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Author Topic: MC14 misreading bitrate/track length for some m4a (Apple Lossless) files  (Read 1638 times)

nickharambee

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Hi

I have successfully imported around 20,000 m4a files into MC14, but for a further 7,000 files m4a imports the files, but in all media views it misreports the bitrate and the track length for these files.  All of the files are reported as having a bitrate of 128kbps, when in fact they are Apple Lossless files with much higher and varying bitrates.  The track length is also misreported for these files, being much greater than the actual length.  It would seem that these two errors are interconnected, i.e. one is calculated from the other.  I have tried deleting these files from MC, and then clearing the deleted items database, and re-importing and I am still getting the same error.  MC does report the correct bitrate/track length in the player at the top, and files playback fine.

I have tried updating library from tags, and while this worked for a few tracks, for most it did not.  Then I went to the explorer section of MC to check there, and found that in this view too, the incorrect bitrate/track length is reported.  I have successfully imported all of the same files into MC before, so am not sure why I am having this issue now.  The correct track length is reported in Windows explorer, and in DBPoweramp.

Does anyone have an idea what might be going on here, and how I can get MC to report the correct values?

Thanks

Nick
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JimH

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Re: MC14 misreading bitrate/track length for some m4a (Apple Lossless) files
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2009, 06:54:53 am »

MC can't analyze files when it is using the Quicktime engine to read them.
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nickharambee

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Re: MC14 misreading bitrate/track length for some m4a (Apple Lossless) files
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2009, 07:11:34 am »

i have installed dc-bass source, and thought this was reading all of the files.  i don't have quicktime installed. it may be that there was a problem with dc-bass source during some of the imports.  but i have re-installed it now.  as i re-import the files with dc-bass source as the filter for m4a files, and MC reanalyses them, why would MC still report incorrect bitrate, both in the media views and explorer?
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Yaobing

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Re: MC14 misreading bitrate/track length for some m4a (Apple Lossless) files
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2009, 09:21:17 am »

Actually, MC does analyze files played in Quicktime.  Quicktime is not necessary however, if you have DirectShow filters.  DC-BASS is the way to go for Apple Lossless.  I am not sure why you get those strange values.  Sometimes, when MC can not get bitrate from the file, it will estimate it using a known value of Duration.

Do the files that failed to analyze contain UNICODE characters in file paths?  Until a beta version recently, DC-BASS could not handle UNICODE.  If your files have unicode in the paths, you need to make sure you have a version of DC-BASS that handles unicode.
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Yaobing Deng, JRiver Media Center

nickharambee

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Re: MC14 misreading bitrate/track length for some m4a (Apple Lossless) files
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2009, 01:51:11 pm »

Thanks.  even though most of the problem tracks didn't contain UNICODE characters, I updated to the DC-Bass UNICODE Beta version and then when I updated library from tags all of the correct bitrates and track lengths showed up in MC.
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nickharambee

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Re: MC14 misreading bitrate/track length for some m4a (Apple Lossless) files
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2009, 06:55:16 pm »

unfortunately this problem has re-emerged, even when using the unicode version of DC-Bass Source.  Does anyone else have any idea why MC may be misrepresenting the bitrate of some Apple Lossless files in the media view, but not in the player?
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