Amarok cuts off beginning of track

[joneall]

The title says it. I can play a track just fine with VLC but Amarok cuts off the first second or two. I'm not sure it happens in every case. Very annoying.

This is not the first problem I've had with Amarok.

[joneall]

Re: Amarok cuts off beginning of track

Nobody else sees this problem?

Also, sometimes Amarok just skips thru files. If I delete its DB and recreate it, this problem is usually solved.

What is with Amarok?

Extraordinarily annoying to have to use different players for different pieces of music!

[valoriez]

Re: Amarok cuts off beginning of track

Perhaps you can run amarok from the console,

amarok -d --nofork

and see what sort of output you get. I've not heard of anyone having clipped tracks. What backend are you using? Xine is preferred for now, although we're working on a phonon-VLC backend that will work on all platforms.

Are these mp3 tracks, ogg, flac, wav? Anything in common in the tracks you have trouble with?

What version of Amarok are you running, and what KDE?

Valorie

[joneall]

Re: Amarok cuts off beginning of track

Perhaps you can run amarok from the console,

amarok -d --nofork

and see what sort of output you get. I've not heard of anyone having clipped tracks.

Ok, did that. My worst is a Janacek string quartet. Amarok misses the entire first note and starts abruptly in the middle of the second note. VLC plays it perfectly with all the notes. But VLC is not Amarok.

What backend are you using? Xine is preferred for now, although we're working on a phonon-VLC backend that will work on all platforms.

I know nothing about backends. But a look at the Amarok playback config says "Configure Phonon", whatever that may be.

Are these mp3 tracks, ogg, flac, wav? Anything in common in the tracks you have trouble with?

Mp3. Curiously, these are all tracks of chamber music, tho several start with strings and one with piano. That one is also missing the first note completely. I have other things (orchestra, opera, jazz, pop, Indian, etc) which work well.

What version of Amarok are you running, and what KDE?

Valorie

Amarok 2.3.0, KDE 4.4.2, Kubuntu 9.10, vmlinuz-2.6.32-22-generic-pae.

I can send the debug output, but it's quite long.

Many thanks for your interest.

[valoriez]

Re: Amarok cuts off beginning of track

About backends -- when you click that "configure phonon" button, you'll get a configuration screen where you can check your sound devices, and in the Backend tab - a list of your available backends. The top of the list will be what you are currently using. Available are Gstreamer, which is the most buggy, Xine which is preferred right now, and vlc which is the future. For now, phonon-vlc must be build from source, which is actually not difficult (I do it).

As for the output, that would/will be useful if you file a bug about this -- which I think you should do. http://bugs.kde.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=amarok is the shortcut for Amarok bugs.

You might try updating both Amarok and KDE - Amarok 2.3.1 has been out for awhile, as has KDE 4.4.4.

Best,

Valorie

PS: If you are interested in building phonon-vlc, here is the guide I use to do so:

http://blogs.fsfe.org/myriam/2010/04...d-here-you-go/

[joneall]

Re: Amarok cuts off beginning of track

I have upgraded to KDE 4.4.5 and Amarok 2.3.1 and the problem persists. I do not feel up to compiling the vlc backend, but you could say i am waiting anxiously for it. In the meantime, I will use vlc for the 10 or so problem tracks I have discovered so far.

Thanks for your help.

[valoriez]

Re: Amarok cuts off beginning of track

Does changing the backend help at all? It's worth trying, I think. Remember that you will have to restart Amarok to make the change register.

Is there anything in common among those 10 tracks? Same filetype or something?

Valorie