Guest PalmBeer Posted October 7, 2003 Report Posted October 7, 2003 Evening all, I'm using the pocket TV classic as downloadable from their site and it works like a charm (even smoother now acutally since I installed the Q-Tek Rom). The problem I'm having is that at some point while watching an mpg I sometimes get the familiar Pie shape icon from MS stating it is doing something and is busy. (happened in normal and fullscreen-mode so that can't make a difference as far as I can see) During that period I cannot access the menu, lower the volume, stop the movie, close the program or anything. The problem is that sometimes it won't seem to stop loading at all. I've had similar times when the pie-shaped symbol started loading and dissapeared again after a few secs, but also that it just keeps on loading, thus disabeling me to use my SAP in any way possible. It seems to occur at random, sometimes with mpg's wich are a few mins long, sometimes with mpg's under a minute long. And it's not related to any type of file specifically also. I have absolutely no idea what's triggering this as I can't seem to reproduce the problem. It just happends now and then.. I've had it on the Orange Rom (1.3.6.25 or something) and now also on the Q-Tek Rom (the latest one).. Any idea's what may be the cause of this?
Guest mvsmith07 Posted October 7, 2003 Report Posted October 7, 2003 I don't think this is anything to do with PocketTV, but just the Microsoft Smartphone OS itself. The OS obviously starts to do something in the background, but annoyingly puts the horrible timer cursor on the screen instead of just doing it invisibly. Not sure if there is anything do resolve this problem at the moment. Perhaps the long awaited next ROM - 1.6? - from Orange might resolve some of the major issues currently known about including this one.
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted October 7, 2003 Report Posted October 7, 2003 Try using Task Manager to close some apps running in the backgound and see if that helps.
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 7, 2003 Report Posted October 7, 2003 I sometimes get the familiar Pie shape icon from MS stating it is doing something and is busy. (happened in normal and fullscreen-mode so that can't make a difference as far as I can see) During that period I cannot access the menu, lower the volume, stop the movie, close the program or anything. This is a known problem of the Smartphone OS. Microsoft is aware of it. Apparently some internal task of the OS starts or wakes up every couple of minutes and displays the hourglass. The problem is visible when you run any applications that uses a lot of CPU resources, not just PocketTV. When you don't run any CPU-intensive application, the ourglass probably disapear instantly, so it is less noticeable. The ourglass stays a long time when the processor is heavily loaded, e.g. when playing video with PocketTV.
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 7, 2003 Report Posted October 7, 2003 Not sure if there is anything do resolve this problem at the moment. Perhaps the long awaited next ROM - 1.6? - from Orange might resolve some of the major issues currently known about including this one. Apparently the problem is not specific to the Orange Smartphone. It happens on all Smartphone 2002 devices. So it is unlikely that it will be fixed by a ROM upgrade from Orange, unless MS resolves the issue. We don't know if the problem also exists on Smartphone 2003.
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 7, 2003 Report Posted October 7, 2003 Try using http://smartphone.MoDaCo.com/viewtopic.php?t=7065>Task Manager to close some apps running in the backgound and see if that helps. This does not help, since the problem occurs even when there is no background application running.
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 But it's still good practise if you are using any memory hungry app.
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 More or less... Unlike on a desktop PC, the fact that a backgrond app uses a lot of memory does not slowdown the active app on a device like Smartphone or Pocket PC, which does not swap memory on a disk. But this cursor issue is apparently caused by a background system task that flushes data (e.g. registry) to the permanent storage, according to a MSFT post in this thread: http://smartphone.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=94097 lame...
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 Interesting, have t keep an eye on that post.
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 Interesting, have t keep an eye on that post. Yes... I would say "depressing" or "sad" rather than "interesting"...
Guest PalmBeer Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 Ok so basically I can do nothing to it.. Problem is I cannot turn any other apps off with the tak manager cause the whole phone just tops.. Ive waited for as long as 15-20 mins without result... And I really LOVE watching seinfeld eps on my smartphone ;) I've now also found another strange thing, whenever I go to settings=>Sounds the phone alsp hangs with the pie shape thingie and no responce to any button presses.. The only thing I DID change was changing the startup sound and the dir where the ringtones are stored for the contact list (letting you select a different tune for every contact from the sd card). I used midnights registry tweaks for that and am aboslutely sure I didnt do anything wrong (cause it works) or change anything else in the registry of my Q-Tek Rom...
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 Ok so basically I can do nothing to it.. correct.
Guest PalmBeer Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 correct. Does everyone experience these problems? I now have it with about 90% of the movies I watch, leaving it completely unusable in while and forcing me to try PocketMVP more in the hope that that doesnt start whatever background ep is causing this... Any thoughts on perhaps the pie-shape problem with settings=> sounds? Can't that have anything to do with it perhaps? I know it a known error but perhaps therein lies the problem in my case??? Perhaps it cause the same BG app to be started..
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 I very rarely get the problem (if at all) with PocketMVP unless I'm just lucky ;)
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 8, 2003 Report Posted October 8, 2003 You can try PocketMVP, but apparently the problem is un-related to the application that you run, it is only related to the CPU load. If you have a low CPU load, then the hourglass will disapear faster or become un-noticeable. Try PocketMVP, maybe it will work better for you. According to MS the problem will be less noticeable (although not solved completely) with Smartphone 2003 devices...
Guest mvsmith07 Posted October 9, 2003 Report Posted October 9, 2003 I know this is a really bad solution, but hey when all else fails try the good old Microsoft trick... If you've been using your phone for a while before deciding to watch a movie, try a soft reset before starting PocketTV. This will definitely clear the program memory. I have experienced this problem with PocketTV in the past, but not so much recently and I have a 45min Buffy episode (OMWF - the musical one), which I watch/listen to regularly without problems. I've even received a call through while watching the movie, had the conversation and returned to the movie without problems. I don't know if I'm just making things up because it might have been coincidence, but I thought I might have been causing the problem by pressing too many keys in sequence without waiting for the result of each keypress before the next. For example, pressing the volume button then immediately the action button to flip view mode without waiting first for the volume control to disappear from the screen. Do The PocketTV Team have any comments on this and whether it is or isn't a problem?
Guest The PocketTV Team Posted October 9, 2003 Report Posted October 9, 2003 No, you can press keys as fast as you want, PocketTV does not care, and I don't think this can be any source of problem for the OS either. I think what you observed was purely coincidental.
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