playing WMA lossless in Kubuntu 12.10

[inbrick]

Hi Steve, thanks for chiming in. I'm not sure what simulation mode is.

[SteveRiley]

See the -s in the command? That tells apt-get to go through the motions of installing the packages, displaying the output on the console, without actually doing anything permanent.

Installing libav-tools with all the "-extra" plugins can be a bit tricky because of how the dependencies are defined. I tend to prefer Aptitude for this very reason; as I've not done this particular process with regular apt-get, I want to see the results of a simulation run before I recommend that you do it for real.

[inbrick]

isaac@IBickLin:~$ apt-get -s install libav-tools libavcodec-extra-53 libavdevice-extra-53 libavfilter-extra-2 libavformat-extra-53 libavutil-extra-51 libpostproc-extra-52 libswscale-extra-2
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
      Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
libav-tools is already the newest version.
libav-tools set to manually installed.
libavcodec-extra-53 is already the newest version.
libavutil-extra-51 is already the newest version.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libavdevice53 libavfilter2 libavformat53 libpostproc52 libswscale2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libavdevice-extra-53 libavfilter-extra-2 libavformat-extra-53 libpostproc-extra-52
  libswscale-extra-2
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 5 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Remv libswscale2 [6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1] [libopencv-highgui2.3:i386 mplayer:i386 libav-tools:i386 mencoder:i386 gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg:i386 vlc-nox:i386 ffmpeg:i386 libavfilter2:i386 libmediastreamer1:i386 libquicktime2:i386 libmlt5:i386 ]
Inst libswscale-extra-2 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Conf libswscale-extra-2 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Remv libavformat53 [6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1] [libopencv-highgui2.3:i386 audacity:i386 mplayer:i386 libav-tools:i386 mencoder:i386 gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg:i386 vlc-nox:i386 ffmpeg:i386 libavfilter2:i386 libk3b6-extracodecs:i386 libmlt5:i386 libavdevice53:i386 ]
Inst libavformat-extra-53 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Remv libavdevice53 [6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1] [libav-tools:i386 ffmpeg:i386 libmlt5:i386 ]
Inst libavdevice-extra-53 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Conf libavformat-extra-53 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Conf libavdevice-extra-53 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Remv libavfilter2 [6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1] [libav-tools:i386 ffmpeg:i386 ]
Inst libavfilter-extra-2 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Conf libavfilter-extra-2 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Remv libpostproc52 [6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1] [mplayer:i386 libav-tools:i386 mencoder:i386 gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg:i386 vlc-nox:i386 ffmpeg:i386 ]
Inst libpostproc-extra-52 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])
Conf libpostproc-extra-52 (6:0.8.4ubuntu0.12.10.1+medibuntu1 Medibuntu:12.10/quantal [i386])

*sorry, I don't know how to put it into a neat little "code" box*

[SteveRiley]

That looks like it'll work. Replace the

apt-get -s

with

sudo apt-get

and carry on.

To wrap text in code tags, select it and then click the hash in the editor's toolbar:

[inbrick]

Ok, I ran it and everything went through fine. However, it still didn't fix the problem.

I'm beginning to think that the codec for lossless wma just doesn't exist for ubuntu without paying for it. Perhaps the codecs that I've just installed are for lossy WMAs? Those play now (although there are still some hiccups with amarok handling the tags). I found at another forum that the Win-based media player Foobar2000 will convert lossless WMAs to mp3. I did a test with one song and it worked fine. Since I have less than 1000 songs that are giving me problems, I think I'll just convert them to mp3. Sometimes a work-around is a lot faster than a direct fix. And the permanent fix is: don't use proprietary formats. If I only knew then what I know now...

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and coaching! If nothing else, I have learned a little bit more about working with konsole, which will be valuable experience for the next issue.

[SteveRiley]

Sorry that the "-extra" stuff didn't work. But at least you now have the fullest set of multimedia capabilities you can get.

Actually, to preserve fidelity, you should instead convert your WMA-lossless to FLAC. This should be a fairly quick process. Now you'll have archival quality files that are unencumbered with patented encoding. Once you've done this, then encode everything into MP3. The reason for this two-step process is that you may decide you no longer enjoy the sound of MP3 (I don't) and want to try something better. You can return to your lossless FLAC library and perform another encoding run, this time choosing another lossy encoder.

What I've described above is a fairly common scenario. You can learn much more than you ever imaged at the Hydrogen Audio forum.

[OneLine]

WMA lossless support

A sample file

The VLC forum thread /1/ has a link to the wma lossles sample file /2/. The wma is a container format /9/. The MediaInfo /3/ application is telling /4/ that the file contains:

Track name                               : Lucky Night
Performer                                : Jody Marie Gnant
Encoded date                             : UTC 2004-10-06 03:16:17.460
File last modification date              : UTC 2012-11-24 22:19:52
File last modification date (local)      : 2012-11-25 00:19:52
Copyright                                : 1995 Sirius Publishing
Comment                                  : 1-minute song sample demonstrating Windows Media lossless audio compression
...
Format                                   : WMA
Commercial name                          : WMA
Format profile                           : Lossless
Codec ID                                 : 163
Codec ID/Info                            : Windows Media Audio
Codec ID/Url                             : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx
Description of the codec                 : Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless - VBR Quality 100, 44 kHz, 2 channel 16 bit 1-pass VBR
Codec                                    : 163
Codec                                    : WMA Lossless
Codec/Info                               : Windows Media Audio 3
Codec/Url                                : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx
Codec/CC                                 : 163
Codec description                        : Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless - VBR Quality 100, 44 kHz, 2 channel 16 bit 1-pass VBR
...

32 bit system

Installing a 32 bit Quantal to the VirtualBox.

Testing the sample file with the Amarok - the Amarok want to install s##load of packages...



No joy




Testing with the MPlayer & w32codecs from the Medibuntu /5/.

The MPlayer is playing the sample file without problems...



64 bit system or/and commercial support for the wma & gstreamer

There are pages how to get the 32 bit player to the 64 bit system /6/. There is or has been commercial codecs for the gstreamer /7/, /8/. I have not tried so I can't say nothing of them.

Links

1. http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=99084
2. http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/lossless/
3. http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...ation-on-Linux
4. http://pastebin.com/jVniXWmK
5. http://www.medibuntu.org/
6. http://vvishnyakov.blogspot.fi/2011/...it-ubuntu.html
7. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MediaCenter/CodecSupport
8. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=952654
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audio

[vinnywright]

yup confirmed @hear the w32codecs do it

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~/Downloads$ mplayer *wma
MPlayer svn r34540 (Ubuntu), built with gcc-4.7 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing luckynight.wma.
libavformat version 53.21.0 (external)
Mismatching header version 53.19.0
ASF file format detected.
[asfheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
Clip info:
title: Lucky Night
author: Jody Marie Gnant
copyright: 1995 Sirius Publishing
comments: 1-minute song sample demonstrating Windows Media lossless audio compression
Load subtitles in ./
================================================== ========================
Opening audio decoder: [dmo] Win32/DMO decoders
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 868.7 kbit/61.55% (ratio: 108583->176400)
Selected audio codec: [wma9dmo] afm: dmo (Windows Media Audio 9 DMO)
================================================== ========================
AO: [pulse] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
===== PAUSE =====
A: 57.4 (57.3) of 60.5 (01:00.4) 3.8%

nice one @OneLine

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Hm. Before adding anything from Medibuntu, but after adding all the LibAV stuff I can find in the other repositories, this is the extent of Windows-based formats and codecs supported:

steve@x1:~$ [B]avplay -formats | egrep -i 'wma|wmv|windows'[/B]
avplay version 0.8.4-6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1, Copyright (c) 2003-2012 the Libav developers
  built on Nov  6 2012 16:51:11 with gcc 4.7.2
 D  wtv             Windows Television (WTV)
 D  xwma            Microsoft xWMA

steve@x1:~$ [B]avplay -codecs | egrep -i 'wma|wmv|windows'[/B]
avplay version 0.8.4-6:0.8.4-0ubuntu0.12.10.1, Copyright (c) 2003-2012 the Libav developers
  built on Nov  6 2012 16:51:11 with gcc 4.7.2
 D V D  vc1image        Windows Media Video 9 Image v2
 D A D  wmapro          Windows Media Audio 9 Professional
 DEA D  wmav1           Windows Media Audio 1
 DEA D  wmav2           Windows Media Audio 2
 D A D  wmavoice        Windows Media Audio Voice
 DEVSD  wmv1            Windows Media Video 7
 DEVSD  wmv2            Windows Media Video 8
 D V D  wmv3            Windows Media Video 9
 D V D  wmv3_vdpau      Windows Media Video 9 VDPAU
 D V D  wmv3image       Windows Media Video 9 Image

No WMADMO, so no support for WMA Lossless.

Following links from OneLine, I see that two Medibuntu packages offer more Windows codecs:

* w32codecs
* w64codecs

Sure enough, the one with DMO is 32-bit only. I looked at the blog post from Vlad about compiling a 32-bit MPlayer for 64-bit operating systems. Sheesh, what a pain the rear.