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[Rizlaw]

Now that I have a car that can play mp3 CDs, I thought I'd try making one with MC11. Unfortunately, MC is not cooperating.

All my files in MC are in APE format. I clicked the action window and selected "Burn a CD/DVD".
I set "Options" to burn a "data cd" with ABR 192 mp3 encoding  to my "temp 1" folder.
I clicked on "burn" and then got a somewhat uninformative error that MC had a problem creating some intermediate file.
I see a partially created ISO file in my "temp 1" directory, which MC created.

I would also note that when I dragged all of the APE files onto the action window, MC indicated that I had exceeded the capacity of the cd and asked if I wanted to continue - which I did. I assumed that MC's calculation of cd capacity was based on the number and size of the APE files and not the transcoded (smaller) size of the mp3 files. I didn't think this would be a problem, as I was pretty sure that the total converted file size was less than 650MB.

If I just use MC's  "convert files" option and simply convert  the APE files to MP3 and tell MC to write the mp3s to "temp 1", I can then use Nero to make a playable mp3 cd with no problem. The total mp3 file size is less than 650MB, which confirms my estimate that the large group of APE format files does, indeed, compress down to an acceptable size for a 700MB MP3 CD.

So my questions are:

1. Where am I going wrong?

2. In the "Burn CD/DVD" mode, am I correct is assuming that MC's calculation of total  file size occupied on the CD is based on the total number of APE files  and their sizes and not the resulting total number of  MP3 files and their smaller sizes?   I can see how it would be a problem for MC to make the correct calculation here since it would have to first transcode all the APE files to MP3 in order to know whether too many APE  files had been dropped on the action window for a 650MB CD. However, if my assumption is correct, then this is a very misleading and confusing piece of information.

[JohnT]

It's possible there's a bug where MC isn't checking for a low disk space condition on the drive where the transcoded files are getting produced:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp

Check your drive space and also let me know the exact wording of the error message about the intermediate file.

Thanks!

[edit] On further checking, it looks like a low disk space condition would be unlikely to cause this, but the wording of the error message would still be helpful.

[Rizlaw]

It's possible there's a bug where MC isn't checking for a low disk space condition on the drive where the transcoded files are getting produced:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp

Check your drive space and also let me know the exact wording of the error message about the intermediate file.

Thanks!

[edit] On further checking, it looks like a low disk space condition would be unlikely to cause this, but the wording of the error message would still be helpful.

Sorry John T, I can't tell you what the error message is. I just tried it again. I inserted a blank 700MB CD. I selected 1407MB of APE files and saw an indication that I was 706MB over the CD limit. I know this is wrong because MC is calculating the size of all the APE files, not the converted MP3 file size. I clicked on burn and then clicked on "OK" to get past the warning message about too many files. I then saw a progress bar which never moved and the message "Creating Image file on hard disk". My hard disc free space is about 60GB. I waited for about 10 minutes for the progress bar to move - it never did. I then clicked on "Show Files" and got a Microsoft pop-up window indicating MC had crashed and would I like to send the info to Microsoft. I clicked "Don't Send" and MC11 disappeared from the screen.

That's all the info I can offer at this time.

[JohnT]

Have you tried converting this same set of files to mp3 with no problems? I'm just wondering if there is a problem file somewhere in the group. Maybe try just 2 or 3 files to see if it works differently. (enable "test mode" to avoid creating a coaster).

[Rizlaw]

Have you tried converting this same set of files to mp3 with no problems? I'm just wondering if there is a problem file somewhere in the group. Maybe try just 2 or 3 files to see if it works differently. (enable "test mode" to avoid creating a coaster).

Yes, John, I did, although I failed to mention it the second time around; although I did mention that I did directly convert the a different group of files in my original post and burn them with Nero.

I believe there is a problem in 286. As I have already suggested (and I could be wrong), I think the problem has to do with the manner in which MC calculates the file sizes for the resulting burned CD. Since it believes I am trying to burn too many files to the blank CD based on the large APE files sizes (as opposed to the mp3 files sizes after conversion) it's crashing. However, since I can use MC to convert the files to mp3 and then burn the mp3 cd with Nero, I'm not overly concerned, just a little disappointed that I can't do everything in MC without MC crashing.

[JimH]

Riz,
I think you're probably right.  We'll fix it if it is our problem.

Jim

[Rizlaw]

Riz,
I think you're probably right.  We'll fix it if it is our problem.

Jim

Jim, I just installed Build 289 and tried it again with a much smaller group of APE files (4 soundtrack albums) which were only about 175MB over the "limit" of the CD according to MC. After about 15 minutes of crunching, MC finally began to burn the CD and the end result is that I got a playable MP3 CD.  However, I noticed a few things which I think need addressing:

1. When you click on "Show List" just before you start the burn, all the files in the queue showing "waiting" throughout the entire transcoding/buring process. I think the "waiting" should change during the transcoding to "converting" and then prehaps "burning" at the final stage.

2. The progress bar never shows any progress when it should. Below the progress bar you do see periodic text  messages like "writing leadin" and "writing leadout", but that about it.

[Alex B]

MC doesn't care about the oversize after the warning has displayed. I think you just didn't wait long enough. One reason for that can be the nonworking burn progress meter.

As a test I added 1,34 GB of apes to a burning queue. (5h 51 min of classical music)

MP3 setting was CBR 192 kbps. Converting the files took about 35 minutes. MC made a 482 MB ISO file. After that the burning started.

Earlier today I burned another MP3 CD. Most of the files were already in MP3 format. It was quick because there were only a few files that needed converting.

Showing the list after the process has started crashes MC sometimes. It is a separate problem.

Media Center Registered 11.0.289 -- C:\Soft\MC\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2858 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 691 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1612 (xpsp2.041207-1145) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1643 (xpsp2.050311-1242) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32         DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)

Ripping /   Drive F: HL-DT-STRW/DVD GCC-4480B  Mode:ModeSecure  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive F: HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B   Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:10  MaxSpeed:10  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: No /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[Rizlaw]

MC doesn't care about the oversize after the warning has displayed. I think you just didn't wait long enough. One reason for that can be the nonworking burn progress meter.

As a test I added 1,34 GB of apes to a burning queue. (5h 51 min of classical music)

MP3 setting was CBR 192 kbps. Converting the files took about 35 minutes. MC made a 482 MB ISO file. After that the burning started.

Earlier today I burned another MP3 CD. Most of the files were already in MP3 format. It was quick because there were only a few files that needed converting.

Showing the list after the process has started crashes MC sometimes. It is a separate problem.

Thanks for the input Alex. As I noted, it didn't really make sense that MC should crash based on the total size of the APE files since it can't know the resultant total MP3 file size until transcoding is completed. However, MC gives that impression it is not working because of the non-functional progress bar and the long time it takes to convert 1GB+ of APE files to MP3 format with any indication of what is going on.

As for the other bug (the "Show Files" > crash), I guess we will have to wait for a fix.