Osprey

Hi Kathryn, this is a pretty old post and the issue has ben fixed in the latest release, what version are you running?

Hoorah .... praise to NCH .... this is fixed and works correctly in ver 1.52

There was no firewall issue, whatever was wrong has been fixed - well done.

I have downloaded a DVD using BitTorrent .... the files are a number of VOB, IFO & BUP files.

If I open the folder with Windows Media Player and click on any file the film plays OK.

However I would like to create a playable DVD for use on standalone DVD player.#

I opened Express Burn ... and selected Video DVD

When I dragged across the files .. I got a pop up warning window ... "This file appears to be for a pre-authored Vidoie DVD. Adding to a Video DVD will re-author the disk and lose all menus, and possible re-encode teh movie.

You can burn these as authored using a Data DVD with the ISO/Joliet Filesystem. To wish to re-author or burn as-is"

Assume last bit is a typo and it should be 'Do you wish "

I hit cancel and did as they suggest and used data DVD ... however the disc created will not 'auto play' and standalone players state 'unsupported'

As before files will play if opened from within WMP on a PC.

When I gragged files to Express burn ... as mentioned I slected 'cancel' the other option was 're-author' or 'burn as author'

Hope somebody can help ...I am creating a lot of coasters at present.

How do I turn the files I have into a playable DVD ??

1) it only uses port 80 if you select

'Use http to access freeDB'

 

2) I have had a few issues with lookups on freeDB and much less using

muicbrainz. Suggest you check

'use alternate musicbrainz server'

 

Otherwise regarding errors;

 

A)

"The operation failed when trying to access the freeDB Internet server.

Check you are connected to the internet. You can also try using the

alternate server in Options"

- here you are using port 80 but cannot connect to the server

freedb.freedb.org

the alternative is

freedb.musicbrainz.org

 

"The operation failed when trying to access the freeDB Internet server.

Check you have port 8880 open for this application and try again later."

- here you are using direct TCP via port 8880 and should check

the firewall

 

In both cases you may have disallowed internet access to the

application (ie told the firewall the application cannot access the

web) in which case it needs to be altered

This is still an issue ... I have tried other rippers and athey all get track details no problem (iTunes for example) ... but the success rate with NCH ripper is about 1 CD in 10. and that is with freeDB and muicbrainz.

iTunes never fails .... ?

The fact that it does work sometimes would suggest that my Firewall is not the culprit ... it seems more likley to be a bug in software.

I don't see how this is a problem with my Firewall ? .... if it was how come it works part time ?

And works 100% of the time for Windows Media Player & iTunes .... it is only a problem with Express Rip ?

The version I use is 1.48

many people on this forum report the same problem, we can't all have a firewall problem.

You really need to act on this.

 

Look in this forum and there are loads of posts about same problem - and people are getting peeved.

 

If I put in a CD to rip ... almost always reports 'operation failed when trying to access the FreeDB Internet server .. Please check you are connected to internet'

Your FAQ even suggests connecting to www.freedb.org .... I do and get an instant connect no problem.

 

If I try your alternate server (Musicbrains) the same thing .... this must be an NCH issue, if I fire up Windows Media Player or iTunes they find tracks details instantly.

 

This appears to be an NCH issue - and you really do need to fix it, or people will use other products.

Interesting & worrying that NCH have not bothered to even answer this, it was also emailed directly to support - and again no answer.

Anybody manage to get any support out of NCH ??

I received a quick (next day) response from the vendor, NCH Swift Sound – impressive, seeing that I do not have a technical support contract.

The reply is: Thanks, the port error message is just the not too smart computer guessing what happened. I'll submit this as a bug for you. Regards, David - NCH Swift Sound

 

Let’s see if they impress us by fixing the bug.

as it's a few months now, did you get any update ?

You really need to act on this.

Look in this forum and there are loads of posts about same problem - and people are getting peeved.

If I put in a CD to rip ... almost always reports 'operation failed when trying to access the FreeDB Internet server .. Please check you are connected to internet'

Your FAQ even suggests connecting to www.freedb.org .... I do and get an instant connect no problem.

If I try your alternate server (Musicbrains) the same thing .... this must be an NCH issue, if I fire up Windows Media Player or iTunes they find tracks details instantly.

This appears to be an NCH issue - and you really do need to fix it, or people will use other products.

I have been using Audiograbber for several years to rip CDs but I liked the look of Express Rip so I thought I'd give it a try.

 

It does the job but unlike Audiograbber it consistently fails to access the freeDB or alternative database. This topic, I know, has done the rounds several times on this forum but it is clearly a long term bug and I'm aggrieved having paid for the thing. It worked for the first three CDs I tried (before paying for it!) and hasn't worked since.

 

The same CDs when ripped with Nero, Windows Media Player or Audiograber have no problems downloading track information.

 

It really is time that this problem was addressed by NCH, instead of fobbing off user with "It's a firewall problem." It isn't.

I have exactly the same problem .. most my CD's come back with FreeDB or Musibrains.

Yet if I fire up Windows Media Player it always finds the track details ... maybe NCH ought to give us a few other server choices to pick from.

The FAQ say try connecting to freedd.org web site, can do that with no problem.

I use switch to convert .ra files into MP3.

I have a pretty fast PC .. and I notice that when Switch is running it does not use up much in the way of processing power ... dual core PC ... and performance shows CPU's are not running that high, typically less than 40%.

RAM is also shown as only 30%

Now to a numpty like me, I would have thought that if Switch used more processing cycles and more use of RAM then it could do it's task much quicker ?

I don't think it can be disk write limits ... as I have a high speed RAID 0 disk array.

Can you set it's priority, or tweak in any other way.

I'm using v1.24

For example a conversion of a single .RA file - 36Mb (they are always this size) to MP3 VBR 384kb takes 17 minutes.

The PC is a 2.4GHZ 6600Intel Core 2 with 2GB RAM, running VISTA Ultimate 32bit

I can't download it .. you can't download a file ... what you download is their 'download Manger' ... this opens but does not load anything ... Real Player advise it will not download a the player as it has detected the Vista Ultimate OS which is not supported.

 

NCH ... what about supporting Switch on Windows Media Player - ver11 comes with the OS ???

 

I'm stuffed at the moment .. have a licensed ver of Switch and can't use it ...

I asked a Q on the Vista Forum ... had teh comment that I should isgone Real Player and instaed download free "Real Alterative" Raelalt152

I downloaded that, it works fine with Vista ... and with Switch.

(only got about another 5 programmes to sort out with Viats now ..... switching PC's and this new OS has been a real pain)

It won't work ..... so yep I have issues :-)

 

It installed & registered s/Ware OK ..... but when you try to load a file for conversion a pop up window appears advising that you have to have Real Player installed.

I can't do that as RealPlayer does not exist for VISTA Ultimate.

 

I have contacted Real Player support - and they confirm that at present no RealPlayer exists for Vista Ultimate platform.

 

Is there a way around this - any other player than can be used ?

I can't download it .. you can't download a file ... what you download is their 'download Manger' ... this opens but does not load anything ... Real Player advise it will not download a the player as it has detected the Vista Ultimate OS which is not supported.

NCH ... what about supporting Switch on Windows Media Player - ver11 comes with the OS ???

I'm stuffed at the moment .. have a licensed ver of Switch and can't use it ...

That version of Switch should work fine with Vista. Let us know if you have any issues!

It won't work ..... so yep I have issues :-)

It installed & registered s/Ware OK ..... but when you try to load a file for conversion a pop up window appears advising that you have to have Real Player installed.

I can't do that as RealPlayer does not exist for VISTA Ultimate.

I have contacted Real Player support - and they confirm that at present no RealPlayer exists for Vista Ultimate platform.

Is there a way around this - any other player than can be used ?

I have a purchsed ver of Switch (also use Slice) .. just taken delivery of a Vista machine (32 bit) ... any particular version I need to download ? .... do I need any patch or simialr to work with Vista ?

The version I have is Switch Plus v1.12

I have a purchsed ver of Switch (also use Slice) .. just taken delivery of a Vista machine (32 bit) ... any particular version I need to download ? .... do I need any patch or simialr to work with Vista ?

Thank you both for posting. Those posts have saved us a bunch of time trying to figure out what happened to the RA conversion. We too have had to go back to old versions of this program.

 

If I could figure out how to do the conversions within our C# code, I would just do it there, but this works fairly well for now.

When you do a fix ... if you want a tester, let me know ... happy to help

Have confimed that .RA files will open & convert OK with older version v1.05 .... can this still be downloaded, I will 'downgrade' to this as it works.

Current 1.11 will not allow me to open any .RA files.

Anybody know where I can get v 1.05 ?

Is there a fix planned for this bug ?

I am trying to use Switch Plus to convert Real Audio files to MP3.

Previously this worked perfectly, however PC had to have a re-build last week and the new download of Switch Plus (v1.11) will not work.

I browse to select the file, set it to MP3 and leave bitrate at 128 default … select output folder.

But when I click on convert it fails – putting a red cross against the file name and the error “The file could not be opened”

I notice prior to clicking: ‘convert’ the icon on left is a grey ‘box’ with music symbol … can’t remember if this was same previously.

I have tried many files … including the sample file from this forum http://www.nch.com.au/acm/sample.PCM.16bit...tereo.56kbps.ra – same error.

If I simply double click on any of the files they open and play perfectly as .ra files for example with Real Player or similar so the files are not corrupt, and I’m positive there is nothing wrong with the files. These are all standard .ra files captured from BBC radio broadcasts.

Anybody any idea … it worked so perfectly before.

I have Switch and it works fine ... converting RA files to MP3 ...

I record radio programmes - (typically 1.5 Hr in length) the issue is that I play the output in the MP3 player in the car ... if I have to stop the car (get fuel for example) it restarts form the beginning, a real pain as the player does not support ffwd.

I would like to have the MP3 file saved into smaller chunks ... can I do that with Switch ... can I automatically set for example output section lengths, and it will split output into 'chunks' of that length.

I record audio radio programmes on my DVD recorder via digital TV ... then copy these to a DVD-R ... I set record to FR mode to put 3 x 1 Hr programmes per DVD.

The original file size is aprox 4GB as it includes a video screen

When I copy them across they are about 1.5 GB .... Real Player, WinDVD, Windows Media player etc all play the files with no problem.

For each programme there are 3 files

VTS_n_1.VOB ~1GB in size

VTS_n_2.VOB ~300KB in size

VTS_n_0_IFO

When I try to use SWITCH it says file format is not supported, and the web site points to the is forum for answers.

As the DVD plays OK, the audio is there and intact, I need to be able to get these into SWITCH so that I can convert to MP3 which is the goal.

Anybody know how to get this file type supported ?

I make regular radio recordings .. but do it via my Digital TV - the intent being to convert these to MP3 files to listen to in my MP3 player...

The DVD recorder records the programme no problem, but it also record a screen image of the programme channel & date ... resulting files are huge 4 GB for a 1Hr audio programme.

I copy these to a DVD-R using FR format (Flexible record) but limit this to just 3 programmes per disc (to avoid too much loss)

These discs play happily on my PC ... with Windows Media Player, Real Player or with WinDVD.

On the DVD for each 'programme' there are a number of file :-

VTS_n_0.IFO

VTS_n_1.VOB ~1GB in size

VTS_n_2.VOB ~300KB in size

where 'n' is the programme number.

Will SWITCH convert this format to MP3 ?