Can someone explain to me how to tag my files trancoding from FLAC (with full tags) to AAC (m4a), using the "Nero AAC" in Media Coder? My file encode's correctly, but the tag info is blank in my m4a files. I have no problems (full Tags) when I use FAAC and iTunesEncode. Thanks.

Files produced with Nero AAC encoder aren't tagged, as I haven't seen any tagging related interface of Nero AAC Encoder. In this case, they need manually tagged afterward, but currently tagging m4a files is not implemented.

EDIT: I found a MP4 tagger here. I will try to merge it into MediaCoder.

I was using wav.

This is the file without track and genre tags.
http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/1204/014jq.gif
This one was normally transcoded, with all the tags in my mp3.
http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/949/026xb.gif

What's going on, Optimus.You release 0.33 version of Mediacoder.What is new.

Great tool, found a showstopping bug though (stops my show )

When transcoding audio to AAC+ with MP4 container, there is a problem, looking at the console it looks like you are specifying the source name as destination name for MP4Box commandline parameter, you cant do this, the destination filename should have the extention of .mp4 and not .aac which MP4Box will throw an error.

Please sort this one out for me, I'm waiting for this fix before I can convert my collection!

Keep up the good work opti!

Thats cool!

I just tried TG.exe and it works perfectly with the MP4 container too!

* Use the existing TAG for MP3's etc and TG for MP4 sources and MP4 containers.

* Can you remove the -SBR option you have hardcoded for MP4Box commandline? And add the following switches as checkboxes in the MP4Box settings node:

-mpeg4
-packed
-hint
-ocr
-rap
-ts
-size
-idx
-isma
-new
-lang xxx (where xxx = language such as ENG)
-sbr
-keepsys


Put ocr/rap/ts/size/idx as child nodes for hint as they are configuration options for hint.

Also add a list of languages as a drop down 3 letter abreviated list, I believe there is a MPEG4 standard list somewhere over on MPEG4IP docs.

Dont forget to change destination filename extenstion to .MP4 or .M4A on MP4Box destination filename. Put the option in the MP4 container settings to allow users to select between different output filename extensions (just makes life easier for iPOD users too)



Cant wait for the next version!!!!

hey optimus!

thankyou for making such a fantastic tool. it has made my life a thousand times easier. i cant thank you enough!

now that the sucking up is complete, i have a couple of questions for you. MUAHAHAHAHA

anwyays, why is it that when i try to re-encode an mp3 file that is say 100mb in size and about 70mins long (dj mix) to an ogg file, it stops encoding at approximately 40% of the file?? this only happens using the winamp input plugins as the source. everything is fine using mplayer as the source. why im asking this is because when i first used mediacoder when it was in 0.2.8 revision, everything was fine with the winamp input plugins.
have u changed the in_mp3.dll or whatever? it doesnt seem to be working snmoothly anymore.
ive installed the latest winamp v5.112 so ill maybe just copy the in.dll file to mediacoder and see whetgher that corrects the problem...but it seems as though the input plugins of past revisions are more stable.

my last question is this. what are the chances of you implementing support for sonys ATRAC3plus encoder/decoder? personally i think this would be and absolutely genius move on your part!

i really dont know enough about .dll files etc to tell you exaclty what files you would need to even begin to try and implement the ATRAC3plus support, so if you would have the time and patience of figuring that part out as im not competent, it would be much apprecitated!

oh, and the oggenc.exe that you use for mediacoder is a slowe, non SS2 enhanced version. there is an oggenc made by Lancer that is twice as fast as the regular oggenc and on par/faster than aac2plus encoder.

keep up the great work bud!

Thanks for the link to the source code.

I've now fixed everything that was stopping me from using this great app.

I've also added in another stage post-AACPLUSv2 encoding where the AAC stream is now converted from MPEG2-AAC into MPEG4-AAC using Nic's AACPATCH too. Got the naming to work too.

Lurveleee!!

Now I just wish this was written in .Net, using C is like going back a 1000 years and also growing a ponytail and a beard! lol j/k

Theres also a number of areas in the code where the shell calls are not managed well, this can cause the application to stop responding, when a junk file is thrown at it for instance.

Off to bed now, been up all night!

SXS,could you give us direct link to your revision of Mediacoder,so we can test it.

Hello all, it has been several days since I posted my last reply, as I've been really busy last week. However, I managed to keep MediaCoder moving and released 0.3.3 after some bug fixes and improvements - 0.3.3 PowerPack can do much better with DVD ripping (both for audio and video, can rip a single track/chapter). I've also added a "checking for update" function so that you can easily get to known whether there is a new release. Check it out.

SXS, I'm very glad to see somebody besides me managed to work on MediaCoder's source code. If you would like to, I can share with you the write access to CVS repository on Sourceforge, so that we can co-work on the software.
As to the language, many people like .Net. I agree that .Net is quite suitable for GUI application development on Windows. There are several reasons why MediaCoder is not .Net. First, I'm only experienced on C/C++. Second, I'd like my software to be small, efficient, and dependent on as fewer things as possible. Third, I wish one day it will be cross-platform (Win32/Linux).

This is what I feel happy to see - my work can bring changes.


I can't yet tell if this is in_mp3.dll's problem or mediacoder's. Can you play your mp3 file from beginning to end with Winamp without any problem?


Is there any CLI ATRAC3plus encoder/decoder? If only DLLs is available, are they well documented?


I think the oggenc I included in the powerpack is a quality favored one (aoTuVb version), and chose a P3/AMD version to make it usable on most systems. There are so many versions of oggenc. You may pick up one which is best suitable for your system.


Surely I will.

Very good suggestions. I will implement them.

1. DVD ripping
2. update checking
3. support for mp4 tagger (now files produced by Helix and Nero encoder can be tagged)
3. misc. bug fixes (including Lame encoding issue)

Hi Optimus, good to see you're back on the case, MediaCoder will be a legend as time goes by!

I would love to co-work on this project, but I'm totally uncomfortable with basic C. Why not do a poll? supporting both Linux and Windows will limit your abilities to really take advantage of Windows frameworks, plus a few of the dependancies of the project are already windows only, so I reckon you should keep it windows? thats where a sizeable chunk of the userbase is anyway.

I will be extremely interested in co-working on a .Net C# application, it will make things very interesting, but at the same time you can still utilize C for libraries where you want total performance and control, but making the GUI .Net will make coding easier and also allow us to implement tonnes of feature fairly easily.

Have a coffee and think about it... and I suppose if people want to branch off a version to work on Linux, they can still use Mono anyway...

SXS

Talking about C#, I have switched to a new company, where C# is the main development tool. Though I don't know much about C# before, I will be surely using it in future. And some time ago, I was planning to design a wizard to make MediaCoder easier to use for people other than advanced users. I was thinking of using a more effiecient GUI development tool other than the mechanism I am currently using and .Net is one choice. So I think it might be a good idea to firstly development part of MediaCoder in C#/.Net (the wizard maybe). This takes serveral factors in to consideration, one is my limited experience with C#/.Net and that I need time to get used to the new tool, the second is to keep the existing work (rebuilding everything from ground will take much more efforts). The third, might not be so important, is that I am still in favor of languages that can be compiled into machine code directly.

How about this, if you can start by making the existing C/C++ core code into modular libraries but continue to use the existing GUI code, I can then work with your libraries alongside and develop a .Net gui, that way it doesnt impact on Mediacoder directly and we effectively seperate the application layer from the interface layer (gui). I will develop the GUI to also be modular so that others can create plugins to utilise the GUI in applications such as dbPowerAMP, EAC etc etc.



So put all your functions into actual DLL with interfaces, and then re-work your existing GUI code to make calls to your DLL. Once you have that done, I will then take the code as is and develop a .Net C# interface, we'll include it into the Visual Studio solution on sourceforge, and then meanwhile you can get aquainted with C# and eventually move onto the C# gui, but at least you will have the core functions in a DLL which will make it much more easier for others to use the DLL in other platform compatible GUI's?

What you think? Good idea?

I too come from a background of assembler 286/386, I remember the days when the double word registers appeared, I would spend hours optimizing code and play with bit masks and XOR techniques to improve the efficiency of my graphics code back in the dos days..... nowadays its all high level development, not even programming anymore, but hey, at least we can get a job done a lot quicker with likes of .Net, and thats the crucial bit, as long as we keep the code clean and optimised and modular, the sky's the limit!

This is a reasonable and considerate way I must say. Encapsulating current transcoding functions into a library can not only start you off, but also seperates functionality and GUI codes more clearly. Good idea!
At early time, there can be 2 version of GUIs which shares the same base DLL, one is the current and the other is the one you are going to work on, which I hope can be a more amateur-friendly one. Later, they can be merged into one, or one as a part of the other.
I will start stripping out functionality codes into a DLL soon (after implementing a few more functions). You can tell me your SourceForge account and I will add you to the develop group.

Excellent, cant wait to start, I'll email you my sourceforge account details.

Btw, I found another show-stopped bug

If I convert an MP3 that is around a 100MB, it gets halfway and then just continues to the next one, so only transcodes 50% odd of the original file..... any ideas??

Plus, I have also noticed another bug, if the directory structure is very long, meaning aaaa/vbbbbbb/ccccc/.........../xyzxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.mp3, mediacoder falls over. Looking at the code, I notice the char array is limited to 1024 chars, this causes an overflow when it tries to create the commandline to pass to the shell function.

Also, my other idea was to break up the processing into a chain system that is fully configurable by user? So that adding plugins via a simple scripting feature could be achieved? This would make mediacoder more adaptable by pro-end-users to utilise the huge number of commandline apps and dlls? flexibility and modularity is key, mediacoder will be king if it has a flexible scriptable chain-processing functionality, I would recommend keeping all functions as in loading winamp plugins and loading mencoder/mplayer plugins as a configurable chain system, so that when I start on the C# gui I am able to provide a chaining system, the core DLL should be a set of functions with inputs and outputs and control parameters, no application driving logic should be held in there, this way we can effectively have an interface layer (gui) and an application layer and a facade on-top of underlying functions, all process co-ordination can take place in the application layer.

So basically, you will end up with your C++ GUI and application code in one exe, and all the underlying functions will be available in the mediacoder DLL. This way there will be no hardcoded limitations on how we can utilise the functions in our application layer.

I am also interested in implementing VirtualDub plugin support for video cleaning/effects/transformation.... so once we have a modular design, then anything is possible because by implementing a scriptable chain system (drag-n-drop to amateur users) the sky is the limit!

I've already started on the initial design of the GUI, I can get on with setting up the design of the GUI to incorporate batch file processing, scheduling, etc etc.... and hopefully once you have modularised your functions, I can start on the application layer to utilise the functions and build from there... I've got some experience in GDI+ and I'm hoping to integrate a virtual graphic representation of a chain hook up system, similar to graphedit too.... this is going to be fun!!!!

I suspect this is caused by the overflow of bytes count variable. I only used an unsigned int to express the value, and it seems it should be replaced with a long long type.

The length of the path must be less than MAX_PATH, which equals 260.

I have ever considered a scripting system, but just haven't got enough time to do it. In the current model, it seems this part can be done by you and I provide decoder/encoder, filtering, container wrapping functions in the core DLL.


Yes!


As for video transcoding, most jobs are done with MEncoder. MediaCoder only responsible for performing audio encoding (may also be done by MEncoder), multiple pass on-the-fly, and container wrapping jobs. I don't know where can filtering be done without modifying source code of MEncoder.


That's great!

Optimus,

First of all, thanks very much for this program. I was looking for something that I could use to transcode bits of my CD collection (stored on my server as flac files) into MP3 for portable use. This easy to use and flexible program fits my needs perfectly!

I did have a problem though. Hopefully this isn't too drastic as I also found a solution.

I discovered that a few songs with long filenames were being left out of the transcoding process (in fact an empty output file is created); when I opened the console window, it turned out that Lame was simply aborting (with an abnormal termination message). Menc correctly reported that the files hadn't been transcoded.

I replaced the alpha version of Lame that ships with Menc (I'm using 0.3.3 build 792) with the "recommended" latest version of Lame (3.97 beta 1) and the problem has gone away. I don't know whether this error will manifest on other systems (only tried it on mine - Athlon XP, Win XP Pro - SP2) but it is definitely a Lame problem as I executed Lame from the command line to encode a problem file (i.e. without Menc being involved) and the same error occurred.

I must confess, I didn't wade through all 13 pages of this topic to see if this has already come up (just the first 5 or 6 and the last), so my apologies if this post is repetition.

In addition to the Lame alpha problems I've had, could I make a couple of observations about how I found the program in the hope that the functionality I'd like would be useful to others? Again, forgive me if I repeat the content of other posts!

There's a resize tab at the bottom right of the window, but you can't resize. I've never written a program directly for Win32, but the frameworks I have used all provide an easy mechanism to remove this from a window if it isn't needed - I suspect it wouldn't be hard to remove this if you don't want to resize the window... but what about allowing a larger Window? Providing the minimum is about the current fixed size, the ability to make the file list larger wouldn't do any harm, I don't think.

It's difficult to exert any control over the amount of the source directory tree that is reproduced. You've taken what I consider to be an intelligent attack on a tricky problem - I like the way the program keeps only enough of the tree to differentiate between the different branches in the source file list. But I'd like to be able to modify this function. In particular, because I'm usually coding from different levels in a fixed directory structure, I'd like to be able to always keep at least the containing folder, regardless of whatever else is being transcoded at the same time.

Also, when Lame returned an error, I didn't notice it the first couple of times, even though Menc correctly reported the fact! Would you consider making the error message more prominent when the "finished" message box is displayed? What about colouring this part of the message red?

Of course, these are niggles. My view on this tool is overwhelmingly positive, especially compared to some of the commercial junk that is available!

Great tool!

In mp3 encoding options, you should rather make the q switch optional, so we can use the clean -V switches. (I know, I can edit the command line).

Additionally, you should add a toggle for --vbr-new/--vbr-old

Optimus, I'm using build 772 & I still get a click at the beggining of FLAC files encoded from WAV. It does it at all compression levels. Thoughts?

UPDATE: Version 792 has the same result.

I've fixed this bug, but I can't make a release as I'm still working on the new arch, so that the code will be better organized, easier to reuse, and will support more video encoders, like ffmpeg etc. Please stand by.

No worries! & Thanks!

Optimus, I'm back, been busy with other things, I've PM'd you my SF account. Hopefully from next week I'll be able to start full-on...

I've added you into the dev group on sf.
Next week the new arch will be ready. There will be a DLL with C interface to do all kinds of transcoding jobs. I've spent lots of time on it...

btw: C# app is able to use a C-interface DLL, isn't it?

The .Net framework can use unmanaged dll's. Although I would recommend creating managed dll's. But no problem, once the full package is up, I can create a wrapper for .Net interoperability.

Installed latest MediaCoder (0.3.3) and on launch I recieve the message:
Current version is 0.3.3. build 791...latest version is 0.3.3 build 792.
Get it from http:/mediacoder.sf.net/download.htm
When I click OK, the MediaCoder splash screen displays but then disappears without launching MediaCoder.
I can't find build 792 at sf.net, and installing the earlier versions (0.3.2) is no better - it shows the splash screen then refuses to launch.
Please can someone advise me what might be wrong?
BTW, I'm using Windows XP Professional.

You may try a clean install, by uninstalling first and remove the mediacoder folder and then install.

That will be nice. I will check in an alpha version the dll into sf cvs this weekend, with which you can start off.

i am having a major problem with mediacoder crashing whenever i try to transcode an mpc file to aac+

anyone else have this problem?

ok, and now it wont even start.
it pull up task manager and it is there, doing absolutely nothing, ive tried 4 installs already.

Get this update.

404 error.

This link works.

it works! very nice, now, does it work with nero 7 dll's?

No it doesn't. If I get any code that interfaces with nero 7's encoder, I will add it.

why does it seem that none of the versions work quite properly? version i was previously using couldnt transcode from musepack, newer version fixs that, but now i cannot encode from pcm files

I'm new to Mediacoder. I'm trying to convert my .ape files to .wave with a cue sheet.
I'm choosing CLI for converting to wave. I get an error message saying "failed to launch CLI encoder" Do I need to download other plugins? Any ideas? Or is there another way I can convert .ape files to a audio CD? I have NERO 6.3. Thankful for any help!

I am making heavy changes to the code arch, this will definitely introduces new problems. If you found the function you need has problem, you can keep using previous versions temporarily.

Choose waveform/pcm as audio encoder.

0.3.4 released, totally based on the new code arch, with freedb support added (in Add Track dialog, still quite beta, thanks to tylast for providing me info on freedb) and many minor improvements.
I believe that after the modification on the code arch, there might be various issues with some previous functions. Welcome bug report. I will fix them as quickly as I can.

Get it here.

btw: This is still a standalone exe version. A DLL core will be out soon.

Encoder options button does not work... for several releases now.

Fixed. Update here.

BTW: latest code has been comitted into sf cvs. Now the code is in the form of a core function DLL and a GUI exe. I will write some doc on the DLL interface later. Currently mccore.h is the only doc.

MediaCoder PowerPack 0.3.4 released, with latest MediaCoder and updated MPlayer, MEncoder and OggEnc.

Setting the "Working" folder in the Preferences makes MediaCoder
hang on my PC.

Will reproduce possible bug again tomorrow, really need some
shut-eye right now...

:-)

Optimus, can you, please, give a link so I can download file ofr.exe
Thank you.

What is ofr.exe? Can you explain?