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Windows => Third Party Plug-ins, Programs, and Skins => Topic started by: scthom on April 28, 2007, 11:52:48 am

Title: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on April 28, 2007, 11:52:48 am
I posted version 2.2.0 of the FLAC encoder on http://mcplugins.sourceforge.net (http://mcplugins.sourceforge.net).

Upgraded to FLAC 1.1.4 (faster), removed references to MFC (used standard windows libraries instead), and upgraded a few string functions (more secure) due to VS 2005.

The core functionality is unchanged.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: Osho on April 30, 2007, 09:46:58 am
Thanks a lot.

Osho
Title: FLAC v2.2.0 Plugins Released
Post by: scthom on May 01, 2007, 08:11:24 am
I also posted the 2.2.0 In_FLAC decoder.  Same thing - no core changes, just upgraded to flac-1.1.4 and a few secure string functions.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: Wildcat on May 01, 2007, 06:13:15 pm

Excellent!  I'll drink to that!  ;)
Thanks sooo much!!
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: JimH on May 01, 2007, 06:46:00 pm
Scot,
Thanks very much for your continued work on this.  We owe you!  If you're ever in Minneapolis, we will pay you in Hamm's (or today's equivalent).

Jim
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 01, 2007, 08:02:45 pm
If I ever make it up that way, I'll be sure and take you up on that.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: escaflo on May 01, 2007, 08:40:22 pm
In_FLAC finally works with unicode characters!!!

No idea whether you did any important changes but finally it can save tag changes to a unicode filename. Now I can finally convert all my ape to flac...

Thanks scthom!!!!
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 01, 2007, 11:22:35 pm
I did change a few CStrings to CComBSTR's -- BSTR's are more Unicode friendly.  That must be what finally did it.  I'm glad it works for you.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: marko on May 02, 2007, 01:29:07 am
in_flac.dll installs fine.

For some reason, enc_flac.dll gives a 'failed to register' error.
I've tried rebooting, but the error persists.
MC is closed when double clicking the mjp file.
If I open MC and go via the plugin manager, selecting the flac encoder produces a 'failed to create plugin' message.
If I try to register the plugin manually using regsvr32 it fails silently.

Any other ideas or suggestions?

-marko.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 03, 2007, 08:52:10 am
Not really, but let me take a look this weekend and see what I find.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: DCKJR on May 04, 2007, 12:29:41 am
Is the fix for the "next" crash problem only in the FLAC decoder version that works on MC12? 

Thanks

Dudley

Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: grahamk on May 05, 2007, 02:08:36 pm

I also have problems installing the encoder. I have tried multiple times, tried rebooting, etc.

I get:

Failed to install package:

More Info: Destination file is in use:
C:|Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\Plugins\Enc_FLAC.dll

It's impossible for that file to be in use - because it has never been installed and does not exist in that directory....

Any ideas appreciated! :-)

Graham



Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: jgreen on May 05, 2007, 03:11:31 pm
Graham--

I had the same experience with the identical msgs.  I tried every which way, then shut MC down and let it sit for a bit, just in case there were any lingering processes.  When I then double-clicked the mjp it worked.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 05, 2007, 09:27:18 pm
Is the fix for the "next" crash problem only in the FLAC decoder version that works on MC12? 

Yes, only the version 2 series of decoder plugins got the fix for the "next" crash.  They only work in MC12.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: marko on May 06, 2007, 04:29:03 am
Hokay Scthom, I've done some more poking around...

Quote
Warning: At least one delay-load dependency module was not found.
Warning: At least one module has an unresolved import due to a missing export function in a delay-load dependent module.

According to dependancy walker, DWMAPI.dll is missing from my system!

I'm running windows xp service pack 2 with ie7 installed. googling dwmapi returned a load of reports regarding windows vista, ie7, and various versions of visual basic. None of which made too much sense to me I'm afraid. things like this on ars technica: dwmapi.dll, non vista and IE7 (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/99609816/m/494009191831)

EDIT:
or perhaps not. Out of curiosity, I popped v2.1.1 into DW too, and it returns the same errors, but installs and works perfectly on this machine. back over to you scthom :)

-marko.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: DCKJR on May 07, 2007, 02:46:22 pm
Yes, only the version 2 series of decoder plugins got the fix for the "next" crash.  They only work in MC12.

Thanks Scot (for both the reply but also all your work on creating the plugins).  I will upgrade to MC12 and use your new versions.

Dudley
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: jeffdoo on May 15, 2007, 09:50:29 pm
First I'm new to J River Media Center (currently running the demo mode) so this might not be a plug-in problem and it took me a while to figure out flac support was a plug-in....

Regardless, I like what I see except for one minor detail.  I have ~6500 songs ripped to flac using Poikosoft's Easy CD-DA Extractor.  The problem I'm encountering is when I add new directories to the library the CD cover thumbnails become mixed up or are missing even though MC displays the proper CD cover if I double click on the song to be played.  Is this a MC problem or a plug-in problem?

J River Media Center 12.0.226
In_FLAC 2.2.0
In_WacPack 2.1.0

Thanks for any help...

   - Jeff
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 17, 2007, 07:04:48 pm
I'm not an expert on covers or images, but the flac plugins have little to do with them.  I suspect if you are having issues with covers, there is something else going on.

Can you tell us a little more about how you have them organized?  Do you use the folder.jpg option or do you have an image in a separate directory?  Are you trying to import them or did you use the Get Cover Art option to download them?
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: jeffdoo on May 18, 2007, 02:26:59 pm
I'm not an expert on covers or images, but the flac plugins have little to do with them.  I suspect if you are having issues with covers, there is something else going on.

Can you tell us a little more about how you have them organized?  Do you use the folder.jpg option or do you have an image in a separate directory?  Are you trying to import them or did you use the Get Cover Art option to download them?

Scot,

The images are contained within each FLAC file, there are no seperate jpgs or folder directories.  I used Poikosoft's Easy CD-DA Extractor to rip the CDs to FLAC format with in included art either downloaded from Amazon (software provided function) or scanned/imported myself (again, using CDDA).  My music files themselves are organized in directories as "[artist]\[album]\[artist-album-song].flac". 

MC quickly scans the ~6500 files and imports everything fine except for the album art thumbnails where it seems to become confused.  The majority of albums have at least two songs where the thumbnail is never generated and/or the thumbnail displayed is for a different album.  Double-clicking the song to play it will display the proper image so I'm not exactly sure where the problem resides.

I don't see a way to do attachments so please visit the following URL:  http://www.kingsquarry.net/Members/jeff/images/jrmc_1.jpg/image_view_fullscreen

The song being played has properly extracted the album cover, but if you look at the thumbnail it's showing the album cover for the album "Cosmic Thing."  If you look a little further down the play list the song "Lava" is showing a thumbnail cover for "Senior Prom" (oldies collection) but double-clicking that song also results in the proper album being displayed.

   Thanks
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 18, 2007, 09:32:59 pm
And you don't have any cover art anywhere else?

I suspect the problem lies in how art is stored in the flac files (without a name).  When MC goes to retrieve it (which I suspect it does several files at a time), whichever one gets there first wins, and several end up with the same image.  In this case, it probably is the plugin which causes the problem.

Cover art is pretty new to flac, and so the plugin just extracts to a simple "cover.jpg" filename.  I'll probably have to implement some checking and number incrementation to make sure they truly are unique.

You might be able to verify this by doing single albums at a time and see if works correctly that way.  If it still fails, then I'm not sure what the solution is.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: Alex B on May 19, 2007, 05:07:29 am
Double-clicking the song to play it will display the proper image so I'm not exactly sure where the problem resides.

For thumbnail displays MC uses cached preview images that are optimized for quick display. When you actually play the file the orginal source image is displayed in full resolution in MC's cover art visualization. Without this cache system the thumbnail view modes would be extremely slow because MC would need to read and resample the image source data of each displayed image on the fly.

For some reason the thumbnails are created erranously in your case. I have not seen that problem, but I don't use FLAC with embedded cover art.

I hope scthom's guess is correct and he can fix the problem by changing the decoder plugin behavior.
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: aussie1 on May 19, 2007, 01:08:13 pm
jeffdoo's cover problem sounds similar to the problem with cover art in track info discussed at

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=39142.0;topicseen

Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: jeffdoo on May 19, 2007, 04:33:14 pm
[deleted...]
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: jeffdoo on May 21, 2007, 03:48:00 pm
And you don't have any cover art anywhere else?

I suspect the problem lies in how art is stored in the flac files (without a name).  When MC goes to retrieve it (which I suspect it does several files at a time), whichever one gets there first wins, and several end up with the same image.  In this case, it probably is the plugin which causes the problem.

Cover art is pretty new to flac, and so the plugin just extracts to a simple "cover.jpg" filename.  I'll probably have to implement some checking and number incrementation to make sure they truly are unique.

You might be able to verify this by doing single albums at a time and see if works correctly that way.  If it still fails, then I'm not sure what the solution is.

I don't have any jpg/png/etc graphics files in the directories in question, all images are stored within the flac files.

I agree with your idea about creating a check/incrementation to make sure the file names are unique.  An alternative might include create a "cover-[chechsum].jpg" or "cover-[crc-32].jpg" files based on the flac file name itself, or even use an MD5 checksum (which might be too long).  Just a thought.....

Now regarding your suggested test:

1)  Importing of a folder (9 songs) results in two songs have no thumbnail art (flac_cover.jpg might have disappeared).
2)  Dragging and dropping one file at a time into the library resulted in perfect thumbnails

Now, in order to perform the above test I had to completely delete the existing library and restart MC.  That particular situation does sound like the problem aussie1 suggested but I'm more concerned with the above problem and your suggested fix.

    Thanks!
Title: Re: Enc_FLAC v2.2.0 Released
Post by: scthom on May 21, 2007, 08:58:04 pm
Thanks for checking.  The two issues are almost but not quite related.  I'll fix them both at the same time, though.

I'll try to work something out this week so you can have something to try by the weekend, but no promises  ;D