WMA playback problems on Sansa e250

[stevegrant]

Hi everyone,

I've recently installed Rockbox, and i think it's great. Making playlists is just a dream in comparison to the original firmware that Sandisk supply. Unfortunately I'm having a problem playing WMA encoded files. For the most part they playback without any problems, but occasionally I get this horrible burst of interference noise lasting for around 0.5 sec. After this the track continues playing normally, although it might occur a few times during the same track. MP3 tracks don't seem to be affected. If I play these WMA files back with the original firmware there isn't the same problem.

I am running Rockbox version r16011-080107 and the WMA file were encoded using Media Player 11 as WMA VBR.

Many thanks for your help and the great software!
Steve

[pixelma]

This reminds me of this topic. I sent saratoga (the developer who did the most work on the wma codec) the file and last I heard he said he had an idea what was going wrong. He wanted to try and fix it when he finds some time (that wasn't very long ago and people are working on Rockbox in their spare time so I wait patiently .

I'm not entirely sure if yours is the same issue as mine because for me it was a constant bit rate file. You could try to find out if the error occurs only in some specific files at the same track position like it was here (and in this case maybe provide a sample file to an interested developer)?

[saratoga]

Send one to my gmail (mgiacomelli) and I'll look at it eventually.  

[stevegrant]

Thanks Saratoga,

I've emailed an example file to you. As I mention in the email, the noise bursts don't happen in the same places every time - but they do occur.

Ta,
Steve

[bobdobbs]

Hi. I just installed Rockbox on my Sansa e280 a few weeks ago and it's so much better than the Sansa's own OS. Keep up the good work.

I am getting the same problem above though with the weird distorted playback of wma files (at 128Kbit). The files play fine in Windows and on the Sansa's original OS. The only times I've heard it so far are playing back some tracks from Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy radio show (rather than music files as such - which all play fine). The distortion happens at the same point each time on the same tracks and seems to be only distorting in the right channel as far as I can tell.

Shall I mail one of these files to you?

[saratoga]

Sure.

[saw75]

same problem here on an e250.  i've played a bunch of wma files fine and just started to notice the noise bursts in a few tunes i've played recently.  i've tried the last 5 or 6 versions of rockbox with both internal and sd memory with the same results.  i have 2 particular files as examples...how should i send them?

[saratoga]

Email it and i'll probably look eventually.

[Chronon]

I have noticed this recently as well.  It looks like you have a few to play with already so I'll hold off on sending more unless another couple of files would help.

[saw75]

i sent those tracks...hopefully you can find some time to take a look (listen).

[saw75]

i noticed some recent work done on the wma decoding in the changelogs.  the changes did not fix this particular problem, but i appreciate the time spent on the format.    

[Chronon]

Please remember not to double post.