RSSVerizon's VCast Disables MP3 Playback
By Ed Oswald | Published January 10, 2006, 12:05 PM
Verizon has confirmed reports that its new VCast Music application disables the ability to play MP3s on phones used with the service. The company said the change was done to simplify the use of VCast, and not to remove features from the device.
This is not the first time Verizon has been caught red-handed in attempting to remove advertised features from phones on its service. Unhappy customers have already sued the company for taking out Bluetooth features on the Motorola v710 handset.
According to the carrier, Windows Media Player 10 will transcode a user's MP3 library into the correct Microsoft format and then transfer the song to the device. While most will not notice the difference, audiophiles will likely hear the degradation in quality that is a side effect of transcoding.
However, such a requirement also causes problems for users of Macintosh or Linux based machines, as these users would have no native way of getting songs from their libraries onto the device.
"Verizon clearly stated the music player would support mp3s stored on users' PCs," mobile phone enthusiast site PhoneScoop wrote on Monday. "It is impossible to force the phone to add MP3 files to its music library from the device."
The carrier claims that its actions are not restricting functionality. Instead, it said that having two formats would unnecessarily complicate the user experience.
Verizon's VCast music service is offered initially on two phones, the LG VX8100 and Samsung a950. Song downloads cost $1.99 USD each to the phone, or 99 cents to the PC from where they could be transferred to the phone via USB.
Instructions to restore MP3 functionality to the LG VX8100 have already appeared on the Internet, however doing so may void the manufacturer's warranty.
Whats with this company? Here we go again!
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I've been using the V06 software for a couple of days now on the VX8100. It's a really really easy fix to enable the MP3 player, just a few clicks into the service menu to enable it. Christ, I could show my grandma how to do it. The phone now runs with both the Verizon MOD and the MP3 player together. There are now two seperate folders on the MiniSD card, one for the Verizon MOD and the other for the MP3 Player. When I use the front buttons on the phone, I can choose whether the MP3 player or the MOD player will come up.
I really can't understand why they would tell their customers to downgrade back to V04 just to use the MP3 player when it can exist side by side with their new MOD service.
Edit:
BTW, for those who do have the latest V06 for the VX8100, here's how to get the MP3 player back up and running: After upgrading to V06, to enter the service menu. Press "Menu" then 0. A prompt asking for the service code should pop up. It should default to 00000 (so press 0 six times). Scroll down to the last entry on the Service menu, to "Music Setting". This is where you can enable the MP3 Function. Once enabled, you can find it under "Tunes and Tones" as option number 8. Now, with the V06 upgrade, the front buttons on the phone will default to the new VCast music player. However, you can change it back to the MP3 player by going to "Tools" and then "Shortcut Key" and set the Play Key to the MP3 player instead of VCast Music.
Your VX8100 should now play MP3s just as it did in V04!
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Big deal. My e815 had features disabled so I re-enabled them with a seem edit.
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Yea, thats the great thing about Motos, but you can't do seem edits on all phones.
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