Finding My Music

[Whatsamobo]

I cannot get SageTv 2 to find my music for the Jukebox. Need my music files be in a certain directory?

[gplasky]

You need to define your music directory in the library import directories. Go into Setup-Multimedia.

Gerry

[Whatsamobo]

Hi Gerr it is me again. Pointed to the directory that contains all my song and nothing. My files are WMA not MP3's should that matter. Is this an issue of the player similar to my dvd issue?

[Opus4]

WMA is not a format currently supported by SageTV.

- Andy

[gplasky]

You gotta rip them to MP3. Ther are various programs out there that can do it.

Gerry

[JasonJoel]

No... Sage needs to support WMA (in the future). Each time you re-encode you lose quality...

I HATE how Sage TV doesn't support WMA or WMV. Big drawback for me. Means I have to have another program to listen to all my music and most of my movies.

Oh well. I'll just continue to grin and bear it until either BTV gets better than Sage TV (seems unlikely at this point), or Sage TV supports more formats.

Jason

Originally posted by gplasky
You gotta rip them to MP3. Ther are various programs out there that can do it.

Gerry

[gplasky]

I would hope they come out with an add-on pack that you can purchase. It costs money to be able to support wma because you have to license it from Microsoft. I'd hate to see the cost of Sage go up to support this.

Gerry

[JasonJoel]

I would be fine with an extra paid for add-on to get WMA/WMA capability.

That would be a fair compromise, in my opinion.

Jason

Originally posted by gplasky
I would hope they come out with an add-on pack that you can purchase. It costs money to be able to support wma because you have to license it from Microsoft. I'd hate to see the cost of Sage go up to support this.

Gerry

[Cayars]

Originally posted by gplasky
I would hope they come out with an add-on pack that you can purchase. It costs money to be able to support wma because you have to license it from Microsoft. I'd hate to see the cost of Sage go up to support this.

Gerry

Where did you get this info from?

[nielm]

Another reason why WMA may not (never?) be supported is discussed in this thread:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...=&threadid=999

30-Jun-2003: Narflex
There's no current plans to support Windows Media because it doesn't work for networked playback. Microsoft uses a proprietary file reading technique that I'm sure they have no plans of publicizing.

[gplasky]

Cayars:

From here:
What are the steps to obtain the Windows Media Encoder Licensing Agreement?

To redistribute Windows Media Encoder 9 Series end-user applications, complete the Windows Media Licensing Form. When you click Submit License Request at the bottom of the form, your request is sent in an e-mail message to Microsoft.

Also reference here:

Windows Media Licensing Form

And actual form:

Actual Form

Gerry

[salsbst]

Sage could support WMA playback without supporting WMA encoding.

[salsbst]

That is, if the music library were distributed by a network file share as opposed to streamed from server to client.

[Cayars]

You can encode the files AND distribute them without any royalties or monies owed MS. However, if you charge for the encoded files then it's another story. This is no different the MPEG2.

In other words, it does not apply to us or Frey.

Carlo

[salsbst]

sorry... I meant that, in order to get around the problem of not being able to connect the WMA file reader to a networking pin, Sage could use SMB file sharing to distribute encoded music. Not sure that changing the architecture is worth it just to support WMA, but with its popularity, perhaps it is so.

[gplasky]

My understanding was if you include that capability in your application you have to license it. It has nothing to do with charging for encoded files. Since Sage has the capability to stream to the client I would think they would have to build it into the app and thus license it from MS.

You have these distribution agreements:
Windows Media Distribution Agreements

WM Player 9S Distribution Agreement for Windows
WM Encoder 9S Distribution Agreement for Windows
WM Player v7 for Macintosh Distribution Agreement

Also:
Windows Media Format Component Licenses

WM Format Component Source Development Agreement (For example: For IC manufacturers porting Windows Media Audio to their chipset.) This agreement replaces the Master Porting Agreement.
WM Format Component Distribution Agreement (For example: For OEMs distributing a ported Windows Media Video codec in a consumer electronics device, or for an ISV distributing a Windows Media Audio codec for a non-Windows desktop.) This agreement replaces the IC/OEM distribution agreements

And then they want this info:
You must also provide Product Information or Chip Set information. In order to distribute your product, you must provide us with a product/application name and a clear, brief description of its intended use. If you are applying for an evaluation license and do not have a product name yet, please enter “eval”. A product/application can be either a physical product, a web page url, a unique service, etc. Examples are: www.myspecialwebservice.com, MySpecial Media Player, MySpecial Software, MySpecial Service.

This has nothing to do with charging for encoded files. It a license to distribute the MS files required to play WMA (and other formats) from MS.

Gerry

[salsbst]

Unless I'm misreading, none of the above relates to play back of WMA using the DirectShow reading and decoding filters.

The only problem AFAIK is that Sage's client/server architecture is built around the notion of streaming the encoded media over the network. The WMA file reader filter is determined to speak directly to the WMA decoder filter, and vice versa, hence the problem.

It may be possible to develop a bridge filter that makes each of those other filters believe that they are connected to each other directly, but I bet MS has locked that door fairly tightly.

[Boxster_T]

How about APE? It's another loss-less compression scheme for audio that doesn't have the issues of WMA. It's also used in J River's MediaCenter. Given that Sage will be used in a home theater setup, MP3 just doesn't cut it for quality.

Just wishing
Tom

[JasonJoel]

That is what I don't understand...

I don't think you would have to drastically change the architecture. Copy the file over to the local machine, and play it. Seems simple to me.

Who cares that you can not buffer it using the same streaming protocol. Don't buffer it. Copy it, play it, delete it.

I've seen Jeff do MUCH more complicated things very quickly in the past...

Jason

Originally posted by salsbst
sorry... I meant that, in order to get around the problem of not being able to connect the WMA file reader to a networking pin, Sage could use SMB file sharing to distribute encoded music. Not sure that changing the architecture is worth it just to support WMA, but with its popularity, perhaps it is so.

[Opus4]

I'm curious... what is Windows Media Player 9 doing that allows me to play my wma files over the network?

- Andy