|
Siemens Gigasets & Inability To Create Ringtones
One of the reasons I bought our Siemens Gigaset S645, S440 and S44 handsets
for the house was that -- supposedly -- you could download ringtones into them.
Sadly, this has turned out to be far from easy.
Our old phones were great. Using caller ID, they'd play different tunes based
on if someone was classed a work contact, a family contact or a friend. But the
tunes were limited, so I thought moving to the Siemens phones would offer more
range, along with some other features.
Instead, getting custom tunes into the phone is near to impossible. Plus,
they annoyingly first play the regular ringtone, THEN shift to a custom ringtone
after that.
The problems are best explained by reprinting my extended conversation with
Siemens support. I started off by filling out a form on the Siemens web site
around June 17:
The manual says I can upload "standard" polyphonic ringtones. However,
standard formats of MMF and AMR do not work. PSF -- what is this??? How can I
convert into this format? Please, please provide some further information. Also,
is there any way when using a VIP tone to have that play immediately, rather
than AFTER the regular ringtone goes.
On June 18, I got this reply:
Thank you for contacting Siemens Customer Care. We are glad that you have purchased the GIGASET S645.
You can download ringtones for your gigaset from the following website: http://www.tonesandpictures.com
If you wish to convert sounds then you will need converter software. You can obtain this from third party companies.
The first ringtone will always ring on the standard tone. During this time the phone distinguishes whether or not the call is a VIP call. After the first pause in the
ringtone the VIP tone will begin. If you have the ringtone set to a polyphonic tone, then this will not have a pause as soon as a standard ringtone.
So, no dice on going right to a custom ring. Bummer, annoying, wish I'd known
that. But I still have questions remaining, so I wrote back
Thank you for your response. Some follow-up questions:
1) The download site you pointed at, http://www.tonesandpictures.com, no
longer operates.
2) I have converter software. The problem is, I have no idea what .psf
files are supposed to be.
The phone documentation (pg 53) says "You can download sounds in the .psf
and iMelody format from a PC."
There's also a table that lists icons that show up within the phone's sound
manager. Formats are:
polyphone - standard
polyphone - .psf
monophone - iMelody
I can make iMelody files, no problem. But a "standard" polyphonic ringtone
seems to be MMF/SMAF or AMR. Making these files and transferring them doesn't
work, however. Neither does renaming them with a .psf extension.
So -- can you provide any more advice on how I should save these files to
be in whatever this .psf format is?
The reply back:
Thank you for contacting Siemens. My apologies for the delay in replying.
There are a few ringtones for the handset S44, which comes with the S645
base, on our website. To download these please log on to
http://www.siemens-mobile.com/gigaset.
The PSF format is just the type of polyphonic ringtone that is compatible
with the S44 handset. It is normally not enough just renaming a different type
of ringtone with the .psf format, but it will need to be a certain size and
similar. You can look at the settings for the ringtones available from our
website and you may then be able to make your own PSF ringtones using that
information.
Still not helpful, as I replied:
Is it possible that someone could send me these specifications? There is
nothing on your web site about them. I've looked. There's nothing on the web at
all about this format, other than other Siemens customers frustrated that they
don't know what this format is. If you can give me some details, I'll create a
page on the web explaining them for others. It was very disappointing to get the
phones that were supposed to accept "polyphonic" ringtones only to discover that
they really don't, not at least with any converting software I've tried so far.
Any help you can send is appreciated.
And the reply:
My sincere apologies for the lack of information on this file format, I have
escalated this to our training department and am awaiting a reply from them, I
will let you know as soon as I have more information for you on this file
format.
That was on June 23. Weeks later, still no reply. By Danny Sullivan on Jul. 15, 2005
| Permalink
See related posts in:
Gadgets
Next Post: New Computer Time
Previous Post: The Trooping The Colour Stamps Are Here!
All Posts: Daggle Archives
Posts By Category: Daggle Categories
Return To: Daggle Home Page
Comments
Want to comment? If you are signed into
TypeKey, you'll see a form below.
No form? Click on the sign-in link below, and you can sign-in or sign-up for a
free account. Sorry you have to use TypeKey, but I use it to avoid comment spam.
All comments currently appear automatically after posting.
|
Hi Danny,
I was very interested in reading your account of trying to get your Gigaset S645, S440 and S44 to play polyphonic ringtones because I've had a very similar experience.
I encountered the exact same delay problem in playing a VIP tone and also lots of difficulties to get PSF files. I gave up on using VIP to identify the caller, but since I have a Gigaset S445 which allows you to record the person's name to play when he calls it's even much better.
I checked the internet to find PSF files to download and found very little. I was now going to try to get a converter software but I was wondering if you had any luck in doing that since you wrote. Thanks.
Albert