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View Full Version : WMPM 10 Pause/Resume


wolfcj
10-18-2005, 07:19 PM
I have a 5-year-old Pocket PC and am shopping for a new one. I have what may be a dumb question about music/audio playback with Media Player 10 Mobile.

If I pause playback of an MP3, can I resume again later regardless of what other things I've done on the PPC in between? In other words, while playback is paused, I want to be able to run other programs or even shut the PPC off for a while and then when I come back to WMPM 10 maybe a couple of days later have it resume where I paused it.

Thanks.

Sven Johannsen
10-18-2005, 08:44 PM
I have a 5-year-old Pocket PC and am shopping for a new one. I have what may be a dumb question about music/audio playback with Media Player 10 Mobile.

If I pause playback of an MP3, can I resume again later regardless of what other things I've done on the PPC in between? In other words, while playback is paused, I want to be able to run other programs or even shut the PPC off for a while and then when I come back to WMPM 10 maybe a couple of days later have it resume where I paused it.

Thanks.

All but "maybe a couple of days later' works fine. I think you will find that leaving MP paused in the background will have a negative effect on your battery life.

wolfcj
10-18-2005, 09:22 PM
Thanks, but I'm not sure I understand about the battery life issue. If I pause playback and then turn the PDA off, isn't it really off?

Sven Johannsen
10-18-2005, 09:50 PM
Thanks, but I'm not sure I understand about the battery life issue. If I pause playback and then turn the PDA off, isn't it really off?
Absolutely not. The PPC is in more of a suspend state when you turn it "Off". There are always background processes running to service alarms and reminders. If nothing else is running, or loaded in memory, just doing those things can drain a PPC. In most cases you can leave a PPC servicing only alarms and reminders laying on your desk for a week or more. (varies greatly, and that is pessimistic) You will see battery drain, but you won't be dead.

If on the other hand, you have numerous programs actually running, but backgrounded, they can still be using significant processor time and hence, power. Some things can suck a PPC dry overnight, even if they aren't doing anything visible.

Before WM5 the effect of a dry battery was a hard (or factory) reset. The PPC acts like you just got it out of the box, and you would either have to restore from a backup or reload everything from scratch. With the change in memory configuration in WM5, you can still drain the battery, but you won't loose anything except what you might have had open, such as a word file you were editing (loose the changes), similar to powering off a PC. With WM5 on a PPC, getting battery back will put you back where you were, more like the experience peiople are used to with phones, Smart or otherwise.

wolfcj
10-18-2005, 10:52 PM
Intereesting explanation. Two questions then:

What are some of the programs that can "suck a PPC dry overnight"? I've never paid any attention to this with my old model, just shutting it down with whatever was running still running, and I never noticed that any circumstances caused unusual battery drain while it was off.

What happens with WMPM 10 if it's playing an MP3 and you power off? Does it continue playing in the suspend state, so if you turn the power back on a minute later it's a minute farther in playing the file? Does it pause? Does it stop? Does it close?

Thanks.

Nurhisham Hussein
10-19-2005, 02:08 AM
For battery sucking apps - something like weather panel or journal bar when set in auto update mode. This will continue to wake up your PPC at periodic intervals as the apps try to update their information. Also Activesync itself can do this when set to update periodically as well.

As for your WMP10 question, it will pause playback when you turn your unit off, and remain paused when you turn it back on again. There is an option to turn only the screen off in WMP - in which case your PPC (and your media file) will continue running. This saves a bit of battery life.

Sven Johannsen
10-19-2005, 03:53 AM
On my X50, if MP is playing when I turn the unit off, it will continue playing when I turn it back on. My 3715 if turned off while playing jumps to the next track and plays when you turn it back on. Not terribly consistant.

As far as it using juice when backgrounded and paused, I'm not sure what it's doing but it does seem to use more power than it ought to. At least it used to. Maybe MP10 is better than older versions. I typically close all my running apps if I'm going to leave the PPC off charge overnight.

Another thing that can cause some issues is the midnight housekeeping routine. Most PPCs will turn themselves on for a short period around midnight to do some housekeeping chores, set the next days alarms, etc. Normally the device powers off shortlky after waking up. There have been occasions where some program or feature that can be set to disable power off, or is seen as activity, will keep the unit on. I really haven't heard of too many of these instances lately. Don't know if they have been fixed over time, or if folks are using their PPCs differently or are more careful. My normal mode is to have the unit cradled on power overnight, so I don't have overnight power issues. Normally I close my apps too, so that avoids that issue. My wife on the other hand, will leave hers in her purse for several days, and doesn't worry about app management. She hasn't had any particular issues either, but she doesn't use that many non-stock applications routinely. I don't think she ever opens MP. She does soft reset now and again though, which shuts down all open apps.

Didn't mean to start anything here. Just meant to be cautious if you really do mean to leave your PPC sitting around untouched for several days.

Nurhisham Hussein
10-19-2005, 06:43 AM
Just meant to be cautious if you really do mean to leave your PPC sitting around untouched for several days.

I'll second that.