Problems converting from .ra/.rm

[dcnicholls]

Re: Problems converting from .ra/.rm

Getpopupinfo.exe tells you the information on the file - from file attributes and id tags.

It turns out that the looping behaviour of getpopupinfo.exe is only triggered on my PC (or so my tests suggest) when it is enabled in the config process. With this turned off the app doesn't keep trying to access the internet whenever it sees a .ram file in windows explorer.

The file .ram (unless mis-saved) is a meta file - a text file. It should not get converted. The file(s) it includes will be the actual audio files which can be converted - if you have them on your pc.

Which is not what my results suggest. Some of my .ram files do convert - they download and convert on the fly. These files are all from the same site and it uses the http protocal for all files (www.matafast.com)

The .rm files that don't convert at all, so far, are those that are the most compressed.

Often .ram files are in fact mis-labeled due to a Windows "feature" which, on a right-click, save target as, proposes to save a .rm or .ra to a file with .ram extension, causing all sorts of confusions. In such case .ram files are bona fide audio files, not meta files. The size of the file will tell you (very small, 1-2k, indicates a meta file) and of course opening it in Notepad will confirm or deny this.

All my .ram files are a few tens of bytes (small text files) and all the .rm files are 0.7 to 3 megs. No confusion. (Also I use Firefox not IE)

So the conclusion is that dMC will not convert .ram files if they are the meta files. It also doesn't convert .m3u or any other meta files like .wax, .asx, .wpl or whatnot.

I think my results have proven that wrong. One file I had no problem with converting on the fly two or three times, but - maddeningly - not every time - is http://www.matafast.com/musica/simondiaz/Cristal.ram

Sometimes it converts on the fly, sometimes it doesn't.

YMMV

DN

[ChristinaS]

Re: Problems converting from .ra/.rm

Interestingly for that file my firewall complains of getpopupinfo trying to access the network. It's due to the meta file having in it a full url instead of a relative url.

It's also probably due to the file type association with the player for that file type - the preview function of Windows Explorer triEs to load it in order to play it - and accesses the net for that. If you turn that off it will stop complaining, but then you'll not have a file preview either.

[dcnicholls]

Re: Problems converting from .ra/.rm

Interestingly for that file my firewall complains of getpopupinfo trying to access the network. It's due to the meta file having in it a full url instead of a relative url.

Yes, exactly. To judge from the rest of the site (see it in Firefox, not a pretty site) I suspect it's an unconventional source, the sort of thing the dMC coders might not have expected.

It's also probably due to the file type association with the player for that file type - the preview function of Windows Explorer triEs to load it in order to play it - and accesses the net for that. If you turn that off it will stop complaining, but then you'll not have a file preview either.

I think that's exactly right. I have windows explorer set to display files ('enable web content in folders'), and it appears to be that that triggers getpopupinfo into spasms of downloads - in fact it freezes windows explorer while it's trying to display stuff. So I can either turn off web content in windows explorer or turn off pop-up info..

Thanks for the nice diagnosis.

It remains to be seen why I get spasmodic success in download/decoding of the .ram files.

I have another app (RM MP3 COnverter) which behaves in a somewhat similar way. It gives a cryptic message ('RM Codec not installed' - in Chinglish) but behaves similarly to dMC.

It may be that the streamed .rm file sometimes loses one or two of the early packets on the way here (Oz) from the US and that stuffs up the decoding process?

DN

[ChristinaS]

Re: Problems converting from .ra/.rm

I have had problems in the past with Real Alternative installed and real media files - where Windows Explorer was crashing on hover over a real media file - all due to file preview which involved necessarily Media Player Classic for real media. That was when I was running Windows 2000. Consequently I got rid of Real Alternative and of the crash as well. That left me with Real Player and the old real media codec for such conversions. Fine by me for the infrequent times I deal with real media anyway. I no longer have this problem in Windows XP though.

Still, I have noticed some real media files will convert only with Directshow and other will convert only with the old real media codec - if they are to convert at all.

I never attempt however to convert the meta file itself. It may be working with Directshow - but it won't work for all the real media files, and the result may be either an error message or an outright crash. Downloading off the net while trying to convert may also hinder the process, as you said maybe due to some packet loss or just simply buffering issues.

[bobb]

Re: Problems converting from .ra/.rm

Here's yet another saga of the SampleGrabber.

The prob file bombs on one machine (WK2003 updated, directx 9.0c), but the exact same file decodes OK on another XP updated directx 9.0c.

AND other .ra's from the same site work fine on both machines.

Ai-ya-ya.