Amarok 10.4.4 - big thumbs up!

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:46 am

Wow, the latest release of Amarok is really, really nice. It starts in a fraction of the time it used to, which is sweet-a, too. The magnatune music store, though, is possibly the most interesting new feature. I've already discovered a few albums I'll probably buy. Good stuff - check it out if you haven't!

CptnObvious999 · Post by **CptnObvious999** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:43 pm

yeah, Amarok is my favorite application I have ever used. It always has tons of development being done on it, I can't imagine what they will but implementing with Amarok 2.

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:49 pm

CptnObvious999 wrote:I can't imagine what they will but implementing with Amarok 2.

Using Phonon is a big thing, porting to Qt 4, porting to Windows etc. etc.

CptnObvious999 · Post by **CptnObvious999** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:06 pm

Tsuroerusu wrote:
CptnObvious999 wrote:I can't imagine what they will but implementing with Amarok 2.
Using Phonon is a big thing, porting to Qt 4, porting to Windows etc. etc.

Ah yes, thats right

it's hard to imagine but with Qt4 it is going to be even faster! and I will finally be able to use Amarok and Krita here at my internship.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:47 am

There's a bug in the magnatune music store frontend that causes you to purchase the album you buy several times. In the bug report I read reported the issue as "twice," but I ended up with 6 copies. My theory is that if you click "purchase" it caches that somewhere, and once you actually pull the trigger it dumps all of those cached clicks - this could be total crap though, it just seems about accurate for my case. I was testing to see if amarok/magnatune were using secure protocols by doing a fake transaction and running tcpdump -vv | grep protocol - turns out they're using https, FWIW.

I guess this has been fixed in svn versions of amarok, but I'm surprised there's not more noise about this on either amarok's or magnatune's front pages. This could really fsck somone whose broke over - I make *so much money* that $60 is a meager pittance to me (yeah right), but it *was* mostly just a "Hey, can you guys fix this for me?" issue rather than a "HOLY FSCK!!! NO MONAY IN DER BANK!!!" issue. But, seriously, 5 years ago this would probably have really screwed me over - no spending cash (gas?) for a day or two, bank charging me for overdraft, etc. I think this bug needs to be much more widely publicized, and I'm kind of upset it hasn't been.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:52 am

I should point out that the folks at magnatune had this fixed quickly, and were very proactive. As always, very good people, and a very cool source for music.

Post by **Patrick** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:01 pm

I just upgraded it and have to admit the Magnatune integration is pretty sweet. I previously bought a bunch of stuff from Magnatune and this makes even easier to check out new music. Now if they could do the same with some of the other DRMlesss music stores. Props to the Amarok team! Now to see if the podcast catcher has improved any?

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:05 pm

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=136665

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:10 pm

Patrick wrote:I just upgraded it and have to admit the Magnatune integration is pretty sweet. I previously bought a bunch of stuff from Magnatune and this makes even easier to check out new music. Now if they could do the same with some of the other DRMlesss music stores. Props to the Amarok team! Now to see if the podcast catcher has improved any?

For me, the podcatcher has always worked well - it turns out all of the problems I've had with it are that people are sending out broken vbr mp3s. I guess they are broken in a way that makes them "legal" in itunes, but nowhere else - I have the same issue with gnupod. There's an amarok "script" (why not plugin?) called mp3fixer which deals with part of the issue, but not all of it. I can't even listen to pauldotcom security weekly anymore, except at home, because of this. I had the same problem with lugradio back when I listened to it. Never had any problems with TLLTS, though, other than once or twice with the new feedburner feeds I ended up with empty files or 3 minutes worth of a file. Those were flukes, though.

hellonorman · Post by **hellonorman** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:34 am

Are you using edgy? How did you go about getting the latest version of amarok?

Post by **Patrick** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:38 am

hellonorman wrote:Are you using edgy? How did you go about getting the latest version of amarok?

Just follow the directions:
http://kubuntu.org/announcements/amarok-1.4.4.php

Other distros/versions as well;
http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/Download

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 9:07 am

Snarkout wrote:For me, the podcatcher has always worked well - it turns out all of the problems I've had with it are that people are sending out broken vbr mp3s. I guess they are broken in a way that makes them "legal" in itunes, but nowhere else - I have the same issue with gnupod. There's an amarok "script" (why not plugin?) called mp3fixer which deals with part of the issue, but not all of it. I can't even listen to pauldotcom security weekly anymore, except at home, because of this. I had the same problem with lugradio back when I listened to it.

Are you sure this is an issue with itunes or is done to make things legal on itunes? I have the same problem trying to play those shows that record in vbr on my iriver. I contacted the LugRadio guys and they started offering a Constant Bit Rate file, they have since discontinued that even though the link is still there for some of the shows. The CBR files worked fine on the iriver. I just believe that the iriver and other mp3 players can't handle the VBR files well. Mine would play, but you could never stop the playback, rewind or go forward.

I have asked the LugRadio guys to continue the CBR file, but they refuse to do so because only about 10-12 people were downloading it. They said that the reason they don't record in CBR is because the file size gets to big, and to do other things to keep the file size down lessons the audio quality. The TLLTS guys I feel have done a great job finding a bitrate that works, but is still CBR so we have no trouble with playback except on certain Sony devices.

When Linux Action Show started out they were recording in VBR, but I sent an email, and never got a response, but have noticed that the last 5-6 shows have not been VBR, but instead CBR also bigger downloads, but I can handle that just fine. So props to the Linux Action Show to making it easier to listen to their podcast on portables.

I guess the Ipods must play VBR. Another example I guess of the FOSS community making compromises for the masses of Ipod users. I don't believe many of the <$50 MP3 players can handle VBR. If anyone knows of one let me know. Right now you can for $25-$35 get a nice 256-512mb mp3 little player which lets you take your podcasts on walks and in the car. That price point is the one that makes me happy. Since I just use my portable digital player for podcasts my little 128mb iriver is just fine for me.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:35 am

I don't know exactly what the issue is, to be honest. I use an iPod, and have the issue with vbr podcasts, but have no issue with vbr rips of albums. I think it must have to do with the encoding. Those same shows play fine on my wife's ipod when loaded via itunes, though, which is very strange. I'm wondering if iTunes does something to "fix" the headers of the files.

mowestusa · Post by **mowestusa** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:05 pm

Snarkout wrote:I don't know exactly what the issue is, to be honest. I use an iPod, and have the issue with vbr podcasts, but have no issue with vbr rips of albums. I think it must have to do with the encoding. Those same shows play fine on my wife's ipod when loaded via itunes, though, which is very strange. I'm wondering if iTunes does something to "fix" the headers of the files.

I'm surprised that more people don't complain to the LugRadio guys and others who record in VBR. If you have trouble with an ipod and Linux, I would think that the tons of listeners to LugRadio would be reporting more problems. Maybe in the case of the LugRadio, guys have just given up playing on a portable device. I know that if I just listen to it on the computer in XMMS there is no issue at all.

I also think that if the VBR file is the one that goes to the RSS feed that few of the LugRadio listeners would use the CBR file because of the added hastle of checking their website each week and looking for the CBR file. With Bashpodder, I just put in the RSS feeds and forget about it. Others useing podcatching software probably do the same thing. Why go back to the site when what you want is downloaded automatically?

Thanks for the info about the ipod, this makes me think that few portable devices are able to play, rewind, fast forward, and stop and play the VBR files correctly.

Judland · Post by **Judland** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:17 pm

mowestusa wrote:Thanks for the info about the ipod, this makes me think that few portable devices are able to play, rewind, fast forward, and stop and play the VBR files correctly.

My GP2X seems to handle them just fine.