DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

[lizzard77]

Hi all,

just registered dbPowerAMP and started converting my Audible files to MP3 - at least I tried. The conversion will start, run for the first three or four percent, then the progress bar jumps to 100%, it says "Conversion finished" and that's it. All that is left is a MP3 file with some minutes of contents. The same thing happens with MP3 (Lame) output and Wave output.

I'm running Win XP Pro SP2, and the .AA files are 100+ MB in size. Other conversions work well, i.e. MP3 <-> WAV.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Lizzard77

[LtData]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

Can you play the audible files with WMP?

[lizzard77]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

Yes, that works perfectly.

Lizzard77

[LtData]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

What is the frequency and channels of your Audible files?
Can you convert them to WAV?
Do you have dMC r11.5 installed (latest version, no longer beta)?

[lizzard77]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

I downloaded Audible's quality "4". It isn't clearly spec'ed what that means, but it sounds like a 32bit mono MP3 encoding. The DMC explorer property page says it's 22.050 Hz, 2 channels at 16 bits. I just downloaded one Audible book in their format "3" (16.000 Hz, 2 channels, 16 bits), the result is exactly the same.

My dMC version is "Release 11" as per Configuration, downloaded the registered version yesterday, so I guess I'm up to date.

I can neither convert to WAV nor do a "Test Conversion" or anything.

Lizzard77

PS: What my "software developer eye" just registered: the conversion window loses focus after 3-4 seconds, as if some other program was started. This doesn't happen for other input files.

[xoas]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

If you haven't checked this already:
Go to dMC Configuration (Start>All Programs>dBpowerAMP Music Converter>Configuration>dBpowerAMP Music Converter Configuration).
Scan your list of installed input (read) codecs to the line for DirectShow Decoder. Does it display .aa on that line?
If it is not, then you have not loaded the codec correctly and you will need to go back and reinstall/reconfigure the codec. Edit: If this is the problem, follow the instructions here: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthre...7339#post37339 all the way through. You actually do have to open up and confirm the installation with dMC Configuration.

I also wonder whether file size might be an issue. Can you check to see if the same problem occurs with smaller files?

I suspect that your observation about the conversion window is normal procedure for this situation. If I recall correctly, this happens when using the DirectShow decoder to decode Real Audio files (it relies in part on RealAlternative).

Best wishes,
Bill

[lizzard77]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

Thanks, Bill - the AA file extension is listed. As for the size, my smallest file is about 8MB, and it happens with that one, too.

Lizzard77

[xoas]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

The only other suggestion is to try using the alternate method of decoding AA using graphedit decribed in this thread here:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=46948

There is a detailed description beginning with post 18 but there seem to be important updates on the 3rd (and final) page of this thread.
But I have no earthly idea why this should be necessary nor can I guarantee it will work given that your correctly installed setup does not. If it does not work, it looks like a fair amount of work for no real benefit so this really does not meet my own criteria for an iddea worth trying.

I have not used this Audible Audio. I note that Audible's website mentions that its files are encrypted. This raises the question of whether they have recently upgraded their encryption methods (I am merely speculating). Perhaps another user could provide some insight here.

The other remaining alternative I can think of is to record this file as you play it through WMP using Auxilary Input (described in the FAQ for dMC here:
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=7318 ).

Again, perhaps another user might have a better idea.

Best wishes,
Bill

[lizzard77]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

Morning folks,

I appreciate your input - and actually, using auxiliary input, everything worked. There was some quality loss, however, and the solution did not satisfy me. So here's what I did:

A) ANALYSIS

I fired up VirtualPC with a "virgin" XP SP2 computer. Just as it comes from MS, freshly installed, nothing messed around with. Installed the Audible DirectShow filter, Media Player 10, dMC and dMC DirectShow input. Activated my Audible account, converted files - everything was WORKING!

B) FIX

So what was wrong with my computer? Several things, and all related to Audible's filter, not to dMC:

1) If you install Audible's filter, take a look at Media Player playing an Audible file. A window should pop up that allows "Section navigation". If that window is not appearing, the filter setup is broken.

2) If you listen to Audible files in WMP, it will remeber the last section it played ("bookmarking"). If you restart WMP and play the same file again, it will always resume from the last section you listened to. Nice feature, but don't forget to jump to the FIRST section of the audio book BEFORE you convert anything. Otherwise conversion will only affect the remainder of the file! It is NOT sufficient to use WMP's built-in time navigation bar, you must use Audible's pop-up window from step 1).

3) If you installed any other Audio filters, like AC3 filter, try to disable or uninstall them. You can see interfering Audio filters with graphedit, if there's anything in your graph that's not the input file and the Audible Words Codec, you know this could be the problem.

These things taken into account, everything works exactly as expected. dMC made my day, now I can listen to audio books in my car! Thanks for your support, and maybe my analysis can help others who encounter the same problem some day.

Lizzard77

[xoas]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

Thanks for your feedback and report.
I'm sure this information will be useful to others.

Best wishes,
Bill

[Spoon]

Re: DirectShow to MP3 does not complete

Thanks, added to FAQ