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lilarry
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join:2010-04-06

lilarry

Premium Member

[Voip.ms] Androids no longer play emailed voice mail .wav files

Looks like Voip.ms has changed the codec or compression on emailed voice mail .wav files (for reasons I promised I wouldn't discuss...yet). It seems the stock audio player on Android devices doesn't like the new format. Anyone having any luck with any Android media players that can play the new Voip.ms voice mail files?

So far I've tried VitalPlayer with no luck on Gingerbread.
lilarry

lilarry

Premium Member

Re: [Voip.ms] Androids no longer play emailed voice mail .wav fi

Ahhh, okay! Just tried Remote Wave. It works.

»play.google.com/store/ap ··· er&hl=en
grand total
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said by lilarry:

Looks like Voip.ms has changed the codec or compression on emailed voice mail .wav files (for reasons I promised I wouldn't discuss...yet). It seems the stock audio player on Android devices doesn't like the new format. Anyone having any luck with any Android media players that can play the new Voip.ms voice mail files?

So far I've tried VitalPlayer with no luck on Gingerbread.

[Edit] This is NOT a problem with Anveo. I was mistaken.

This is a problem with Anveo too. I don't have an Android phone, but someone I forwarded a voicemail to does and couldn't play it. I'll try MP3 instead of WAV.
JeanInNepean
join:2012-09-19
Grenoble, FR

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Messages used to be "WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit, mono 8000 Hz" while now they are "WAVE audio, GSM 6.10, mono 8000 Hz", which not every audio player will be able to play back.
conwaytwt
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join:2004-04-09
Conway, AR

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I've been using the default music player that came with my Galaxy S3 (which seems to be called Music Player, version 5.0.5, and may be a Samsung app). It is ugly but it works fine with the Voip.ms .wav files.
lilarry
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join:2010-04-06

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said by JeanInNepean:

Messages used to be "WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 16 bit, mono 8000 Hz" while now they are "WAVE audio, GSM 6.10, mono 8000 Hz", which not every audio player will be able to play back.

Thanks for that info. I was wondering what the new codec/compression was. What is the advantage of switching to a troublesome (for many) format that is playable on fewer audio players?
lilarry

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said by conwaytwt:

I've been using the default music player that came with my Galaxy S3 (which seems to be called Music Player, version 5.0.5, and may be a Samsung app). It is ugly but it works fine with the Voip.ms .wav files.

Have you used it in the last 24-48 hours? A client with an S3 wasn't able to play them on his.
conwaytwt
Premium Member
join:2004-04-09
Conway, AR

conwaytwt

Premium Member

said by lilarry:

said by conwaytwt:

I've been using the default music player that came with my Galaxy S3 (which seems to be called Music Player, version 5.0.5, and may be a Samsung app). It is ugly but it works fine with the Voip.ms .wav files.

Have you used it in the last 24-48 hours? A client with an S3 wasn't able to play them on his.

Well, whaddya know. I just left a "fresh" voice mail (previous was from the weekend) and the new message will not play on the same player.
SCADAGeo
Premium Member
join:2012-11-08
N California

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I don't know if it will work, but a beta of VLC for Android was updated on May 23, 2013.

VideoLAN.org - VLC media player for Android™.
Google Play - VLC for Android Beta.
MartinM
VoIP.ms
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join:2008-07-21

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Lots of people were complaining about the big size of files for mobiles. We tested a bunch of mobiles with this new format that is much smaller and the format worked on all devices we tested. This is also the format we were using 3-4 years ago but smartphones were not as advanced with formats at the time.

We know it works nativelly with iPhone and it seem most people with Android with players installed have no issues. A guy at the office with an S3 uses the google player (Google Play I believe?)

We're open to all feedback for this and we've been monitoring people with issues and worst case scenario we'll revert back to original format but there were very few issues reported yesterday as the format seems widely supported.
conwaytwt
Premium Member
join:2004-04-09
Conway, AR

conwaytwt

Premium Member

said by MartinM:

Lots of people were complaining about the big size of files for mobiles. We tested a bunch of mobiles with this new format that is much smaller and the format worked on all devices we tested.

I agree smaller file sizes are helpful!

A guy at the office with an S3 uses the google player (Google Play I believe?)

My S3 didn't originally come with the Google Play Music, but a suggested update downloaded it recently. Surely Google Play Music is able to play local files but I haven't figured out how; it doesn't seem to have such an interface. HOWEVER I haven't actually used it to play anything yet -- it seems to want me to register for various paid services I'm not interested in.

The (unbranded) Music Player is what launches with .wav files, and as noted before, it doesn't play this file format. Music Player doesn't have much of an interface, either. Just an ugly picture that probably is a placeholder for album art and a couple of audio controls. No menu items at all.

It's always possible this is a carrier-dependent issue due to some difference in installed software. My Galaxy S3 is on Verizon (CDMA 4G/LTE).

I don't mind downloading a different music player, but before I do I wanted to add some data that might be helpful to others. Once it's working again it may be hard to figure out what changed.
MartinM
VoIP.ms
Premium Member
join:2008-07-21

MartinM

Premium Member

said by conwaytwt:



I don't mind downloading a different music player, but before I do I wanted to add some data that might be helpful to others. Once it's working again it may be hard to figure out what changed.

Thanks for the feedback conwaytwt. When you figure out a way to listen to your voicemail transparently or easily without the process being complicated, please let us know. Meanwhile I'll have our programmer who has the S3 give me his comments on how he listens to his voicemails without having to go through "steps"

Thanks
tbrummell2
join:2002-02-09
Ottawa, ON

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said by conwaytwt See ProfileSurely Google Play Music is able to play local files but I haven't figured out how; it doesn't seem to have such an interface. HOWEVER I haven't actually used it to play anything yet -- it seems to want me to register for various paid services I'm not interested in.

:

Yes, Google Play plays local files just fine. Mine doesn't prompt me to register for anything, but I am in Canada, I see you are not, we don't get to use the Google Music services up here, that's probably the difference.

conwaytwt
Premium Member
join:2004-04-09
Conway, AR

conwaytwt

Premium Member

said by tbrummell2:

Yes, Google Play plays local files just fine. Mine doesn't prompt me to register for anything, but I am in Canada, I see you are not, we don't get to use the Google Music services up here, that's probably the difference.

We are obviously not talking about the same app.

Google Play Music »play.google.com/about/music/ seems to be an interface to some sort of music service. It probably can play local files, because it says I can transfer them via USB. SO I clicked that link in the app, and got a support page at »support.google.com/googl ··· /1101500 which had a link about supported file types »support.google.com/googl ··· /1100462

AND in that document it says .wav is NOT supported.

SO at the very least the player is not what I am seeing as Google Play Music. Maybe it's a different app for different countries.
tbrummell2
join:2002-02-09
Ottawa, ON

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Exactly. Different app/options for US & Canada.
JeanInNepean
join:2012-09-19
Grenoble, FR

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I personally prefer ogg vorbis; it sounds much better than G.729 or GSM even though files may be a bit larger (still much smaller than 16-bit mono PCM). Is the file format something that could be set for each user independently (an extra voicemail setup option?) or does it have to be identical system-wide?
MartinM
VoIP.ms
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join:2008-07-21

MartinM

Premium Member

said by JeanInNepean:

I personally prefer ogg vorbis; it sounds much better than G.729 or GSM even though files may be a bit larger (still much smaller than 16-bit mono PCM). Is the file format something that could be set for each user independently (an extra voicemail setup option?) or does it have to be identical system-wide?

It's software limitation on our side, basically it wants to save the file in a supported codec or uncompressed format like PCM. However, all phones we tested worked nativelly except for some modified versions of Android (e.g: Samsung SIII). Also, this file format is very small and mobile friendly because of that.

A message will be posted to the news, regarding the change and potential issues and solutions to fix them within 24 hours. It will be added to the news section and those subscribed to the news will receive it via email as well.

For those who have issues with Android, I would recommend Remote Wave Free. Here's the behavior of the phone when clicking on file.

MartinM

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deleted- double post
conwaytwt
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join:2004-04-09
Conway, AR

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I have been trying a few apps this morning and will confirm Remote Wave Free »play.google.com/store/ap ··· eeplayer

This one seems to work just fine with the new .wav files.
Gobe
join:2009-10-14
canada

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I have WavPlayer already installed on my Andriod phone and it works with the new format.

Go to Google play and find WavPlayer by Dennis Lockshine, it'll cost you 99 cents.
jobr
join:2004-10-21
Halifax, NS

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I'm not easily able to generate a voip.ms voicemail at the moment. Could someone please attach a sample file to this thread?
lilarry
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join:2010-04-06

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said by MartinM:

For those who have issues with Android, I would recommend Remote Wave Free.

I second this. As posted earlier in the thread I tested Remote Wave successfully yesterday. Been working great all day. And the price is right.
lilarry

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OldVer_msg0049.wav
125,804 bytes
Old Voip.ms wav format from march 2013
NewVer_msg0005.WAV
13,190 bytes
New Voip.ms wav format from today
Sample of Old version (from March 31, 2013) and New version (from today) attached.

I'm thinking the newer version obviously sounds more compressed and not as sharp as the older version. Anyone else have opinions?

For us, this shouldn't be much of a problem for voice mail. However, sometimes we have clients record their own IVR prompts by recording them as voice mail messages. We then edit, reformat and upload those voice mail wav files as recordings for the IVR. This worked pretty well with the old version. I don't think the new format is going to sound very good on IVR recordings. That being said, I'm liking the ideas and the goings on that have resulted in this change, so I'm not complaining.
lilarry

lilarry

Premium Member

Woah ... I just tried to play back the files I uploaded in my previous post using Chrome. The old version plays fine , new version DOES NOT PLAY AT ALL!!

The new version DOES play using Internet Explorer via Quicktime. It also plays fine using Firefox.

I'm thinking Google has some work to do on the media players on both Chrome AND Android.

Anyone else getting the same or different results?
grand total
join:2005-10-26
Mississauga
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MikroTik wAP AC
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grand total

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said by grand total:

This is a problem with Anveo too. I don't have an Android phone, but someone I forwarded a voicemail to does and couldn't play it. I'll try MP3 instead of WAV.

I need to correct what I wrote. The Anveo WAV file was playable on an Android phone (no special players), it's volume was low which made it difficult to hear.
jobr
join:2004-10-21
Halifax, NS

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Thank you! My Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.2) can't play the new file with any of the players I currently have installed.
JeanInNepean
join:2012-09-19
Grenoble, FR

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said by lilarry:

I'm thinking the newer version obviously sounds more compressed and not as sharp as the older version. Anyone else have opinions?

Completely agree. GSM is one of the lowest quality codecs available.
lilarry
Premium Member
join:2010-04-06

lilarry

Premium Member

said by JeanInNepean:

said by lilarry:

I'm thinking the newer version obviously sounds more compressed and not as sharp as the older version. Anyone else have opinions?

Completely agree. GSM is one of the lowest quality codecs available.

However notice the sizes of the files I uploaded. The old version is 7 seconds long and takes up 125,804 bytes. The new version is 9 seconds long but is compressed into just 13,190 bytes. That is a drastic savings in file size - roughly one tenth the size, a definite benefit despite the reduction in audio quality! Is it worth it? I suppose it depends on your needs, but I think most will agree it is a worthwhile trade-off.

Question for Martin: Is the same codec being used in the voice mailbox itself for messages that are retrieved by phone?
Gobe
join:2009-10-14
canada

Gobe

Member

said by lilarry:

Is it worth it? I suppose it depends on your needs, but I think most will agree it is a worthwhile trade-off.

For me, I rather take better sound quality over smaller file size (even at 10x the size), no one is leaving me messages longer than 1 minutes anyway....so I'd like to be given a choice on this
JeanInNepean
join:2012-09-19
Grenoble, FR

JeanInNepean

Member

said by Gobe:

For me, I rather take better sound quality over smaller file size (even at 10x the size), no one is leaving me messages longer than 1 minutes anyway....so I'd like to be given a choice on this

+1