Problem Playing Recorded Audio on Nabi 2 Tablet (Android)

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#21

The guys from Corona have pointed out that the Nabi 2 doesn’t actually support .3gp format - it only supports mp3 and AAC, neither of which are formats Corona allows writing to for Android if I’m right?

I tested out writing to mp3 and playing it back but it didn’t work, as I suspected.

I don’t understand why a device that’s running Android can’t support .3gp if that’s the only format we’re allowed to write to from Corona.

What would be ideal would be if Corona allowed us to write to a different format for Android (mp3, air etc.). The audio quality of .3gp files is appalling so even if you get it working, on many Android devices it’s virtually unusable for anything where you require any kind of quality.

Are there plans to do this? It would solve a whole load of problems I’ve been having with audio quality on Android… [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142650[/import]

#22

Ian,

The reason Corona currently only supports the 3GP audio format is because that is what Google recommended in their documentation back in the Android 2.3 days. If you see their documentation via the link below, note that Android only supported 3GP, RAW, and MPEG4 before API Level 10 (which is Android 3.0).
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.html
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.html#setOutputFormat(int)

Based on our past testing, recording to MPEG4 and RAW was not supported by all Android devices. 3GP was the only reliable recording format that worked on all devices we’ve tested with… up until this Nabi 2 device (if in fact that is the actual issue). So, bottom line, just because Google provides an Android API for that audio recording format doesn’t mean the device will support it. Case in point, the Nabi 2. That’s the biggest problem with Android. Getting all of its APIs to work reliably/consistently between all of the different Android devices and OS versions. Particularly forked OS versions which don’t quite follow Google’s documentation. This is also why Google Play offers you the option to not support particular Android devices.

Also note that based on the above links, AAC is only supported by API Level 16 (Android 4.1). This audio format is not available on Android 4.0 and older devices. Even then, there is the possibility that even an Android 4.1 device might not support it either.

We’ve put some thought into this before, and we’re thinking that the only reliable solution is to override Android’s audio recording class and add the ability to record to an uncompressed WAV file. That may be the only reliable way to handle audio recording across all Android devices and OS versions.

That said, your only option at the moment is to exclude support for the Nabi 2. At least until we can find a solution to this problem.
[import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142660[/import]

#23

Thanks Joshua,

I appreciate you guys are in a difficult position.

I for one would be more than happy with the option of recording to WAV. The quality of the recorded 3gp is so poor that on some devices (i.e.: the Kindle Fire HD) it’s unusable.

Is this something that’s likely to be considered in the near future?

Thanks,

Ian [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142713[/import]

#24

Has there been any progress on identifying this issue? And hopefully a fix or work around? [import]uid: 88147 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142011[/import]

#25

I’ve heard nothing yet - be great to see this issue sorted out.

As I said, I have a device and am more than happy to test anything Corona want to send me and send back all the error logs etc.

Thanks,
Ian [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142066[/import]

#26

Sorry about the late response.
We’ll be investigating this issue today. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142116[/import]

#27

Recording to WAV file on Android is on our future to-do list, but not a priority at the moment as can be seen on our feature list here…
http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/filters/top

But I’ll make sure to re-raise this issue with our team next week. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142935[/import]

#28

The guys from Corona have pointed out that the Nabi 2 doesn’t actually support .3gp format - it only supports mp3 and AAC, neither of which are formats Corona allows writing to for Android if I’m right?

I tested out writing to mp3 and playing it back but it didn’t work, as I suspected.

I don’t understand why a device that’s running Android can’t support .3gp if that’s the only format we’re allowed to write to from Corona.

What would be ideal would be if Corona allowed us to write to a different format for Android (mp3, air etc.). The audio quality of .3gp files is appalling so even if you get it working, on many Android devices it’s virtually unusable for anything where you require any kind of quality.

Are there plans to do this? It would solve a whole load of problems I’ve been having with audio quality on Android… [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142650[/import]

#29

Ian,

The reason Corona currently only supports the 3GP audio format is because that is what Google recommended in their documentation back in the Android 2.3 days. If you see their documentation via the link below, note that Android only supported 3GP, RAW, and MPEG4 before API Level 10 (which is Android 3.0).
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.html
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.html#setOutputFormat(int)

Based on our past testing, recording to MPEG4 and RAW was not supported by all Android devices. 3GP was the only reliable recording format that worked on all devices we’ve tested with… up until this Nabi 2 device (if in fact that is the actual issue). So, bottom line, just because Google provides an Android API for that audio recording format doesn’t mean the device will support it. Case in point, the Nabi 2. That’s the biggest problem with Android. Getting all of its APIs to work reliably/consistently between all of the different Android devices and OS versions. Particularly forked OS versions which don’t quite follow Google’s documentation. This is also why Google Play offers you the option to not support particular Android devices.

Also note that based on the above links, AAC is only supported by API Level 16 (Android 4.1). This audio format is not available on Android 4.0 and older devices. Even then, there is the possibility that even an Android 4.1 device might not support it either.

We’ve put some thought into this before, and we’re thinking that the only reliable solution is to override Android’s audio recording class and add the ability to record to an uncompressed WAV file. That may be the only reliable way to handle audio recording across all Android devices and OS versions.

That said, your only option at the moment is to exclude support for the Nabi 2. At least until we can find a solution to this problem.
[import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142660[/import]

#30

Thanks Joshua,

I appreciate you guys are in a difficult position.

I for one would be more than happy with the option of recording to WAV. The quality of the recorded 3gp is so poor that on some devices (i.e.: the Kindle Fire HD) it’s unusable.

Is this something that’s likely to be considered in the near future?

Thanks,

Ian [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142713[/import]

#31

Recording to WAV file on Android is on our future to-do list, but not a priority at the moment as can be seen on our feature list here…
http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/filters/top

But I’ll make sure to re-raise this issue with our team next week. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142935[/import]

#32

Thanks Joshua,

I appreciate you guys are in a difficult position.

I for one would be more than happy with the option of recording to WAV. The quality of the recorded 3gp is so poor that on some devices (i.e.: the Kindle Fire HD) it’s unusable.

Is this something that’s likely to be considered in the near future?

Thanks,

Ian [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142713[/import]

#33

Recording to WAV file on Android is on our future to-do list, but not a priority at the moment as can be seen on our feature list here…
http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/filters/top

But I’ll make sure to re-raise this issue with our team next week. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142935[/import]

#34

Thanks Joshua,

I appreciate you guys are in a difficult position.

I for one would be more than happy with the option of recording to WAV. The quality of the recorded 3gp is so poor that on some devices (i.e.: the Kindle Fire HD) it’s unusable.

Is this something that’s likely to be considered in the near future?

Thanks,

Ian [import]uid: 123492 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142713[/import]

#35

Recording to WAV file on Android is on our future to-do list, but not a priority at the moment as can be seen on our feature list here…
http://feedback.coronalabs.com/forums/188732-corona-sdk-feature-requests-feedback/filters/top

But I’ll make sure to re-raise this issue with our team next week. [import]uid: 32256 topic_id: 35481 reply_id: 142935[/import]