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Author Topic: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)  (Read 4295 times)

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cscon115

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After much thought  :banghead: and reflection  :badmood: - along with many hours of work  :hissy: I am starting to think that there may be a bug in wincab. I really hate to say it.

But it has to be a bug - or I am missing something so obvious that when I get the answer I will cringe with embarrassment. :-[  I will risk embarrassment to put my mind to rest. (I REALLY HOPE IT IS ME AND NOT A BUG - if it is me, then it will be a quick fix and all will be right with the world!)

Here is what I have done and you can see what is happening.

1) I have freshly unzipped a new copy of wincab.

2) I copied my own skin into the skins directory.

Here is my Jukebox.ini (converted to a txt file so you can view it with explorer) file to show you that it is set to read the ID3 tags (useID3 = True). However when I toggle the useID3 between true and false there is no difference. I have tried using TRUE, True, true, and FALSE, False, and false. ( I do not know how your #DEFINE statements are set up but I assume it should be True or False).

    http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/jukebox.txt

Between each change I delete the files in the data directory. I do this because after each change, the changes append to the bottom of the file. If I don't delete I end up with the same information 2 or 3 times in a row in the DB file. Here are the three files from the data directory. It appears that the DB file is showing the tracks correctly. If I am guessing correctly, the first set of { } after the name is the track number.


    http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/jukeart.iwx
    http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/jukebox.db
    http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/jukebox.iwx

Here is a screenshot of Mp3Tag. (I shrunk down some of the columns so you can see the tag numbers. I have tried using 1/10 and 01/10 and 1 (without the /10)  You can also see the info on the first song (that is the same for all of them). I have copied this to an XP box and edited the tags there. I installed wincab on an xp box. I ran the program there with no luck. Same story. I have re-ripped the music with Itunes and with audio grabber - same story. I have edited tags using tag and rename, mp3tag, and XP. I have moved xp edited tag file to the 2k box - still the same story.   

     http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/tags.bmp

Here is a copy of the directory. It shows the file structure.

     http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/men.bmp

Here are two screen shots. First one shows how the file names are just "random". I exit the program and I deleted the data directory files. When I reopened wincab the song list is again random. Note: it seems that having track 1 and track 6 swapped (for this title only) as shown in the second bmp is a common occurrence - it does this about 50% of the time.

     http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/jukess01.bmp
     http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/jukess02.bmp

I believe because I can see the track numbers (06, 05, etc) in front of the song name that wincab is looking at the file structure instead of the ID3 tag. However as I start to add more titles, some albums show the tag track number in front of them and some don't. (this may be due to smartcrop)

I have even gone as far as downloading the newest version of id3lib.dll - no dice!


Lastly, I have tried the same files in virtual music box and they come out in the correct order.

BEFORE YOU ASK : BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO USE VMJ - I DON'T LIKE IT
I WANT TO GET WINCAB WORKING - IT IS A BETTER PROGRAM!



In short, AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!



UPDATE: SK Jukebox does not work with the ID3 tags either. It shows some crazy characters before the song names and scrambles the order too. But I can select the "use file names" option and the songs look correct and are in the correct order.



PS If you like my buttonless skin I will be cleaning it up a bit and I will post it for anyone who wants a copy. You can edit the lower left corner to be whatever you want. I run eagle tokens in my arcade so that is why I have the token pic in my skin (yeah I need to rescan it to get rid of the dark spot at the top...) I picked the orange for the top pics because my top-pics button is orange (color coded). My selection button is green so the now playing text is green.


« Last Edit: April 29, 2006, 05:18:10 pm by cscon115 »
Ronald Reagan is too liberal for me.

Chris

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2006, 09:40:46 am »
I have to go through all this in more detail, but I have my final performance of "Beauty and the Beast" today so I'll have to look tomorrow.  But in the meantime...

UPDATE: SK Jukebox does not work with the ID3 tags either. It shows some crazy characters before the song names and scrambles the order too. But I can select the "use file names" option and the songs look correct and are in the correct order.

If you set WinCab to not use the tag information by setting UseID3 to False in JUKEBOX.INI, what kind of results do you get?

--Chris
--Chris
DOSCab/WinCab Jukebox: http://www.dwjukebox.com

cscon115

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2006, 03:28:53 pm »
Chris,

Good Luck with your performance. My wife just had a concert last night (she plays Piccolo and Flute in the Bowling Green Symphony Orchestra, Bowling Green, Ohio)

Here are four variations and the results. Between each change, I deleted the data files in order to make sure there were not any old results to corrupt the tests. The bitmaps may look the same, but they are really screen shots after each test. Please note Track 01 and Track 11 are switched on the second CD.  You may also need to copy the image to your desktop and open in Paint to get a good look at the screenshots - bmp don't show up well in Explorer.


TEST 1
UseID3 = TRUE
SmartCrop = FALSE
FILE NAMES: (NO HYPHEN) ie.
   01 Feels Like The First Time.mp3
   02 Cold As Ice.mp3
   03 Long, Long Way From Home.mp3
   etc.

RESULT: Wincab track number, tag track number, name in random order
See Image: http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/juke00.bmp



TEST 2
UseID3 = FALSE
SmartCrop = FALSE
FILE NAMES: (NO HYPHEN) ie
.
   01 Feels Like The First Time.mp3
   02 Cold As Ice.mp3
   03 Long, Long Way From Home.mp3
   etc.
RESULT: Wincab track number, tag track number, name in random order
(NO CHANGE)
Image:  http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/juke01.bmp



TEST 3
UseID3 = FALSE
SmartCrop = TRUE
FILE NAMES: (NO HYPHEN) ie.
   01 Feels Like The First Time.mp3
   02 Cold As Ice.mp3
   03 Long, Long Way From Home.mp3
   etc.
RESULT: Wincab track number, tag track number, name in random order  (NO CHANGE)
Image: http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/juke02.bmp




TEST 4
UseID3 = FALSE
SmartCrop = TRUE
FILE NAMES: (WITH HYPHEN) ie.

   01 - Feels Like The First Time.mp3
   02 - Cold As Ice.mp3
   03 - Long, Long Way From Home.mp3
   etc.
RESULT: Wincab track number, name in random order
Image: http://www.drwedding.com/jukebox/juke03.bmp


If there is any combination you want me to try, just let me know. IF you need me to send you a zipped song file - to verify a tag, just let me know.

Thanks!
Dan




Ronald Reagan is too liberal for me.

cscon115

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2006, 10:15:38 pm »
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

(Insert Cabage-patch dance here)
 :cheers: Who da Man... Who da Man... Who da man...  :cheers:

OK... So it was my buddy Cory, but together we have narrowed the problem down. Essentally, all heck breaks loose when the

StrictAlbum1 = *

is used. At that point all of the album orders get scrambled. Remove this line, delete data files, reload and about 95% of the albums are correct. I must look at the tags in the remaining few and verify them. But 95% correct is a big step from 100% wrong!

It also seems that even if UseID3 = True, wincab seems to be using "tags" on a few files and "filenames" on most of the others. I verified this by changing a file name and watching the change take effect in wincab. Therefore I must insert a hyphen between  the number and title and turn on smart crop. If I don't I see something like this:

01 01 Da first Song
02 02 Its number o two
03 03 Three is a a magic number
04 04 In the year 4040
 
and so on

But that sure beats seeing two sets of numbers and having them in a totally random order. Now that I have narrowed the trouble down a bit, maybe I play around some more and see if I can stumble on a more definitive problem definition. If you want me to give you a more detailed answer, you can PM me (or post here... it is your Topic!).

Dan
Ronald Reagan is too liberal for me.

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2006, 01:23:02 am »
That would make a certain amount of sense, since the StrictAlbum was one of the last features to go in it would make sense to be the most likely to show a problem.

I have tomorrow off of work, maybe I can dig into some of these issues.  I know it's been forever since I've done an update...
--Chris
DOSCab/WinCab Jukebox: http://www.dwjukebox.com

cscon115

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2006, 09:00:48 am »

1) I have tested every jukebox software that I can find (including the ones linked from your page). I can honestly say - without a doubt - yours is the best. Period.

2) It was an aggravating bug because I never made the connection between strict and the mis-ordered names. I used strict because I had a "Rock On" Series of CD's that give the top 10 or so songs from each year (Rock On 1981, Rock ON 1982, and so on). When I ripped these, the tags only said the album name was "Rock On". So wincab would smash them all into one disk and insert a (1981) or (1986) at the end.

3) I have put the Strict back to the way it was and have edited the tags. Now I have it so the file names are "Rock On 1981" and the author is not "Various Artists" but it is now "1981". This fixed the strict problem. Once that was working - everything else started to fall into place.

4) Update you say? Like possibly swapping the album / author line in the CD skin as well as the Album/author lines in the "now playing" section?

5) I was going to clean up the JPG in my skin (as you have seen screen shots of). Do you mind if I post them here for others to use? Or would you rather I not do that. I will do whatever you want - it is your code and all.

Dan
Ronald Reagan is too liberal for me.

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2006, 09:40:34 am »
Dan, I know it's a long shot, but....

the remaining "5%" of albums...
try moving all the files for that album out of the folder, then copy them back in, one by one, starting at track 1, then track 2 etc. then see what the sorting is like then.

i have found with some mp3 software (and even portable mp3 players) that it will sort on the date that the file was written to the disc, and basically ignores all other (logical) ways of sorting.
when i say, "date... written to disc", this is totally separate to the "date modifed" and "date created" dates that can be viewed in windows.   ???

anyway, just a suggestion...

cscon115

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2006, 12:58:47 pm »
I will try it.

I have been fixing the others by just inserting a hyphen between the track number and name. But I am willing to try - thanks for the tip.

(This is why I like this topic and forum. People are genuinely nice and really try to help where they can!)

Ronald Reagan is too liberal for me.

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #8 on: May 03, 2006, 04:13:11 pm »
I was considering having a Smart Crop option that doesn't require the hyphen, but it would screw up any track that started with a number, like 99 Red Balloons.  I guess as long as it was optional it would be up to the user to decide if it was an issue or not...
--Chris
DOSCab/WinCab Jukebox: http://www.dwjukebox.com

cscon115

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2006, 08:54:43 am »
Chris,

No matter how hard you try - you will never be able to get all of the possibilities. An old programmers addage states,

   "As soon as you come out with a fool proof program, they will invent a better fool." 

For example, currently we need the hyphen for smart crop. You need that for programs that start with a number (IE. 99 red balloons)

But I have found that songs / albums / names that contain a hyphen (IE. Ride my See-Saw) will also cause wincab to start to use the filenames and I start to see tracks like this:

01    01 Ducks in the Rain
02    02 King of Pain
03    03 My cloths are Stained
04    04 Ride the Train

(Here I go again, telling you how to do your job...)  Would it make sense to make Smart crop just chop off the first 3 characters of the string for a no hyphen option or the first 5 characters for the hyphen option? Or is that too simplistic?

Does Smart Crop take into account some crazy burners that load
"Artist - album - year - track - title.mp3"? If so, my suggestion would not work.



**********************************************************************

Currently, wincab is working very well. I have found if I rip and just move the newly ripped album into the directory in Wincab's path -  all is right with the world. Wincab will use the tags. If I "touch" a tag, or even open the album with ANY tag editor (and make no changes) Wincab will start to use the file names and never recognize the tags again.

This is odd, some albums use filenames and others use the tag. Now this is not all bad, in fact, it is usefull "undocumented feature".

My skin ends up chopping the album into 2 parts between track 13 and 14. If I allow Wincab to do the cutting - I will have a CD case showing the last 1, 2, 3 etc. tracks on the first cover and the second cover showing the first 13 tracks.  Most of the Beatles albums I ripped had 14 tracks so I had 1 track (the last song on the album) on the first cover and 13 tracks on the second cover.

So I made two directories, Rubber Soul (1) and Rubber Soul (2). I "Touched" the tags and this directory starts using the names and not the tags. I moved the first 7 into the first directory and the second 7 into the second directory.

This made the titles look like this:

Rubber Soul (1)
01  01 Drive My Car
02  02 Norwegian Wood
etc.

Rubber Soul (2)
01  07 Michelle
02  08 What Goes On
etc.

I inserted hyphens and PRESTO! I did not even need to RE-Number the second cover! The result was - I had 2 covers, first 7 on the first cover and the last 7 on the second cover. My only trouble is - there are so many albums that I have with 14 tracks! :cry: Now, this also has one bad side effect. I have to test some more but... I think this may be causing wincab to crash if I use the 00 option on one of my "cut albums". I will test and update.


Dan
« Last Edit: May 04, 2006, 09:21:42 am by cscon115 »
Ronald Reagan is too liberal for me.

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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2006, 05:05:26 pm »
But I have found that songs / albums / names that contain a hyphen (IE. Ride my See-Saw) will also cause wincab to start to use the filenames and I start to see tracks like this:

01    01 Ducks in the Rain
02    02 King of Pain
03    03 My cloths are Stained
04    04 Ride the Train

(Here I go again, telling you how to do your job...)  Would it make sense to make Smart crop just chop off the first 3 characters of the string for a no hyphen option or the first 5 characters for the hyphen option? Or is that too simplistic?

Does Smart Crop take into account some crazy burners that load
"Artist - album - year - track - title.mp3"? If so, my suggestion would not work.
SmartCrop looks for the last hyphen followed by a space, so "Ride My See-Saw" would not get cropped and "Artist - album - year - track - title.mp3" would be cropped to "title".

Of course, SmartCrop should only get called into play when the ID3 tag isn't read for some reason.

As far as the rest of this post, I need to look at it in more detail at home...

--Chris
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Re: WINCAB - Thou has defeated me, I cryeth Uncle. (was wincab probs)
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2006, 10:47:14 pm »
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

(Insert Cabage-patch dance here)
 :cheers: Who da Man... Who da Man... Who da man...  :cheers:

OK... So it was my buddy Cory, but together we have narrowed the problem down. Essentally, all heck breaks loose when the

StrictAlbum1 = *

is used. At that point all of the album orders get scrambled. Remove this line, delete data files, reload and about 95% of the albums are correct. I must look at the tags in the remaining few and verify them. But 95% correct is a big step from 100% wrong!


Looking at this tonight... I think I've located the problem, but I need to work through my thought process as I didn't document this section of code well.

--Chris
--Chris
DOSCab/WinCab Jukebox: http://www.dwjukebox.com