They are *quick* at being dismissive of your comments however. Sorry - its my experience - and its not the only project I've given feedback and bug reports on. Your mileage may vary as the saying goes.

So, I posted a new bug report about file browser. I do not find another report similar to this issue.

pamputt wrote:

andre_orwell wrote:I was experiencing this problem using Amarok Version 2.3.0 Using KDE 4.4.1 (KDE 4.4.1) running under arch / kdemod. In fact when using the file browser in amarok I couldn't even *see* my m4a files.

My ffmpeg suppots aac and h.264; I have taglib-extras (1.0.1) installed.

rhythmbox displays and plays the files... so I was trying to work out how to get amarok to rediscover my music

For me the solution was to switch to the xine backend. I was using gstreamer.

Strange.

I will try solution with xine backend. About the amarok file browser, does this problem is known (m4a are not display in the file explorer). Do I need to report this problem on bugs.kde.org?

m4a files are AAC encoded, IINM; you need the faad packages from the PLF repos (not in official Mandriva repos due to patent issues), you can add the plf repos by using http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ ; for phonon-xine you need xine-faad; for phonon-gstreamer you need gstreamer0.10-faad.

@pamputt
Some extensions not shown up in the file browser is as old as A2. Thought this one was solved long time ago.
Take care that your libffmpeg supports aac/mp4/m4a through libfaad2 or libx264 as I wrote above.


Uups, too late.

m0nk

pamputt wrote:

andre_orwell wrote:I was experiencing this problem using Amarok Version 2.3.0 Using KDE 4.4.1 (KDE 4.4.1) running under arch / kdemod. In fact when using the file browser in amarok I couldn't even *see* my m4a files.

My ffmpeg suppots aac and h.264; I have taglib-extras (1.0.1) installed.

rhythmbox displays and plays the files... so I was trying to work out how to get amarok to rediscover my music

For me the solution was to switch to the xine backend. I was using gstreamer.

Strange.

I will try solution with xine backend. About the amarok file browser, does this problem is known (m4a are not display in the file explorer). Do I need to report this problem on bugs.kde.org?

M4a files display and play without a problem in the current GIT, so I don't think a bug report is necessary.

Valorie

I do not understand something. Amarok file browser displays only file that amarok can play. Is it exact? So, In my case, file browser does not display m4a files because amarok does not play this file. If I install good codec, m4a files will appear in file browser?

Yes, that's what we are trying to tell you...

Telling us which specific codec library to install would be helpful.
Your reply here on the bug report

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=241660

also is not very helpful. Please be specific and name which codec library that needs to be installed, or point us to an Amarok documentation page that lists all of the audio formats and their dependent libraries.

I have updated the bug report.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=241660

I can confirm this IS a bug. I CAN play .m4a files, but Amarok will not list them in its own file browser.

FYI I have faad2 installed which should be the codec library required to play .m4a files.

If the file extension is m4a then it should show without problems, provided you have the codecs suitable for your phonon backend. I assume it is gstreamer, then make sure you have the bad and ugly plugins for gstreamer enabled.

If you read the comments in this almost 2-year old thread this was all explained already: we do not ship codecs nor do the distributions, and it is up to the users to check with their distribution on which codecs you need. AFAIK faad2 is not a codec for the gstreamer engine.

FWIW: both the gstreamer and the vlc backend work fine here since quite some time. Of course, the file extension needs to be m4a, not mp4 which is not precise enough.

whymylifesucks123 wrote:Try playing it in other players. if they can play it, then it means amarok has a bug.

Please read the thread correctly, the tracks do play.

Dear Mamarok,

Then please read the users comments.

I posted that the .m4a files DO play in my install of Amarok, but do NOT list in the file browser.

That means:

1. I DO have the correct codecs installed.
2. It is likely a bug with the file browser.

Therefore, it is NOT a codec issue.

Also with regards to the installation of codecs, I have read the whole thread, and no one is asking Amarok to be packaged with the codecs.

However, clearly stating what codec some one might need to play a certain file type would be very helpful. I believe this is what some of the previous posters had complained about the unhelpful nature of some of the Amarok team responses.

I understand you all put a great deal of time into Amarok. But please remember that many users are new the Linux way of doing things, and sometimes need a little extra guidance. It can be very overwhelming.

So in the time it takes to post the reply to go search for the codec, one could just as easily write what that codec library might be called, so users can search for that specifically.

For instance, the name faad does not really tell you straight away that it plays .m4a files.

I hope this helps you to understand some people's frustration with what is meant to be a supporting community.

Well, the same time writing that here it would take you to actually ask your distribution for it (as stated in the previous answers). Especially Opensuse tends to rename packages, I don use it and I would have to google as much as you.

Now that all sums up to spoon-feeding you: google the name of the package for you in a distribution I do not use of which I don't know the package name... same amount of work for you as for me, actually probably even less as you have that distribution and can search the package list directly.

As I said, what evercodec that is required, for Phonon, IS installed, as Amarok does play .m4a files. So it is NOT a codec issue.

As for which package to install, as noted, what ever it is, I have it installed. The audio play back works.

However, your response still leaves me siding with the other posters on this thread.

I have to comment that the "spoon-feeding" on other OSS projects is done in less condescending way.


Please reply with what ever other technical points to investigate as to why the file browser does NOT work with .m4a files so that a successful resolution can be found for the bug report, so as to help other Amarok users also.

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=241660

Which Amarok version, Phonon version, phonon-backend version and KDE version do you use? We can only guess so far, to provide help you should provide more information to start with.

As for that bug report it is closed since almost 2 years, when the versions current then were very different. It is pretty pointless to discuss anythin in that bug report as it is closed and not relevent, unless you still use these old versions.

Again, for about the 4th time: it works for me for Amarok 2.5 and KDE 4.8.1, phonon-backend-vlc 0.5.0

Also you didn't confirm that the files extension is indeed m4a and not mp4.