Requests For Features

[Budgie]

On 25/07/15 13:13, Jim web wrote:
> In article <55B364D4.8060606 at errichel.co.uk>, Budgie
> <ajebay at errichel.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 22/07/15 09:33, Jim web wrote:
>>> In article <55AE85BF.6070408 at errichel.co.uk>, Budgie
>>> <ajebay at errichel.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> 2) You may find that simply passing the file though ffmpeg or avconv
>>> adds in sequential timestamps. i.e. using
>>>
>>> ffmpeg -i infile.<ext> cleanfile.<ext>
>
>
>> To start at the beginning and why this is on GiP list is that all the
>> problem downloads are from GiP and are BBC 3 classical music downloads
>> such as The Early Music Show or Opera on 3 and they are mostly "hi fi"
>> stereo or supposed to be!
>
> FWIW I use gip a lot to fetch R3 files and don't get such problems. I
> usually play them with Audacious without any problems.
>
>> The problems I have date from the various times when my GiP setup was
>> flawed or atomic parsley not installed, all through my ignorance.  They
>> fall into two categories, those that play but must be played from
>> beginning to end (no time markers,) and those which do not play at all
>> and stall the control app.   (I am using BubbleDS control app and Linn
>> Majik renderer playing files served by Minimserver from NAS.)
>
> So presumably your problem may be down to the player/renderer or something
> odd about your setup when the files were fetched.
>
> FWIW I keep files on a NAS and play them via access using a standard
> network filing system. Just use general purpose programs - audacious for
> audio and VLC for AV. Fairly basic and simple.
>
>
>> The files are delivered by my GiP setup as .m4a files and there is no
>> video but there is usually a thumbnail and useful metadata about the
>> particular recording which I would like to retain.
>
> OK, I tend to use --no-tag which I think means to discard any tagging. But
> I may be wrong about that.
>
>
>> The simple command with ffmpeg you gave above halved the size of the
>> file but it would not play.  I tried various other variations, some
>> using winff GUI but none worked.
>
> Ah. Be warned that using the command with no codec specifications at all
> might change the codec/payload. You should use one of the ways we've
> already described to specify keeing the codec payload unchanged. e.g. the
> way I add
>
> -acodec copy -vcodec copy
>
> or the alternatives people have explained.
>
> If you don't do that ffmpeg might have changed the content to some defaults
> it thinks appropriate for you. Hence the change in file size.
> Alternatively, the files may have junk in them for some reason I don't
> know.
>
> Do your playing programs report the codec, bitrate, etc, so you can see
> what they think they are getting?
>
>> If you or others have time I would appreciate some further help and it
>> may be appreciated if I went off group or started a new thread until I
>> can announce success!
>
> I can't say what others feel about this being relevant. But if it isn't
> welcome here you could ask on a newsgroup like uk.rec.audio since your
> interest is audio for this.
>
> ffmpeg is accompanied by probe and play programs. If you have these one
> will give info on a file. The other will try to play it. If it plays it
> will confirm that ffmpeg can make sense of it even if your usual players
> can't.
>
> If all else fails for the broken files you could try using ffmpeg to
> generate an LPCM wave file as its output. If that works it is easier to
> check, and could then be converted to something like flac for use if the
> problem is otherwise unsolvable.
>
> Afraid the above is only general comments as I'm not clear on the cause of
> your problem. I haven't used the other things you mention so have no idea
> what they may have done.
>
> Jim
>
Hi Jim,
Many thanks.  I shall now do a check to see if these files play over the 
lan on a laptop.  My setup is not particularly exotic but I agree the 
control app may be the issue in some cases.

I ran ffprobe on the first offending file and cannot see anything wrong. 
  Trouble is I have no idea what to look for.    Will go back over above 
advice in list.  I am sure the data is in the file so in worst case I 
could go down the LPCM route but not ready yet.

Will have a look at uk.rec.audio too.
Many thanks again.
Budge