PocketTV 0.10.7 released

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Yeah, having a second booster slider would definetly help - it would give a better idea of just how much over the 'normal' volume I've gone, which would be good in my opinion.

As for adjusting the volume not changing the earpiece volume for phone calls: that's something that should certainly be considered, it certainly stops any unexpected volumes when a phone call comes through. Go for it :)

Ok, unless we hear contradicting opinions that make sense, we'll do all that.

By the way, we think having a volume "per application" should have been enforced at the OS level. Currently not the case. For example if you set the volume with WMP, Pocket*MVP or any other app that plays audio, when a phone call arrives, the earphone volume will be the way you set it in the application, and I bet 99% of the times, it's not what you want.

Interestingly enough the Modaco people have rigged their forums so that the word Pocket*MVP (with no star) will link to the PocketMVP thread... Nice, but can they do the same with PocketTV ?

Hey, I broke your trick by adding a star :( Now you make Pocket*MVP become an automatic link to the MS site!

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

What's new in BETA-33:

- PocketTV now remembers its volume level (including the pre-amp) when it becomes inactive (e.g. you receive a call or go to Home screen) and it restores its volume level when you re-activate it. In other word, the volume changes in PocketTV do not affect the earpiece level when you place or receive a phone call.

We think this is the right way to handle the volume in an application running on a phone, but if you want PocketTV to change the global volume levels, just de-select "Remember Volume" in Menu > More > Audio.

[Guest Andy Mac]

Top app, like it alot!

[Guest rossy]

Really liking this program. I have a couple of suggestions for improving it though. Not sure if they have been mentioned before but here they are anyway....

1. Needs an exit function on the menu, so that it can be shut down without having to use Task manager.

2. A mute button, so that when i am at work i can easily turn the sound off!

Keep up the good work!

[Guest mattat]

I think the PocketTV team said before that they cannot have an exit button because they want microsoft certification which requires that there not be an exit command.

However is it possible to have something like the solution used in RocketElite where there is a .cfg file in the program directory with a simple text value [something like exit_option=false] that could be changed by the user (of course this would be nothing to do with you ;-), it would simply be the end user making a modification of the program ) and still satisfy microsofts requirements.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

> Needs an exit function on the menu, so that it can be shut down without having to use http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=7065>Task Manager.

First, you should know that there is really no need to have an Exit button in PocketTV, because the application does not use *ANY* cpu resources when it is inactive, and it releases *all* its memory as soon as it it asked to do so by the OS. Just like Email, Internet Explorer and other built-in apps.

However, word is that the "Back" command in the PocketTV Menu *actually shuts downs* PocketTV. But really, can you tell if it is the case ? I mean, without using a task manager ? We think you cannot. So would it really make a big difference if Back was just de-activating PocketTV ?

We think that if an application is written properly, the Exit button is indeed not necessary. Based on the performances on other apps on the phone, you should be completely unable to tell whether PocketTV is running but inactive (i.e. sleeping in the background), or whether the process has exited.

When you use a Nokia cell phone, do you need to "Exit" the calendar applet ? Do you really care if the applet is still loaded (inactive) in memory when you switch to another applet ? Do you want an "Exit" command in each applet on your Nokia ? It's the same with the Smartphone.

The only applications that need Exit are those that are not written properly, or that are bogus, i.e. cause negative interaction with the system when they are inactive (e.g. they don't free all their memory when asked by the OS).

However, there are still a few cases where PocketTV needs to be terminated. For example, at this point, PocketTV does not close the open stream when it gets de-activated. This means that the file cannot be updated/ deleted when PocketTV is running in the background. Another case is when you change the Home Page Color scheme. PocketTV uses some standard controls that have a bug, causing them to not fetch the current system colors, so they will draw with the old colors until you terminate and restart PocketTV.

> 2. A mute button, so that when i am at work i can easily turn the sound off!

There is one. By default, it is mapped on "6". Use Menu > Functions to see all the commands and map them on the phone keys you want.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

> I think the PocketTV team said before that they cannot have an exit button because they want microsoft certification which requires that there not be an exit command.

No, that's not the reason.

Read our previous posting... We agree that if an application is properly written, the Exit button is useless, because you should not be able to feel any difference in the performance of your device whether the application is sleeping in the background or if the process is terminated. Other applications should run just as well and as fast and all the memory will be available to them, since the system will ask sleeping apps to release their memory when you call SHCloseApps after a memory allocation fails.

Of course, all that supposes that *all* applications are written properly, i.e. that they call SHCloseApps when necessary.

Some popular applications, like PocketMVP, are not programmed properly for WinCE, and they don't call SHCloseApps when malloc fails. Basically they won't be able to ask the OS to hibernate or terminate some inactive apps when memory is not immediately available. Hopefully the developers of those applications will correct the problems so that they interact properly with the OS and with other applications. Basically all memory allocation calls must be included in a wrapper that looks like:

void *wrapper_malloc(unsigned int size)

{

void *memory;

memory = malloc(size);

if (memory) {

return memory;

}

SHCloseApps(size);

return malloc(size);

}

Of course the "No Exit" philosophy of MS would work much better if MS had included the calls to SHCloseApps within all their memory allocation routines but unfortunately I think that's not the case (yet). So it is left to the responsability of each apps to call SHCloseApps. The apps that don't call SHCloseApps may not be able to get the memory they need.

Correct memory allocation using SHCloseApps is a requirement that is missing from the logo-requirements of Pocket PC and Smartphone. The logo-requirements only contains one half on the equation (i.e. respond to WM_HIBERNATE). It is not sufficient!

> However is it possible to have something like the solution used in RocketElite where there is a .cfg file in the program directory with a simple text value [something like exit_option=false] that could be changed by the user (of course this would be nothing to do with you ;-), it would simply be the end user making a modification of the program ) and still satisfy microsofts requirements.

Read the previous posting... look at what we say about the "Back" command in the Menu.

The Smartphone logo-requirement does make it illegal to have a "Back" command in the menu, and it does not say how the "BacK" command should be implemented :)

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

What's new in BETA-34:

- Improved built-in File Selector.

The built-in file selector that we use is called "tgetFile" and is developed by the small japanese company http://www.tillanosoft.com/ . It can be very easiely integrated in any Smartphone application. It is functionally equivalent to the standard GetOpenFileName command on the Pocket PC and HPC platforms, and it uses the exact same API.

- Much easier to map a function on a numerical key: Just select the function in the list (Menu > Functions) and press the key you want to map it on.

- Added "Exit PocketTV" in the Function list, mapped on "*" by default.

- Small performance improvement.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

What's new in BETA-35:

- You can now install PocketTV on the Phone.

Because of a MS-known bug in the IPSM filesystem, the Smartphone cannot run large binaries like PocketTV when they are stored on the IPSM stratoflash (i.e. the internal flash of the phone).

When you install PocketTV on the Phone (i.e. in IPSM) rather than on a Storage Card, PocketTV works around the problem byautomatically creating a temporary copy of itself in RAM when you run it.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

What's new in BETA-37:

- When you install PocketTV on the Phone, it now cleans-up properly all the temporary files that it must create in order to work around the IPSM bug.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

What's new in BETA-38:

- The Volume is now correctly saved and restored by PocketTV. If you don't like to have PocketTV remember its volume setting, go in Menu > More > Audio and de-select "Remember Volume".

[Guest muude]

What happened to BETA-36??

(Not that I really need to know since Im still on BATE 29)

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

What happened to BETA-36??

(Not that I really need to know since Im still on BATE 29)

It was just a minor bug fix version, no noticeable change to mention.

You should upgrade to the latest, it has significant improvements, the most important being:

- you can install it on the Phone itself if you want to.

- it remembers the volume i.e. it does not interact with your earpiece volume when you take or make a phone call.

- it has a nice built-in file explorer.

- it's much easier to map command on the buttons (just select a command in Menu > Functions and press the key you want to map.

[Guest muude]

Spare me the propoganda, I know how to read the other posts... No offense...

[Guest chauhan_vijay]

Hi

installed Pocket TV and works better than PocketDivX (ps pocketdivx didnt work!) and playin a file but the file seems to stop and start as does the sound but in sync with the clip. the effect is a movie being paused and unpaused constantly for the length of the clip.....

can someone let me how to improve the playback

cheers

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Hi 

installed Pocket TV and works better than PocketDivX (ps pocketdivx didnt work!) and playin a file but the file seems to stop and start as does the sound but in sync with the clip. the effect is a movie being paused and unpaused constantly for the length of the clip.....

can someone let me how to improve the playback

cheers

Make sure that your files are encoded with audio and video bitrates (and video dimensions) suitable for the Smartphone.

Read the section entitled "How to make MPEG files optimized for Smartphone " in http://forum.pocketmovies.net/viewtopic.ph...php?p=3368#3368 . it explains how to convert larger video files to the right format.

We have also made a template and simple how-to instructions for making MPEG files optimized for PocketTV:

http://forum.pocketmovies.net/viewtopic.php?t=977

[Guest J1A1H]

Hi sorry i have a problem with actually putting the cab file onto my phone. My phone is unlocked and i have doom on my phone etc... But when i come to the last part of installing the cab file it says " Installation failed. The program or setting cannot be installed because it does not have the adequate system permissions. Please contact your service provider for more information." I am not sure what this means can someone please help me out this looks like an amazing app.

THANKS IN ADVANCE Josh

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Hi sorry i have a problem with actually putting the cab file onto my phone. My phone is unlocked and i have doom on my phone etc... But when i come to the last part of installing the cab file it says " Installation failed. The program or setting cannot be installed because it does not have the adequate system permissions. Please contact your service provider for more information." I am not sure what this means can someone please help me out this looks like an amazing app.  

THANKS IN ADVANCE Josh

This means that your phone is "signed" i.e. "locked". Maybe it just locked-back by itself, that happens sometimes.

You need to re-unsign or re-unlock your phone. If you have a french SPV from Orange, check out http://developer.orangews.com/orgspv/comdefqfr.aspx .

[Guest J1A1H]

i can't believe it!!! it took me ages to un lock it and it locked it self again ok thank you very much i will try tomorrow morning. thank you again

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Unlocking an Orange SPV is very easy.

Check out http://www.coolsmartphone.com/app-cert.htm

We also provide the direct links to the french and english SPV unlock webpages at Orange on the PocketTV install page:

http://forum.pocketmovies.net/viewtopic.ph...php?p=3368#3368

[Guest J1A1H]

Thanks i am trying to un lock my phone by using the official orange way but when i am on the site it doesn't want to load and how much would the cost be if i did it the orange way?

thanks in advance

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Orange OTA is free. Have you got any firewall or Antivirus software running? If so disable them and try lodaing the page again.

[Guest J1A1H]

No i haven't and it says the web site is not responding after i have entered al my details and pressed "ok" it says it is not responding. I am not sure what to do because if it doesn't work i can't be bothered to do the whole hacking thing all over again.

[Guest J1A1H]

I have a big problem. I am now uncertifying my phone the manual way. and when i change the security policy i cannot save over it. i have copied it out but its a read only file. but the wierd thing is i can edit it and save it but not as the same name i cannot save over that name what do i do. when i did it ages ago i never had this problem please help

thanks in advance

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Maybe you should create a new thread about decertification/unlocking ? :lol: