How to configure gapless playback? I use Amarok 2.0.2.

This has been answered in various places before, so I'll make it short:


1) It's always enabled.

2) Won't work properly with MP3 (due to technical limits of the format; read more on Wikipedia)

I've been searching through the forums, but I found only questions, not answer. I understand that Amarok doesn't decode music itself - it uses external backend like xine or phonon. However I found no information about which backend should I use and how to configure it properly.

I use mostly ogg files. I get gapless playback in other programs - for example Aqualung - but not in Amarok.

BTW, I know that lame can encode mp3s without gaps between consecutive files. Would Amarok insert gaps anyway?

Is there anything I can do to get gapless playback?

senjin wrote:Is there anything I can do to get gapless playback?

You need to use the Xine backend in Phonon.

I think I use phonon and xine, but honestly, I don't know how to check it. I think this is how Amarok is configured by default in my distribution (Archlinux). Phonon is a dependency of Amarok, and xine-lib is a dependency of Phonon.


Finally I realized that I could test xine itself. I installed gxine and Goggles Music Manager. The same kind of gaps appear in both of these programs (very short, but clearly noticeable and annoying).

So... I guess there is something wrong with xine configuration on my system. Unfortunately xine documentation isn't very helpful (the word 'gapless' don't even appear on the site of the project ). Do you have any experience with optimizing the configuration of xine for the gapless playback? Are there any special tricks or patches to apply during the compilation?