GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 397097
the magnatune source should use open formats
Last modified: 2008-03-26 10:29:07 UTC
the magnatune store that can be integrated into rhythmbox as a plugin uses mp3 files by default, whereas it should be vorbis instead, as to promote open formats and also because it will not play out of the box on certain distributions (ubuntu or debian for example?), since restricted codecs are not installed. What happens when the mp3 codecs are not installed is that rhythmbox crashes after having tried to play all the songs of the magnatune store until the end. If vorbis support is magnatune's fault, rhythmbox should nonetheless handle it gracefully when the codec is missing. If the vorbis preview support is magnatune's fault (I don't know why they would not have vorbis previews though, since they offer vorbis files for download), where can I tell them about this bug report?
By default the download format is OGG, here is the relevant part of the schema: <schema> <key>/schemas/apps/rhythmbox/plugins/magnatune/format</key> <applyto>/apps/rhythmbox/plugins/magnatune/format</applyto> <owner>rhythmbox</owner> <type>string</type> <default>ogg</default> <locale name="C"> <short>Desired format of downloaded audio.</short> <long>Desired format of downloaded audio. Valid values are: ogg, flac, wav, mp3-vbr, mp3-cbr</long> </locale> </schema> As for the preview, I think that's how magnatune sets it up: $HOME/.gnome2/rhythmbox/magnatune/song_info.xml is simply downloaded from: http://magnatune.com/info/song_info_xml.zip and it contains elements like this, which don't provide a <ogglofi> (say): <Track> <artist>Yongen</artist> <artistphoto>http://magnatune.com//artists/img/yongen.jpg</artistphoto> <artistdesc>transnational dream pop luxury</artistdesc> <albumname>Moonrise</albumname> <trackname>Moonrise</trackname> <tracknum>1</tracknum> <year>2006</year> <mp3genre>Pop</mp3genre> <magnatunegenres>Pop,Rock,Electronica</magnatunegenres> <license>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/</license> <seconds>289</seconds> <url>http://he3.magnatune.com/all/01-Moonrise-Yongen.mp3</url> <mp3lofi>http://he3.magnatune.com/all/01-Moonrise-Yongen-lofi.mp3</mp3lofi> <buy>https://magnatune.com/artists/buy_album?artist=Yongen&album=Moonrise&genre=Pop</buy> <home>http://magnatune.com/artists/yongen</home> <launchdate>2006-12-20</launchdate> <albumsku>yongen-moonrise</albumsku> </Track> I would e-mail John Buckman of Magnatune about this, and I'll also Cc Adam twho wrote the plugin to the bug. He has also communicated with John Buckman during the plugin development.
Yeah, basically what Alex is saying is right. Magnatune offers vorbis downloads for purchases, but the only preview format they offer is mp3 at 2 choices of bitrate. Although, you're right that the plugin should fail gracefully if the mp3 codec is not installed. Alex, is there any way to check for that support from a python plugin?
(In reply to comment #2) > Yeah, basically what Alex is saying is right. Magnatune offers vorbis downloads > for purchases, but the only preview format they offer is mp3 at 2 choices of > bitrate. Adam, since you have been in contact with John Buckman, perhaps you could suggest that they provide OGG previews for the reasons cited in comment #0 as well as on general non-patent encumbered, pro- open music codecs, "we're not evil" grounds.... ;) Then rhythmbox could preferentially use those. > Although, you're right that the plugin should fail gracefully if the mp3 codec > is not installed. Alex, is there any way to check for that support from a > python plugin? Nothing special that I know, but James Livingston or Jonathon Matthew would probably know better than I. Also there should be general support for failing gracefully in rhythmbox itself, but perhaps you bypass that code that it used in the Library etc. when starting things from the Magnatune plugin.
(In reply to comment #3) > > Although, you're right that the plugin should fail gracefully if the mp3 codec > > is not installed. Alex, is there any way to check for that support from a > > python plugin? > > Nothing special that I know, but James Livingston or Jonathon Matthew would > probably know better than I. Also there should be general support for failing > gracefully in rhythmbox itself, but perhaps you bypass that code that it used > in the Library etc. when starting things from the Magnatune plugin. Fixing bug 338308 (which I'm working on again) would basically solve this. If you really want to check for support you can get the list of available GStreamer elements, and look for something which accepts audio/mpeg and emits audio/x-raw*. But that would be pretty dodgy.
I brought up using vorbis for previews on the Magnatune mailing list, and John expressed interest in the idea. I don't know if it's something that will happen soon though, if at all.
Magnatune now has ogg format previews for the full catalog, so I've updated the plugin to use them in preference to the mp3 previews.