Songs with 0:00 Length

[Bighair]

I have had problems where files appear to fail during the write process and they result in a file that has 0:00 Length (Time that is). The file size is correct and the song can be played. I have tried several codecs with similar results. Currently I am trying AAC (CLI).

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

[Spoon]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

Hold the mouse over the file, is the length 0:00? what is the size in bytes of the files created.

[Bighair]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

Hey Spoon. The file is actually the correct size in bytes in comparison to other songs of the same time length. It plays in the audio player, but the status bar starts at the end of the scale and you can't fast forward through the song. When writing the file, it completes the conversion in RAM just fine, but when attempting to write the file it bombs after about 65-70% of writing to the actual file. I have disabled the "Add to Library" to eliminate this as a possible cause. For the most part I have all the default installation settings. I can't think of what would make only some songs on some CD's behave this way. I also tried the TEST conversion and that works fine, but it doesn't do a write which is the step it fails on. This only appeared to become a problem 1 release prior to 10. I was thinking somehow updates to iTunes which for the most part I have disabled any startup has caused some grief. I have noticed that an iTunesHelper process seems to be in memory when I plug in my iPod.

[Bighair]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

I tried some additional things. I did a conversion using mp4 (CLI) and the conversion worked. I think I may have a codec installation issue and some conflict with my Quicktime install. I think I may have a problem trying to read the Quicktime settings as conversions to the quicktime formats complain about not finding temp.wav.

[Spoon]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

'audio player' is this iTunes?

[Bighair]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

By audio player I mean dbpower amp audio player.

[Spoon]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

Is there a reason why you are using AAC? you are better with mp4 (containing AAC).

[Bighair]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

After issues with some cd's bombing on certain songs I was trying different codecs to compare. As well I read the codec comparison you did and Apple pretty much came out on top so I was trying that too.

I may have to stick with plain old mp4 for most of my stuff and try workarounds on songs that bomb.

Cheers

[Bighair]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

An additional update. While converting more cd's over the weekend using MP4 (CLI) I had the music library shut down spontaneously and later on DMC Audio CD Input. I then had a problem with a cd that wrote another 0:00 time length track. I was thinking maybe there were memory issues so I rebooted my machine. The next cd I converted was all 0:00 length tracks. I started uninstalling the codecs and the software, leaving the PowerPack alone. My machine did a shut down on me after one of the entries was removed. I proceeded to completely uninstall everything except the PowerPack and resinstall just the minimum items. I noticed that the failures occurred were always on the write step and usually on the id Tag. I try not to multitask on my system when I'm converting cd's, but sometimes I have to. I was thinking that maybe I'm having swap file issues, but the behaviour of the failures doesn't seem related to multitasking. I'm running XP and the system has lots of drive space for the swap file. That leaves the possibility of memory leaks or possible bugs with either the Music Libarary software or DMC Audio Input. They may not be cleaning up after themselves when they close or crash. I'm keeping a close eye on everything as I convert cd's now and trying to see if there is a pattern. I pretty much reboot now if either app shuts down when I don't expect it. If there is logging or something I can turn on to help diagnose I will try that. I did manage to convert about 15 cd's without any problems after the re-install.

Cheers.

[Spoon]

Re: Songs with 0:00 Length

>They may not be cleaning up after themselves when they close or crash.

If you have 2000 or XP as long as the program has quit then Windows would clean up even the most messy program.