arendjr wrote:I just checked and I was still at on old version of Phonon-backend-xine as well. So I upgraded to 4.3.1 as well (OpenSUSE 11.0 repos), but it's not fixed for me

Sorry to hear that

Could you maybe check back with the SUSE forums or mailing lists, to see if the problem might be distro specific?

I'm having the same problem on Kubuntu 8.10. I'm using the "amarok-kde4" package from the Kubuntu "Experimental" PPA, and other Intrepid packages with all Canonical repositories enabled. I thought maybe old Xine version (1.1.15) was the problem, so I upgraded to 1.1.16.2 packages from some random repository, but the problem persists.

Amarok Version: 2.0.1.1-0ubuntu1~ppa1
xine-lib Version: 1.1.16.2-1ubuntu1~ppa3
phonon Version: 4:4.3.1-0ubuntu1~intrepid1

Also, the problem occurs with the same files across different systems; I have multiple copies of my collection (one on my laptop and one on my desktop) and both show the same symptoms. I forced an fsck on both and both filesystems were healthy, with no problems.

pxc wrote:Also, the problem occurs with the same files across different systems; I have multiple copies of my collection (one on my laptop and one on my desktop) and both show the same systems. I forced an fsck on both and both filesystems were healthy, with no problems.

One idea: Could you try to disable the "fade-out" feature? I heard that this helped in one case.

I actually read about that as a fix for a very similar bug in the Amarok 1.4 series, but that fix seems to have no affect for this bug.

A few more details might help track it down. Is there anything the skipped tracks have in common? A specific file type? A common character in the tags, or filenames? Permissions? A certain directory?

Hi there,

I've been having this problem lately on openSuse 11.0 (see here: http://forums.opensuse.org/applications ... racks.html). This thread seems to be getting more action, so I'm switching to posting here.

As I said there, switching to GStreamer has let me play _al_l my music again... (though I had to then disable fadeout, which was preventing me from actually stopping tracks with GStreamer backend---they would just restart again).

File details:

- MP3s that have never failed to work for me anywhere else (media players, portable devices etc...).
- Playing of a network drive shared of a FRITZ!Box over SAMBA, mounted on my machine using cifs.
- The same files seem to be semi-consistantly skipped (i.e. some always, some only sometimes).
- No obviously strange output from Amarok run on the command-line.
- I could play the files in Amarok by double clicking on them no problem.
- Playing them directly with `xine --verbose` produced no strange output.

Tho following output from a program called `mp3_check` (don't know much about it, but installed from the openSUSE Packman repositories) for a common "problem" sequence (I'll refer to the files as 02, 03, 04, and 05 --- their track numbers on the album):

-----------------------------------------------------------
mike@pokery:~/Music/Seamus_Begley/Ragairne$ mp3_check 02-An_Seanduine.mp3 03-Cailin_Ban.mp3 04-Polkas_\(Dealai\'s_-_Gan_Ainm_-_Gan_Ainm\).mp3 05-The_Early_Morning_Rain.mp3                                                                           
Possible ID3v2 frame found, skipping                                                                                       

FILE_NAME          02-An_Seanduine.mp3
GOOD_FRAMES        9471             
BAD_FRAMES          0                 
LAST_BYTE_CHECKED  4929664           
VBR_HIGH            320               
VBR_LOW            32               
VBR_AVERAGE        159               
SONG_LENGTH        04:07.40         
Possible ID3v2 frame found, skipping 

FILE_NAME          03-Cailin_Ban.mp3
GOOD_FRAMES        9331
BAD_FRAMES          0
LAST_BYTE_CHECKED  4665472
VBR_HIGH            320
VBR_LOW            32
VBR_AVERAGE        153
SONG_LENGTH        04:03.74
Possible ID3v2 frame found, skipping

FILE_NAME          04-Polkas_(Dealai's_-_Gan_Ainm_-_Gan_Ainm).mp3
GOOD_FRAMES        8970
BAD_FRAMES          0
LAST_BYTE_CHECKED  4608128
VBR_HIGH            256
VBR_LOW            32
VBR_AVERAGE        157
SONG_LENGTH        03:54.31
Possible ID3v2 frame found, skipping

FILE_NAME          05-The_Early_Morning_Rain.mp3
GOOD_FRAMES        10263
BAD_FRAMES          0
LAST_BYTE_CHECKED  5503104
VBR_HIGH            320
VBR_LOW            32
VBR_AVERAGE        164
SONG_LENGTH        04:28.09

USER_TIME          0.12s
SYS_TIME            0.15s

-------------------------------------------

With this sequence I typically experience:

02: plays fine
03: skipped completely
04: sometimes: only a few of "milli" seconds played, less often: plays fine
05: plays fine

As I say all of these files play fine if I double click on them directly in Amarok, now are completely fine with GStreamer backend, and I've never had trouble with them in every other "device" (software/hardware) that I've ever tried... (FWIW).

Any tips for how to give you any more detailed information?

Many thanks,
Mike.

OK, I may have spoken too soon It appeared to work with the GStreamer backend (really, it did! ), but now I guess the bugs in that backend are raring their collective heads, and a whole new set of issues arose (the aforementioned "stop" button problem, seeking broken, randomly pausing at the end of some tracks, and even an Amarok crash at one point!).

Having switched back to Xine, I get the old problem described in my previous post.

I will do some more experimenting with different tracks, and see if I can discern any patterns.

Mike,

mliddle wrote:I've been having this problem lately on openSuse 11.0 (see here: http://forums.opensuse.org/applications ... racks.html). This thread seems to be getting more action, so I'm switching to posting here.

As I said there, switching to GStreamer has let me play _al_l my music again... (though I had to then disable fadeout, which was preventing me from actually stopping tracks with GStreamer backend---they would just restart again).

The Phonon GStreamer backend is unfortunately (at the point of this writing) rather buggy. Many of the bugs have been identified and fixed by QtSoftware, but these fixes may only reach the users in one of the next KDE bugfix releases.

The timing is out of our hands - it depends on factors like packaging and release scheduling of the distros and of KDE.

Hi there again,

Apprectiate the situation with GStreamer/release cycles etc... However I'm getting the problem with Xine backend too. The following describes a bit of experimenting I've done:

Method: set up a playlist (sequence of tracks) and double click a track. Seek to end of current track and see if the next track(s) play or are skipped. Seek to end of next played track etc... Continue until the playlist is completed. Double click a different track etc...

1. The problem appears to be widespread across my entire collection (never had problems before, still no problems in other players---xine-ui for example).

2. Double-clicked item _always_ plays no problem.

3. Pattern seems to be a bit weird. Different tracks are skipped depending on where in the play list playback is started (by double click).

4. Some tracks are _never_ skipped, some are _always_ skipped (unless played directly, i.e. point 2. above), others a sometimes skipped and sometimes played. This appears to be playlist position based, rather than file based (i.e. moving a never-skipped track to a different position, can cause it to be skipped).

5. With a fixed playlist, and with reference to points 3. and 4. above, though the initial skip/play pattern might vary, playback tends to settle into a familiar pattern after a few tracks.

6. Most often seems to skip every second track, with apparently greater aversion to playing even numbered items (in the playlist, not necess. track numbers). Though sometimes two tracks are skipped, and sometimes two in a row are played (see point 4. above).

That's about all I could figure out though unfortunately... Seems a bit too weird is all I can say

Thanks and good luck,
Mike.

dangle_wtf wrote:A few more details might help track it down. Is there anything the skipped tracks have in common? A specific file type? A common character in the tags, or filenames? Permissions? A certain directory?

My music is all stored on an ext3 partition owned by me (I have full rwx rights). The problem has occurred with OGG playlists and MP3 playlists. All the filenames on my collection have spaces in them, but Mike is reporting the same problem with a collection that uses underscores instead of spaces. My collection in its entirety is stored in /media/Media/Music/, but each subdirectory has some files which bring out this problem in Amarok.

Oh, one odd detail: Phonon + the Phonon-Xine backend are 4.3.1 versions, but Amarok claims to be built for KDE 4.2.1.

Confirm for trunk on kde 4.2.1 running Gentoo. It appears to occur randomly, sometimes seldom, sometimes every second track. No matter which playlist mode.

I wonder if this is the (very) old issue with missing xing headers in VBR encoded tracks again?
It might be worth seeing whether any tracks that are consistently skipped are VBR, and perhaps trying http://www.willwap.co.uk/Programs/vbrfix.php on one or two to see if it helps. (I shouldn't have to mention backing the tracks up first, but I will!).

dangle_wtf wrote:I wonder if this is the (very) old issue with missing xing headers in VBR encoded tracks again?
It might be worth seeing whether any tracks that are consistently skipped are VBR, and perhaps trying http://www.willwap.co.uk/Programs/vbrfix.php on one or two to see if it helps. (I shouldn't have to mention backing the tracks up first, but I will!).

At least the last few tracks that have been skipped had constant bitrate.

I have this same problem running Debian unstable with packages from experimental. Some versions:
Amarok Version 2.1-SVN (Debian 2.0.60+svn935422-2) Using KDE 4.2.1 (KDE 4.2.1)
phonon-backend-xine 4:4.3.1
libxine1 1.1.16.2-1+b1

I think this problem has occurred with all versions of Amarok 2 that I've tried (i.e., since some beta), and consequently I haven't used it much. I have flac and mp3 files in my collection and it happens with both. Fadeout is disabled.

Double-clicking on a track plays that track fine, but then it skips about every second or third track seemingly randomly. Very annoying behaviour and unfortunately makes Amarok pretty much unusable for me


edit: The skipped track are not completely skipped, but it seems like Amarok plays 1-5 seconds from the end of the track. (Of course, on many tracks this would be silence.)


edit2: I did some testing and it looks like a track is skipped if it's shorter than the previous track, even if the previous track had been skipped too. In a playlist of 20 songs this rule held consistently, and when several tracks were consecutively shorter than the previous they were all skipped. I listened to the full tracks instead of seeking to the end.

Could somebody who's also experiencing the issue confirm this behaviour? Very weird, to say the least.