LG P500 Discussion Thread

kidrow

kidrow

Adept
I've recently purchased the LG P500 for my better half, & have a few noobish queries. Since the LG Optimus One P500 seems to be a pretty popular phone on TE, I thought it'd be a good idea to name the thread the 'LG P500 Discussion Thread', so people can have all their queries regarding the phone answered at one place.

So anyone who has any questions regarding the phone, be it noobish or advanced, can post them here. So be it about usability, functions, which games run, custom ROMs etc., it's all welcome. Also welcome are members' general impressions about the phone & mini reviews, if any. Hopefully, this thread will take off. At worst, I'll at least get my queries answered & be forced to ask mods to change the title. :p

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Here's my 1st batch of noob queries. TIA.

1. What is the actual resolution of the wallpaper? I noticed that when you scroll horizontally across homescreens, you go to a different part of the wallpaper. So I'm assuming if I have to download a wallpaper, it's got to be bigger than the screen res [320x480].

2. I just tried an xvid encoded video, transferred directly from my PC without any conversion. It lags in certain parts, but is silky smooth in others. At some point it stops after giving me a warning. What gives?

3. Can I have more accurate seeking [i.e. more control over seeking] during video playback?

4. Where are the equalizer settings for the music player?

5. The bundled SD card has all kind of folders which make no sense to a noob like me. Are these files essential to the OS, or are they safe to delete to save space? What folder do I put my music, images, videos in, when transferring files from my PC to the SD card? [assuming I don't want to use the LG PC suite]

6. Where can I check my internet/GPRS usage so as to ensure I stay within my plan limit?
 
I own a Motorola DEFY, but my brother owns a LG P500

1. as far as Wallpaper's are Concerned i use Live Wallpaper's, so don't know much abt the size of Wallpaper

2. the processor of LG P500 is of 600 Mhz, also the video you are running must be of high resolution, that might be the reason for non-smooth play.

3. & 4. Download Power AMP player, its a excellent player with a Equalizer.

5. Don't delete any folder, all of them are useful to the OS, as for the folders for Music,Images and Videos just copy paste them directly to your SD card or make new folder's in the SD card

6. The android has a inbuilt Data Usage Counter, in Setting>Data Manager, but to check the limit, send SMS to the corresponding Network Carrier, in case of Vodafone send "GPRS" to 144
 
Thanks for your replies.

nikolain said:
2. the processor of LG P500 is of 600 Mhz, also the video you are running must be of high resolution, that might be the reason for non-smooth play.
Click to expand...

Well, that's a shame. So the answer is to then convert the video to a lower res. In which case, the native Divx support is pointless imo. I thought the idea behind the divx support was to enable transfer from PC to phone without any conversions.

nikolain said:
3. & 4. Download Power AMP player, its a excellent player with a Equalizer.
Click to expand...

So the built-in music player doesn't have an equalizer? Are 3rd party apps the only way out? Will try out Power AMP.

nikolain said:
5. Don't delete any folder, all of them are useful to the OS, as for the folders for Music,Images and Videos just copy paste them directly to your SD card or make new folder's in the SD card.
Click to expand...

So while swapping memory cards, I need to make sure that those folders are copied over to the new card as well. Out of plain curiosity, what happens if those folders are missing?

nikolain said:
6. The android has a inbuilt Data Usage Counter, in Setting>Data Manager, but to check the limit, send SMS to the corresponding Network Carrier, in case of Vodafone send "GPRS" to 144
Click to expand...

Will check that. Any idea about the corresponding message & no. for Airtel?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

7. So what's the maximum video res that you have been able to play smoothly on the P500, assuming the video has been encoded with xvid?

8. How does one sign out of any of the google apps, such as gmail, gtalk etc? Just a bit disconcerting knowing that anyone can access your mail at the touch of a button. The solution floating around the web proposes a clearing of the data cache for the respective apps. Isn't there an easier solution?

9. Why can't I login to Google accounts? I keep getting a message that no reliable connection could be established & fail to login.

RESOLVED: I was having trouble signing in. At every attempt, I was getting a message that no reliable connection could be established. Most solutions across the web recommend a factory reset & login immediately thereafter. However, I came across one where you simply switch the phone to airplane mode, connect to a wifi network & login to your google account. Once that's done, you can switch back to normal operation. Worth a shot for people with similar problems.
 
When you swap a memory card the OS will generate new folder's, i guess, coz even i joined the android world on the 5th of this month, but when you are going to upgrade ur SD card better copy paste everything frm the earlier Card

My brother stays in Mumbai, while i stay in Pune, he only visit's on weekdays, that's y the P500 is not always here, so can't chk the resolution of videos yet.

As far as the google apps are concerned, set a lock for your mobile which locks within say 15 second's
 
@kidrow:

1. What is the actual resolution of the wallpaper? I noticed that when you scroll horizontally across homescreens, you go to a different part of the wallpaper. So I'm assuming if I have to download a wallpaper, it's got to be bigger than the screen res [320x480].
Click to expand...

The resolution of the wallpaper you can use are of 640x480, 1024x768 and such width:height ratio's. But I do not know the minimum resolution of the image which can be set as the wallpaper.

Once you select the picture, you get a rectangle. Tap on any side of the rectangle. You get arrows in all 4 direction, now drag one side of the rectangle to its end. (For example: drag the arrow on the top edge of the rectangle to the top most edge of the image). Then just set it. You have your own choice image as your wallpaper.

We can only set single image as a wallpaper. The wallpaper covers all the screens (5 or 7, i am using 5 screens) in the mobile.
 
Well, that's a shame. So the answer is to then convert the video to a lower res. In which case, the native Divx support is pointless imo. I thought the idea behind the divx support was to enable transfer from PC to phone without any conversions.
Click to expand...

You can try using Rockplayer. It plays almost all the videos that I have in my PC. The lagging thing may not get totally resolved but is better than the basic player.
 
Is is better than Galaxy 3, A Comparative study woould help. So if someone owns a galaxy 3, then you can here team up and we can discuss pros and cons of both these phones
 
OP, or other P500 owners: Any luck getting a screen guard for the Optimus one? And a rubberized/gel case too? Can't find if online or in any local shop.
 
channabasanna said:
@kidrow:

The resolution of the wallpaper you can use are of 640x480, 1024x768 and such width:height ratio's. But I do not know the minimum resolution of the image which can be set as the wallpaper.
Once you select the picture, you get a rectangle. Tap on any side of the rectangle. You get arrows in all 4 direction, now drag one side of the rectangle to its end. (For example: drag the arrow on the top edge of the rectangle to the top most edge of the image). Then just set it. You have your own choice image as your wallpaper.
We can only set single image as a wallpaper. The wallpaper covers all the screens (5 or 7, i am using 5 screens) in the mobile.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are right about being able to use 4:3 aspect ratio images, such as 640x480, 800x600 ... etc. The minimum resolution, imo, is 640x480. I deduced this from the fact that when setting a 320x480 image as the wallpaper, the wallpaper ends exactly halfway vertically on the screen on either end i.e. the 1st & 5th homescreen. So there's about 320/2=160 pixels left over [i.e. uncovered by the image] on either side. Hence the conclusion that the minimum horizontal res. [while holding the phone in portrait mode] for the wallpaper is 160+160+320 = 640. Interestingly, this holds true for 7 homescreens as well. [Well, the image does not look stretched, to my eyes at least]. I believe this is because the horizontal shift/movement of the image is less when compared to when the no. is set to 5.

Btw, I used an external app [Wall Switch] to set the 320x480 as the wallpaper without any cropping in the 1st instance, to get around the in-built app's behaviour of cropping the image by a 4:3 AR while setting up the wallpaper.

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nikolain said:
3. & 4. Download Power AMP player, its a excellent player with a Equalizer.

6. The android has a inbuilt Data Usage Counter, in Setting>Data Manager, but to check the limit, send SMS to the corresponding Network Carrier, in case of Vodafone send "GPRS" to 144
Click to expand...
Thanks for the Power Amp suggestion. While it's an excellent media player, it isn't free. & hence I've settled on Mixzing, which does have a 10 band equalizer, & can identify music & correct id tags accordingly, amongst other things.

The Vodafone sms didn't work for me. [ I'm on prepaid].

nikolain said:
As far as the google apps are concerned, set a lock for your mobile which locks within say 15 second's
Click to expand...

Do you mean password protect it? Where can that be done from?

raskolnikov said:
You can try using Rockplayer. It plays almost all the videos that I have in my PC. The lagging thing may not get totally resolved but is better than the basic player.
Click to expand...

Tried Rockplayer, Vital Player & mVideo Player with the same results. So it's a hardware limitation, I guess. Will try a few more videos later. Really need to know which ones play smoothly without conversion & which ones don't. But thanks for the suggestion. I'm keeping Rockplayer installed for now.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
cyanide911 said:
OP, or other P500 owners: Any luck getting a screen guard for the Optimus one? And a rubberized/gel case too? Can't find if online or in any local shop.
Click to expand...

+1.

Yes, even my phone did come with some cover to protect the screen. Now, whether that's a temporary thingy, or a proper screen guard is something I'm not sure about as well. So even I'd be interested in knowing which are the better/recommended ones, should this come off.
cyanide911 said:
Any luck on rooting the phone with stock 2.2.1 ROM?
Click to expand...

While I haven't come to that stage yet, I'm curious as to the ROM version you've mentioned. My phone mentions the version as being 2.2 in the About Phone menu. Is it really 2.2.1?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

10. Does anyone know whether the MeElectronics M2P, M9P or SoundMagic PL 21 [the version with the mic] etc. IEMs with microphones are compatible with the P500? I'm looking for a decent pair of earphones, but do not want to lose the hands-free capability. Would also prefer the module to have track skipping & volume controls as well. The current stock IEM's module just feels a bit flimsy & small.

What other options are there? Tried to look for an adapter online which has a 3.5mm male-female jack & a mic, but wasn't able to come up with anything. If something like this is available, then it could open up a few more options. Also looked into the option of Bluetooth enabled earphones, but those seem to be only headphones, & not IEMs.
 
Vodafone shifted back to their original no. again ie: *141*9#

I meant put a password to the entire phone,so no one can access it

Sent frm my Rooted MOTOROLA DEFY
 
Do you mean password protect it? Where can that be done from?
Click to expand...
To password protect the phone, Settings->Location and Security. You can set a pass/pattern/pin.
Tried Rockplayer, Vital Player & mVideo Player with the same results. So it's a hardware limitation, I guess. Will try a few more videos later. Really need to know which ones play smoothly without conversion & which ones don't. But thanks for the suggestion. I'm keeping Rockplayer installed for now.
Click to expand...
I've had terrible results playing videos on this phone. Disappointing. But the best I've found is .mp4 files played in doubleTwist (It's in the Market).
+1.
Yes, even my phone did come with some cover to protect the screen. Now, whether that's a temporary thingy, or a proper screen guard is something I'm not sure about as well. So even I'd be interested in knowing which are the better/recommended ones, should this come off.
Click to expand...
Do tell me if it comes off :p
While I haven't come to that stage yet, I'm curious as to the ROM version you've mentioned. My phone mentions the version as being 2.2 in the About Phone menu. Is it really 2.2.1?
Click to expand...
My phone lists it as 2.2.1. I recommend, don't update it just yet, since I've yet to find a way to root a 2.2.1 device.

Btw, you'll probably have some problems running games on this phone, there's a bug. In some games (most), they run fine, but drop their framerate a LOT if you touch the screen. Look for Milk's Kernal fix to fix this issue. This is the main reason I want to root the phone.
 
Having tried a few videos on the phone, here are the results. The players tested so far - Stock video player, Rock Player Lite, mVideo Player, Vital Player, Mixzing. Video info has been gleaned from MediaInfo.

#1
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 526kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Codec - XVID
Bitrate - 422kbps
Width, Height - 608x256 pixels

Audio Codec - MP3
Bitrate - 90.6kbps

This plays smoothly on every player including the default/stock.

#2
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 637kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Codec - XVID
Bitrate - 422kbps
Width, Height - 640x272 pixels

Audio Codec - MP3
Bitrate - 96kbps

This plays smoothly on every player except the stock player which states that the resolution is not supported.

#3
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 907kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Codec - DIVX 5
Bitrate - 770kbps
Width, Height - 688x272 pixels

Audio Codec - MP3
Bitrate - 128kbps

This plays smoothly for the most part on the tested players except certain parts, where it plays as if it is 23fps instead of 24. Again, the default player says that the resolution is not supported.

#4
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 1775kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Muxing Mode - Packed bitstream
Codec - XVID
Bitrate - 1572kbps
Width, Height - 640x272 pixels

Audio Codec - MP3
Bitrate - 192kbps

This plays smoothly on every player except Vital player & the stock player which again states that the resolution is not supported.

#5
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 1512kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Codec - XVID
Bitrate - 1053kbps
Width, Height - 720x304 pixels

Audio Codec - AC3
Bitrate - 448kbps

This plays very smoothly [in fact, the smoothest playback so far] on mVideo Player & Mixzing, but without the audio of course. On the Rock player, it does not play the video at all saying it is not supported. Vital player & the default fail as well.

#6
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 2375kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Codec - XVID
Bitrate - 2173kbps
Width, Height - 720x304 pixels

Audio Codec - AC3
Bitrate - 192kbps

This plays very smoothly [in fact, the smoothest playback so far] on mVideo Player & Mixzing, but without the audio of course. On the Rock player, it does not play the video at all saying it is not supported. Vital player & the default fail as well.

#7
General Format - AVI
Overall Bitrate - 1373kbps

Video Format - MPEG-4 Visual
Codec - XVID
Bitrate - 1251kbps
Width, Height - 608x320 pixels

Audio Codec - MP3
Bitrate - 112kbps

This lags/skips frames at certain points on all the players. Rock player crashed once, as did mVideo player. Howerver, barring these particular scenes, the playback is smooth. Vital player performance was unsatisfactory overall though. The default player had the usual resolution not supported message.

In conclusion, one definitely needs to install a 3rd party video player if one has to even attempt to play videos. While Rock player & mVideo player were the better performers, Mixzing was a surprise. It seems to be as good, if not better than the others. However, it does lack the ability to zoom, not being a dedicated video player. The videos with AC3 audio were the smoothest. Whether it's because the processing power is concentrated only on the video in these instances, or there is something else, is for the experts to answer. As to which videos play smoothly, I can't see any particular trend. Again, I hope some experts will be able to analyze & shed some light.

Hope this proves useful.
 
AFAIK there's no option to change font size in Android. [There should be!]

However, you can try out this app named Font Size. Link: App review: Font Size (for root users) | DroidDog Android Blog

You could also try changing the font itself so it appears smaller. Link: 300 Flashable Font Packs - Change your system fonts the easy way! - xda-developers
Or
[APP] Type Fresh - change your fonts! - xda-developers

Haven't personally tried any of these methods on the P500 [or any other phone, for that matter] though. & in case you missed it, root access is a must. HTH.
 
Guys, my brother's O1 is not getting detected by PC suite. He bought the phone couple of days ago. I tried the following ways

1) Uninstalled PC suite (that he downloaded from net) and restarted the laptop.
2) Installed the Suite supplied with the phone memory.

Still no luck, when i tried to connect the phone with USB cable, the phone shows up only USB storage option and there is no Phone Suite option likewise we have with Nokia and other phones. Have some one faced the same problem? Any solutions

Also, the phone don't play .FLV files. is flash supported on Android 2.2? Also the phone couldn't played movies with resolution > 600 x ***. Movies with resolution like 576x240 worked fine though. Please help

TIA
 
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