At End of Episode, screen flashes and BBerry frozen

[wgb]

After trial period, just purchased PodTrapper. Thought the problem might go away after trial, but it hasn't. When the player reaches the end of an episode, the screen begins to flash, and the BBerry doesn't work. I can back up to the BBerry screen, but not functional. I have to turn the unit off, and restart to return to normal function. I can then go to PodTrapper and play another episode, but if I let it play out to the end, it triggers the same problem again.

[marwatk]

Hi wgb,

Can you try the latest beta and see if you still have the issue:
http://ota.versatilemonkey.com/beta/

Let me know.

-Marcus

[wgb]

Successfully followed link, downloaded update, rebooted BBerry and played a random episode. At end, however, same glitch happened. Please help. Don't have a huge investment in the podcasts gathered thus far, so not bothered if I loose them. Anxious to get this working right as asoon as possible.
Thanks.

[arkolbus]

Does this happen if you play the episode in BBMP, without using PT?

[multiplyd]

Hello,

I have the exact same issue. I'm 10 days into the trial period.. love the product, except the fact that when an episode ends, the screen starts flashing on and off. I cant seem to do anything to stop it, except shut the phone off completely and reboot.

I tried playing the episodes in BBMP, and they play fine. Please suggest a solution. I was happy to find a perfect tool for podcasts, but bummed by this one glitch.
Thanks!

[diffused]

Hi, I'm wondering what BB model you have. I have a Tour and somethings are giving me a flashing/flickering screen but not PodTrapper. Their telling me it's an OS bug. Just a thought here.

[marwatk]

Can you guys post your phone model and OS version as listed in the Options -> About screen from your BB home Screen. Something like this:
BlackBerry(r) 8320
v4.5.0.81 (Platform 2.7.0.78)

See if we can narrow it down and I'll grab the affected simulator and see if there's anything I can do from my end.

Any more details you have would help as well:
Does it happen with only certain podcasts?
Video podcasts or audio ones?
Does pressing the red button to get back to home screen work?
Does holding the 'end call' button to shut down the bb work?
Any other way to recover minus pulling battery?

-Marcus

[wgb]

My info:

BlackBerry® 8330m
smartphone (CDMA)
v4.5.0.131 (Platform 3.4.0.25)

New details:

I may have stumbled on my problem here. Within the flashing was an image of an add by "Consumer Publishing Group" for "CreditSecretsBible.com", related to one of the podcasts I was trying, which I then realized was a video podcast. Not knowing if this BBerry is capable of playing those, I went to my BBerry camera, took a video and played it back, and similar flashing was triggered.

In order to move on, I just deleted the podcast that seemed to be related to the problem. Seems to be functioning OK now, but am interested to know if it was podcast specific or a problem I still need to fix.

Thanks.

[diffused]

Come to think of it, I've had that flashing with vids I tryed to play which were m4p's. I can see what they are by going into the episode and scrolling to the bottom of the description. I think they are meant for ipod and weren't compatible with BB. But it seems out of order for yours to be doing that when using the built in vid player.

[wgb]

So apparently, the BBerry 8330m can download video podcasts with PodTrapper, but it can't play them back? Please confirm.

FYI, after I deleted that video podcast which I thought might be the problem, I have since downloaded another from another source. Now, there is no flashing or disabling of the BBerry, but when I select the podcast, and then select the play button, I get no response, and it "resets" itself to the Pause mode. When I back out of the podcast, it is listed like all the others, and indicates it's been paused, as though its been partially viewed.

Please advise on viewing of video podcasts with PodTrapper on the BBerry 8330.

Thanks.

[wgb]

Also, ... look for separate email just sent directly using the "email the developer" option in the menu that I just discovered. I was trying once more to play a video podcast, and this time rather than do nothing, it seemed to try as the screen went blank and the rotating hourglass displayed for a few seconds. But alas, nothing. When I explored the buttons, to get it to disengage, I noticed the "email developer" button which also allowed me to "attach diagnostic logs" and I thought that might be helpful.

Please advice, either here or via email direct.

Thanks.

[arkolbus]

I may have stumbled on my problem here. Within the flashing was an image of an add by "Consumer Publishing Group" for "CreditSecretsBible.com", related to one of the podcasts I was trying, which I then realized was a video podcast. Not knowing if this BBerry is capable of playing those, I went to my BBerry camera, took a video and played it back, and similar flashing was triggered.

If you're getting playback issues with video taken using the device, it sounds like there's an issue with your device or OS.

So apparently, the BBerry 8330m can download video podcasts with PodTrapper, but it can't play them back? Please confirm.

FYI, after I deleted that video podcast which I thought might be the problem, I have since downloaded another from another source. Now, there is no flashing or disabling of the BBerry, but when I select the podcast, and then select the play button, I get no response, and it "resets" itself to the Pause mode. When I back out of the podcast, it is listed like all the others, and indicates it's been paused, as though its been partially viewed.

This is a different issue. With your first problem, the BB had the proper codec to decode that video file and play it, but there was some other glitch that caused a problem at the end of the video. With this new problem, the BB doesn't have the codec, can't decode the video file, and doesn't play anything.

Video support is just awful on the BB. When I switched from iPod to BB+PT, I just deleted all of my video feeds. There were some that worked, but it was hit-or-miss (mostly miss). RIM has been pushing into the consumer space, so maybe we'll see better video support in the future, but it's not worth the hassle right now.

[diffused]

Quote-

"Video support is just awful on the BB. When I switched from iPod to BB+PT, I just deleted all of my video feeds. There were some that worked, but it was hit-or-miss (mostly miss). RIM has been pushing into the consumer space, so maybe we'll see better video support in the future, but it's not worth the hassle right now."

But don't you think this is device specific? Since our 8330's there have been major improvements and much more capability. Send me a link to a video that's causing trouble and let me experiment and see if I can make it work.

[marwatk]

Yeah, it's very device-specific. Some of the new phones (Bold, Storm, etc) have no problem with 90% of podcasts (though they still choke on some, especially higher bitrate H.264 stuff).

The curves (I also have an 8320), though, just can't handle it for the most part.

Sadly there's not much we can do short of re-encoding or upgrading to a later device.

-Marcus

[arkolbus]

But don't you think this is device specific? Since our 8330's there have been major improvements and much more capability. Send me a link to a video that's causing trouble and let me experiment and see if I can make it work.

You're absolutely right. I was going to make that point but for some reason I forgot to.

I don't have time to try a bunch of old vodcast feeds (if I can even remember more than a couple) to see what works and what doesn't work on my 8330. If you still want to try this experiment, the Geologic Podcast has occasional videos, and I know there's a PBS NOVA video feed, as well as a "Best of YouTube" feed. If you can't find the URL's, let me know and I'll dig them up.

[diffused]

Ok, well I found and downloaded the nsn_v_segment_Anthrax.m4v and it played flawlessly. Then downloaded and played Nova20080418-3.m4v and it had one tiny skip but then continued to play. No flashing, even at the end. If I hit the red key, it paused till I came back to continue, and a BBM alert paused it but it continued on it's own after. This was on my Tour running .53. I've never been able to do this on the Curve successfully and till now have never thought about video casts since then. WOW! I'm sure impressed at what I can NOW do.

[arkolbus]

Ok, well I found and downloaded the nsn_v_segment_Anthrax.m4v and it played flawlessly. Then downloaded and played Nova20080418-3.m4v and it had one tiny skip but then continued to play. No flashing, even at the end. If I hit the red key, it paused till I came back to continue, and a BBM alert paused it but it continued on it's own after. This was on my Tour running .53. I've never been able to do this on the Curve successfully and till now have never thought about video casts since then. WOW! I'm sure impressed at what I can NOW do.

That's good news. I'm glad RIM has been working on this.