Odd audio playback issue

[Guest]

I just started using Kubuntu. Vista made me want to smoke crack so I thought I'd give linux a shot. Installation has gone smoothly and I almost have everything to my liking except for audio files. I opened amarok to start ripping my cds and whenever I play a song, it just gets stuck. I'm pretty sure it's just playing the first second of the song over and over again. Closing Amarok doesn't make it go away either. The only way I can make it go away is by turning my speakers all the way down.

When I installed I did have to disable ACPI. I doubt that has anything to do with it but i may as well throw that in. Any suggestions (take it easy on me, i'm new to this) would be great since linux is pretty useless for me if I can't play my music. thanks

[dibl]

Re: Odd audio playback issue

Use K3b to rip CDs.

8)

[jankushka]

Re: Odd audio playback issue

welcome.

it could be something very peculiar to your installation (who knows)
or could simply be that amarok's engine lacks the ability to decode mp3 (i assume your audio files are encoded in mp3).
mp3 support is not there out of the box (other stuff is not there out of the box, actually, for legal issues...).

let's start from the easy one (missing decoding software).
the package in question is libxine1-ffmpeg (to add xine players, like amarok, the ability to decode mpeg codecs).

if you haven't yet done so, then please (you'll need a network connection for this):
a) stop amarok
b) start adept package manager (you'll have to enter your user password to gain admin privileges)
c) search for the above package
d) tell the thing to install it (this will also install the package's dependencies).
e) let it work (it shouldn't take much) and make sure the package is eventually marked as installed.
f) start amarok

and let's see...

fyi:
in general there's no need to reboot linux except for very special cases.
even freshly installed drivers are un/loaded dynamically and do not require a reboot.
in general i reboot my system in 2 cases:
a) the system hangs (rare)
b) i've installed a new kernel

ps:
dibl is right.
amarok is for playing music.
to rip cds and encode them into either mp3 or ogg or whatever...use k3b

[Guest]

Re: Odd audio playback issue

I installed libxine1-ffmpeg and put in one of my cds and started to rip in MP3 with K3b, but I got an error message that said the command failed and then "error decoding track one"

After that I ripped it in ogg format and it worked, I ejected the CD and opened one of the newly ripped files in amarok but it just started skipping like it did when I was trying to play them directly from a cd.

[nowshining]

Re: Odd audio playback issue

I just use kaffeine to rip them into ogg.

- alas
for the OP's Question -

enable all the repos except source, reload and install the restricted codecs which should get all u need.

edit: see: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

[jankushka]

Re: Odd audio playback issue

I installed libxine1-ffmpeg and put in one of my cds and started to rip in MP3 with K3b, but I got an error message that said the command failed and then "error decoding track one"

this is because the mp3 encoder is missing.
follow nowshining's suggestion.
start adept.
go to manage repositories and enable everything, except maybe source.
reload/refresh (whatever it's called in adept...fetch updates, i think).
look for the kubuntu-restricted-extras package and install it.
this is a meta package that installs the lame mp3 encoder (and other commonly used stuff).
it actually also installs the libxine1-ffmpeg stuff.
anyway...
after this you should be able to encode your music in mp3.

now then...

what did you use for the installation of kubuntu?
if you used the desktop cd, did you install all the latest packages updates?
if you haven't, you should do so (that's done with adept or similar app).
btw, the latest updates include a new operating system's kernel.
so there you need a reboot.

after that we should ckeck if you have the same play back issue with some other player.
k3b will be good enough.
drag a few audio files into k3b's playlist and see if that plays them.

if it does, then...in amarok
could you please go to: settings -> configure amarok... -> engine
and see if the player's engine is set to xine, please?
it should.
and in adept you should make sure the amarok-xine be installed.

guess we can stop there for now...