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[prmassey]

Anyone with a large Real Jukebox database can't switch to Media Jukebox because the import doesn't work right.
I like the Real Jukebox interface, but it does crash a lot, it's desperately slow when the database gets big and the way they suck information from their hosts makes me feel uneasy.

Posted by Darwyn 10-04-2001 08:32:46 A.M.

This is a petty bug but I thought I would report it and you can see if it's worth trying to fix up.
RMJ files have a goofy titling method. There are 2 fields. Artist which is correct and contains the artist. But the other field has 3 catagories rolled together. It lists Album/Song/Genre exactly like that.

e.g. Artist: Genesis
Name: Turn It On Again/Land Of Confusion/General Pop

These items can be picked apart from the "/" and dropped into the proper fields

[Scronch]

Real files are a real pain.  Winamp with Tara plugin converts them to wave, then you can convert to mp3.

[rlaconte]

Scronch

You've mentioned this before, but it hasn't worked for me.  I installed Winamp and the Tara plugin, but when I tried to open a Real file, I got the message "This is a Realmedia file and requires Realplayer." (Or something close to that.)  This is under Windows XP Pro.

I use eMusic, which uses the Real format for download.  At present I'm using Freeamp for downloading, but would rather use MJ.

[Scronch]

You still need to have RealPlayer or RealJukebox installed, so that the RealAudio file can be played.  Tara gives Winamp the ability to play the file (using the Real software), and then dump it to wave format if you want.

From www.bigfoot.com/~tarav/plugin :

This plugin lets winamp to play real audio, real video, real jukebox, mpegs, live streams and many other formats.

You can save video/audio files to wav format.

Note:This plugin depends real player basic to play the real media files. If you wish to play real jukebox files, please download realplayer with realjukebox.

[rlaconte]

Got it.  I misunderstood.  I don't want anything from Realnetworks on my computer. I'll stick with Freeamp.

[Doof]

Guess you'd better delete those RMJ files, then.

[Scronch]

I don't know Freeamp.  Are you saying it will play (and dump) RealAudio files without having the Real software available?

[Harry|PLS|The|PLS|Hipster:]

Scronch:

Check www.freeamp.org. From EMusic Help:

"The EMusic Player (Windows/UNIX). The EMusic Player is a full-featured MP3 player designed by EMusic.com to foster the growth of digital music. It is based on the FreeAmp Player, which is an open-source MP3 player, also sponsored by EMusic.

The EMusic Player currently features the Xing MPEG Decoder, giving it the ability to handle Layer 1, 2, and 3 MPEG audio streams. Its modular application architecture allows for future extensions to its supported audio formats and output devices, and even allows for entirely new user interface plugins. The EMusic Player also supports one-click album downloads at EMusic. Once you've purchased an album at EMusic, there will be an icon on your download page that will allow you to download all the tracks from that album at one time."

EMusic files are natively mp3 format/128 kbps. To facilitate album downloads (vs. single files), you need either FreeAmp or Real. If you use Real, the little devil apparently converts the files to Realmedia format. FreeAmp doesn't screw around with it. Haven't had any problems playing or burning mp3 files downloaded with FreeAmp.

Like to see MJ added for album downloads.

HTH

[Scronch]

Right, so freeamp does not convert Real to wave.

A paid digital music system based on 128 kbps?  Sounds like a failure to me.

Scronch

[Harry|PLS|The|PLS|Hipster]

Can't sleep either, eh?

128 kbsp sounds fine unless you've got dogs ears. EMusic gives me access to lots of archival material I'd have to overpay to get in hard cc, and no DRM restrictions. That's big - they make quite a point of saying they're on the honor system. They've been around for a while, so I guess someone likes them.

Not for everyone. Stronger on some genres (jazz, blues) than others. Worth a look, tho.

HTH

[Scronch]

"Can't sleep either, eh?"

I'm normally just gettin' started about now, but I'm tired tonight.  Another hour or two and I'm cashing it in.

My 42 year-old ears are able to tell the difference a little bit when I play the same song in 128 kbps and then in 192 or 256 kbps.  And I'm even hard of hearing from cranking the 8-tracks and cassettes far too loud in my car when I was a stupid teenager with a skull full of mush.  But I must admit that, if the songs are not played side-by-side, I doubt that I could listen to one and say "this is 128 kbps".  I think the objection is mostly an esoteric one for old fart ears like our's.  On the other hand, Matt is investing a lot of time in a lossless standard, which uses many times the storage of 128 kbps mp3, so many people seem to care.

Scronch