Issues with some songs not playing

[stepnet]

I’ve looked through the forums trying to find an answer to this, but i haven’t had any luck.

I’ve got a library i’ve just copied over from a windows system, all the files play perfectly under iTunes directly. (most files are aac files).

Some files whilst appearing in the library do not play when streamed by mt-daapd. Interestingly the majority of files that don’t play all appear with the artist “various”.

I’ve rebuilt the database a few times – i’ve checked permissions on all these files.

Any help would be appreciated – this program rocks and I’m going to keep using it regardless!

btw, I have no idea what if any help this will be, but this is the log file of attempting to play one of these files:

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Session 0: Streaming file '02 Nat King Cole - Straighten Up And.m4a' to 10.0.1.11 (offset 0)

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Finished streaming file to remote: 4096 bytes

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Entering config_set_status

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Exiting config_set_status

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Finished serving DAAP response

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Entering config_set_status

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Exiting config_set_status

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Thread 4: Terminating

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Thread 4: Freeing request headers

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Thread 4: Freeing response headers

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Thread 4: Freeing request vars

2006-06-18 23:57:01: Thread 4: Closing fd

2006-06-18 23:57:01: With thread 4 exiting, 1 are still running

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Entering ws_dispatcher (Connection from 10.0.1.11)

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: got request

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Request: GET daap://10.0.1.4:3689/databases/1/items/8505214.m4a HTTP/1.1

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: Accept: */*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *Accept=*/**

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Accept=*/**

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: Cache-Control: no-cache

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *Cache-Control=no-cache*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Cache-Control=no-cache*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: User-Agent: iTunes/6.0.4 (Windows; N)

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *User-Agent=iTunes/6.0.4 (Windows; N)*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *User-Agent=iTunes/6.0.4 (Windows; N)*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: Client-DAAP-Access-Index: 2

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *Client-DAAP-Access-Index=2*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Client-DAAP-Access-Index=2*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: Client-DAAP-Validation: 3BF839E52FBC08B4F1FE30559B6057FB

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *Client-DAAP-Validation=3BF839E52FBC08B4F1FE30559B6057FB*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Client-DAAP-Validation=3BF839E52FBC08B4F1FE30559B6057FB*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: Client-DAAP-Request-ID: 5

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *Client-DAAP-Request-ID=5*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Client-DAAP-Request-ID=5*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read: Connection: close

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Adding header *Connection=close*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Connection=close*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Read:

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Headers parsed!

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Checking to see if connection matches close

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Connection type HTTP/1.1

: Connection: non-persist

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Original URI: daap://10.0.1.4:3689/databases/1/items/8505214.m4a

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Translated URI: /databases/1/items/8505214.m4a

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Preparing to find handler

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: URI Match!

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Time is 1150639025 seconds after epoch

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Setting time header

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Date=Sun, 18 Jun 2006 13:57:05 GMT*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Using non-default handler

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Accept-Ranges=bytes*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *DAAP-Server=mt-daapd/0.2.4*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Content-Type=application/x-dmap-tagged*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Streaming request for id 8505214

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Thread 5: Length of file (remaining) is 5116747

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Updating Content-Type from application/x-dmap-tagged to audio/m4a

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Content-Length=5116747*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Added *Connection=Close*

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Emitting reponse header Connection: Close

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Emitting reponse header Content-Length: 5116747

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Emitting reponse header Content-Type: audio/m4a

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Emitting reponse header DAAP-Server: mt-daapd/0.2.4

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Emitting reponse header Accept-Ranges: bytes

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Emitting reponse header Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 13:57:05 GMT

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Entering config_set_status

2006-06-18 23:57:05: Exiting config_set_status

[rpedde]

@stepnet wrote:

I’ve got a library i’ve just copied over from a windows system, all the files play perfectly under iTunes directly. (most files are aac files).

These files weren’t made with iTunes, were they? They were made with nero or faad or something like that?

Turns out there are two ways to build aac files. One way puts the data in the front of the file, and the metadata at the end. The other way puts the metadata at the front, and the data at the end.

Either way is fine when playing locally, as iTunes can skip to the end of the song, read the metadata about the bitrate, etc, then skip back to the front of the song and start playing.

But if the data is first and the metadata last on a streaming song, iTunes can’t skip to the end to get the metadata it needs to decode the data. I just has to punt.

Formatting aac files so they can be decoded while streaming is called “fast-start streaming”, and you can convert a file to fast-start using mp4creator from the MPEG4IP project.

Command line necessary to do that is discussed here

— Ron

[stepnet]

@rpedde wrote:

These files weren’t made with iTunes, were they? They were made with nero or faad or something like that?

You know what – I wouldn’t have ever noticed that. In iTunes it actually specifies which version of iTunes created a file in the info page – I’d stared at that info for ages without noticing that some files had that info and others didn’t. I’d forgotten that I’d even used anything else to create some of those files.

I couldn’t seem to get mpeg4ip to work terribly well under Ubuntu (i couldn’t find a package in the 20 minutes i bothered looking). But if you select all the problem files while they’re in a local iTunes library and select “Convert to AAC”… suddenly all is well.

I can’t help but wonder – if iTunes is streaming a file, does it cheat and check the data before it streams it? I’ve never had this problem when using iTunes at both ends.

But for now my problems are solved.

Thanks Ron, you rock. 😳 😳

[rpedde]

@stepnet wrote:

But if you select all the problem files while they’re in a local iTunes library and select “Convert to AAC”… suddenly all is well.

That’s good info. I’ll remember that if anyone else asks.

I can’t help but wonder – if iTunes is streaming a file, does it cheat and check the data before it streams it? I’ve never had this problem when using iTunes at both ends.

Really? iTunes to iTunes it streams okay? Wow… wonder if it is somehow fixing up the data before it streams it. Interesting.

But for now my problems are solved.

Thanks Ron, you rock. 😳 😳

Ha! It happens sometimes. Mostly accidentally. 🙂

— Ron

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