Newbie... Can't Get Music To Play

[Agrajag]

First things first. This looks like one very nice app. It's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for and not finding.

Second, the app, in Windows, pretty much needs to be installed on the C: partition. I tried installing it to my E: partition but the installer insists on leaving other portions installed on my C: partition.

Third, how do I get my bands in that start with a number, like 38 Special? I can't find a mask entry that works for numerics.

Anyway, I got everything running, pointed it at my music (all .FLAC files) and I can traverse the entire collection beautifully. However, whenever I tell the app to play a song I get a pop-up asking me to choose a player for the .M3U file (curious as to why it's a playlist file for a single song) and no matter what player I tried (Media Monkey, Media Player, VLC) none of them would actually play anything.

What should my first steps be to correct this?

Also, what URL should I give outside users (including me)? I have a redirector that keeps my dynamic IP updated that's similar to agrajag.myfiles.com. For VNC I go to agrajag.myfiles.com:5900 and that gets me on my desktop. Can I do something similar with this so that I don't have to use my current IP, etc?

Also, docs suggest that the port can be changed from the control panel but where? I'm not seeing it under settings. I'd like to just put it on 9000.

[aphuey]

To change the default port, go to Start -> Subsonic -> Settings. Once you change this, you should be able to redirect to that port preceeded by your redirector URL instead of using your current IP address.

I don't remember if you have to restart the subsonic service to have those settings take effect - my guess is not.

[Agrajag]

Got that going. Thanks. Now I need to figure out other elements that aren't working.

I can locally play music using ONLY VLC but even that drops out for no known reason before finishing a song. I also can't get transcoding to work. It's all setup but limiting an account results in audio that just sounds like white noise or audio that plays at the full size (FLAC files).

[Merlinuk]

Whats FLAC? sorry, must be a bit behind the times here,
I use mp3 and wmv files and they play great anywhere in the house.
(Signal permitting - that can cause drop out - loss of stream etc)...

Why not try the following....

Get a couple of mp3 aqnd WMV files online and try these...
Do they work ok?

If so then its the FLAC (Whatever that is) thats possible a problem, in which case are all your CODECS upto date on all your machines?

Also check your signals if your still having problems....

If signal ok, and/or the mp3 and wmv work then you have narrowed your problem down... If not then I'll let someone who knows what they are talking about help....

[Agrajag]

What's FLAC? That is behind the times. FLAC is a lossless compression file format that's been around for a very long time now. All of my music is stored in that format. However, a lot of players can't do FLAC and the bandwidth is restrictive given the large sizes. FLAC compresses raw audio down about 40% which is perfectly good for me.

I want my archived music to be perfect copies of my extensive CD collection. MP3's are crap compared to full CD quality files.

You'll see in Subsonic that it includes a codec for FLAC so it knows all about it.

[sindre_mehus]

Using the FLAC > MP3 transcoder is the way to go. You might have to play with the command line arguments of flac and lame (in Settings > Transcoding) to make it work in your case.

Take a look at "flac -help" and "lame -help" (They are located in c:\subsonic\transcode)

And please double-check that the transcoding is actually activated. You can see this in the log (on the Help page) when you play a song.

Hope this helps.

[Agrajag]

Thanks. It appears to me that it wasn't happening as whatever did play was virtually instant.

Is there a way to reliably get the web player to work with FLAC? I don't see much info (any) on what the web player limitations are. So far it doesn't play anything I have yet.

[sindre_mehus]

The web player only supports mp3, so you must enable transcoding for it.