ss not responding

[carmel dukas]

i am using Ss 3.3 and i hate it from the first moment it relised.

it did to me problem from the beginig and it just getting more amd more genuine.

now i have to handle a problem of this program getting close each time i am insert a cd to the hi md.

it just close him self...

how can i work like that?

i hate this program it stinks! i hate my md i hate sony i'll just buy me some stupid mp3player so atleast i could hear some music.

if i had the opertunity to tell those fuckers over sonic stage that they wrote a program which is worst then windows i was doing it.

ohh! why are they so stupid? why cant they learn from other programs?

[A440]

Do you have:

....a Windows skinning program (like Windowblinds?). Turn it off.

....a NVIDIA graphics card? You may need to change your driver. Search these forums for Nvidia.

....FFDShow codec pack installed? Uninstall it and reinstall individual codecs from their manufacturers.

Yes, SonicStage is a pain. But if you're methodical you can make it work.

[dex Otaku]

....FFDShow codec pack installed? Uninstall it and reinstall individual codecs from their manufacturers.

If you have ffdshow installed and it's newer than mid-2004, don't worry about it. What A440 is implying [that all versions of ffdshow cause problems with SS] is patently false.

[A440]

OK, make that an OLD ffdshow codec pack. Don't want to infringe any patents on falsehood.

Dex old buddy, I know you use ffdshow, but weren't you the guy who warns against using codec packs in general?

[dex Otaku]

FFDshow isn't a codec pack. It's a single integrated interface for multiple OSS codecs.

A codec pack is a conglomeration of multiple codecs, all of one version, sometimes but not often current compared with the date of compilation. They often contain multiple redundant codecs and ones that override other that the average Windows system already comes with, and which usually do a better job left alone.

Basically: if what you want is to downgrade independent codecs that you've installed yourself [such as DivX and XviD video codecs], and to cause problems, go looking for a codec pack.

On my system I have the following installed:

* PowerDVD with its associated hardware-capable MPEG2 codec and AC3/DTS decoders [which I don't use]

* The most recent stable build of the Koepi XviD codec [used for encoding only]

* FFDshow

With that combination, I have the best possible XviD encoding, along with hardware MPEG-2 support, and dshow support for ogg, flac, mp3, ac3, DTS, h.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP2 audio .. you get the picture. FFDshow, by itself, covers basically everything that I ever need to use with directshow support. WavPack is a notable exclusion, so I have the official version of that as well, but for nearly all audio playback I use Foobar2000, which has its own codecs. I also use VideoLAN Client which has internal OSS support for nearly all the same formats; coincidentally, many of its codecs are the same ones used by FFDshow.

FFDshow in terms of audio gives me basic EQ and effects for playback [i usually only have EQ on for room resonance correction], along with 24-bit decoding of basically all audio formats it supports.

I have never had a problem using FFDshow with SonicStage. In fact, the one change I noticed after switching from the FhG codec was that SS stopped having any issues with VBR MP3s.

[A440]

Thanks for the explanation on FFDShow, Dex. Now I understand the difference.

Do you think Foobar2000 sounds significantly better than Winamp? I have to admit I'm a little put off by the (minimal) GUI.

[dex Otaku]

Do you think Foobar2000 sounds significantly better than Winamp? I have to admit I'm a little put off by the (minimal) GUI.

Yes and no. Fb2k does decoding/playback at whatever bit depth you want, with decent dither, for one. This means if you use EQ or any DSP [which usually use >24bit resolution for processing and downconvert to the output bit-depth] the quality doesn't suffer significantly. I'll note that probably 90% of people won't notice the difference anyway, but on some material I do.

Fb2k's interface can be customised to show what you want it to. Its library management tools lack the database abilities of iTunes, Winamp, or even SS, but I organise things in a way that the structure on my hdd itself is sensible and makes things easy to find to begin with, so that doesn't matter so much to me. The way I've customised the interface is basically to look something like the old Winamp 2.x [pre- nullsoft library manager] days, which even with a fairly large library I find easier to manage. Personally, I wish it had an iTunes'-like interface, which I find the most sensible combination of library database and playlists.

My main reasons for using Fb2k:

* support for all the formats I use, including FLAC, WavPack, OGG Vorbis, MP3, MPC, and others

* support for surround formats including DTS and AC3

* ID3v2 and APE [which I don't use] tag support on basically any format except WAV [yes, I can tag DTS tracks]

* freeDB support built-in: select a range of tracks [i.e. an album], look it up, tag the tracks right in the playlist

* mass rename/move function that is programmable to suit how you like to organise things; I love this function in particular because I can rename/copy/move my entire library in a single step, conforming all tracks to the same structure, to match whatever I want - my own naming scheme, one like iTunes', or one with short names for use with home DVD players limited to 8.3 filenames, and it does so very quickly.

* the ability to convert/transcode to most popular formats just by selecting tracks, right-clicking, hitting "convert" in the menu, and telling it what codec, along with the ability to tell it what naming scheme to use when doing so [i find this especially useful for APE downloads, because the APE format is so thoroughly unreliable - having no error-correction built in - that the first thing I ever do with them is transcode to WavPack]

* almost everything about it is programmable by the user

* small memory footprint, no required support of SQL or anything ridiculously cumbersome just for a music library

* ability to [via DSP plugins] downmix surround recordings and transcode for playback on portables in a single step

* the EQ it comes with is much better than either Winamp's or iTunes', giving slightly more flexibility for tuning room resonances [+14dB peak at 100Hz to cancel out, anyone?] .. though really, a decent Q-filter plugin would be nice

* true gapless playback of any tracks in any format that comply with CD's 75fps; lossless formats, DTS, AC3, newer lame-encoded MP3s, &c. play with no gaps whatsoever, without using crossfading, edge-detection, or any form of DSP to do so

* it's rock-stable [i've never had it crash. Ever.]

* with some sound cards [my revo 7.1 not included] it supports unprocessed SP/DIF output including AC3, DTS, and MP2 directly as well as PCM

All that said .. the new beta breaks all compatibility with current plugins from what I've read [on the official site], so hopefully everything that's in the one I'm currently using [the current stable build with extras] gets updated once it gets released as more than beta.

I was a Winamp user since the pre-1.0 days. I tried out iTunes the week it came out for PC. I've also tried MusicMatch [a piece of unmitigated crap that I will never touch again], WiMP [most confusing interface of any player ever made, makes even SS look good in terms of usability], and of course SS [which I will never use as a player/library manager for anything other than uploading/downloading because it's such a behemoth].

Fb2k is definitely not for everyone, but if, like me, you deal with myriad different formats, prefer to keep things in their original format unless you must send them to a different medium, need to tag tracks in various formats, often need to copy large ranges of tracks to other naming conventions, &c. &c. ... then this is really the best tool I've found that has them all under one interface [albeit the default is ugly as hell]. What it lacks in terms of prettiness, it makes up for in truly useful functions that nothing else has. In an ideal world, a fantastic library manager would be married to all the other great stuff, and this would become the single most versatile audio software available.

[dex Otaku]

Edit:

I forgot one of the most interesting things Fb2k can do, which I have occasionally used.

* the ability to play back files of any supported format inside a .RAR or .ZIP archive just by dropping the archive on a playlist; no unpacking required.