Subject: MP3 tools for WG minutes

From: Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 12:17:00 -0400

Hi,

I've typically checked the minutes I have done against the audio recordings
(and gotten somewhat close to transcribing in cases on detailed technical
discussions). But there no longer seems to be a built in MP3 player in a
common browser that is useful for this. Safari now loops after 35 minutes.
Chrome loops after 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 58 seconds, Firefox says the
file is corrupted, Explorer on a PC seems to have no way to select where in
the file you want it to play from and I haven't had the patience yet to see
if it loops before the end... And I know I am not the only person with this
problem.

Does anyone know of a simple tool, preferably for the Macintosh in my case,
that lets you play LONG .mp3 files and gives you at least some crude
control over where in the file you are playing from? If there are no such
tools, then I think we need to have all the audio files split into smaller
pieces.

Thanks,
Donald
=============================
 Donald E. Eastlake 3rd   +1-508-333-2270 (cell)
 155 Beaver Street, Milford, MA 01757 USA
 [email-masked]

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From: "Acee Lindem (acee)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 16:45:18 +0000

Did you try simply downloading the file and importing it into iTunes?
Acee
On Aug 15, 2015, at 12:17 PM, Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:

Hi,

I've typically checked the minutes I have done against the audio recordings (and gotten somewhat close to transcribing in cases on detailed technical discussions). But there no longer seems to be a built in MP3 player in a common browser that is useful for this. Safari now loops after 35 minutes. Chrome loops after 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 58 seconds, Firefox says the file is corrupted, Explorer on a PC seems to have no way to select where in the file you want it to play from and I haven't had the patience yet to see if it loops before the end... And I know I am not the only person with this problem.

Does anyone know of a simple tool, preferably for the Macintosh in my case, that lets you play LONG .mp3 files and gives you at least some crude control over where in the file you are playing from? If there are no such tools, then I think we need to have all the audio files split into smaller pieces.

Thanks,
Donald
=============================
 Donald E. Eastlake 3rd   +1-508-333-2270 (cell)
 155 Beaver Street, Milford, MA 01757 USA
 [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

---

From: Adam Roach <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 11:49:26 -0500

> On Aug 15, 2015, at 11:17, Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Firefox says the file is corrupted

Send me a link to the file, the version number of Firefox you're running, and the operating system version you're on; I'll open a bug. Or, if you want, you can open a bug yourself:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org

/a

---

From: "John G. Scudder" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 13:08:22 -0400

On Aug 15, 2015, at 12:17 PM, Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know of a simple tool, preferably for the Macintosh in my case, that lets you play LONG .mp3 files and gives you at least some crude control over where in the file you are playing from? 

QuickTime Player. Should be pre-installed in "Applications" on your Mac. I've been using it for this purpose for years with success, although this time around I found its time code support to be... well, your description of "crude" is apt. I suppose this might have to do with how the file is encoded (especially given the other woes you experienced) but I'm prone to blame QT Player itself.

But it was still good enough to help me compile the minutes.

--John

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From: Lou Berger <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 13:10:47 -0400

download the mp3 and try winamp (windows) or vlc (multi platform).
Although I now typically download and play on my android phone...

 On 08/15/2015 12:17 PM, Donald Eastlake wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've typically checked the minutes I have done against the audio
> recordings (and gotten somewhat close to transcribing in cases on
> detailed technical discussions). But there no longer seems to be a built
> in MP3 player in a common browser that is useful for this. Safari now
> loops after 35 minutes. Chrome loops after 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 58
> seconds, Firefox says the file is corrupted, Explorer on a PC seems to
> have no way to select where in the file you want it to play from and I
> haven't had the patience yet to see if it loops before the end... And I
> know I am not the only person with this problem.
> 
> Does anyone know of a simple tool, preferably for the Macintosh in my
> case, that lets you play LONG .mp3 files and gives you at least some
> crude control over where in the file you are playing from? If there are
> no such tools, then I think we need to have all the audio files split
> into smaller pieces.
> 
> Thanks,
> Donald
>  [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>

---

From: Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2015 15:06:44 -0400

Hi,

Thank for the various suggestions and offers of help.

I have fought with this a bit more and it appears that part of the
confusion is because the audio file is actually truncated and ends mid-word
before the end of the WG session. iTunes says it is 1 hour 20 min 21 sec
long and just stops at the end. Comparing the size of the file to other
audio files, it seems plausible that it is actually truncated at about that
length. Chrome says it is 1 hour 16 min 58 sec and then loops back to the
start like some sort of overflow. However, the sound stream is the same for
both of these players so there is some mis-calibration of time or playing
speed by over 4%. (And, as I mentioned, Safari thinks it is 35 min 40 sec
and loops back from there, which is way earlier in the WG session that the
other players.)

Firefox had said the file was corrupted but that was because I was having
difficulties the first time I tried to download it. On successfully
downloading it and using Firefox, Firefox claims it is 1 hour 12 min 10 sec
but when it gets to that time and the end of the progress bar, it just
keeps playing and advancing the end time. However, you can't navigate
around in this area beyond the initially announced end and if you try, it
zaps back to the start.

Anyway, at this point I have apparently played as much sound as there is...

Thanks,
Donald

On Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 12:17 PM, Donald Eastlake <[email-masked]> wrote:

> recordings (and gotten somewhat close to transcribing in cases on detailed
> technical discussions). But there no longer seems to be a built in MP3
> player in a common browser that is useful for this. Safari now loops after
> 35 minutes. Chrome loops after 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 58 seconds, Firefox
> says the file is corrupted, Explorer on a PC seems to have no way to select
> where in the file you want it to play from and I haven't had the patience
> yet to see if it loops before the end... And I know I am not the only
> person with this problem.
>
> case, that lets you play LONG .mp3 files and gives you at least some crude

---

From: Tim Wicinski <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2015 10:31:03 -0400

I use vlc which allows me to speed up the conversations as well very 
easily to move through some slower periods.

tim

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From: "Paul Hoffman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 11:08:05 -0400

> easily to move through some slower periods.

+1 to VLC. As long as Ekr is not involved, I can usually take minutes at 
1.3. Using .8 for Ekr is often sufficient.

--Paul Hoffman