settings will be available: Lossless 16, Lossless 24, HD, and HiRes, which can be set separatly for WiFi or Mobile connections;


Please note, that Samsung devices still can seek files even when SEEK option is turned off, but OnePlus 6t cannot seek if option is turned off.

So it is different from device to device.

Since Mobile connections usually very spotty for Hi Speed internet, I would not recommend to use hi quality settings for Mobile connection. Lossless 16 would be the top recommended quality for Mobile connection, but that is if you have plenty of gigabytes on your plan.

I am still debating with myself weather to have 2 Lossless option 16 and 24. Probably you are right, that it will be more confusing and I will leave only 16 bit option.

But Higher options still will be HD 96Khz 24 bit and Hi-Res 192 Kbps 24 bit, because some devices do not support 192Khz, such as FireTV or Amazon tablets. (At least in the near past).

I just received the 10.1.0 version and you nailed it!, the new quality options are finally as they should, however I have a couple of questions:

1) Why did you keep the OOG option? I thought you were going to remove it and put the codec as default?

2) Can you please explain to me once and for all why the music is NOT copying directly when ReplayGain and Seekable FLAC are OFF and instead is getting re-encoded?

Understood.



Ok, that makes sense but why is then re-encoding MP3s? I just tested one 320Kbps MP3 with 8.574 KB and the file afterwards is 257Kbps with 6.843 KB?

For this test I turned OFF everything and the quality is set at the maximum (Hi-Res).