Orpheus is a cool app. Here is a good video with the app developer and the inventor of Air-Turn discussing how the app works. Pretty nifty I'd say. Very simple to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtzgs764Io

Thanks for that link, Scott. Hadn't seen that video but it expresses my objectives well. The video also gave me some ideas on how to use Drop Box with other folks.

I have already bought Orpheus. The Hannspree is on the UPS truck for delivery today. So, tomorrow I should be able to begin the learning process with Android.

Had some email conversations with Maeve Lander, the developer of Orpheus. The software does not do what I had hoped re PDF files. Edits are layered over the original file and are not transportable to other PDF readers. That's the way most readers work. And, it's probably the way I would have done it if I were still writing code. But the software is still the best I've seen to meet the objectives I have.

Hi Bill

Wondering where you are so far on the subject?

Scott

Well . . . Maybe I wasn't supposed to try the Android route . . .

Got the Hannspree 13 inch Android tablet this evening. This one works fine for the most part. I am pleased with the display and general software load times for an Android. Music chart display is crisp and had good contrast. I had no problem reading the sheets even with my poor eyesight. I used a USB port to connect a wireless mouse and keyboard to do all the typing necessary for setting up accounts etc. There are two ports. Both are intermittent for the wireless keyboard and mouse. They worked OK for file transfer from the PC to the Tablet. I found that if I switched from one port to the other the new port worked for a while for the wireless keyboard and mouse. These ports are not needed during performance so it's not a show stopper.

Orpheus is not ready for general use. It has a lot of things that don't work properly or are not dependable. I moved about 600 PDF songs into Orpheus. The data base indexing makes a lot of errors. When you select a song from the list you often get something else. I think this is a cache problem but am not sure. And, it is conceivable that I somehow caused a corrupted cache, but that shouldn't be possible. I plan to contact Maeve Lander again to go over the problems that I found.

Changing pages in a multipage song takes about four or five seconds which is borderline for me but acceptable. The PC software (and the Music Pad Pro) does the job in less than a second. I am used to simply tapping the right or left side of the display to change pages. Orpheus needs a finger swipe from left to right or vice versa. This would not be a problem for someone using a foot switch to change pages, and the finger swipe probably would be OK after use for a while. Orpheus is unable to work with sub-directories (folders). My PDF sheets were in several locations (sub-directories) and could not be imported to Orpheus until I moved everything to a single directory (folder). I know that Maeve has this problem high on her fix list. These are things I found in about an hour's use. Will try again tomorrow. I may shift back to MobileSheets (or my old dependable Music Pad Pro) until the next Orpheus update is released.

This morning I finished my experimentation with Android lead sheet display.

The Hannspree 13 inch tablet is a keeper. It does an excellent job for all the stuff I tried and is about the same as my PC tablet although its resolution is lower. The only thing I dislike about the tablet is a little door covering the various ports. You have to open the door on the side to get at the ports and when it is opened it is attached with little rubber tie downs. The door seems to always be in the way. I cut it off and discarded it.

Orpheus is a disaster in its present stage of development. I uninstalled the software and reinstalled to see if I had somehow caused the problem. It is flaky at best and extremely slow. A lot of work is needed to make that software useful and dependable. It has been uninstalled again . . .

I installed MobileSheets again. After I figured out how to import my charts, things worked out fine. For both this software and Orpheus, it is best to consolidate all the charts into a single folder. It makes importing the songs to the software much simpler in a batch mode. In both cases, I imported about 600 PDF songs. Even though MobileSheets is a complex app with many features I'll never use, it is still quick and dependable. Multiple page songs load pages almost instantly like they do with a PC or the MPP.

So, my final configuration for Android is the Hannspree 13 inch tablet with MobileSheets as the selected app.

Hi Bob

After I had spent a lot of time researching this subject it's good to have it verified with your success with the Hannspree 13.3" tablet and MobileSheets, especially so with your background and having experience with the ipad, Windows, MusicPad and android, etc.

You having said that it looked a lot better than the MusicPad, I think, says a lot and will make it easier for everyone to make a good educated decision to go a similar route. All that and only at $200, plus you get all the regular android tablet features.

I plan on getting one as soon as the dust settles as we are getting ready to move presently.

While I know the ipad has some great features and benefits I could never compromise enough to even begin trying to read a screen that small in portrait mode.

Thanks for the updates and please keep us informed on your progress.

ScottL

Hi,
My 2cents worth:
Even though I use Windows and like Android systems, I use the IPAD because of the UnReal book app which, while not perfect, suits my needs just fine. I still don't like the smaller screen, however and am waiting to see if Apple comes out with a larger Ipad this winter.
In the meantime I ran across this new software: http://www.musicreader.net which seems promising as it supports many different platforms. Has anyone checked it out yet?

Skip

Skip, I use MusicReader for Windows with my Windows tablet. It is my favorite PDF music reader of all I have looked at because it saves all my edits as part of the PDF file itself. That makes my music sheets (with my edits) transportable to other readers and means that if I go to something else in the future, all my edits will be there.

I talked by email with Marco Leone, the developer of MusicReader, recently about his progress toward an Android version of MusicReader. He said that his Android version is a few weeks away for beta testing. I expect to be involved in that testing.

BTW, I notice that the price of the Hannspree 13.3 inch tablet has increased quite a bit. I like that tablet, maybe a little more than the Sony Windows tablet, because it is much lighter and still gives an excellent display. But, it doesn't take much processing power or memory to do the simple job of displaying music charts. Just about anything that works will do an adequate job if that's all you want to do. So, if price is a dominant issue and if you don't want to surf the net or look at videos, one of the other Android units will probably do the job just fine.

The last few days I've had a chance to work with both the Hannspree 13.3 inch and the Archos Family 2 13.3 inch Android tablets side by side.

The Archos tablet is available at the Adorama web site for $169.99 with free same day shipping. http://www.adorama.com/ARC502382.html The Amazon price for the Hannspree unit is about $280 plus shipping now, although I bought mine a few weeks ago for $199. So, there is over a hundred dollars difference in price for the two at this time.

Both tablet displays are identical in size, 7 by 11.25 inches. The Hannspree tablet weighs 42 ounces while the Archos weighs 46 ounces. I cannot distinguish any difference in the quality of the displays. Both give excellent display of both videos as well as lead sheets. The Hannspree can be adjusted to be a little brighter than the Archos. A Netflix app was loaded into each tablet. The Archos does a good job of video display of Netflix stuff although the speakers do not provide adequate volume. The Hannspree does not work with the Netflix app. It provides sound but no video. Both tablets work fine with YouTube videos.

The Hannspree has a faster processor and is much faster at both booting up and loading apps. After booting and loading software, there is little, if any, difference in performance for song sheets. I did notice that when I created a very large library of over 1,500 songs, the Archos was slower to display the song (about 2 to 3 seconds) directly from the library. The Hannspree was almost instant. That difference was not obvious with a library of about 500 songs. Songs that had been put into Set Lists were displayed almost instantly by both tablets. So in practice I doubt that any of us would notice much difference. Both tablets load subsequent pages of a song instantly. My songs are almost all on a single page. For folks that use songs with several pages, load times would be longer. All of this was done using MobileSheets software with both tablets.

The Hannspree includes Bluetooth support which is important for folks that need to change pages using AirTurn footswitches. The Archos does not include support for Bluetooth. Both tablets include HDMI and dual USB ports. I was able to use the Hannspree USB port for wireless mouse and keyboards as well as a basic optical laser mouse, but was unable to get them to work with the Archos. I suspect that there may be no footswitch support of any kind with the Archos for turning pages. This could be a show stopper for a lot of folks. Am waiting for a reply from Archos tech support re whether the tablet supports a USB mouse. I am comfortable just tapping the display to change pages but know that many people depend on foot switches. I did use USB connections of both tablets with a computer to move files to and from the computer.

The display is the primary user of battery power. To compare battery life, both tablets were set at about 25% of max brightness (which is the level I like for indoor music display). I turned off Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth for the Hannspree) to get the results. A slide show was started with about 200 photos with both tablets and they were run till the battery was exhausted. The Archos lasted 10 hours and 50 minutes. The Hannspree stopped after 5 hours and 20 minutes. An earlier test of the Hannspree gave 3 hours and 30 minutes but that was with a brighter display and Wi-Fi turned on. Display brightness has a major effect on battery life.

Each tablet comes with an A/C adapter for charging the battery as well as for use with external power. Both adapters have a chord length of five feet. The socket for power input is at the top of each tablet in the portrait mode. So, during operation with A/C plugged in, the chord would have to go from the top of the tablet to the location of the adapter brick (plug-in). For me, that means that the plug-in will not quite reach the floor and an extension cord would be needed for power as well as support for the heavy plug-in brick. Something to consider . . .

Hi Bob,

I, personally, want to thank you for the effort you put into reviewing these two units and taking the time to report on your findings.

I posted here about the Archos about a year ago and decided at the time to not do anything as I know computers but I don't know enough about tablets.

I primarily want to use it only to store my sheet music in PDF format and then pull it up when I need to "brush up" on a song, so there's no urgency in it for me.

But, I was watching this thread closely, hoping you would eventually do a report like you just did, so it was greatly appreciated.

The thing about all this electronic stuff is you don't know what to buy because you've never used what you intend to buy. That means you don't really know what's going to be important to you until you're familiar with the product. I found that (major) problem when I bought my first computer. Knew nothing about a computer so how could you compare what you know nothing about.

Anyhow, is there enough difference between the two units to make one more suitable for you. And......for what I want to do with it, it doesn't matter which one? And.......I originally thought the Archos had a 13" screen. You said "Both tablet displays are identical in size, 7 by 11.25 inches." I'm assuming the sheet of music will look slightly smaller. Does one get used to it?

I'm also thinking about just buying a notebook with a large screen. Too many choices no matter what you buy.....from laundry detergent to a new car!

Mark