EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

EEVblog => The AmpHour Radio Show => Topic started by: Barny on October 23, 2019, 09:44:44 am

Title: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: Barny on October 23, 2019, 09:44:44 am

Hello

Am I the only one having problems with the MP3's of this podcast?

All of my MP3-Players (old school MP3 player on a key chain, multiple software player on mobile phone and PC) have problems to get the correct playtime from the AmpHour-MP3's

That means, once I pause the MP3, the mp3 starts at a complete different position.
Same is for skipping through the MP3 after pausing to get to the correct position after pause the podcast.
When I skip within the MP3, I get to complete random positions.

When I have to pause the MP3, I have to restart the complete podcast and run the podcast at high speed to the position where I stopped.

 
Is there a way to repair the MP3s?
Because most of the time I'm not able to listen the podcast in one go and the whole procedure to resume is a little annoying.

Title: Re: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: Peabody on October 23, 2019, 01:58:27 pm

You may be the only one.  :-)

The latest episode (463) seems to work fine for me on VLC, WMP, and my old Sansa Clip player.

Title: Re: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: thinkfat on October 23, 2019, 07:31:03 pm

Could be a VBR (variable bitrate) MP3. Not uncommon. You could try re-encoding it to CBR.
No, you're not the only one, the player on the website has the same problem.

Title: Re: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: igendel on October 23, 2019, 07:38:13 pm

Has some issues with the website player too recently - stops playing suddenly but the timer keeps running, then I have to go back to the start or reload the page. I thought the problem was on my side somehow...

Title: Re: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: Barny on October 24, 2019, 10:08:08 am

I've found out that on the PC software site, the Microsoft - Player (Win7) can't handle the AmpHour mp3's
(old and new ones)
VLC is working fine with them.
The problem is that I'm allowed to download & listen to podcasts, but I'm not allowed to install programs like VLC

Which means, I have to use VLC on my phone instead my usual podcast player and have to listen the podcasts that way.

Title: Re: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: mariush on October 24, 2019, 01:36:32 pm

Should just upgrade to OPUS .. it's open source and supported by web browsers, and produces much better quality at lower bitrates than MP3 or even AAC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_(audio_format)#/media/File:Opus_bitrate+latency_comparison.svg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_(audio_format)#/media/File:Opus_bitrate+latency_comparison.svg)

Here's example, 48kbps Opus track, 25 MB instead of ~68 MB for mp3 : http://savedonthe.net/a/output48.opus (http://savedonthe.net/a/output48.opus)
You can right click on player and save file, or from file menu, save page as ... or right click on above link and select save target as / download etc

And just for fun, here's same track encoded at 16 kbps, less than 8.75 MB: http://savedonthe.net/a/output16.opus (http://savedonthe.net/a/output16.opus) - perfectly fine for voice, the intro with music sounds worse but once you get to voice only it's perfectly listenable.


And use Stereo ffs, it's 2019... codecs are smart enough to take advantage of same content on both channels and compress well, with minimal costs.

Title: Re: Problems with the MP3 of the AmpHour podcast
Post by: thinkfat on October 24, 2019, 03:03:08 pm

Podcast Addict works great for me on Android.