Winamp Playlist Generator: reset database causes crash

[Sasakr]

Thank you, I could do this, but...

Ten hours after I started, I had my two bad files!

I don't think it worth :-D

[Aminifu]

Hi Sasakr,

I suggest your read post #32 in the thread linked below.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=324492

After a lot of work, this user tracked his playlist generator scanning problem to 2 files in his collection. He basically did what MrSinatra suggested in post #9 above, divided his collection into groups and tried scanning each group. It is not yet known what causes these files to break the scan, but after he removed them from his collection an initial scan of all the remaining files ran without a problem.

[Sasakr]

Yeah, I may disable these artists. Thank you.

So thank you very much for advices. I also downloaded the plugin into Winamp, it makes more or less the same but there are less options, but it's quicker than starting another program.

Thanx and a have a good time there ;-)

[Aminifu]

But I pretty miss a feature which would allow me to make exceptions. For example I have a few albums of stupid pub rock that I listen because of lyrics only. And although it is pretty hard music, I don't want to listen to it together with "serious" music. There is probably no other way than delete them from library.

The first option in Preferences is Exclusions. There are various ways to use this to make exceptions. What I did to exclude some songs, from the mixes created, is I picked a tag that I don't otherwise use and entered a unique value that I then have MusicIP use to exclude them.

Another way to exclude files is to move them to a folder that is not included in the Watch Folders you set for MusicIP to keep track of.

The Fix Tags and Power Tools features no longer work because this app, as MusicIP, was sold and is no longer supported as an independent product.

[Sasakr]

I don't want to reduce the load, that's why I have a good PC to finish tasks fast :-)

Ok, the first 1500 songs took cca 5 hours, the rest took cca 3 hours...weird. But it's completed now. I realized it made fingerprint, that's why it took so many hours. But I corrected the genre tags anyway.

And results...sometimes are very good, sometimes are bad. It's difficult to find the best settings. But usualy there are at least a few songs that definitely don't fit into the playlist. It's a pity I cannot compare to Winamp playlist generator. But you say it's worse, so probably no shame...

But I pretty miss a feature which would allow me to make exceptions. For example I have a few albums of stupid pub rock that I listen because of lyrics only. And although it is pretty hard music, I don't want to listen to it together with "serious" music. There is probably no other way than delete them from library.

[Aminifu]

I had about 6,000 files when I did my initial scan. I let it run (by itself) overnight while I was sleeping and it was done the next day.

If you want to reduce the load on your system while you are running other apps, there are settings on the general preferences tab.

If you care to know more about how MusicIP works, I've provided a link to an Wikipedia article below. From what I understand, the scan makes an acoustic fingerprint of the songs which makes the scan slow. Tags are not used during the scan, but can be important when mixes are made.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmpliFIND

After you've had some time with it, please post back and let me know what you think.

[Sasakr]

Yes, the scan is extremely slow. It have taken a few hours of 100 % load of my 4 core CPU to analyse 1500 out of my 6500 songs. It's gonna take a few days I guess.

Some tags are wrong but I'm gonna fix them, especialy genre tags which have never been important to me.

Yeah, it's difficult to find a good settings to let it create "expected" playlists. Check my in the attachment. But I guess it will never be better than human's choice :-)

And you can see my CPU load when analysing files. Extreme!

[Aminifu]

Thank you, but RAM is definitely not a problem. Winamp memory usage peak is 121 MB and there are still more than 2 GB of free RAM.

I tried this: I stop the scan just before it crashes and then restart Winamp. Start a new scan, but it makes the whole new scan from the beginning... and crashes as usualy.

NOw I'm trying MusicIP Mixer but it seems it will need a few weeks to analyse all files :-D

Maybe the problem is on the "Gracenote" end of things. You could use the Windows Resource Monitor - Networking tab to monitor the communication. It is a weird issue. I have not done an initial scan in some time, but it works for me, as I add new files to my collection.

Anyway, I think you will like the "MusicIP Mixer" better. Sorry I forgot to mention that the initial scan is slow. Gracenote's is also, when it works. I assume your files have the basic metadata tags; artist, title, genre, etc.

Furthermore, I'm still looking for an automatic playlist generator that can do a better job than I can do manually, imo. I normally only use the automatics when I'm feeling lazy (and they do help me sometimes by selecting files that I had forgot I have).

[Sasakr]

Thank you, but RAM is definitely not a problem. Winamp memory usage peak is 121 MB and there are still more than 2 GB of free RAM.

I tried this: I stop the scan just before it crashes and then restart Winamp. Start a new scan, but it makes the whole new scan from the beginning... and crashes as usualy.

NOw I'm trying MusicIP Mixer but it seems it will need a few weeks to analyse all files :-D

[Aminifu]

Hi Sasakr,

In addition to (or instead of) corrupt media and/or database files, you may be having the problem some have with Winamp trying to use too much memory during the scan. You can monitor the memory usage with the Windows Task Manager. Look in the "Working Set (Memory)" column. Also enable the "Peak Working Set (Memory)" column, this lets you see the maximum amount of memory Winamp will momentarily attempt to use. If the memory usage climbs over a critical level the scan will fail. This point varies from user to user depending on the amount of memory available when the scan starts.

If this is your problem, the work-around is to do the scan in stages. Monitor the memory usage and stop the scan before the critical level is reached. Shutdown Winamp, then restart it and restart the scan. The scan picks up from where it was stopped. It could take several stages to complete the scan this way.

Even if you get this Playlist Generator working, some users are not happy with the playlist that is generated. I use this "Gracenote" supported feature in Winamp and the "MusicIP Mixer" app. I prefer the results from MusicIP Mixer.

The thread linked below discusses this issue (there are more threads).

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=340577

Post #8 in the thread linked below provides a link for downloading MusicIP Mixer.

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=343397

[Sasakr]

Of course I didn't actualy delete them, I moved them into different directory temporarily.

What do you mean? The database creating in Winamp or the scan in mp3val? All I know about the database creating process is what you can see in the screenshot. I dunno which file is causing it.

How to choose 50 songs only? Winamp automatically scans all files in my music directory. You mean I should delete my winamp media library, then add just a small group of songs and try to make the database? Good idea, gonna try it.

How exactly should I make the correction process in mp3tag? I'm a bit confused of this program.

Thank you.

[MrSinatra]

u probably didn't need to delete them, only move them temporarily. its prob due to a diacritic or something like that.

do u know which file it stops on?

have you tried doing it in 50 song groups?

mp3tag spots bad tags, the way mp3val spots bad headers.

[Sasakr]

Yes, I have the latest version 5.63.

What do you mean: "run them thru mp3tag"? What should I exactly do, please?

But I run them thru mp3val, there were three files that stopped the scan, so I deleted them to let it finish the scan. After scan, I let it fix the corrupted files.

But it didn't help, creating of the database in Winamps still causes crash at the same progress. Change of the language also doesn't help.

[MrSinatra]

the problem may be with the files themselves, (run them thru mp3tag and mp3val) or even possibly with the language, in either the tags or the app.

i assume you are using 5.63?

[Sasakr]

I'd like to use this feature but the process always causes the Winamp crash. I tried to delete the files mentioned above but it didn't helped. It always fails at the same progress level - 113 of 421 files.

How to make it working?