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More => Old Versions => Media Jukebox => Topic started by: ThomDyson on January 31, 2002, 03:10:37 am

Title: Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: ThomDyson on January 31, 2002, 03:10:37 am
First, gotta say I looked at about ten programs to build and maintain my collection and MJ is the clear winner.  However, I have an intermitent problems with ripping.

Win 98, MJ7.2, 1GHz, 256M, yada, yada, Next Page

About 20% of the time, when I am ripping a CD, the process just hangs while encoding a file.  Rather than giving a % complete, it just says "Encoding" and nothing else happens.  I can cancel the process, so MJ is not locked.  Restarting the rip then works fine.  I've tried with and w/o rip&encode at the same time - no difference.  I'm ripping to ogg, 256 with the v2 plugin.  I can't tell if the plug in at fault, because it never hangs once the % complete starts to display.

Any ideas?

How stable is MJ8?
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: Doof on January 31, 2002, 04:52:48 am
Can you try using a different encoder for a while and see if the problem persists?

Try the APE encoder. It's a completely lossless compressor. If you use that for a while and the problem goes away, then we know it's the OGG encoder. If the problem persists, and you want to switch back to OGG, you can just convert the files you did in APE to OGG with no loss in quality and it will be faster than re-ripping/encoding.

You might also want to try Help->Check for Updates to see if there is an updated OGG plugin.
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: Gatobrit on January 31, 2002, 05:14:19 am
Hi,
    Let me get this right. You put the CD in, it's recognized by MJ and details are downloaded from CDDB but when you start to rip the CD spins but encoding never starts. At which point MJ "freezes" and has to be killed by Windows?

If those are your symptoms then I have them very occasionally with specific CDs. Usually, (80% of the time) restarting MJ and popping the CD out and in again seems to resolve the issue.

This started (for me) on early v.8 betas but has improved since.
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: ThomDyson on January 31, 2002, 05:57:19 am
Doof is right of course, try another encoder. I was a bit reluctant to use APE beauce I thought those files were pretty large.  I'll try it when I get home tonight.


John, that isn't quite what I have.  Copy is good, then encoding starts.  The encoding process hangs at the start of a new track.  It doesn't lock up MJ, because I can use the "cancel" button to quit encoding and start over.
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: Doof on January 31, 2002, 06:04:29 am
APE's are large. But the're also bit-perfect copies of the CD. That's why I suggested it. Because if you test with that, and find that it's something else causing the problem, you can just convert the APE's to OGG or whatever and not have wasted as much time as you would if you ripped to MP3 and then had to re-rip/encode.
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: Gatobrit on January 31, 2002, 06:48:47 am
Thom - OK. You have something different to my problem which is probably mucky CDs.

Good luck with the switch to APE tonight.



John
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes... FIXED
Post by: ThomDyson on February 03, 2002, 04:21:21 am
Just to let y'all know how this ended, because I know you were worried.

I tried ripping to APE and that went smoothly.  That points the finger at the ogg encoder for MJ7.  However, as I feared, my free disc space was dropping faster than Kmart stock.  I ripped those files to OGG without problem, but the quality was not great (strangely?).  I was NOT happy. In frustration I looked at some other products, but MJ is the best.

Going back to the 1st Rule of Troubleshooting, "Make sure you have the latest version of everything."  I found updated Audigy drivers, Directx 8.1 (Can't hurt) and the latest beta of MJ8.  Slapped all that in and held my breath.

Waahoo! Everything works well now.
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: JimH on February 03, 2002, 06:32:55 am
Thanks for reporting the outcome.  It may help someone else.  Glad it worked.
Title: RE:Encoding freezes sometimes...
Post by: KingSparta on February 03, 2002, 06:41:58 am
>>my free disc space was dropping faster than Kmart stock
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