Digital Workshop

I ran into a strange problem for which I cannot find the reason/solution.
I'm using MP3-files in my project and have already imported about 12 of them. Since a week or so I got an new desktop-computer, reinstalled Opus 4.0 and the recent update.
If I now import a new MP3 the only thing I get on replay is a screeching sound as if the file is played at an enormous speed.
The prevously used MP3's play all right however in the preview. I first thought the upgrade was responsible so I uninstalled Opus, reinstalled only the old 4.0 and tried again, but without succes: still a screeching sound.
If I play the MP3's in the windows mediaplayer, everything sounds normal. If I use them on my laptop they sound all right too. If I play them on my laptop in a copy of the Opus 4.0 -project (no upgrade installed) they are all right too.
With the upgrade on the laptop I have not tried, because I found that some scripts are reacting awkward after upgrading and don't do what they are supposed to do.
(anybody recognising this too? )

Creating a MP3 on the laptop and importing it in Opus 4.0 is no problem. The same MP3 imported in Opus on my new desktop is screeching like an alien with his toe trapped under a car/spaceship.

Anybody who recognises the problem?

If I use wma-files or wav's they sound all right, so there is a work-around. But these files are bigger and it irritates me that I can't find what's causing this.

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

We have received no other reports of problems playing MP3 audio files in Opus Presenter 4.21, Opus Pro 4.21 or Opus Pro XE 4.21 and I have tried to replicate this issue on several test machines without success.

To eliminate the possibility of a corrupt installation or upgrade, could you please try the following procedure?

- Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
- Look through the list of installed programs for any references to Opus Presenter 04, Opus Pro 04, Illuminatus Opus, Illuminatus Opus Pro, Opus Pro XE, Opus Presenter or Illuminatus 4.5
- If found, click on the entry to highlight it, then click the Remove button to uninstall the software.
- Once all versions of Opus have been uninstalled, please right-click on your Start button and select Explore...
- Navigate to C:\Program Files and look for any folders referring to Opus Presenter 04, Opus Pro 04, Illuminatus Opus, Illuminatus Opus Pro, Opus Pro XE, Opus Presenter or Illuminatus 4.5
- If found, simply click on the folder to highlight it, then press Delete on the keyboard.
- Once all Opus program folders have been deleted, click Start > Run, type regedit and click OK
- Double-click on the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder to display its contents
- Double-click on the Software folder to display its contents
- Now single-click on the Digital Workshop folder to highlight it and press Delete on the keyboard
- Click Yes to confirm the deletion. Now please close the Registry Editor using the X icon in the top-right of the screen.

Now reinstall Opus Pro using the original installation CD-ROM. Once installed, please download and install the latest Service Release from ftp://ftp.digitalworkshop.com/pub/opusu ... 04_SR2.exe. Once updated, launch Opus Pro 04, load in your publication and test to see if the problem is still present.

If the problem persists, could you possibly forward me one of the audio files with which you have encountered this problem and I will investigate further?

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

Thanks,

Due to a stay in hospital, I've not yet tried it, but will do so in the days ahead. I'll let you know how things went.

Ad

Hi Garrett,

I've done exactly what you wrote, but the problem persists. The Mp3-file keeps on screeching and my script doesn't work.
I'm attaching one of the Mp3-files.
When listening with mediaplayer you'll quickly find out why this is very annoying with this kind of music. (though my students will probably will be quite content with the result )

Regards,

Ad

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

I have downloaded your MP3 file and have imported this into an Opus publication as a page action (On Show > Play Sound) and as a button actions (Left Mouse Click > Play Sound), but the audio plays correctly. I can therefore only assume that the problem is inherent in the publication (unlikely as it runs correctly on another machine) or is system-related (possibly related to DirectSound).

I would recommend downloading and installing the very latest versions of Windows Media Player (from www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia) and DirectX (from www.microsoft.com/windows/directx). Once both of these components have been updated, please test to see if the problem is still present.

Regarding the problems you have experienced with script in SR2, is this related to the Volume Slider example I sent you several months ago? If so, we have made a number of changes to the way SetPosition() functions operate on framed objects which could cause this example to behave differently and you now need to factor in the original co-ordinates of the parent frame when moving the slider. Please forward me your publication .imp file and I will be happy to make the necessary adjustments to ensure this works as expected.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

Hi,

Further to my previous reply, one of our developers has replicated this issue and has identified the cause of the problem.

It appears that your system may be using a non-standard MP3 decoder by default. This may be the case if you have installed third-party media software such as WinAMP, Foobar 2000 or Zoom Player or a codec pack, and certain MP3 decoders appear to struggle to cope with certain audio bitrates (your audio file has an unusually low bitrate). On our test machines, the Ligos MP3 encoder displayed problems processing your audio file, so this may also be the culprit on your system.

The reason this problem is not apparent in Windows Media Player is because this player always uses the original Microsoft decoders by preference. However, when the file is played in Opus, DirectSound reverts to your problematic default decoder.

There are various solutions...

One would be to re-encode the MP3 file at a more common bitrate such as 192Kbps and this should allow the third-party encoder to process the file without further problems.

Another solution would be to import the file in WAV format. Although the original WAV file may be a very large file, Opus Pro 04 can automatically convert audio to OGG Vorbis format during the publish process which should significantly reduce the filesize (in many cases to a smaller size than an MP3 file of equivalent quality). The published Opus executable also has its own built-in OGG player and does not rely on end-user codecs.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

Hi,

My first action as I encountered this problem was downloading the latest version of directX, the mediaplayer and my sounddrivers, so I already tried that.
My new system came with some software pre-installed. Reading your suggestions I leads me to suspect the software included with the integrated soundboard as the guilty one. The rest is the same as on my old desktop-system and that worked fine. Strange is however that when I import an "old" mp3-file it imports correctly. Shouldn't this by this theory also be 'redirected' to the quirky Mp3-codec and come out wrong
Anyhow, I now know where to look for the problem and the wave-file-suggestion sound as a good solution too, as the soundfiles are relatively short.

As to the script, it is now integrated into some pages with a lot of voluminous resource and will not run alone, but I have a 'standalone' of the different parts and can send that along.

Thanks for your trouble!!

Regards,

Ad

Hi,

I solved the Mp3-problem by re-encoding it and changing the quality of the compression. Mp3's now work fine.

regards,

Ad

ps. Have a nice Christmas an a happy new year.