[psikey]

Hey there,

concerning offline tidal content on Android, I think there is an app for that.

I did a quick search and found AirAudio, which is supposed to stream to Airplay receivers from any App on your Android phone.

Haven't tried it, just wanted to point out, that there are options

Cheers

 
Except "root" is required (I don't like rooting my Android's).

 

[audi0nick128]

Then maybe Allcast or Doubletwist does the trick for you.

 

[mashuto]

So I do apologize if all these questions have been answered before, but this thread is pretty big and hard to get through and while I think I have some idea, some further clarification would be good. I have also read the first couple posts here and just wasnt entirely sure how this thing operates.
 
So, to start, I have an android phone. As I understand it, there won't be a dedicated app for this, correct? Say to control playback of files stored on an sd card. How does that work exactly? Do I connect to the device through bluetooth and then just need a compatible app (which would be?).
 
How about for streaming from my phone to the poly, say through spotify. There was some mentioned of doing an hotspot, but is there wifi direct if I want to connect? What if both devices are on the same wifi network already (and how exactly would one go about getting the poly onto a wifi network if thats even an option).
 
I also read that there was some talk about controlling the volume through the phone. Would this just be for streaming music, essentially lowering the volume of the stream before sending it out, or is there a way to actually control the volume directly on the poly/mojo, essentially changing the orb colors?
 
Im super interested in this unit, but so unsure about how it will actually work in practice that I am very hesitant to want to jump into throwing down the admittedly high price for one of thse without knowing a lot more first.

 

[VintageFlanker]

So I do apologize if all these questions have been answered before, but this thread is pretty big and hard to get through and while I think I have some idea, some further clarification would be good. I have also read the first couple posts here and just wasnt entirely sure how this thing operates.

So, to start, I have an android phone. As I understand it, there won't be a dedicated app for this, correct? Say to control playback of files stored on an sd card. How does that work exactly? Do I connect to the device through bluetooth and then just need a compatible app (which would be?).

How about for streaming from my phone to the poly, say through spotify. There was some mentioned of doing an hotspot, but is there wifi direct if I want to connect? What if both devices are on the same wifi network already (and how exactly would one go about getting the poly onto a wifi network if thats even an option).

I also read that there was some talk about controlling the volume through the phone. Would this just be for streaming music, essentially lowering the volume of the stream before sending it out, or is there a way to actually control the volume directly on the poly/mojo, essentially changing the orb colors?

Im super interested in this unit, but so unsure about how it will actually work in practice that I am very hesitant to want to jump into throwing down the admittedly high price for one of thse without knowing a lot more first.

100% same quetions here! Sorry but it looks like Chord considers potential Poly's buyers to be essentially iPhone owners...and don't comicate so much about android use. As far I'm concerned, I'm lost.

 

[mashuto]

100% same quetions here! Sorry but it looks like Chord considers potential Poly's buyers to be essentially iPhone owners...and don't comicate so much about android use. As far I'm concerned, I'm lost.

Yea, and I get how the operation works in theory, but I just dont quite understand how it works in practice, especially if I am coming from an android phone, and that there is no app they provide directly.
 
I was trying to think of it somewhat similarly to a chromecast, except without an app, how would you connect directly to it. Does it act as a server you connect to (as would be the case with dlna, except you know, in reverse). And if you run a dlna server, without a direct interface to the poly, how do you connect to that dlna server on the poly?
 
I really like the idea of this product, but for the price they are asking, I really need to know more about how it actually works in practice and what actually using it is like, especially if using an android phone is more difficult. And if I cant get answers, guess I will just have to wait for reviews.

 

[AxelCloris]

  So I do apologize if all these questions have been answered before, but this thread is pretty big and hard to get through and while I think I have some idea, some further clarification would be good. I have also read the first couple posts here and just wasnt entirely sure how this thing operates.
 
So, to start, I have an android phone. As I understand it, there won't be a dedicated app for this, correct? Say to control playback of files stored on an sd card. How does that work exactly? Do I connect to the device through bluetooth and then just need a compatible app (which would be?).

 
The Poly works with any MPD (music player daemon) app, so there's not much reason for Chord to spend resources developing their own when there's already several compatible apps on the market that have been out for a while. Choose your favorite offering from the Play Store, pair your phone with the Poly, pop in an SD card and away you go.
 

How about for streaming from my phone to the poly, say through spotify. There was some mentioned of doing an hotspot, but is there wifi direct if I want to connect? What if both devices are on the same wifi network already (and how exactly would one go about getting the poly onto a wifi network if thats even an option).

 
Streaming can be done via Bluetooth or over a WiFi connection created by the phone for those who want high res playback. The Poly doesn't create a network, it only utilizes existing connections. If both devices are on the same network - say at home or work - then you're already set and don't need to turn on the phone's hotspot.
 
Now while I own Android devices my daily driver is my iPhone, so maybe someone could answer something for me. If Tidal won't play offline content over DLNA but it will play it using the phone, couldn't you use the Bluetooth connection to send offline Tidal content to the Mojo/Poly from an Android device?

 

[mashuto]

   
The Poly works with any MPD (music player daemon) app, so there's not much reason for Chord to spend resources developing their own when there's already several compatible apps on the market that have been out for a while. Choose your favorite offering from the Play Store, pair your phone with the Poly, pop in an SD card and away you go.
 
 
Streaming can be done via Bluetooth or over a WiFi connection created by the phone for those who want high res playback. The Poly doesn't create a network, it only utilizes existing connections. If both devices are on the same network - say at home or work - then you're already set and don't need to turn on the phone's hotspot.
 
Now while I own Android devices my daily driver is my iPhone, so maybe someone could answer something for me. If Tidal won't play offline content over DLNA but it will play it using the phone, couldn't you use the Bluetooth connection to send offline Tidal content to the Mojo/Poly from an Android device?

 
Thanks that clears it up a bit. But I have some followup questions if you dont mind.
 
I am not super familiar with MPD. But from some quick research, basically the Poly will act as a MPD server, then a client app connects to it and essentially functions as the remote for music playback, correct? If so, that works fine for me, but that brings me back to the connection question. Either bluetooth or wifi would work, correct?
 
You say the poly doesn't create a network, so I guess that also means that something like wifi direct is out of the question too? I would be very interested in direct wifi connection to my phone, especially if bluetooth does not have the bandwidth to stream high quality audio (does it? I genuinely dont know as I have never used bluetooth for streaming audio before). And speaking of wifi and streaming, how would that work? Wouldnt you need an app or something to direct the stream to the poly? Or, airplay in the case of apple, but is there a similar solution for android? Would that be with DLNA? My understanding of DLNA is that you need a client to playback content from the DLNA server. So again how do you tell the poly to play things back? I hope I am making sense.
 
I just know with the chromecast, there is a chromcast protocol, so I basically connect to the chromecast and then my apps are the remote. That sounds somewhat similar to MPD, correct? With the difference being that I am just not 100% sure on all the connection options yet. Also, with the chromecast there is an interface and you do a direct connection to it from your phone in order to get it onto the correct wifi network. Whats the process for doing that with the poly, especially since there is no dedicated app or interface? I know there is that push button setup you can do if you have direct access to your router, but is there anything else?
 
Sorry, I know I have a lot of questions, but I think they are important for me specifically to determine if this product will work smoothly enough with my setup to make it worth it for me.

 

[AxelCloris]

  Thanks that clears it up a bit. But I have some followup questions if you dont mind.
 
I am not super familiar with MPD. But from some quick research, basically the Poly will act as a MPD server, then a client app connects to it and essentially functions as the remote for music playback, correct? If so, that works fine for me, but that brings me back to the connection question. Either bluetooth or wifi would work, correct?

I just know with the chromecast, there is a chromcast protocol, so I basically connect to the chromecast and then my apps are the remote. That sounds somewhat similar to MPD, correct? With the difference being that I am just not 100% sure on all the connection options yet. Also, with the chromecast there is an interface and you do a direct connection to it from your phone in order to get it onto the correct wifi network. Whats the process for doing that with the poly, especially since there is no dedicated app or interface? I know there is that push button setup you can do if you have direct access to your router, but is there anything else?

 
Yes, the MPD protocol is an open standard that any app can integrate into its code and serves a remote for the Poly. I don't know about controlling the Poly's SD playback via WiFi, but I imagine Bluetooth would be the preferred method either way because of BT4.0 LE which is a low energy spec of Bluetooth that should get better battery life from the Poly and and source; in my case a phone. The two only need to communicate when making changes via the MPD app and the Bluetooth connection will allow that to happen. With WiFi, both would be connected continuously and would increase battery drain. That is of course unless I'm mistaken in how the Poly communicates with the source.
 
Chromecast is a bit of a beast unto itself. It doesn't require a connection with the remote for anything more than control. It's my understanding that when using the Poly on the go, the phone will still have to receive the content to the streaming app - Tidal for instance -  and then relay the data over the WiFi network to the Poly rather than the Poly connecting to the content server directly. A Chromecast device connects directly to the service, Netflix for example. As for connecting the Poly to the network, you first connect to the Poly and then there are prompts you will need to follow. You'll input the SSID and password in order for the Poly to connect to the WiFi network. Of course, this is how I understand it and I could be wrong on some details.

 

You say the poly doesn't create a network, so I guess that also means that something like wifi direct is out of the question too? I would be very interested in direct wifi connection to my phone, especially if bluetooth does not have the bandwidth to stream high quality audio (does it? I genuinely dont know as I have never used bluetooth for streaming audio before). And speaking of wifi and streaming, how would that work? Wouldnt you need an app or something to direct the stream to the poly? Or, airplay in the case of apple, but is there a similar solution for android? Would that be with DLNA? My understanding of DLNA is that you need a client to playback content from the DLNA server. So again how do you tell the poly to play things back? I hope I am making sense.

 
The way I understand WiFi Direct, no it's not a WiFi Direct connection. The phone is creating a network for the Poly to connect to so it's a direct connection between the two, but I don't believe it qualifies as WiFi P2P (Direct) because the phone is serving as an access point rather than establishing a direct link solely with the Poly. Bluetooth's bandwidth is limited compared to WiFi so you'd be able to stream higher res files over WiFi. For the Poly, all network data comes from the phone. The phone is generating an adhoc wireless network for the Poly while still connecting to several local cell towers for data. DLNA is what Android users would use in place of AirPlay, but it seems like there may be some limitations to what it can do going off comments made earlier in the thread. DLNA is a communication protocol, just like AirPlay. How it can be utilized lies in how it's implemented by app and hardware developers. My understanding of DLNA as it relates to Android is that the Android device serves as both the host and the remote while the Poly acts as the receiver.

 

[psikey]

Its streaming/offline media with Spotify/Tidal that hasn't been answered other than sending out via BT which means loss in original material quality just like sending to Bluetooth headphones. Unless Tidal or Spotify are updated in some way on android to transfer audio over wifi I can't see this one working like Apple Airplay will.

 

[mashuto]

@AxelCloris Thanks again for the response. I only asked about the chromecast because I am just familiar with how to set one up and use it. And I am having a hard time imagining how exactly you would connect the poly to wifi if there is no app or interface available for it. I imagine it must be possible, I just dont understand how exactly. Obviously best case scenario for streaming would be to just have both setup on the same existing wifi network, but based on what you say there is a more direct route possible involving using the phone as an access point. Which is I think what I am more interested in.
 
With DLNA, I always thought the server architecture was that the DLNA server is a host for the files and then streams to clients on the clients request but obviously the poly is not a normal client and would need something else acting as a client on its behalf.
 
Either way, I appreciate the answers, I am just not sure exactly what apps I would use or whether it would fit my use case. I have a music collection that I want to store on SD and for that bluetooth seems like its the way to go, and thats great. Its just streaming that I am struggling a bit to figure out exactly how it would work, and even with your answers, Im still just not totally sure. While at home, I might want to stream local content, say from a plex server (that is also a dlna server) but also streaming from an internet service, such as spotify, either from a PC (when at home and on a network) or from my phone, when not connected to a wifi network.
 
This sounds like one of those products that even if its described is just a bit hard to know exactly how I will be able to use it without seeing it in action or actually trying it.

 

[Mojo ideas]

Hey there,

concerning offline tidal content on Android, I think there is an app for that.

I did a quick search and found AirAudio, which is supposed to stream to Airplay receivers from any App on your Android phone.

Haven't tried it, just wanted to point out, that there are options

Cheers

Poly will work with Google Cast which is basically the Android equivalent of Apple's Airplay system.
This means you can just 'cast' your music from any app that supports Google Cast to Poly.
So for Tidal you just press the cast button, select Poly and then your Tidal music will play via Poly to Mojo.

There is a good article on the computeraudiophile website which explains how it works with Tidal but it is similar for other music playback and streaming services:-

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/tidal-now-has-chromecast-support-29113/

 

[psikey]

Poly will work with Google Cast which is basically the Android equivalent of Apple's Airplay system.
This means you can just 'cast' your music from any app that supports Google Cast to Poly.
So for Tidal you just press the cast button, select Poly and then your Tidal music will play via Poly to Mojo.

There is a good article on the computeraudiophile website which explains how it works with Tidal but it is similar for other music playback and streaming services:-

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/tidal-now-has-chromecast-support-29113/

 
Do you know if this will also work with Spotify Offline or just Tidal?
 
If its like Spotify Connect then it still try's to pull down data from the internet rather than transfer offline files from the phone so no good when "out & about" when not in same wifi group or without pulling data down over expensive 4G?? 
 
 
....
 
 
Just read the thread and as I feared, seems to just pull the files down from the cloud so unless you have unlimited data on your phone and share it to Mojopoly over mobile hotspot it won't work. The intention for me is for offline Tidal/Spotify files to be beamed over wifi to the mojopoly while out, not using my limited 4G data allowance to pull music down live from the cloud.

 

[Arnav Agharwal]

   
Do you know if this will also work with Spotify Offline or just Tidal?
 
If its like Spotify Connect then it still try's to pull down data from the internet rather than transfer offline files from the phone so no good when "out & about" when not in same wifi group or without pulling data down over expensive 4G?? 
 
 
....
 
 
Just read the thread and as I feared, seems to just pull the files down from the cloud so unless you have unlimited data on your phone and share it to Mojopoly over mobile hotspot it won't work. The intention for me is for offline Tidal/Spotify files to be beamed over wifi to the mojopoly while out, not using my limited 4G data allowance to pull music down live from the cloud.

Check out the LocalCast app on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.stefanpledl.localcast&hl=en
The app is designed to allow streaming local content when your device is offline.

 

[ThomasHK]

Poly will work with Google Cast which is basically the Android equivalent of Apple's Airplay system.
This means you can just 'cast' your music from any app that supports Google Cast to Poly.
So for Tidal you just press the cast button, select Poly and then your Tidal music will play via Poly to Mojo.

There is a good article on the computeraudiophile website which explains how it works with Tidal but it is similar for other music playback and streaming services:-

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/tidal-now-has-chromecast-support-29113/

Wow! This is big news! First mention of Google Cast being supported. Is this a recent change?

 

[Arnav Agharwal]

Wow! This is big news! First mention of Google Cast being supported. Is this a recent change?

It's a big relief This is the first time I'm seeing this too. There was also an earlier mention of OTA software updates which could potentially enable functionality, such as, Poly acting as a Wi-Fi hub.
 
Things like these should boost people's confidence that Poly is, indeed, a very well-engineered, future-proof product.