Hi guys,
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Tell me, what’s more comforting than having a mug full of warm coffee while listening and browsing through those SS lesson pages? Nothing, I say!
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Eileen
中文 Chinese
David Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I’ve notice that your online Chinese dictionary states it has over 160,000 words in it. Is that how many words you have taught? If not, how many have been taught?
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Is there any reason that some of the mp3s on your site are 2.2.0 tagged, while some are 2.3.0 tagged?
This shows two versions of the same episode:
$ file chinesepod_C0585p*
chinesepod_C0585pb.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod_C0585pr.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.2.0 tag
The problem for me is that Windows Media Player V11 seemingly will not play MP3s tagged with 2.3.0 tags, while it has no problems with 2.2.0 tagged files.
Unfortunately, the dialog files all seem to be 2.3.0 tagged so I cannot play them in Windows Media Player.
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Well, I am mystified, because I cannot see why Windows Media Player 11 will play some MP3s that are tagged 2.3.0, while others it won’t. The same files play fine on my MP3 players.
For example, of the following I have in my collection:
chinesepod059_C5_20051201.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod064_C6_20051206.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod067_C7_20051209.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod070_C8_20051212.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod073_C9_20051215.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod078_C10_20051220.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod080_C11_20051222.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod081_C12_20051223.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod084_C13_20051226.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod088_C14_20051230.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod092_C15_20060103.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod094_C16_20060105.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod097_C17_20060109.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
only C10 and C12 seem to play. While C10 seems missing the lyrics section, C12 has them, so it’s not that.
I shall have to keep searching.
Eileen Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Hi David and Richard,
I’m so sorry for the late reply. Re: david’s question, the dictionary’s contents were pulled from various sources (+ user contributions) and thus, it is way bigger than the overall vocab list Cpod has at the moment. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have the exact figure to adequately answer your 2nd question.
Richard, I will try and install WMP 11 on my office computer and try it out as well.
trevelyan Says:
August 20th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Hi Richard,
We changed our system for ID3 tagging when we switched to V3. The filenames don’t follow the V3 convention so I’m guessing you downloaded them before the shift.
I’ve noticed that iTunes can be a bit ideosyncratic on Chinese computers (it was related to some of the chipmunk issues we had not too long ago). Since we would have used iTunes for the older ID3 tagging, that might be the problem right there.
Assuming the problem is only with the older files (do the current ones give you any problems?), the best solution might just be re-downloading the problematic lessons individually (private) from the new lessons page, or grabbing the public versions through the torrent.
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:02 am
Well, I have the same problems with these recent files:
$ file chinesepod_*dg.mp3
chinesepod_C0593dg.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
chinesepod_C0600dg.mp3: MP3 file with ID3 version 2.3.0 tag
I have not yet found a tool that will show me all the tags as a simple report. I am thinking of writing a simple Perl script to use the MP3 module to list out all the tag info to see if I can spot anything.
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 25th, 2007 at 7:39 am
OK, I have found a tool that shows all the tags. It seems to be that any MP3 file where the Mpeg mode is mono will not play in WMP11.
I will see if I can convert to Stereo or Joint Stereo, but you guys might try to ensure you do not create mono mode MP3 files in the future …
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 25th, 2007 at 7:57 am
OK, I have confirmed that mono mode is the problem.
I loaded one of the MP3 files that causes problems into Audacity, duplicated the track, labeled (Damn American Spelling) one as the left channel and one as the right channel, saved the file, and now WMP11 is happy with the modified file.
Can you please ensure that all MP3s you create are stereo MP3s?
Groan. Do I want to hand convert all the offending MP3s?
AuntySue Says:
August 25th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
It would seem to me that there is something wrong with a music player which cannot cope with mono, and that might be the more correct place to fix the problem. Or am I missing something?
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 26th, 2007 at 4:00 am
Well, yeah, it could be that the problem is with the codec pack I installed.
However, ChinesePODs tagging of MP3s is all over the place as well. There seems to be a clear lack of consistency.
Richard Sharpe Says:
August 26th, 2007 at 4:23 am
I did a Google search at first to see if anyone else had had the sort of problems I was having. Didn’t turn up much except for a cryptic reference to a freely available codec pack causing problems with mono-only MP3s (and I couldn’t see that the offending MP3s were mono only until recently).
I have deleted the pack but I will have to wait for the next reboot of my work machine before I test the problem, since working on things like increasing the size of our storage device from a max of 2TB to 16TB is more important than a reboot at the moment. However, I guess I could take the files home and test them on one of my home machines …
Hotpot Mike Says:
August 27th, 2007 at 1:06 am
I’m going to recommend a complete reformat of your computer. 16TB might have to wait a few days.
Richard Sharpe Says:
September 5th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Well, after a reboot did not fix things, I did some more searching, and it turned out that an updated version of ACSFilter fixed the problem. I am now a happy camper when it comes to mono MP3s.
Here is a link to the new ACSFilter