How do I play ape files with Amarok? I can't get it to recognise the file at all.

I'm using the Arts output. I can't change to Xine or Gstreamer, because they won't let me use Arts as output -- which I don't really understand.

You should convert your ape file in something else (like ogg).
To do this, you need the program "mac" to convert you ape files in wav files.
On Gentoo, there are inofficial ebuilds for this in the bugzilla.

Good luck!

--
Nicolas

Thank you for your suggestion, but that seems wrong to me -- re-encoding files. Oh well.

Yes, telling someone to reencode files is a terrible suggestion. People should encode files in whichever format they choose.

Aren'y linux users supposed to be supporters of choice?

I prpbably can't be of much help, but what do you mean those other engines won't let you choose arts as ouput? The point of using anothe engine to to bypass arts, or so I think.

The point of Linux was to let Linus try out all the new features on his brand-new i386 and get a full unix environment without paying buckets of money. The point of the open source is to have the choice to do whatever you want with code, something monkey audio explicitly does not allow.

But I agree otherwise, re-encoding would be a hassle. GStreamer has a plugin for monkey audio, that would be your best bet.

eean wrote:

GStreamer has a plugin for monkey audio, that would be your best bet.

I can\'t do that -- there\'s no Arts output plugin for Gstreamer.

...then don\'t use arts.

But your wrong, there is a gstreamer arts plugin. Not that I\'ve used it, its not even packaged for Gentoo. But you\'ll see rpms of it if you search for gstreamer arts.

eean wrote:

...then don\'t use arts.

But KDE and all my other programs use Arts. I have system notifications and Kaffeine running, as well as another X session. All use Arts and they all work fine together. I really need a mixing sound server like Arts. I\'ve never been able to get dmix to work with my Ice 1712 sound card.

But your wrong, there is a gstreamer arts plugin. Not that I\'ve used it, its not even packaged for Gentoo. But you\'ll see rpms of it if you search for gstreamer arts.

It isn\'t in Portage, and that\'s a main concern. I\'ve read elsewhere that it\'s old and buggy, and it\'s certainly not maintained as far as I can find out.

It seems that Amarok is developing and embracing new technologies so rapidly that it\'s way ahead of a normal KDE installation. I can accept that, sort of, because I like progress. It\'s just a bit annoying to be caught in the middle of a transition between frameworks with a problem like mine.

Is there an ape plug-in for xine engine. I cannot use GStreamer because it crashes every time I try it as an engine for amaroK.

a) dmix runs with any alsa soundcard. it has nothing to do with hardware at all.

b) yes, gstreamer-arts is unmaintained and sucks. but that\'s because arts is unmaintained and therefore sucks. if you already use arts, then you really shouldnt care about gstreamer-arts.

have fun,
muesli

I really suggest to convert your apes to the flac format, I used to play them some time ago...

My experience was that amaroK can only play them (with gstreamer), auto-adding them to the playlist doesn\'t seem to work (I assume that taglib cannot read the tags) - you also have to prepare for an occasional crash ...

@Converting:

I use several scripts for converting, maybe they help you:

\"apetowav\"
[code:1]
#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
\"\")
echo \"File required.\"
;;
*)
while [ \"$1\" != \"\" ] ; do
clear
INFILE=\"$1\"
OUTFILE=`echo \"$1\" | sed -r \'s/\\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{0,}/.wav/\'`
mac \"$INFILE\" \"$OUTFILE\" -d
shift
done
;;
esac
[/code:1]

\"wavtoflac\"
[code:1]
#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
\"\")
echo \"File required.\"
;;
*)
echo -n \"Remove .wav files ? y/n\"
read -n 1 RMW

while [ \"$1\" != \"\" ] ; do
clear
INFILE=\"$1\"
OUTFILE=`echo \"$1\" | sed -r \'s/\\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{0,}/.flac/\'`
flac -V -8 \"$INFILE\" -o \"$OUTFILE\"
metaflac --add-replay-gain \"$OUTFILE\"
if [ \"$RMW\" = \"y\" ] ; then rm \"$INFILE\" ; fi
chmod -x \"$OUTFILE\"
shift
done
;;
esac
[/code:1]

The tradeoff is that flac files need a bit more hd space than apes...

Post edited by: Alanceil, at: 2005/02/21 20:52