Versions: MusicBee 3.5.8296
Scenario: User has an extensive audiobook library and wants to organise audiobooks into PLAYLISTS
Problem: Some .m4b (AAC encoded) files are reported in MusicBee as Kind = Stream. This in turn, leads to the TIme property of the file, being reported as a negative number.
STEPS TO REPRODUCE1) Download audiobook files
"Marie Lu - Champion.m4b" and
"Marie Lu - Legend.m4b" 2) Observe how both files have file extension .m4b
2) Create a playlist in Music Bee.
3) Add the two files to the playlist.
4) Enable "Detailed" view, i.e. not the "pretty" view with grid and cover.
5) Ensure that the fields "Kind" and "Time" are enabled.
4) Observe how the book Champion and Legend display different, with the Kind and Time properties.
5) Observe undesirable behaviour: Champion is listed as "Stream" and the Time value is displayed as a negative number (seems to be the correct time, but with a minus sign in front!)
6) Legend is listed as you would expect. Kind = AAC media and Time is a positive value.
EXPECTED BEHAVIOUR: Both files should behave the same, as happens in iTunes.
Comment: If I check these files in Mediainfo, I see that they were encoded in different ways. The Champion file is in fact a merge of a bunch of .mp3 files that were then converted to .mp4 , just like Steven said.
However, when merging in this way (which is common in filesharing) you merge to .mp4 because this is what the available tools offer, basically. But you can then simply change the file extension to .m4b afterwards and in iTunes, the file behaves exacty as any other .m4b, for example direct rips from Audible .aax copyrighted fields.
I.e. iTunes is slightly "kinder" in its treatment of these non-optimal rips. There is no distinction in how it treats these two files, whereas MusicBee is stricter and treats the "Champion" file differently, due to it having slightly different properties, because of how it was created.
I think that MusicBee should care only about the file extension. If the file has extension .m4b then the user expects it to be treated as an audiobook because .m4b has no other purpose.
Perhaps take a look at the file properties in MediaInfo tool and consider if it is possible to change how MusicBee sets the "Kind" property (it is set automatically with no way to change it, I think!) Perhaps also try to figure out why Time is reported as a negative number! This is bug like behaviour imo, since Time can't really be negative, at least not in this context, right?