Quick question bout pmp_usb vs ml_transcode

[beatsandmelody]

Okay, so I use Winamp 5.572 to manage my Moto Droid. I had originally been letting winamp transcode everything to MP3. However, my library is only 3 formats (mp3 aac flac) and Droid supports mp3 and aac.

So my question is this: When winamp is transcoding on the fly, is it using ml_transcode to do the transcoding or does pmp_usb perform that task?

I'm asking because several FLAC files I had set to convert to " MP4/LC-AAC " are for showing up as MPEG-2 which is not being recognized by the Droid. The only limitations droid has for AAC is that they cannot be RAW aac and not above 160 Kbps.

I pulled this AAC that was converted from FLAC off my Droid and here is the media info:

Payload Size: 3688072 bytes
Format: AAC

MPEG-2 LC-AAC
Sample Rate: 44100
SBR: Not Present
Channels: 2 Mode: Stereo
Bitrate: 128166

Now remember, I had set ml_transcode to use mp4/lc-aac at 128. So what gives?

Thanks for the help.

[robdog2004]

to simply answer you question
yes pmp_usb uses ml_transcode when it finds a incompatible track
for your file it must have been a low grade mp3 file to begin with
there are 2 grades of mp3 (that i know of)
the first is mpeg 1 layer 3, this is the highest grade and give the best sound (normally a original recording from a cd or etc)
the second is mpeg 2 layer 3, this is a subgrade file and sometimes has sound distortions (usually when reencoding a 64bit file to 128bit or when changing formats (for example aac to mp3))
other than this i can only recommend redownloading or reencode the file from its original source (if available)

[beatsandmelody]

Originally Posted by robdog2004

to simply answer you question
yes pmp_usb uses ml_transcode when it finds a incompatible track
for your file it must have been a low grade mp3 file to begin with
there are 2 grades of mp3 (that i know of)
the first is mpeg 1 layer 3, this is the highest grade and give the best sound (normally a original recording from a cd or etc)
the second is mpeg 2 layer 3, this is a subgrade file and sometimes has sound distortions (usually when reencoding a 64bit file to 128bit or when changing formats (for example aac to mp3))
other than this i can only recommend redownloading or reencode the file from its original source (if available)

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the quick explanation of the 2 mp3 grades. I'm familiar with mpeg 1 layer 3 being the standard that's been in use for many years. Anything written about MP3 from before layer 3 is usually quite verbose and excessively detailed, so I really appreciate that.

However, I think you misunderstood me. The resulting AAC file was created from a FLAC file. So, quality and format shouldn't be a problem. FLAC is lossless.

[robdog2004]

it might be that droid does not accept the file extension aac
are you other aac files extensions aac or are they m4a
both are aac files but a lot of players only accept the m4a audio file extension
other than this i dont really know whats going on since i personally dont own a droid

[beatsandmelody]

Originally Posted by robdog2004

it might be that droid does not accept the file extension aac
are you other aac files extensions aac or are they m4a
both are aac files but a lot of players only accept the m4a audio file extension
other than this i dont really know whats going on since i personally dont own a droid

Hi Rob. As mentioned in the first post, the Droid supports a wide variety of audio formats, including AAC. There are 2 exceptions to this: RAW AAC, AAC with a bitrate above 160 Kbps.

Thanks anyway. I have a workaround but I was hoping I could find a proper fix. Maybe the proper fix is in 5.58, but I don't want to install that, lest I break the Audioscrobbler or ml_ipod plugins (something always breaks with Winamp and then I have to spend time to fix it, every time ).

[robdog2004]

5.58 does not break the said plugins
i have been helping the devs on that
the new version also has support for android players (dont know if this is what you need)
for ml_ipod make sure you select to disable the built in ipod controller during the setup

[beatsandmelody]

Originally Posted by robdog2004

5.58 does not break the said plugins
i have been helping the devs on that
the new version also has support for android players (dont know if this is what you need)
for ml_ipod make sure you select to disable the built in ipod controller during the setup

I have literally just upgraded to 5.58 and upon the FIRST RUN, it CRASHED. I have NO 3rd party plugins, except for ml_ipod. I UNTICKED the STOCK iPod support option.

Here is the windows 7 error message:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: winamp.exe
Application Version: 5.5.8.2985
Application Timestamp: 4c3b43ea
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16559
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ba9b29c
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0002e1fe
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

[robdog2004]

sounds like you may have a deeper issue in your system
for ntdll to crash there has to be something interacting with the system the wrong way

the other thing i can suggest is try using the latest released beta and see if it helps
if it crashes still i believe it will at least send a report to the mods to track down where the error in your system lies

[beatsandmelody]

It's hard to imagine it being a deeper issue as the system files and program files are by themselves on the C:\ drive, and this is a pretty fresh install of windows 7. I'd say under 1 year.

I heard about the Beta when I installed the Winamp Android app. Wifi syncing sounds cool although both the app and the new features are unnecessary to me. I don't really see going from a 'stable' build to a 'beta' build as a solution though.

It's alright though, I used Windows 7 built in System Restore to roll back to the night before the install. I'm going to stick with what works until I have fallbacks set in place.

Which brings me to another point. I started regularly using the "export database" function (choosing ALL files, not just iTunes compliant ones) and as I test I attempted to load it and it just crashed.

Now, I'm using the Winamp Backup Tool. I had avoided that because it was a beta as well, but it's a standalone product and seems to have worked (but will have to attempt to restore to know for sure).

Winamp is by far the best media player, but I've had to completely start from scratch several times over the years which is unfortunate. Now, this never bothered me before because I didn't have as much music, didn't rate the songs with any consistency (thus the loss didn't really matter), I didn't have an iPod to sync with, and I wasn't scrobbling the tracks from both Winamp and iPod.

Now that I've invested a lot more time and effort in to the media library, I'm quite wary of making any major changes because something generally goes wrong. I wish I knew how to code so that I could help with Winamp's development. While most of the features are good, there really needs to be some bloat reduction and streamlining going on. To make a car analogy (and this probably applies to most mechanical things), fewer moving parts generally means less wear and less breakage. As well as easier fixing.