WMA Encoding Problem

[Biker803]

Okay, well I installed dbPowerAMP... I really like it. I've actually used it previously no problem, but formated the other day. I came back to download and reinstall it, and there was no problem at that point. Then I went to get the WMA codec package on this site and installed that, then restarted the computer (didn't need the system codecs 'cause I have WMP 10 installed). Well, I used to be able to convert to WMA... just regular 9.1, Pro, Lossless, whatever it being using the source as a CD or a present file on my hard drive. Now, since I formated, I converted no problem to wave and mp3 (lame) from a CD I was ripping, however using the WMA encoder all of a sudden just doesn't seem to work. I'm getting no errors. What happens is when I use the WMA encoder, it appears to be encoding, and takes just as long to encode as if it were really encoding, but it's not. The file it outputs is between a 5kb and 50kb sized .wma file that is 1 second long, depending on which bitrates I choose to encode with. Something I'm thinking could be causing this issue is any disabled services I have (using Win XP Pro)... because what I did this time around after formating was disabling unecessary (at the time) services I thought I wouldn't need (going to services.msc ... and through that process) to make my computer run better. Do any of you know if there are any specific services that are required to be running for the WMA encoder to function correctly? If that's not the problem either, does anyone else know why I could be having this issue? I'm really not sure on this one.

Thanks for any help.

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

No idea, but have you tried using Windows Media Player itself to encode an audio cd track to wma (make sure you don't copy-protect the file)?

[Biker803]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

I tried about 10 minutes ago ripping using WMP 10 itself... using just regular Windows Media Audio at 192kbps... worked perfectly fine. So, I'd then assume it lies somewhere else within dbPowerAMP... or more specifically, the wma encoder that's used with it. I just don't see how that could be when this used to work fine for me... I have no idea what I could have done differently to make this not work.

Edit: Wanted to add that I don't copy-protect anything, these are all backup files I've been able to convert previously before my format.

Edit again: I said above that it is one second long, meaning if I open the 'converted' file up in WMP, it plays pretty much the first second, however when viewing the file properties, it says it's 0 seconds long... probably doesn't make a difference on solving my issue though. :(

[LtData]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

I think the problem is with the Codec you have and WMP 10. Have you tried the wma 9.5 codec in beta? http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=6128

Try that codec and see if it fixed your problem

[xoas]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Taking a different tack, I think you do need to install the system codecs for the WMA 9.1 (sometimes referred to as 9.5) codec. This is different from the situation with the WMA v9 codec where you needed either WMP 9 or the system files-in this case I believe you need both.

Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Biker803]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

I tried everything mentioned above, nothing seemed to be working for me... even that beta codec. I did uninstall all the codecs and uninstalled dbPowerAMP numerous times... and many restarts later, I gave up on it and formated, figuring it was something else I did that caused the problem. So now I'm at a fresh start once again. I still haven't installed dbPowerAMP but before I do I'm curious if anyone can provide the best setup for me so I don't run into this issue again... or at least hopefully don't, since no one has appeared to have solved this issue yet. I'm running WMP 10... not WMP9, so any suggestions for getting started would be helpful.

Thanks!

[xoas]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

My recommendation:
Install dMC;
Install the WMA 9.1 System files (from the beta test forum here:
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=6128);
Install the WMA 9.1 Codec (also from the Beta test forum).
Restart the computer.
Works for me.

Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Biker803]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Wow, so now I just don't know what's wrong. That didn't work. I did exactly what you said, and started ripping from a CD that I know worked before... yet it was unsuccessful. It looked like it was going just fine, but nope... I get this 5kb sized wma file for every song.

Any other thoughts?

[xoas]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

What wma settings (bits, frequency, bitrates, channels etc.) are you using?

[Biker803]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Odd... it worked, or well, I got it to work with a much lower frequency (and using the regular 9.1 codec... haven't tried it with the beta one). I was originally aiming for a 96 kHz frequency, and I started working my way down, nothing worked except 44 kHz. I never thought to try it, mainly because I just didn't want to go that low. I've tried 192 kbps and 384 kbps (all 24-bit) and those two work on 44 kHz... nothing seems to work so far in any of the higher frequencies. Maybe you know why that's happening? Maybe I'm being stupid and the music just simply can't be ripped at a higher frequency, but I've tried quite a few songs/CDs now... and don't understand why this wouldn't work with higher frequencies. I'll mess with it a bit more to see if I can find anything else, but let me know your thoughts on that.

Also it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm doing lossless, pro, etc... results are the same based on frequency chosen... even when I ripped to WAVE first at a higher frequency, everything went through, and the song played fine, then when I attempted to convert to wma from the wave file, I still got this 5kb sized file deal.

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Odd... it worked, or well, I got it to work with a much lower frequency (and using the regular 9.1 codec... haven't tried it with the beta one). I was originally aiming for a 96 kHz frequency, and I started working my way down, nothing worked except 44 kHz. I never thought to try it, mainly because I just didn't want to go that low. I've tried 192 kbps and 384 kbps (all 24-bit) and those two work on 44 kHz... nothing seems to work so far in any of the higher frequencies. Maybe you know why that's happening? Maybe I'm being stupid and the music just simply can't be ripped at a higher frequency, but I've tried quite a few songs/CDs now... and don't understand why this wouldn't work with higher frequencies. I'll mess with it a bit more to see if I can find anything else, but let me know your thoughts on that.

Also it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm doing lossless, pro, etc... results are the same based on frequency chosen... even when I ripped to WAVE first at a higher frequency, everything went through, and the song played fine, then when I attempted to convert to wma from the wave file, I still got this 5kb sized file deal.

96KHz frequency is for DVD and that also goes with 24 bits. Your CD will be only 44.1KHz, 16-bit. You're trying to increase the frequency and the bits while compressing. That's usually trouble.

Aside from the fact there's no benefit from an increased frequency and bits in this case, you may have to do it one step at a time, changing only one parameter at a time until you wav is the same bits and frequency as teh wma you are aiming for. Were you trying to use WMA Lossless or WMA Professional?

[Biker803]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Been trying to use Professional. I guess I can understand why it would be good to stay with 44 then, but taking it in as a WAVE, I was able to make all adjustments in one conversion, and it was successful, but just encoding in WMA gives me these issues.

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

DO you have Professional Frequency Conversion enabled in dMC Configuration?

[Biker803]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Yep, I do have that enabled.

[ChristinaS]

Re: WMA Encoding Problem

Did I forget to say that your wma at 96KHz, 24-bit, VBR 100 (professional) will be nearly double the size of your original wav at 16-bit, 44.1KHz 2-ch stereo?

I ripped a track to 160bit 44.1KHz 2-ch stereo (regular cd stuff), the conevrted this wav to 24-bit 96KHz 2-ch stereo wav and this new wav to wma 9 Lossless VBR 100 96KHz 24-bit 2-ch stereo VBR - it worked, end result almost double the original wav file size.

I don't have the newest WMA codecs since I don't run WMP 10 (No Windows XP).