TAudioConverter, Multithreaded Audio Converter and Extractor Options

[Daffy]

Ozok - thanks for the continued updates and support. And thanks for allowing us to provide you with constructive feedback during our testing.

Version 0.8.1

• Going back to the "Embed artwork to output file" behavior. On my FLAC to AAC encodes it appears that this setting is using a *.jpg file found in the source directory instead of the artwork already embedded in the existing source file. For example. My existing FLAC files are in a folder organized by Artist/Album etc., and each FLAC file has embedded front cover. Now, in that folder I may contain images of the back cover, the CD, and other pages from the booklet. When converting to AAC, TAC is not copying over the artwork (such as the front cover) already embedded in the FLAC. Instead, it is pulling the first image file from the folder and embedding that image into the re-encoded AAC file. To test this I removed all images files out of a source folder with the exception of the image of a CD scan (not front cover). On my test encodes the CD image was embedded into the AAC and the not existing front cover artwork already existing the FLAC tag. Does this make sense? One would think the objective of copying over images is the same as copying over tags, i.e. only copy the image and tags existing in the existing source file, not a random image file from the source directory. Can it be done?
  
• Also, in my opinion I'd like to see the option to both extract artwork to output folder and embed artwork to output file and not be limited to one or the other. So, for example, the image is copied into the file AND folder at the same time. In other words each converted folder will contain encoded files with copied tags and artwork, and a folder.jpg file of the embedded artwork. I like to keep external copies of my artwork for various compatibility reasons.
  
• How about an "Always On Top" option so the program stays in the foreground. I do a lot of drag and dropping and that would come in handy.

This post has been edited by Daffy: Feb 25 2013, 06:16

[Vivadavid]

Hello, everybody,

I've noticed that the AC3 codec was, at some point, changed from Aften to FFMpeg after lvqcl said: "1) why use aften? AFAIK it was superseded by FFmpeg AC3 encoder."

Why is FFMpeg better? Is is faster, does it produce better quality or both? I converted the same DTS track into AC3 using both codecs and the final size was the same, but I suppose that has to do with the fact that I used 640 bits in both cases.

Thank you for your answers!

[lvqcl]

I've read about it here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1503430

[Vivadavid]

Thank you, lvqcl. I've read the thread, and as far as I can understand, it says it provides more quality. I wonder if somebody else could show more light here.

[ozok]

@Daffy
1) TAC first tries to use external artwork and then embedded artwork if external is not found at the moment. I'll add an option to specify a priorty.
2) That makes sense, added to my to-do list as well.
3) Again added to to-do list.

@eahm
Most of the thing you suggest are acceptable and I'll make necessary changes in TAC.
7) Using zip makes no sense to me. You say zip is supported by every OS which is true AFAIK. I wonder if is there any Windows PC that doesn't have a Winrar like archiving software installed.
Compared to 7zip and rar, zip has a very weak compression. I compressed latest portable version with 7zip(lzma2), rar and zip. I used WinRar 4.20 64bit and 7zip 9.22 beta 64bit. I can post the options I used if need be.

-7zip: 14,0 MB
-rar: 17,0 MB (+3 MB!)
-zip: 22,0 MB (+8 MB!!!)

I think for a program that gets updated frequently, the size difference is important.

@Vivadavid AFAIK aften's code was merged into FFMpeg and I'm sure FFMpeg developers made improvements over it.

[o-l-a-v]

Flac -> Flac forgets %disc%, %totaltracks%, %albumartist%, %totaldiscs%. I guess same appears with other codecs.
Please fix so that all "main tags" get saved to new files with every encoder in your program.

In other words, all these (from TagScanner)


+ Support for CTRL+A in file list.
The mouse thing when holding left click (to mark files in file list) while moving the pointer seem to be quite buggy. When having a list so long that you need scrollbars, the ones marked gets unmarked when it starts to scroll.

This post has been edited by o-l-a-v: Feb 26 2013, 16:10

[sundance]

ozok,
thanks for all the effort and great improvements you've put into TAC.
The only thing I really miss is using ReplayGain tags in lossless files when converting to lossy (which was suggested a while ago ):

(...) how do you think about implementing ReplayGain into TAudioConverter?
So if your (lossless) files have ReplayGain tags, you could select to use either track or album gain information, apply corresponding attenuation (via SoX or encoder command line) + apply addional gain (eg. if you want your mp3s @ 92dB reference level instead of standard 89dB) and thus have your target files all at the same loudness level, regardless if your player can't handle RG tags (...)

ozok: I think adding both keeping just in tag and applying replay gain with SoX sounds like a good idea. Added this to my to-do list.

Is that still on your to-do list?

.sundance.

[eahm]

ozok, I don't use WinRAR and a lot of people like me don't. I use only freeware/open source or what I buy. I personally love 7-Zip BUT not everyone want to install 3rd party software just to open a file.
I understand your need to keep the archive in .7z and I like the idea as well but instead or a .rar archive you should give a .zip one. Who has WinRAR or 7-Zip can open and extract both .7z and .rar anyway.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by eahm: Feb 26 2013, 17:34

[o-l-a-v]

ozok, I don't use WinRAR and a lot of people like me don't. I use only freeware/open source or what I buy. I personally love 7-Zip BUT not everyone want to install 3rd party software just to open a file.
I understand your need to keep the archive in .7z and I like the idea as well but instead or a .rar archive you should give a .zip one. Who has WinRAR or 7-Zip can open and extract both .7z and .rar anyway.

Thanks.

If you don't want 7zip, download the exe. If you want install version, then you are most probably not the techie one. Exe for basic users, 7z for advanced.
Or you can make a self extracting 7z-exe. Just tick: "Create SFX Archive" when making the 7z. No one have to install 7zip, and you still got great compression.
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-7Zip-to-Create-...ting-excutables

This post has been edited by o-l-a-v: Feb 26 2013, 19:55

[eahm]

ozok, I don't use WinRAR and a lot of people like me don't. I use only freeware/open source or what I buy. I personally love 7-Zip BUT not everyone want to install 3rd party software just to open a file.
I understand your need to keep the archive in .7z and I like the idea as well but instead or a .rar archive you should give a .zip one. Who has WinRAR or 7-Zip can open and extract both .7z and .rar anyway.

Thanks.

If you don't want 7zip, download the exe. If you want install version, then you are most probably not the techie one. Exe for basic users, 7z for advanced.
Or you can make a self extracting 7z-exe. Just tick: "Create SFX Archive" when making the 7z. No one have to install 7zip, and you still got great compression.
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-7Zip-to-Create-...ting-excutables

o-l-a-v, being modest, I own two IT companies, I think I am techie enough. I don't even use TAC, do you think I make these suggestions for myself? I already made an app for friends and relatives but I can't distribute it publicly because it doesn't use the original foobar2000 installer and it contains proprietary DLLs. I'd like to see TAC simple enough FOR EVERYONE so I can start suggesting it instead of keeping mine updated.

All these suggestions I give ozok come from my portable version of foobar2000.

This post has been edited by eahm: Feb 26 2013, 20:20

[o-l-a-v]

...

..

o-l-a-v, being modest, I own two IT companies, I think I am techie enough. I don't even use TAC, do you think I make these suggestions for myself? I already made an app for friends and relatives but I can't distribute it legally because it doesn't use the original foobar2000 installer and it contains proprietary DLLs. I'd like to see TAC simple enough FOR EVERYONE so I can start suggesting it instead of keeping mine updated.

All these suggestions I give ozok come from my portable version of foobar2000.

Where did I state that you're not a techie? I didn't try to offend you, calm down : )
But what do you think is easier for people. Exe installer or portable? Or how about a .zip vs self extracting 7z? Everyone knows about double clicking, right?

This post has been edited by o-l-a-v: Feb 26 2013, 20:28

[eahm]

Apologize English is my third language, I read that sentence completely directed to myself and I was also sending a strong business email right when I read this. Sorry

The EASIER would be an installer like the foobar2000 one, with a portable installation included.

This post has been edited by eahm: Feb 26 2013, 20:37

[o-l-a-v]

Apologize English is my third language, I read that sentence completely directed to myself and I was also sending a strong business email right when I read this. Sorry

The EASIER would be an installer like the foobar2000 one, with a portable installation included.

Yep, that would be the easiest. One exe with the choice of installing or making portable version.

[bilbo]

If they don't know what 7Zip is, than they probably don't know what a portable program is or how to start it. It won't be in the START menu.

[cyberdux]

Flac -> Flac forgets %disc%, %totaltracks%, %albumartist%, %totaldiscs%. I guess same appears with other codecs.
Please fix so that all "main tags" get saved to new files with every encoder in your program.

In other words, all these (from TagScanner)


+ Support for CTRL+A in file list.
The mouse thing when holding left click (to mark files in file list) while moving the pointer seem to be quite buggy. When having a list so long that you need scrollbars, the ones marked gets unmarked when it starts to scroll.

Thanks for all the updates ozok. I would also appreciate "Flac -> Flac forgets %disc%, %totaltracks%, %albumartist%, %totaldiscs%." fixed if possible and also to have embedded album art copied to the encoded file. TAC would be "perfect" (for me) then.

Once again many thanks for a program I use every day. (Can't stop buying CD's and encoding them.)

This post has been edited by cyberdux: Feb 27 2013, 01:46

[eahm]

If they don't know what 7Zip is, than they probably don't know what a portable program is or how to start it. It won't be in the START menu.

Yes sure, everybody knows what 7-Zip is (sarcasm). The point is not knowing about it, but installing a 3rd party software just to extract a file.

Anyway, I'm done explaining, bilbo replied like he never talked to a common computer user.

ozok, do whatever you want, mine was just a suggestion.

This post has been edited by eahm: Feb 27 2013, 01:25

[ozok]

@sundance, yes replaygain is still in to-do list. But I couldn't pay it much attention. If you can send me a sample file with said tags written, I can make a better progress.

@eahm, I appreciate your input. But I will continue releasing portable TAC compressed with 7zip and rar.

@o-l-a-v, Fields TAC can read/write are limited to those mediainfo/encoder can read/write. I try to add as much fields as possible but it is not enough. Again, a sample would help. That bug you talk about is, yet again, a bug of skinning component. I almost regret using it .

@cyberdux, I hope you don't get bankrupt .

[o-l-a-v]

@o-l-a-v, Fields TAC can read/write are limited to those mediainfo/encoder can read/write. I try to add as much fields as possible but it is not enough. Again, a sample would help. That bug you talk about is, yet again, a bug of skinning component. I almost regret using it .

Sample? Just grab a mp3 and tag those fields I talked about

[Vivadavid]

Thank for the clarification on Aften and FFMpeg, Ozok!

[cyberdux]

@sundance, yes replaygain is still in to-do list. But I couldn't pay it much attention. If you can send me a sample file with said tags written, I can make a better progress.

@eahm, I appreciate your input. But I will continue releasing portable TAC compressed with 7zip and rar.

@o-l-a-v, Fields TAC can read/write are limited to those mediainfo/encoder can read/write. I try to add as much fields as possible but it is not enough. Again, a sample would help. That bug you talk about is, yet again, a bug of skinning component. I almost regret using it .

@cyberdux, I hope you don't get bankrupt .

Very quickly, but seeing as I have been buying albums since I was 10 and I am now 51 and the bank has not closed my down, I am yet hopeful

[cyberdux]

"@o-l-a-v, Fields TAC can read/write are limited to those mediainfo/encoder can read/write. I try to add as much fields as possible but it is not enough. Again, a sample would help."

ozok, please look again at the FLAC sample I sent you of the classical music. It has about as many metadata fields as anyone will ever use. If you can get TAC to encode with that many fields intakt, I believe you will please pretty much everyone.

This post has been edited by cyberdux: Feb 27 2013, 23:32

[ozok]

@cyberdux forgot about previously sent samples. I will take a look at them.

[o-l-a-v]

Error when trying to extract audio from a mpg movie:

Media info

CODE

Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 149 MiB
Duration : 14mn 57s
Overall bit rate : 1 395 Kbps
Writing library : encoded by TMPGEnc b12e

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 1
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=18
Duration : 14mn 57s
Bit rate : 1 150 Kbps
Width : 352 pixels
Height : 288 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.454
Time code of first frame : 00:00:00:00
Time code source : Group of pictures header
Stream size : 122 MiB (82%)
Writing library : TMPGEnc b12e

Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Duration : 14mn 57s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 224 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 24.0 MiB (16%)

Encoder 1

CODE

Encoder 1 Output:
ffmpeg version N-49610-gc2dd5a1 Copyright © 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
built on Feb 5 2013 13:20:59 with gcc 4.7.2 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth
--enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-libass
--enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm
--enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb
--enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger
--enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame
--enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx
--enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib
libavutil 52. 17.101 / 52. 17.101
libavcodec 54. 91.100 / 54. 91.100
libavformat 54. 61.104 / 54. 61.104
libavdevice 54. 3.103 / 54. 3.103
libavfilter 3. 35.101 / 3. 35.101
libswscale 2. 2.100 / 2. 2.100
libswresample 0. 17.102 / 0. 17.102
libpostproc 52. 2.100 / 52. 2.100
[mpeg @ 003891a0] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5000000 microseconds
Input #0, mpeg, from 'G:\Film\Barnefilmer\Karius og Baktus (1954)\Karius og Baktus.1954.norsk tale.xvid.saga.mpg':
Duration: 00:14:56.97, start: 0.346711, bitrate: 1394 kb/s
Stream #0:0[0x1e0]: Video: mpeg1video, yuv420p, 352x288 [SAR 178:163 DAR 1958:1467], 1150 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 25 tbc
Stream #0:1[0x1c0]: Audio: mp2, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p, 224 kb/s
Stream map '0:1010' matches no streams.

Edit: When muxing it to mkv it manages to extract create a file of 0 bytes.

This post has been edited by o-l-a-v: Mar 1 2013, 11:37

[Brazil2]

Even if I set a custom temporary folder, a TAudioConverter folder is created in the default system temporary folder and it's not deleted on exit.

[ozok]

Update:

--0.8.2
-Added: Option to select all files in the list (Ctrl+A) (thx to o-l-a-v)
-Added: Option to keep TAC always on top (thx to Daffy)
-Added: Option to edit some tags to be used by encoders
-Added: Option to decide priority of external and embedded artwork (thx to Daffy)
-Fixed: Embedded artworks couldn't be extracted
-Fixed: Audio ID problem with some vob and mpeg files (thx to o-l-a-v)
-Updated: AlphaControls to 8.30
-Updated: QAAC and refalac to 2.17
-Updated: WMAEncode to 0.2.9b