WMA playback issue (not DRM related)

Zzzz · Post by **Zzzz** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:59 pm

I recently got a new laptop with Windows XP Pro, installed with Windows Media 9. I transferred all my music files from the old computer to the new one and got Media Monkey to rebuild the database.

All the music files play, but when playing some (maybe all... but I haven't tried) WMA files, the music does not play correctly. By that, I mean they sound like a scratched CD (and seem to happen at the same place on the song each time I play it). The problem files, however, play fine in Windows Media 9. The problem does NOT occur on the old computer.

Do you have any idea on why this is the case and how to resolve it?

Differences between the MM on the two computers
New computer: MM 2.2.2.780 Gold, with patched mp3 plug-in; winamp not installed.
Old computer: MM 2.2.2.780 free, not patched; winamp installed, but using MM player.

Thanks!

- Zzzz

julzcompufreek · Post by **julzcompufreek** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 8:43 pm

Maybe you should try the latest BETA 5, It's got a whole lot of new features and fixes. Just remember if you do wish to try it, it is a beta and may have a few bugs. Make sure you backup your data to prevent eny data loss, but that is very rare.

hope this helps

Post by **Lowlander** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:03 am

I'm not sure, but I assume that you might be missing some wma encoders on your machine. Try the readme if it mentiones anything about this.

abecedarian · Post by **abecedarian** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:09 am

You could try copying in_wm.dll from Winamp's plugin directory from your old computer to MM's plugin directory and see if that works. At least that helped when I had wma problems. On a fresh install of Windows, I haven't had to resort to that trick.

Second, I'd try the latest beta.

Zzzz · Post by **Zzzz** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:55 am

Thanks for the feedback! abecedarian, your suggestion to use my old Winamp's WMA plug-in worked!

The funny thing is that I tried downloading a new Winamp and it didn't come with an WMA plugin. There is one posted on Winamp's website is version 1.0. The one from my old computer is actually Nullsoft WMA Plug-in v2.00(x86), which seem to have solve the problem on my new computer.

The other interesting thing is that I am not using Winamp as the player on my old computer; nor was Nullsoft's WMA plug-in installed on my old computer's MM plug-in directory. Very strange.

Hey, now it works, so if anyone else has the same problem, reply to me and I'll send you the Plug-in.

abecedarian · Post by **abecedarian** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:02 am

I'm glad it works for you

I think you have to download the full version of Winamp to get the plugin. I still am not sure what causes the problem. All I know is that on my old computer, WMAs stopped working, perhaps after installing some codecs or other media players.

Misterfixit · Post by **Misterfixit** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:36 am

I don't much care about the technical issues that are fussed about here. Most people obtain MM because of frustration with Media Player, WinAmp and a variety of Linux apps. The consumer wants functionality -- to have a seamless capability to play music files.

I am sorry to say this at the risk of insulting the developers, but if you expect people to use your product and even pay you for it, it should work smoothly with the most common types of music files.

It is one thing to have your technically savy and assorted hAk0rZ download bits and pieces from various places and then tinker around to cobble something together. It is another genre -- and a genre which places the vendor into the world of "successful businessman" -- which the majority of the potential users expect.

BTW, before you cast the first stone, I have been a Linux user since 1993 -- yes 1993 --- and a PC user since there were PC's -- and a Mac User since there were Macs. I am an imbedded systems developer at this time.

Of course, I know how to insert the fragments of WinAmp to make WMA files work, but, it is important for YOU to understand that non-tech users expect functionality upon first run.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Post by **jiri** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:37 pm

Misterfixit,

I agree with you, we have always tried to develop MM so that it is not only powerful, but also easy to use even for beginners. However, this is a bit different issue, decoding of WMA files isn't (and due to _very_ strict licensing cannot be) done by MM but depends on provided MS codecs. So, as far as I know there isn't any bug in MM code, but something got corrupted on the machine.

That said, there are still several approaches to the problem (which is shown by working in_wm.dll plug-in). We constantly improve things, there will probably come another WMA plug-in in future version, probably also with support for DRM protected content.

Jiri