gs2 multitasking

conor.hogan.2

I have a stock galaxy s2 bought from vodafone.

It can't multitask using either the youtube app or in a browser. I cant even turn off the screen and listen to something off youtube as it pauses the video.

I thought Android had "proper" multitasking?

heebusjeebus

Android does multitasking, and does it well.
I've not tried the stock Sammy browser but all the ones I've tried (CM7, Opera, Firefox) store your open tabs when you switch.
For YouTube, its probably been coded to stop playback when you turn off the screen as the app keeps the screen on during playback.

28064212

heebusjeebus wrote: »

For YouTube, its probably been coded to stop playback when you turn off the screen as the app keeps the screen on during playback.

^ This. It's a Youtube problem, not an Android one

Professey Chin

28064212 wrote: »

^ This. It's a Youtube problem, not an Android one

Wouldnt really call it a problem. Why would you want a video to keep playing when you cant look at it
If youre listening to music or something use Tinyshark

28064212

Mega Chin wrote: »

Wouldnt really call it a problem. Why would you want a video to keep playing when you cant look at it

Touché It's a problem from the OP's point of view, not necessarily Youtube's.

conor.hogan.2

Well the youtube app is owned and made by Google.

Also I was listening to hitchikers guide to the galaxy and other things which have no video but are in playlists on youtube.

Professey Chin

You could use tubemate or something to rip the youtube audio for stuff like that. Then you can do it over wi-fi and save them instead of relying on streaming

heebusjeebus

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Well the youtube app is owned and made by Google.

Thats besides the point. The app is "designed" to stop playing when you turn off the screen. Its definately not a bug.

CombatCow

Indeed not a bug, user error :rolleyes:

jimmycrackcorm

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

I thought Android had "proper" multitasking?

For the record "proper multitasking" means having background processes perform the minimal amount of processing necessary to conserve battery life and minimize CPU usage.

DjFlin

Its an OP problem, not Youtube or Android. If you want music on your phone, put music on your phone, or get Spotify/GrooveShark etc.

28064212

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

For the record "proper multitasking" means having background processes perform the minimal amount of processing necessary to conserve battery life and minimize CPU usage.

It really, really doesn't

conor.hogan.2

People obviously didnt read this thread, I am not using it for music. I have an iPod classic for that and plenty of streaming and other music apps for that.

I dont see any reason why the app or the browser, especially the browser!, could not work like other apps.
I didnt say it was a bug, it is an omission imo.

Professey Chin

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

People obviously didnt read this thread, I am not using it for music. I have an iPod classic for that and plenty of streaming and other music apps for that.

I dont see any reason why the app or the browser, especially the browser!, could not work like other apps.
I didnt say it was a bug, it is an omission imo.

Whats the browser doing wrong?
And they stop playing the video if you cant see it because its an app for watching videos, not for listening to podcasts or audio books.
Personally I really hate the way users upload songs with just the name on it or audio-books when theres much better ways with better quality

heebusjeebus

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

People obviously didnt read this thread, I am not using it for music. I have an iPod classic for that and plenty of streaming and other music apps for that.

I dont see any reason why the app or the browser, especially the browser!, could not work like other apps.
I didnt say it was a bug, it is an omission imo.

All you said about the browser was

It can't multitask using either the youtube app or in a browser.

Can you clarify this issue as as I've already mentioned, all browsers I've tried can multitask.

28064212

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

People obviously didnt read this thread, I am not using it for music. I have an iPod classic for that and plenty of streaming and other music apps for that.

I dont see any reason why the app or the browser, especially the browser!, could not work like other apps.
I didnt say it was a bug, it is an omission imo.

Both work exactly like the other apps. Your problem is that you're looking for Youtube to do something it is not designed to do. You might as well wonder why Soccer Scores Pro doesn't give you the rugby scores

Professey Chin

Looks like the browser stops video playback when you switch app but starts straight away again when you switch back. Makes sense really. The biggest purpose of flash (especially on mobiles) is a lot of the video sites use it. And itd be a heavy process user in the background for a video when you cant see it.

conor.hogan.2

The browser cant continue to play the audio when you switch tabs like you can on a computer.

I think the phone can more than handle it and I know it would drain battery and i am currently probably wasting more battery as I need to keep the phone on on the lockscreen for the audio to play.

I can play a song in winamp and doubletwist and play a game all at once but i cant have a youtube audio playing in the background, makes sense.

Professey Chin

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

The browser cant continue to play the audio when you switch tabs like you can on a computer.

I think the phone can more than handle it and I know it would drain battery and i am currently probably wasting more battery as I need to keep the phone on on the lockscreen for the audio to play.

I can play a song in winamp and doubletwist and play a game all at once but i cant have a youtube audio playing in the background, makes sense.

Because winamp and doubletwist are playing just audio. Youtube is decoding both audio and video at the same time since theyre part of the package.
If you could do split screen like a proper computer id say it would be allowed but with limited screen real estate a phone has to prioritize whats better for the user which would be stopping a video when they cant see it and resuming it when they can.
As far as the phone and OS is concerned, youre watching a video, not just listening to audio.

heebusjeebus

Its simply that youtube and most flash players are designed to be "in focus" when used.

There is some chatter in some of the xda forums about keeping the stream going when focus has been changed.

conor.hogan.2

Yes but currently when I leave it on the lockscreen on the audio plays it is decoding the video and audio anyway…. it seems odd to not let the youtube app continue to do what it does just with the screen completely off not just with the lockscreen on.

Ditto with the browser, these are powerful phones.

I know flash video is designed to be watched but considering how powerful these phones are it just seems like an oversight to not make youtube both on the browser and the app behave like it does on an actual computer.

Something like iOS does it or just stop the arbitrary "you exited youtube, you must not want it - exit" and allow it to continue to do what it does and if you want to quit it you can quit it if you want to switch you switch.


Only reason I have seen for this is so people don't use it as a pandora/last.fm/etc service.

Professey Chin

The lockscreen and the screen off(standby) are different phone states.
When the screens off the phone goes into a low power state basically. All current apps are frozen in RAM to be restored when needed and services continue to run such as audio playing, polling, push notifications. Video decoding isnt a service of the OS AFAIK and requires the phone to be active (which is why you cant lock the phone with a video playing. Well you cant with the stock app anyway so ill have to check others)

heebusjeebus

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Yes but currently when I leave it on the lockscreen on the audio plays it is decoding the video and audio anyway…. it seems odd to not let the youtube app continue to do what it does just with the screen completely off not just with the lockscreen on.

Ditto with the browser, these are powerful phones.


I know flash video is designed to be watched but considering how powerful these phones are it just seems like an oversight to not make youtube both on the browser and the app behave like it does on an actual computer.

Something like iOS does it or just stop the arbitrary "you exited youtube, you must not want it - exit" and allow it to continue to do what it does and if you want to quit it you can quit it if you want to switch you switch.

Its nothing to do with the OS, it's down to the indivdual apps or else you'd hear us screaming that we cant hear winamp or the stock music browser when we turn our screens off.

conor.hogan.2

Mega Chin wrote: »

The lockscreen and the screen off(standby) are different phone states.
When the screens off the phone goes into a low power state basically. All current apps are frozen in RAM to be restored when needed and services continue to run such as audio playing, polling, push notifications. Video decoding isnt a service of the OS AFAIK and requires the phone to be active (which is why you cant lock the phone with a video playing)

Ok, good point but I think this should be enabled these phones are powerful eneough imo.

It is a Google app and it is a core app of the OS as in it is baked in iirc, bad wording by me I suppose.

conor.hogan.2

Mega Chin wrote: »

You could use tubemate or something to rip the youtube audio for stuff like that. Then you can do it over wi-fi and save them instead of relying on streaming

Looks like I will just have to do this.
Thanks, but not as easy as leaving a playlist running in the background.

Professey Chin

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Ok, good point but I think this should be enabled these phones are powerful eneough imo.

It is a Google app and it is a core app of the OS as in it is baked in iirc, bad wording by me I suppose.

Not all Android phones are though. The aim was a scalable OS that could work across a massive range of hardware. Adding new services to the core OS just for specific phones would cause splits everywhere. (although I guess apps do it to an extent.........im just confusing myself now )

conor.hogan.2

They already do it in the android market, ie if your phone is not 2.1+ you cant see this app and if its screen is not 4inches+ you cant see it.

I dont see adding things like this and essentially saying to get youtube xx.xx your phone has to be 1ghz dual core or above etc.

Professey Chin

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

They already do it in the android market, ie if your phone is not 2.1+ you cant see this app and if its screen is not 4inches+ you cant see it.

I dont see adding things like this and essentially saying to get youtube xx.xx your phone has to be 1ghz dual core or above etc.

But its not the app that doesnt allow it, its the OS itself. Youtube isnt a core part of the OS, its just a Google app like Gmail, Talk & even the Market. If a device doesnt pass certification it doesnt get these apps (like a lot of the Chinese devices)

subway

i dont get why the OP got such a slating for using wrong terminology ?
IMO he is correct in that browser / youtube / video is crippled in the background (ie, its one instance where android doesnt give the user power to do what they want - that IOS does is even more of an annoyance)
whats happening here is that youtube is a video app, from what i can tell video apps arent allowed run while the screen is off, its as simple as that from an OS point of view.

OP, if you really just want audio, try queuetube and see how you get on.
its certainly not as slick as the youtbe app but does what you want.

not sure about websites, its the same as video, so unless there is an app for what you want you might be out of luck

Keith186

That's weird that the youtube app doesn't play for all you with the screen off.

The app works on mine when you power the screen off just don't switch to another app or close it :pac:


edit - just seen you are on about the sgs2 only, oops.

Professey Chin

Keith186 wrote: »

That's weird that the youtube app doesn't play for all you with the screen off.

The app works on mine when you power the screen off just don't switch to another app or close it :pac:


edit - just seen you are on about the sgs2 only, oops.

Really? What phone are you using?
(Im gonna have to look into this more or its gonna drive me batty)

Keith186

Desire with LeeDroid (android 2.3.3).

Professey Chin

Keith186 wrote: »

Desire with LeeDroid (android 2.3.3).

Interesting............ill have to load Leedroid on my Desire HD and check this out.
Well if I ever get around to fixing it anyway

conor.hogan.2

subway wrote: »

i dont get why the OP got such a slating for using wrong terminology ?
IMO he is correct in that browser / youtube / video is crippled in the background (ie, its one instance where android doesnt give the user power to do what they want - that IOS does is even more of an annoyance)
whats happening here is that youtube is a video app, from what i can tell video apps arent allowed run while the screen is off, its as simple as that from an OS point of view.

OP, if you really just want audio, try queuetube and see how you get on.
its certainly not as slick as the youtbe app but does what you want.

not sure about websites, its the same as video, so unless there is an app for what you want you might be out of luck

Nice one, I'll try queuetube.