MP3 decoding problem

The bitrates are from 186 to 256 kbps.
The add-on what you spoke about is already installed. When I installed Songbird I installed it at the beginning as well.

Few more questions:
Variable bitrates?
Non english signs in the tags or filename (like chinese, german umlaute, or something like that)?

No, they aren't in variable bitrates.
No, they aren't contain any non English signs. However I have couple of songs with non English signs (áéíóöőúüű) but there is no problem with them.

Are those Albums, that don't play so good encoded with a different program?

I checked these albums again:
- the noisy album is in variable bitrate (sorry I didn't see the VBR mark at the first look) but I have lot of other songs (albums) in VBR without any problem,
- the other album what has no sound (completely quiet) is in 256 kbps.
There is no problem with them if I use other programs (WMP, iTunes).

That doesn't sound right.
And all those files are mp3? Sure there aren't any drm mp4, acm, wmv files there?

Sorry but they're all mp3. :(
I found an other album without sound 320 kbps (no problem with another program).
I use this software (Songbird) since short time (couple of weeks) and I just found these problems now. I have huge library (thousands of sounds).

What addons do you have installed?

ACM MP3 Decoder plugin 0.2
Customize Filter Pane 0.2.1
directory browser 0.5.2
Divided Tag Cloud 1.2.1
DOM Inspector 2.0.0
Fasterbird 2.0.4
FocusTrack 1.1.0
Google Search 1.0.2
iPod Device Support 3.0.10.860
JavaScript Debugger 0.9.87.4
Last Track Resume 1.0.1.5 (disabled)
Last.fm 0.3.3.882
LiveTweeter 1.3.7
LyricMaster 1.6.1.1
mashTape 0.2.5.944
MediaFlow 2.9.2
Music Recommendations 0.9.3
New Tab Button 1.0
Pane Buttons 0.6.1.0
QuickTime Playback 1.0.0.860
sheen 0.0.0.3
SHOUTcast Radio 0.7.0.860
Song Notifier 0.4
Windows Media Playback 1.0.0.860
YABS 0.9.9.7

That's quite a list you got yourself there ;-)

It's always hard to tell, if any addon might have caused a problem.
Could you try a fresh profile and with that test those mp3's?

You can use the profile manager to do so.
You can find how to do it here: http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Docs/Pro...

OK I tested these albums in a fresh profile. I installed only ACM MP3 Decoder plugin 0.2 add-on but unfortunately everything same. The problem appears again.

I have the same problem with some silent tracks that play perfectly normal using Winamp or my mp3 stick. Unfortunately I don't know the encoder since I haven't used Bitrates that high in a while. But since this problem doesn't occur on every track of the album I don't think that this is an encoder related problem. Tried with and without the ACM MP3 Decoder plugin but that didn't change anything either...

I installed the latest Songbird (version 1.1.1, Build 1018 (20090309144748)) and looks like the decoding problem disappeared. :)
But I still have couple of songs what Songbird can't show the bitrates.

A screenshot about bit rate problem what I spoke about last time and more details (on the screenshot):
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6968...

The missing bitrate entries could be faulty encodings in the file itself, created by whatever app, that was used to convert them.

Could you try to encode one of those faulty files with a different encoder and see, what happens?

Sorry for my late answer, been hell over here.

No problem! I know you have thousands of doing. ;)

I tried those songs with three different players:
- Winamp, WMP: They had no problem with those songs when I tried to play them (they showed time and bit rate of all songs).
- iTunes: It couldn't import some songs into the media library but there were no problem with the others (it showed time and bit rate of all songs).

I just wanted to let you know! I still love Songbird!

Really odd behavior. Those songs most likely are encoded with some strange algorithm that some players just can't handle.

As I mentioned in my post above. Could you try to re-encode one of those songs that don't play and then try it again?

You could use audacity for example.

OK! I tested with LAME MP3 Encoder, and Songbird can identify times and bit rates of all re-encoded songs immediately after media import.
But I still don't understand why can do this Winamp and WMP without any re-encoding?
Anyway! Now I can clean my library. Thanks the idea to re-encode. Not an easy way but works.

As said. Some apps handle encoding differently and it depends on the media core you use to play and read songs, that interprets the music file. They all handle decoding a little differently. You can't fully fool proof every possible encoding out there.

Guess gstreamer can't handle correctly, with whatever your files got encoded at first. Such things sadly happen.

On occasions like this, I can't hold myself back to say, that we need open standards for all kinds of files that we use daily in our Computer based lives.
Open Source and free standards FTW!