DiyLightAnimation
Software => xlights => Topic started by: dowdybrown on November 28, 2011,
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Several people have experienced problems when running xLights on Windows XP. On XP, xLights uses Windows Media Player version 6.4, whether you've upgraded to a later (and more capable) version of Media Player, or not. There are at least 2 fixes I have found for this:
- Upgrade to Windows 7 - this is more work, but HIGHLY recommended. On Windows 7, xLights uses Windows Media Player 12, giving you much more flexibility in the files that can be played. See this link for details: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/windows-media-player-12 (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/windows-media-player-12)
- Run your MP3 files through Audacity (with the lame plugin installed). Simply open the MP3 file in Audacity, then export to MP3. The exported file will have a standard bit rate that Windows Media Player 6.4 can handle.
All of the "xLights not playing file ..." issues I have received over the last few days are all related to this issue (as far as I can tell).
Matt
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Is there a bitrate or other settings you would suggest? I use audacity, but changed those settings dozens of times.
Carey
Sent with Tapatalk/iPhone. Xcuse the spelzing!
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Is there a bitrate or other settings you would suggest? I use audacity, but changed those settings dozens of times.
Carey
Sent with Tapatalk/iPhone. Xcuse the spelzing!
In Audacity preferences, set the bit rate for MP3 export to 128 (which is the default after installing Audacity). In testing, I've found files with 192K also work.
Matt
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Matt:
Would using .WAV files instead of .MP3 files work better?
\dmc
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My problem files are fixed. Thanks!
Sent with Tapatalk/iPhone. Xcuse the spelzing!
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Matt:
Would using .WAV files instead of .MP3 files work better?
\dmc
I haven't done much testing with wave files, so I don't know. Sorry,
Matt
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FWIW
I had one mp3 that would not play this year. So on my editing computer I tried the load into audacity and then export back out at 128k default. Well that didn't work but I figured out the problem. My editing computer is Windows 7 64 bit while the show computer is Windows xp sp3. So I loaded audacity unto the show computer (along with the lame mp3 export) and did the same thing. This time the song and vixen sequence played just fine.
Hope that helps
Rick R.
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Just an update on my individual situation: I am using XP SP3.
I have all 17 songs I'm using in the show set up as WAV files, which were created through iTunes and a Mac application called Amadeus II (similar to Audacity).
The properties of the files are:
*Bit rate: 1411kbps
*Audio sample size: 16 bit
*Channels: 2 (stereo)
*Audio sample rate: 44 kHz
*Audio format: PCM
These files have played flawlessly for 13 days and I don't anticipate any problems in the future.
BTW, I converted to WAV long before xLights — I realized in 2009 that MP3 requires decompression and my puny circa 1999 Pentium III needed all the help it could get, so I started using WAV files in order to skip the decompression step.
HTH.
\dmc
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This issue has been fixed in xLights 2012a. It is no longer necessary to process your mp3 files through Audacity. xLights 2012a will play any file that Windows Media Player can play.
Matt