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Questions / MB will not add some files to its library which have been downloaded from BBC
« on: December 13, 2018, 11:55:28 AM »
I have previously posted on this forum asking why I could not add some files to the library. I have now found that the files which will not add, together with another set of files (see later), do have one thing in common: they were all obtained from the BBC using the 'get-iplayer' app under Linux. They were all of file type 'm4a' or 'aac'.
Just to complicate things I do have audio files obtained in this way which do get added to the library without any problem, except they either pre-date or post-date the problem files.
As a matter of further complication there are also some such files which did make it into the MB library but which are grouped under the 'unknown artist' category. Attempts to edit these files results in a flashing exclamation mark in a red circle to the left of the 'save' button in the edit window. Hovering over this icon causes a message (about the file having been edited outside of MB and suggesting a 'rescan' of the file), to be displayed. Pressing 'save' resuls in an error message about the file failing some sort of validation process and the file not being updated. Rescanning the file does not change this scenario at all. These files are permanently in 'limbo': details about the file are unknown but cannot be updated.
The strange thing about these files downloaded from the BBC, in a period from about 2012 to 2016, is that they can be played, problem-free, in every player I have under windows and LInux - about 20 such players in total, including MB itself. I also find they can be added to a library in every music cataloging app in have in Windows and Linux - about 6 in total - except MB.
The only technique that I have found that will cause MB to add such files to its library is to open the file in Audacity and then export it as an m4a file (over-writing the original if necessary) using the default codecs in Audacity. There is also then no probelm in editing this file in MB.
My conclusion is that there is some difference in opinion between MB and all other similar apps and players in what constitues a valid implementation of the AAC file specification (or is the m4A specification ?). The BBC also seems to have changed the way it is encoding its files (I discount a problem with get-iplayer - in this context it is just a transport mechanism).
Just to complicate things I do have audio files obtained in this way which do get added to the library without any problem, except they either pre-date or post-date the problem files.
As a matter of further complication there are also some such files which did make it into the MB library but which are grouped under the 'unknown artist' category. Attempts to edit these files results in a flashing exclamation mark in a red circle to the left of the 'save' button in the edit window. Hovering over this icon causes a message (about the file having been edited outside of MB and suggesting a 'rescan' of the file), to be displayed. Pressing 'save' resuls in an error message about the file failing some sort of validation process and the file not being updated. Rescanning the file does not change this scenario at all. These files are permanently in 'limbo': details about the file are unknown but cannot be updated.
The strange thing about these files downloaded from the BBC, in a period from about 2012 to 2016, is that they can be played, problem-free, in every player I have under windows and LInux - about 20 such players in total, including MB itself. I also find they can be added to a library in every music cataloging app in have in Windows and Linux - about 6 in total - except MB.
The only technique that I have found that will cause MB to add such files to its library is to open the file in Audacity and then export it as an m4a file (over-writing the original if necessary) using the default codecs in Audacity. There is also then no probelm in editing this file in MB.
My conclusion is that there is some difference in opinion between MB and all other similar apps and players in what constitues a valid implementation of the AAC file specification (or is the m4A specification ?). The BBC also seems to have changed the way it is encoding its files (I discount a problem with get-iplayer - in this context it is just a transport mechanism).