[gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod

[gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod

[Adrian]

Greetings;

I have acquired an iPodNano and have been playing about with that.
I've been able to do everything I need to do using GNUpod, yet there is
an oddity.

Any MP3 file I encode on my computer will not play.  The file is there,
the iPod sees it, but when I try to play the song, it simply skips over
it.  I don't have this problem with MP3 files from other sources.

My first guess is that something is different in the encoding process?
A few hours of reading man pages and Googling haven't helped any.

Suggestions?
Thanks much

Adrian



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Re: [gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

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On Sunday 08 October 2006 05:39, Adrian <linuxgn2@204eastsouth.com> wrote 
about '[gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod':
> I have acquired an iPodNano and have been playing about with that.
> I've been able to do everything I need to do using GNUpod, yet there is
> an oddity.Any MP3 file I encode on my computer will not play.
>  
> Suggestions?

Most likely problems are (1) bitrate (2) CBR vs. VBR and (3) metadata 
location.

I don't know exact specs, but the same thing will happen on my iFP-799 if I 
use a bitrate that is either too high or too low.  My iFP also supports 
VBR, but some devices may not.

If you know you are using a bitrate that is supported by your nano, try 
stripping off all the ID3 tags (and any other metadata), it could be that 
the contents or location are confusing it.  I've fairly sure metadata can 
be stored either at the beginning or end of the file (I know FLAC can do 
this) and it's possible, albeit unlikely, that the nano only works with 
one of those locations.

-- 
"If there's one thing we've established over the years,
it's that the vast majority of our users don't have the slightest
clue what's best for them in terms of package stability."
-- Gentoo Developer Ciaran McCreesh

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Re: [gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod

[darren kirby]

quoth the Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.:
 I've fairly sure metadata can
> be stored either at the beginning or end of the file (I know FLAC can do
> this) and it's possible, albeit unlikely, that the nano only works with
> one of those locations.

MP3 Id3v1 tags are at the end, ID3v2 tags are near the begining. Some files 
have both. 

As for Flac, this is not true. As one who recently wrote a Ruby library for 
parsing Flac metadata (and thus read the Flac spec[1]) I can say that all 
metadata, including the VORBIS_COMMENT block are before the stream contents 
(ie: the audio bits). The various metadata blocks can be in arbitrary order 
but always before the actual music data.

[1] http://flac.sourceforge.net/format.html

-d
-- 
darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org
"...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..."
- Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972
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Re: [gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

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On Sunday 08 October 2006 12:34, darren kirby <bulliver@badcomputer.org> 
wrote about 'Re: [gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod':
> quoth the Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.:
> > I've fairly sure metadata can
> > be stored either at the beginning or end of the file (I know FLAC can
> > do this).
> As for Flac, this is not true.

My mistake; the specification is quite clear that metadata can only appear 
before audio data.  I must have been thinking of Ogg/FLAC or something 
else.

-- 
"If there's one thing we've established over the years,
it's that the vast majority of our users don't have the slightest
clue what's best for them in terms of package stability."
-- Gentoo Developer Ciaran McCreesh

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Re: [gentoo-user] OT: encoding MP3 files for iPod

[Adrian]

Thanks to you both.  Wanna here something strange. . . or maybe not.

It's the file name.

A file named Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon - 02 - On The Run.mp3

will not work.

I rename it to

pf-dsotm-03.mp3

and it works just fine.

I don't know why yet.  I have mp3 files which have come from the
internet which have spaces, capital letters, lower case letters,
numbers, and they work fine.

When I have time my curiosity will force me to experiment some more to
find out exactly what causes this, but for now I'm content to be
loading the thingy up with music.

Adrian



On Sun, 8 Oct 2006 10:34:12 -0700
darren kirby <bulliver@badcomputer.org> wrote the words:

> quoth the Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.:
>  I've fairly sure metadata can
> > be stored either at the beginning or end of the file (I know FLAC
> > can do this) and it's possible, albeit unlikely, that the nano only
> > works with one of those locations.
> 
> MP3 Id3v1 tags are at the end, ID3v2 tags are near the begining. Some
> files have both. 
> 
> As for Flac, this is not true. As one who recently wrote a Ruby
> library for parsing Flac metadata (and thus read the Flac spec[1]) I
> can say that all metadata, including the VORBIS_COMMENT block are
> before the stream contents (ie: the audio bits). The various metadata
> blocks can be in arbitrary order but always before the actual music
> data.
> 
> [1] http://flac.sourceforge.net/format.html
> 
> -d
> -- 
> darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 ::
> http://badcomputer.org "...the number of UNIX installations has grown
> to 10, with more expected..."
> - Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972
> -- 
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
> 
> 


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On The Fly Photography -:- Creation From Chaos

On The Fly Photography:  http://204EastSouth.com
Purchase from On The Fly:  http://204EastSouth.com/OTFStore.htm
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