Using MP4Box to fix iTunes-downloaded mp4 files

[soap]

No offense taken. I used the Rockbox Utility to install r27943. That overwrites the entire directory, right?

Yea, you're right.

Edit (by gevaerts): I'm assuming that you mean "right", not "tight" as your fingers typed

[[Saint]]

In fact, r27943 even caused some issues with my theme, but that may be my own fault.

Just checking...but, what issues did you see exactly?

PS: Have you tried using a metadata tag editor (like Mp3Tag) to strip the file(s) of metadata tags and see if you can play the file(s) then?
I've seen funky metadata tags cause all kinds of weird and unpredictable things...so, it's worth a shot.



[St.]

[Lear]

Heh, for me the track plays on a FuzeV2 - if I play another (AAC) track first. So maybe there's a buffering-related problem too.

[saratoga]

Heh, for me the track plays on a FuzeV2 - if I play another (AAC) track first. So maybe there's a buffering-related problem too.

Sounds like something isn't being initialized correctly.

[Lear]

Sounds like something isn't being initialized correctly.

Maybe, but what happens here is that during buffering, the codec first skips to the end of the file, then searches back to the beginning.

If another file is played first, the buffering is complete when the codec does the skipping forth and back. The only reason I tried with an AAC file was that I happened to have one in the same directory.

[Edit]

Tested on an e200. The file worked (when played directly) if dircache was on. That suggests a buffering problem, I'd say (and especially the timing between the codec, audio and buffer threads). Also, playing an MP3 file first also helps.

[Buschel]

Bockrox, please check again with r27950. Lear, kugel and I did some research and hope to have found the root cause.

[saratoga]

Nice find.  That looks like a nasty bug.

[Bockrox]

Still no luck with r27956, unfortunately.

There are two interesting things I do notice with this build, however.

If I try to play an album that is made up of "unplayable" m4a tracks (like the one I posted earlier), Rockbox skips every other track. It will start at track 1, immediately skip to track 3, quickly skip to track 5, etc.

The other interesting thing is that Rockbox displays the text "(no id3)" on the WPS of "unplayable" songs.

Weird...

[Buschel]

Hmm, is the file you have linked playing, if you move it to another directory that only contains other playable files? Can you provide links to some other files that do not play?

[Bockrox]

Putting the song in a directory that contains playable files doesn't have any effect. In fact, it causes Rockbox to skip over one playable file.

For example:

Code: [Select]

01 Playable 1.mp3
02 Playable 2.mp3
03 Unplayable.m4a
04 Playable 4.mp3
05 Playable 5.mp3

If I play "02 Playable 2.mp3" until it finishes, Rockbox then tries to play "03 Unplayable.m4a", fails, and then skips to "05 Playable 5.mp3".

To the earlier question of whether removing the tags makes any difference -- unfortunately, it doesn't seem to. The file I posted in this thread was stripped of all tags to make it less identifiable. This is the same file I have been testing on my iPod.

[Bockrox]

Random thought.

As I wrote in the first post (and sourced in my second) I have heard that the solution is to use mp4creator --optimize on the files in question. As I said, my distro doesn't seem to ship that package, but if anybody is interested in optimizing the file I posted and sending it back to me, I can try it on my iPod and report back.

[Buschel]

Bockrox, another thing you might try is to test with enabled vs. disabled DirCache (see manual). Also: Are you sure you have fully updated your .rockbox folder to the current version? I cannot explain why the file works for me on my iPod 5G and not on yours (for the same test case, of course).