Hitmaker

Answered

No gapless play on Hi-fi for Windows users

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
September 1, 2021
47 replies
1924 views

I pay for Hi-Fi and am using Windows 10. I can’t listen to a long piece of music without silence injected right in the middle of a song. That is a deal breaker for me, especially since I see that a year ago this question was addressed and dismissed as something being introduced slowly, first for iPhone users. A year later, and there is still no gapless play at your most expensive service. Windows users are 75% of the market. I can’t understand what you don’t understand about the business potential of your service. This service could be my go-to library for all listening in my house. It’s a thousands-album library that, if you could design it properly, be listened to in any way my imagination could devise.

I could list a dozen problems with Deezer for Windows browser and desktop, but you’d have to pay me to be that useful to you. I’m out. I’ll check out Tidal, I guess. I think that’s the only other Hi-Fi service.

Maybe, if this could get back to an administrator, they could put me on an email list to contact when gapless play is enabled. If that happens, I would be glad to resume my subscription.

Best answer by dgoorevitch

Gapless for desktop has started being developed since the end of last year @dgoorevitch but we've had some delays because we realised the desktop app at that moment wasn't totally ready for it. So we updated the framework we used for the app in the following months into 2021 and have then picked up gapless again. Development has been ongoing, there's no need to worry about being added to the roadmap, for example.

So our teams are confident this can be a reality by the end of this year, together with crossfade - if everything goes as planned, right.

This is the most transparent and genuine response I can give to you, plain simple. The gapless feature is a must for me too, personally. And I'm crazy about the desktop app, so I've been following this quite closely here at Deezer. I've got my fingers crossed, so I can't ask you to check this with us by subscribing to a topic or checking the community homepage :relaxed:

PLEASE don’t allow crossfade and if you do, please make it optional. Crossfade would be poison to opera fans.

The good news is that there is a workaround, which should have been in the “answer” (which was a dismissal, not an answer). Install Bluestacks, open it and open Play Store. Install Deezer. Now you can have the Android version inside Windows and you can listen to opera (or other long pieces divided into many tracks) without gaps. For settings you can’t find in the program, install Hidden Settings from Google Play too.

Show previous replies

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Rick P.

Rockstar

Hopefully focus is placed on the web version first so that everyone can benefit. In my opinion focusing on the Windows app will leave a large segment of current and potential users without gapless playback long enough that we’ll all eventually head to Spotify when they get around to offering a HiFi service. While clunky this could also benefit people who want to use gaming systems, Rokus, FireTV sticks and a large assortment of other devices that are currently unsupported or poorly supported by Deezer.

M

mardon85

Guitar Hero

Hopefully focus is placed on the web version first so that everyone can benefit. In my opinion focusing on the Windows app will leave a large segment of current and potential users without gapless playback long enough that we’ll all eventually head to Spotify when they get around to offering a HiFi service. While clunky this could also benefit people who want to use gaming systems, Rokus, FireTV sticks and a large assortment of other devices that are currently unsupported or poorly supported by Deezer.

The time is ticking you are correct.

There are a number of features I miss on Spotify which will make me consider returning if they implement Hi-Fi audio. If Deezer sort the web or windows app I'm happy to stay.

dgoorevitchAuthor

Hitmaker

Hopefully focus is placed on the web version first so that everyone can benefit. In my opinion focusing on the Windows app will leave a large segment of current and potential users without gapless playback long enough that we’ll all eventually head to Spotify when they get around to offering a HiFi service. While clunky this could also benefit people who want to use gaming systems, Rokus, FireTV sticks and a large assortment of other devices that are currently unsupported or poorly supported by Deezer.

The web and desktop versions are the same, I believe.

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Rick P.

Rockstar

They’re similar for sure but I believe the desktop app allows you to download content for offline use whereas you can’t do this with the web app. Also, the limited availability remote control doesn’t work for the web app. Neither are issues for me since I don’t have a bandwidth cap and don’t mind streaming content whenever I’m using my computer, and can’t use either the desktop or remote apps anyway.

dgoorevitchAuthor

Hitmaker

They’re similar for sure but I believe the desktop app allows you to download content for offline use whereas you can’t do this with the web app. Also, the limited availability remote control doesn’t work for the web app. Neither are issues for me since I don’t have a bandwidth cap and don’t mind streaming content whenever I’m using my computer, and can’t use either the desktop or remote apps anyway.

Try Brave browser. I use it for Deezer exclusively when using web. My windows remote works to pause, play, and get the next track. It would be great to be able to customize the number pad so I can use my Logitech remote but that’s another topic under discussion.

dgoorevitchAuthor

Hitmaker

Hello @dgoorevitch, well I can’t now advise to use other apps that we don’t support officially.

But thank you so much for providing a workaround!

Understood. We still need the desktop/web version to allow gapless play. My windows remote control works with Windows, not Android. It’s just a workaround.

Agreed, although it is a stop gap I can’t pause with the media controls on my keyboard. Also the required app is around 400Mb which isn’t ideal.

Which required app?

BluestackX is 405mb

oh, i hoped there was a remote app for that size. i’d use it.

Its size is certainly not a game changer but would be nice not to have to worry about it.

I’ve also given 360 By Deezer a go and can confirm the spatial audio also works. I’ve got Sony WF-1000-XM4’s for use on android and the effect works just as well via my Sennheiser 6XX’s on my PC (if anything with a wider sound stage).

This is certainly not a free pass for the Deezer team but i’ll stick around for longer now.

Bluestacks does take a long time to start up and uses a lot of resources in my Windows system. But if I want to listen to a long piece like an opera, that’s what I do now.

bluezzbastardzz

Superuser

I think I have mentioned it elsewhere, probably in the related idea for gapless playback on desktop computers, but if you want to use the Deezer Android app in Windows, then you might be lucky if you already have Windows 11 and live in the U.S., because Microsoft has enabled using Android apps directly there in the meantime. This feature will be rolled out for the rest of the world later, I guess, and the Android app has to be available in the Amazon app store, not Google.

Also I recently noticed that e.g. Spotify’s web player does not support gapless playback either, so if anyone is thinking of switching to other providers because of missing gapless playback in Deezer’s desktop apps, they should look carefully if the alternative offers it on their preferred device.

Nevertheless I still miss it, too, when testing the different options lately with a complete Wagner Ring recording. I even think it’s better to listen to that music with Spotify’s desktop app for free which uses Ogg Vorbis (not AAC/MP4 like their web player) and doesn’t destroy the flow of music there than e.g. in Deezer’s desktop app, although it is able to stream in lossless FLAC which Spotify cannot. I have been told that their Android app can also do this, but as I don’t have a Premium account, I cannot test this myself and only get shuffled playback of course.

ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen (Bluezz Bastardzz and Indigo Rocks, live album on Deezer, last.fm/user/hjbardenhagen)

Yossi Kozay

Rising Star

you’re kidding me? a workaround for a company that now doubled it’s prices (in my region)? gapless was promised to be available till the end of 2021.

anyway now when the prices are doubled I’m not staying a day more when my yearly subscription ends on July. Deezer doesn’t worth the price they ask for sorry.

Gloria in excelsis deo❤

bluezzbastardzz

Superuser

People using the Deezer web player might want to check if gapless playback already works for them, because they are rolling out this feature for everyone since last week and hope to finish the rollout this week. It will not work in the desktop app though, only in the web player.

ZZee ya, Hans-Jürgen (Bluezz Bastardzz and Indigo Rocks, live album on Deezer, last.fm/user/hjbardenhagen)