Colm
03-07-2007, 23:21
I never had trouble ripping and playing OGG files on my X5, until one day I ripped a file that the X5 simply refused to play. It always skipped over it to the next. I ripped a few more, and before I new it, I had a whole folder full of files that always just got ignored.
I saw that there were lots of posts in various forums from people who had similar problems but didn't know how to fix it, and not just on the X5 but sometimes on other Cowon products too. Helpful people suggested culprits such as DRM, too many files on the device, etc etc but none of them really seemed to help me.
I figured it out though, and hope that this can help anyone else who is has this problem. The problem was that unbeknownst to me, the OGG data in these particular files were sampled at 48.0 kHz. WAV and MP3 files seem to play fine at 48 kHz, but these OGG files had to be resampled at 44.1 kHz and now they all play fine.
The CD files that I ripped to WAV and then converted to OGG were, in the past, always sampled at 44.1, so no problem (i.e. my CD ripping software). Then I started ripping audio from DVD tracks (DVD->VOB->AC3->WAV->OGG yes, I know that's kind of ridiculous, but I'm too cheap to actually buy convenient software) the music originally got ripped at 48.0 by this different method, and stayed at that rate all the way through the conversions. Hence the skipping-over.
So, the bottom line for frustrated newbies (like me):
-If your file won't play, check the sampling rate. Thats the "Hz" or "kHz" number.
-If you have the original WAV, just re-convert it but find the program setting that changes the sampling rate and adjust that first.
-If you only have the OGG file, download a free audio program like Audacity to change the sampling rate and then re-save it.
-If you only have the original MP3 and still want to convert it, congratulations on being stubbornly open-source. (Just use Audacity, or convert MP3->WAV->OGG and resample during one of those steps if you insist. Enjoy your "lossy" music.)
Free software that worked for me:
DVD -> VOB... SmartRipper
VOB -> AC3 -> WAV... AC3Tool (kind of confusing, but it works)
Just about all the other conversions, plus resampling... Audacity
Hope this helps someone. (I'm open to suggestions, too.)
I saw that there were lots of posts in various forums from people who had similar problems but didn't know how to fix it, and not just on the X5 but sometimes on other Cowon products too. Helpful people suggested culprits such as DRM, too many files on the device, etc etc but none of them really seemed to help me.
I figured it out though, and hope that this can help anyone else who is has this problem. The problem was that unbeknownst to me, the OGG data in these particular files were sampled at 48.0 kHz. WAV and MP3 files seem to play fine at 48 kHz, but these OGG files had to be resampled at 44.1 kHz and now they all play fine.
The CD files that I ripped to WAV and then converted to OGG were, in the past, always sampled at 44.1, so no problem (i.e. my CD ripping software). Then I started ripping audio from DVD tracks (DVD->VOB->AC3->WAV->OGG yes, I know that's kind of ridiculous, but I'm too cheap to actually buy convenient software) the music originally got ripped at 48.0 by this different method, and stayed at that rate all the way through the conversions. Hence the skipping-over.
So, the bottom line for frustrated newbies (like me):
-If your file won't play, check the sampling rate. Thats the "Hz" or "kHz" number.
-If you have the original WAV, just re-convert it but find the program setting that changes the sampling rate and adjust that first.
-If you only have the OGG file, download a free audio program like Audacity to change the sampling rate and then re-save it.
-If you only have the original MP3 and still want to convert it, congratulations on being stubbornly open-source. (Just use Audacity, or convert MP3->WAV->OGG and resample during one of those steps if you insist. Enjoy your "lossy" music.)
Free software that worked for me:
DVD -> VOB... SmartRipper
VOB -> AC3 -> WAV... AC3Tool (kind of confusing, but it works)
Just about all the other conversions, plus resampling... Audacity
Hope this helps someone. (I'm open to suggestions, too.)