Poor battery life!

[Software_Samurai]

With v 1.0 build 285 (full), I'm experiencing really poor battery life. By that I mean I start the day with a full battery, and start listening to music (putting it on hold very often as work demands), and by the time I'm heading home, my battery is nearly dead. I verified this today by doing everything I normally do except not starting Poweramp at all, and my battery was at ~70% full when I got home.

While listening to music, I usually wear earbuds that have the control switch in the wire, and I use that to pause/play the music. Even though I leave the screen off, the battery seems to drain out pretty fast. In fact, while I'm at work, I probably listen to music for a total of ~3 hours (out of an 8 hour day), leaving Poweramp in paused mode for the rest of the time.

But regardless of the state of Poweramp (playing or paused), is there any chance battery life could be improved while using Poweramp?

[admin]

Please check Q. PowerAMP uses non-standard codecs. Does this mean it uses more cpu/battery? viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20

You haven't specified your phone model. PowerAMP battery usage depends on the cpu in your phone, file types being played, and the settings (for example, album art downloader and scrollber).

Thanks!

[Software_Samurai]

You haven't specified your phone model. Poweramp battery usage depends on the cpu in your phone, file types being played, and the settings (for example, album art downloader and scrollber).

Sorry, forgot to mention that. Samsung Captivate, stock OS, 2.1 Eclair, playing MP3s.

Good point about the album art downloader - I'll disable that and see if it helps.

[admin]

On this phone, as on many other similar to SGS (samsung galaxy s), PowerAMP will consume less battery than stock one, actually.

The only thing which can change this balance is art downloader and scrobbling support, as data transfer (esp. 3g) will eat the battery, of course.

[Software_Samurai]

Yep, it was the art downloader. I turned it off today and my battery life was much better. Even when I had it on, I had the wifi only option on. There is wifi available at my work, but I don't have the login for it, so I never have a connection. Not sure why having the art downloader option on like this would cause the battery to go down so much in one day.

[admin]

It's because Android tries to connect to wifi and this probably triggers the whole wifi stack wake up and album art downloading process for your phone.

This generally doesn't happen for my test phones, including SGS 2.2, but will keep eye on this.

[Poco]

Hello,

I guess it makes more sense to answer to this thread than creating a new one.

I downloaded the trial version yesterday and I am seriously considering getting the paid version (I just love the features, keep up the good work!), however this CPU usage is confusing me a bit. Owning a Galaxy S with stock 2.1 and quoting the FAQ:

Also, CPU % utilization depends on current CPU frequency (for example, same cpu utilization will be shown as: 20% on 250mhz, 10% on 500mhz, 5% on 1000mhz).

Currently I am getting 15-20% CPU utilization while using Poweramp (the EQ is disabled), now way it ever drops to 5%. I guess the CPU is underclocked when the processing power is not needed, so just to confirm:

When playing music with Poweramp, I am getting these readings (with osmonitor):

Poweramp 15-20%

+/system/bin/mediaserver 12-15%

When playing music in the stock player:

/system/bin/mediaserver 25-40%

Is this normal behaviour?

Thanks!

P.

PS: one more thing: how can I close the application completely without the task manager? I am really missing some "close" option.

[admin]

Yes, this is pretty much normal. Note that these percentage readings depend on current CPU frequency.

The stock player does all the decoding in mediaserver process.

PowerAMP finishes its service in 30 seconds of inactivity. If you use Resume on headset option, micro headset service will be used to support that, but if you disable this, no any services or anything will be in the background.

Thanks!

[Poco]

Thanks for the speedy reply (on Sunday). Will gladdly support! (full version bought)