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Author Topic: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files  (Read 5289 times)

vagskal

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Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« on: July 04, 2012, 09:46:03 am »

For builds after build .173 MC crashes when I try to paste cover art (ctrl + c on the image file or rigt click Copy image on an image on a webpage using Chrome, mostly .jpg, and then in MC right click Cover Art => Paste from clipboard) to flac files. In options, Cover art audio mode is set to In the same folder as the file and Also store image in the file's tag is checked. Pasting cover art to mp3 files works fine, and pasting cover art to flac files works fine up to and including build .173 but not later builds. A couple of times I have been able to paste an image to a flac file that already had an image embedded, but with builds after .173 I have never been able to paste an image to a flac file that did not have an image embedded before.

Is anyone else seeing this? Any clues on what may cause the crash?

Matt (one of the developers) has been unable to reproduce this issue so this is why I ask the community in this way for further clues.
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Alex B

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2012, 03:29:03 pm »

I just tried, but I too can't reproduce this. MC 17.0.178.
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2012, 04:21:54 am »

Thanks for testing!

I am afraid this is for me a real and consistent issue with a clear starting point (after build .173), but I cannot figure out what causes it and how Matt shall be able to reproduce. I am on Win 7 64-bit running just one instance of MC on my internal network. I have tried pasting different sized image files, with and without split view and in views showing and not showing thumbnails, all with the same result.

After more testing it seems that pasting to a flac file that already has an image embedded with MC (using earlier builds) actually works, but pasting to a flac file that already has an image embedded with MP3Tag causes a crash, just like pasting to a flac file that has no embedded image (crash every time). The image file is created in the music file folder even when MC crashes, so it seems to be the embedding/writing to file tag that is causing the crash.
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Alex B

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2012, 10:19:01 am »

I wonder if this could be related to file rewriting and possibly something blocking the process. The tag block in FLAC files may contain so called padding (empty space for tag changes), but the reserved space is normally not bigger than a few kilobytes. Since the tags in FLAC files are in the beginning of the file, a complete file rewrite is usually needed when a cover art image is added to the tag. For example, could a virus scanner try to inspect the newly created tagged file before the rewriting process is finished?
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2012, 10:52:26 am »

Thanks for the reply!

I doubt that this could have anything with anti virus software or lack of file access to do. Disabling my anti virus software (Eset NOD32) did not help. The only thing that has changed is upgrading from build .173 to a later build (currently .178). Downgrading to build .173 solves the issue.

The flac files I have been testing with have been ripped using dBpoweramp. The files normally reside on a NAS but for testing I copied a few to one folder on an internal drive and imported them into MC. Matt got a sample file but was not able to reproduce.
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csimon

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2012, 05:35:24 am »

I had a few crashes last night trying to add cover art from a file into FLACs.  I did a whole album at a time, it started to go through them with "Saving tag changes...11 files" at the bottom, but about halfway through the program crashed. It did this 3 times on me.
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2012, 11:29:43 am »

Thanks for the report! I was beginning to think I was the only one with this issue. For me, the crash occurs if I paste to only one flac file (I have not tried several at once).
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JimH

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2012, 11:35:48 am »

csimon,
Was MP3Tag also used with the files previously?
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csimon

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2012, 11:46:20 am »

csimon,
Was MP3Tag also used with the files previously?
No, they were new files ripped directly with MC.  I have to say though there was something unstable with my PC last night, it's difficult to work out what was going on and what was at fault. I was ripping that CD and MC had trouble on one particular track (I have since tried it with other rippers and they too are having trouble) and it threw up some dialog boxes "Unknown error from encoder". The PC also rebooted itself a few times after doing some sort of action with MC. I want to experiment a bit more tonight to see if I can reproduce it.
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2012, 12:10:38 pm »

Thanks for the interest! Just a clarification: For me, MC crashes every time i try to paste (embed) an image to a flac file, ripped with dBpoweramp, that has never before had any image embedded, and I do not think MP3Tag has ever saved any tags to at least some of the flac files I tried with; foobar2000 might have though (when adding lyrics).

My report on flac files that already had an image embedded was based on a test where I embedded an image with build .173 of MC to two "virgin" flac files and embedded the same image with MP3Tag (latest version) to two other "virgin" flac files ("virgin"=has never had any image embedded before). With .build .178 MC crashed when trying to embed another image to the "MP3Tag-files" but I succeeded to embed the same image to the "MC build .173-files".

(The issue I had previously with using MC to embed cover art to MP3 files that already had cover art embedded with MP3Tag has since long been fixed (Thanks!), and the symptom then was that the new image would not be embedded, not a MC crash.)
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csimon

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #10 on: July 06, 2012, 12:16:54 pm »

I was trying to embed an image in FLACs that already had images embedded in them too, but they had been done entirely by MC in the first place automatically on ripping.
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JimH

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2012, 12:22:23 pm »

I think you said you tried disabling your virus checker, but you might uninstall it.  We have seen a lot of this kind of mysterious problem that turned out to be some other smart program doing something stupid.  See the "Weird Problems" link in my signature for a long list.
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2012, 12:58:09 pm »

I was not sure how to un-install and re-install my anti virus program (Eset NOD32), so I installed (complete, not portable, install) MC (the very latest v. 17 build available to me) on another PC running Win XP (that has never had MC installed before). On that PC Microsoft Security Essentials is the only anti virus program installed (and I let it run). I got a crash when trying to paste a .jpg image to a "virgin" flac file using the default options in MC, i.e. the same result as on my MC "production" Win 7 PC. Then I installed the .173 build on the Win XP PC and tried the exact same procedure (the default MC options, same .jpg image but a different "virgin" flac file) and it worked fine, image embedded and no crash.

I do not think the issue has anything to do with anti virus programs (but I am willing to un-install MS Security Essentials on my Win XP PC if you just can give me a hint on how I can get it back).
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JimH

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2012, 01:39:46 pm »

Microsoft Security Essentials has also caused problems at times.

I'm not saying that's what the problem is.  It may be ours.  But we can't reproduce it.  Something is different. 
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #14 on: July 06, 2012, 06:10:48 pm »

Thanks for caring! I DO understand that you cannot fix something you have tried to reproduce but not been able to (I hope that was made clear already in my original post where I asked the community for additional clues so that JRiver could reproduce). Thanks for trying to reproduce!

Microsoft Security Essentials has also caused problems at times.

I do not doubt that. But for me, as a layman, it seems highly unlikely that two different AV programs running on two different PCs with two different OSs should all of a sudden develop an allergic reaction to new builds of MC (without some change in MC behaviour). I am willing to un-install Microsoft Security Essentials on the Win XP PC if you just remind me of how I can get it re-installed (the PC was setup by an IT savant person, not by me, and is not really in need of better virus protection since it is hardly ever exposed to the outer world).

Thanks for your interest! The solution to this issue might very well end up in your list of weird issues. (This might seem like a trivial issue, but for me it is not at the moment since one of my planned summer projects is to assign singles cover art to files in compilation and various artist albums. Having to use external tools for my flac files would not be very convenient, and Matt has been kind enough to fix a thumbnail rendering issue in later builds that I would need to use to check the actual state of added artwork.)
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JimH

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2012, 04:30:02 pm »

I was trying to embed an image in FLACs that already had images embedded in them too, but they had been done entirely by MC in the first place automatically on ripping.
Should be fixed in build 182:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=73390.0
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vagskal

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #16 on: July 19, 2012, 05:52:16 pm »

Should be fixed in build 182:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?action=recent

Yes it is. Thanks, great work!

(Your link might be a bit misleading, though.)
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JimH

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Re: Crash When Saving Cover Art to Flac Files
« Reply #17 on: July 19, 2012, 08:17:22 pm »

Fixed.  Thanks.
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