Transcoding Settings

[ki6syd]

Hi,

I'm hoping I could get some help with transcoding! Please forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere, I'm having trouble finding an answer on this forum or via Google.

I recently upgraded my server (Ubuntu 12.04, 64 bit Intel machine) and re-installed Subsonic (a piece of software with which I am very pleased so far ). Long story short, I have verified that I can convert files (WMA to MP3), but my problem is in convincing Subsonic to use my script. I removed the "wma" tag from the "mp3 audio" transcoder line, and inserted a new line, "wma2mp3 | wma | mp3 | wma2mp3 %s | lame -b %b - -"

When I look at the log files, though, I see that Subsonic is using ffmpeg for transcoding despite the new line that I entered. If anybody could give me a nudge in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it! Please let me know if there is more information that would be useful.

Thanks in advance,

Max

[ki6syd]

I haven't heard back about this, so I thought I'd give it a bump, and also note that I *did* remove the "wma" tag from the ffmpeg line.

Thanks! Any help is appreciated.

[GJ51]

Ok, I'll give it a stab.

First, most of us don't have this problem so we probably don't quite understand why you're having an issue, so your questions isn't getting much attention. Second, you haven't provided many details regarding you're setup, such as what version of SS your running or if you've modified it in any way from it's original configuration so no one has much insight into what's happening.

You refer to a script you're running, but I have no idea why or what the script does, not that I really would if you gave the details, but I have no idea why you're running a script.

I don't understand why you need to use the lame encoder when SS sites do a fine job of transcoding wma to mp3 using the default settings:

ffmpeg -i %s -ab %bk -v 0 -f mp3 -


I'm sure I'm missing some important detail in your post that I don't understand as I only use Windpws and don't claim to have any Linux expertise, but I hope some of my thoughts are helpful for you.

[ki6syd]

Here are some details:

I'm running Subsonic 4.6 (build 2585, unmodified) on Ubuntu 12.04 (64 bit). I had a lot of trouble getting ffmpeg to decode any lossless wma files (perhaps because of the new version of Ubuntu, or 64 bit? I spent quite a while looking into solutions and still couldn't get ffmpeg to work, even via command line, outside of subsonic). I was eventually able to convert wma files to mp3 using mplayer, packaged in the below script:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
song=$1
mplayer -vo null -msglevel all=-1 -quiet -srate 44100 -channels 2 -vc dummy -ao pcm:nowaveheader:fast:file=/dev/stdout "$song" 2>/dev/null


I've seen other people on this forum use a script in their transcoding settings - I've verified that I have a functional script, so I'm hoping to get some insight into how to coerce Subsonic to use my script (rather than help with the transcoding itself).

[GJ51]

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8440&p=38876&hilit=lossless+wma#p38876

Also, I'm not familiar with Mplayer so I don't know a great deal about it, but I do recall that in SS 4.5 when lame was used in step 2, the first step used ffmpeg to output wav for input into the lame encoder.

Is that what Mplayer does in you setup? I'm not sure, but I think may require wav input. Again, my apologies for not being more knowledgeable, but I hope I've given you some leads worth checking out until one of the Linux guys chimes in.

[ki6syd]

Thanks for the help! I tried what was suggested in that thread, no luck.

The mplayer script should output an mp3, which I've verified is playable - even if I exclude the second step, which should mean I'm left with just a mp3 file, it won't play. When leaving the second step in, the log indicates that lame can't read the file (which makes sense, given what you've said).

A note about having just one step, "wma2mp3 %s" - there is no error left in the log, it just doesn't play.

Again, I appreciate your help! Let me know if there's more information that I can provide.

[kyomi7502]

I've been looking at the replies to this and the whole time asking myself one question:

Why don't you just convert all of your wma files to mp3 outside of Subsonic? Wouldn't it be easier to have SS just play the mp3 instead of trying to convert it?

It's just my personal opinion and what I normally do.. the only thing that gets transcoded in my SS is to lower bitrates for streaming (anything above 192kbs converts to 192kbps for wired connections and 128kbps for wireless devices).

I apologize if I'm missing the point entirely, just thought I'd give you my suggestions

[ki6syd]

Hi kyomi7502,

Thanks for the suggestion - I'm in the process of converting these files manually. Strangely, though, I noticed half-way through, by virtue of moving the files to a different folder, they seem to work! I'm not complaining, but I do find it strange...I'll post if I have any observations that would explain what happened on my machine to make this work.

Thanks everyone for your help!