Return to Unfiction unforum
 a.r.g.b.b 
FAQ FAQ   Search Search 
 
Welcome!
New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.
Website Restoration Project
This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.
Announcements
This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.
This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.
  

The time now is Thu Nov 14, 2024 11:35 am
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)		 View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum
Calendar
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Puzzles
SP Waves w/hidden data?
View previous topicView next topic
Page 1 of 2 [16 Posts]   Goto page: 1, 2 Next
Author Message
Tar Ecthelion
Veteran

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Manteca CA

 		SP Waves w/hidden data?
Ok maybe this isn't a puzzle and it's just puzzle'n me...

I was listening to the Wavs left on onceuponatime.html and in Windows Media Player I get an error listening to them near the end of each of the newest waves. It doesn't happen X # of seconds after it starts or before it ends... and it doesn't happen when I listen to any other wave on the website (namely the Axon waves).... Is there something here or an I just over eager for info from the Sleeping Princess.

Just to help:
- I'm use'n WinMedia Player version 10.00.00.3646
- And when I play it in WinAmp it goes right through it with no problem.
(is WinAmp just better at dealing and Media player evil and anal... yeah probably. But does that mean there is nothing in the file?)
- I downloaded them to my HDD, same behaviour, and opened them in Notepad but nothing stood out.

Someone have a hex editor or sound software that can shine some more light this way?

Sorry if it's trout,
-Tar
_________________
"Not all who wander are lost"

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:58 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
ABoxInABox
Decorated

Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 232
Location: The Future

 		WMP checks if you need a licence for what you're playing, so playing is deleyed for about a second. Winamp, on the other hand, plays it whatever happens.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:32 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address MSN Messenger
 Back to top 
Tar Ecthelion
Veteran

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Manteca CA

 		Well that's a good thought... but it doesn't behave that way for me:

Especialy in the case of funnest.wav... It doesn't complain until 1:02 (62 sec) into it (which is nearing the end) and on crazy.wav at 0:03 (3 sec).

I don't want to turn this into tech support. The only reason I bring it up is because I have played everyother wav durring the corse of the whole game and many others over the last few months and these are the 1st to behave this way. And I can still go back to the old ones and they're still fine... just listened to CATFIGHT a few minutes ago, with no problem!?

If I'm crazy then just say so... but can anyone else reproduce it? If not I'll take my fish to go.
Razz

I've added a gif of the box... not very helpfull though, just explains the formating in the file is wrong. (Thus the reason for my post)

-Tar
_________________
"Not all who wander are lost"

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:46 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
SuperDiamond
Boot

Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 17

 		What version of WMP are you running? I am using the latest and I am not seeing any problems. If the file got corrupted somehow, you need to clear your cache and re-download to make sure that you are getting a fresh file.

Does the file continue to play after the error dialog shows up?

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:17 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Tar Ecthelion
Veteran

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Manteca CA

 		Re: SP Waves w/hidden data?
Tar Ecthelion wrote:
Just to help:
- I'm use'n WinMedia Player version 10.00.00.3646
- And when I play it in WinAmp it goes right through it with no problem.
(is WinAmp just better at dealing and Media player evil and anal... yeah probably. But does that mean there is nothing in the file?)
- I downloaded them to my HDD, same behaviour, and opened them in Notepad but nothing stood out.


I've cleared the cache and redownloaded... I've also used IE now instead of FireFox and in both cases same result.

I'll attach one of the wavs just in case it really is just the way it's being pulled down.

-Tar

Just tried to do an update on Media Player and it says I'm good...
_________________
"Not all who wander are lost"

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:34 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Tar Ecthelion
Veteran

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Manteca CA

 		So am I crazy? It's just me... ?

I'm ok with that answer. Just wanted to see if it was something new. Odd though that it's just these wavs and no others... Not the Axons not previous sound bytes from Melissa, or anyone else.

-Tar
_________________
"Not all who wander are lost"

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:36 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		it's not just you.

I downloaded the files using IE, then discovered the problem midway thru every file. I went back and downloaded every file using Firefox (which is how I have downloaded all files in the past) but got the same problem midway thru playback.

"The file format is invalid."
Windows Media Player
Version 6.4.07

One would think that the file would either not play at all, or play the whole way thru. Why does the file only become "invalid" after playing fine for the beginning seconds?

(I'm stubborn about upgrading, so don't bother telling me that might be the problem.) The question isn't so much as to how to FIX these files, as it is about WHY they seemed to have changed something that was working for past files.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:04 pm
 View user's profile AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
 Back to top 
missphinx
Unfettered

Joined: 02 Oct 2003
Posts: 395

 		Me three. Same deal with all four wav files.

(XP and WMP 9.00.00.3075)

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:16 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		try renaming them to mp3's... all the wavs off the ilovebees to date have been mp3's, just named with the wav extension... might cause problems playing in some places... <shrug>
_________________
@4DFiction/@Wikibruce/Contact
ARGFest 2013 - Seattle! ARGFest.com

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:28 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website AIM Address
 Back to top 
missphinx
Unfettered

Joined: 02 Oct 2003
Posts: 395

 		worked like charm.

thank you much. Smile

PostPosted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:11 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Arana
Unfettered


Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 353
Location: shallow grave

 		Re: SP Waves w/hidden data?
Tar Ecthelion wrote:
I'll attach one of the wavs just in case it really is just the way it's being pulled down.

-Tar

Just tried to do an update on Media Player and it says I'm good...


The clip you uploaded plays perfectly on a Mac using Safari 1.0.3 with the QuickTime plug-in as the player.

So along with the info from TheBruce, it appears that the idea that problem playing results from embeded content is not supported.
_________________
If it's *spec* you never have to say that you're sorry.

PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 2:18 pm
 View user's profile Visit poster's website
 Back to top 
Tar Ecthelion
Veteran

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Manteca CA
thebruce wrote:
try renaming them to mp3's... all the wavs off the ilovebees to date have been mp3's, just named with the wav extension... might cause problems playing in some places... <shrug>

This worked for me as well... but it still sticks with me as odd. Why then are these the only ones that did it and only now. I went on to listen to all the other waves on the Axons etc.... and only now with these files does it complain. So back to my original question... weather we can fix it or not. Is there something to it? We had bad images and we didn't go about figuring out if it was fixable... we dissected it. So can we dissect these? Can we find out why these are different then the other waves released?

Oh and thanks for not agreeing that I'm crazy...

-Tar
_________________
"Not all who wander are lost"

PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:18 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
spunkinator
Boot


Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 44
Location: Boise, ID
thebruce wrote:
try renaming them to mp3's... all the wavs off the ilovebees to date have been mp3's, just named with the wav extension... might cause problems playing in some places... <shrug>


The reason this works is because the PMs encoded the audio files with the MP3 codec. If they were raw PCM wavs (non encoded), the file sizes would be substantially bigger (11x). There are different compression codecs for use with WAV files, and the one that is most widely used and accepted is (obviously) the mp3 codec. Renaming it to *.mp3 only validates the fact that WMP doesn't handle it as well as Winamp does.
_________________
"A band?!"

PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 2:31 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Tar Ecthelion
Veteran

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 86
Location: Manteca CA
spunkinator wrote:
thebruce wrote:
try renaming them to mp3's... all the wavs off the ilovebees to date have been mp3's, just named with the wav extension... might cause problems playing in some places... <shrug>


The reason this works is because the PMs encoded the audio files with the MP3 codec. If they were raw PCM wavs (non encoded), the file sizes would be substantially bigger (11x). There are different compression codecs for use with WAV files, and the one that is most widely used and accepted is (obviously) the mp3 codec. Renaming it to *.mp3 only validates the fact that WMP doesn't handle it as well as Winamp does.


Well it's become increasing clear this isn't going anywhere... but long story short:

This still doesn't explain my origional reason... I don't want to fix it, I want to know why it's just these few waves and not all the others also encoded by the PMs. Why are these different? (Don't say the codec... We got that. Why did these get a different codec? or if they all use this codec why do only these get touchy about it?)

catherwood wrote:
One would think that the file would either not play at all, or play the whole way thru. Why does the file only become "invalid" after playing fine for the beginning seconds?


Why does the codec only become a problem 2/3 of the way through? Shouldn't it complain upfront and not play? Why is it only 1 sec from the end in one place and 7 or 8 sec in the other? It just doesn't seem like a codec or something that would effect the whole file. MP3 formatting makes the file much lose a lot of it's sound data and in doing so makes it more like lots of small sounds run together... (it's not "Losless") thus couldn't there be data in there that when it thinks its a wav it sees as too much or unexpected. But when it runs it as a MP3 it sees as extraneous, and drops/ignores it?

Ok, so maybe that wasn't long story short exactly... Long story medium.

Mean while I'm less worried about it now... it just seemed like another puzzle to me. Much the same as the hidden data in the Images. But not nearly as simple it seems.

-Tar
_________________
"Not all who wander are lost"

PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 3:30 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
darkmoonz
Unfettered


Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 330
Location: Gainesville, FL

 		yeah... (sorry i'm getting here so late...) but this happens to me too... i've been wondering about it as well...

well, that wasn't helpful at all, but yeah... (:
_________________
reveal:
!label darkmoonz

PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2004 7:41 pm
 View user's profile
 Back to top 
Display posts from previous:   Sort by:   
Page 1 of 2 [16 Posts]   Goto page: 1, 2 Next
View previous topicView next topic
 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Puzzles
Jump to:  


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum



Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group