How to see a 5.1 file's channel layout? + Channel layout error with ffmpeg

[hello_hello]

It's not the longer dashes needed in the command lines, its the shorter ones. I think there was only a couple of command lines using them. I don't know how the long dashes ended up being used. Maybe I copied and pasted a command line from a website and it used the long dashes for clarity. Just a guess.

You don't need to delete the Noto Sans font. FB2K should be using it for most of the text it displays.
I actually fiddled around with some fonts myself a few days ago and changed the font used for displaying the contents of lists and playlists. You can no doubt download it from the same site.
I'm using Noto Sans as shown in the screenshot, all set to regular 9, aside from the Console which is bold 9. Liberation Sans is Bold 9 in both cases, but you can of course use whatever fonts you prefer.


[Attachment 88816 - Click to enlarge]

So you know, for the two text areas (under the Playing and Selected tabs), to change the font you need to right click on each text area, select settings, and the font used is under the Layout and Style tab. A mono space font will look the best and FB2K should still use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono once it's installed.


[Attachment 88815 - Click to enlarge]

[cholla]

@ hello_hello,
I will check the command lines if I get an error.

I looked at the Windows fonts & I do not have Liberation Sans.
Do you have a link for it?
Maybe at the same font site.

I will take a look for the long dashes as I test.
For testing the SoX what is the best format & file to test with?
I have been using this FLAC file:

General
Complete name                            : C:\Users\USERS\Desktop\Temp\Nightingale.flac
Format                                   : FLAC
Format/Info                              : Free Lossless Audio Codec
File size                                : 32.6 MiB
Duration                                 : 4 min 49 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 943 kb/s
Album replay gain                        : -5.20 dB
Album replay gain peak                   : 1.000000
Album                                    : 2002-10-18, Musikhalle, Hamburg Germany, FM
Track name                               : Nightingale
Track name/Position                      : 01
Performer                                : Norah Jones
Recorded date                            : 2002

Audio
Format                                   : FLAC
Format/Info                              : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Duration                                 : 4 min 49 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 943 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Replay gain                              : -5.15 dB
Replay gain peak                         : 0.968658
Stream size                              : 32.6 MiB (100%)
Writing library                          : libFLAC 1.1.3 (2006-11-20)
MD5 of the unencoded content             : 539CD2D4729B25655C8F6922C6D2F8E7

[hello_hello]

Yeah you should be able to get the Liberation Sans font from the same site. There's other flavours too. According to Wikipedia the flavours are Liberation Sans, Liberation Sans Narrow, Liberation Serif and Liberation Mono. The narrow versions can be handy as they're quite readable. I'm using Liberation Sans Narrow Bold for the date under the clock next to the system tray on the taskbar to conserve space.

Not Narrow

[Attachment 88818 - Click to enlarge]
Narrow Date

[Attachment 88819 - Click to enlarge]

It probably doesn't matter what sort of file you use for testing. It's just audio data to an encoder no matter where it came from. The SoX presets should work as expected, once they're actually working, so the main objective now is to make sure they convert without producing any error messages. It's still a mystery to me as to why the SoX build I'd been using works perfectly in Wine but it won't work when FB2K is running on Windows.

[cholla]

@ hello_hello,
I do not have a"clock next to the status bar".

For the good news the "sox_ng.exe" worked after I shortened the name to "sox.exe" .
Then I went through the "SoX - 24 bit FLAC (Single Thread)" type conversions.
Once the long dashes were removed all did a conversion.

These all look like presets:
I'm not sure how they relate to the ones in the "Quick Convert".
I have to go to the top & select "Quick Convert" but I'm sure some of the presets below do the same thing.
There are none labeled SoX for example.

[Attachment 88822 - Click to enlarge]
I would like a "Quick Convert" button on the toolbar if possible.


I can get this by selecting "Quick Convert" at the top of the image above :
There are many not showing in the image I just did the SoX conversions listed.

[Attachment 88823 - Click to enlarge]

So as far as I'm concerned the SoX is fixed.

[cholla]

I did get foobar2000 to demux the audio out of a .vob in several audio formats.
With no errors.
It still will not play the video portion & it does not create a video without audio when demuxing.
I did not need f2k to do that anyway.
These are the settings I did:
In Preferences/Playback/Decoding check "Command-Line Decoder Wrapper".
Then highlight it in the list.

[Attachment 88827 - Click to enlarge]
Under "Audio file formats".

[Attachment 88828 - Click to enlarge]


[Attachment 88829 - Click to enlarge]

Select "Add" & add these if any are not already there:
Under "Additional decoder folders" add the ones in the window in image (01) if they are not already there.

[hello_hello]

@ hello_hello,
I do not have a"clock next to the status bar".

Sorry, I meant the clock next to the system tray on the right side of the (Windows) taskbar. It's referred to by a few different names, I think, but status bar isn't one of then. I've corrected my previous post. The panel (taskbar) add-on I'm using with my Linux distro is called a status tray rather than a system tray and I'm easily confused, but it does the same thing, and to the right of that there's a clock on the panel (taskbar)

For the good news the "sox_ng.exe" worked after I shortened the name to "sox.exe" .
Then I went through the "SoX - 24 bit FLAC (Single Thread)" type conversions.
Once the long dashes were removed all did a conversion.

Excellent! The reason the SoX presets that output a flac file are configured to be single threaded (meaning FB2K won't convert multiple files simultaneously) is because writing multiple lossless files simultaneously worked the hard drive in my old PC pretty hard.

These all look like presets:
I'm not sure how they relate to the ones in the "Quick Convert".
I have to go to the top & select "Quick Convert" but I'm sure some of the presets below do the same thing.
There are none labeled SoX for example.

There's encoder presets, for only configuring an encoder, and there's conversion presets that can include an encoder preset, optional DSPs, and other settings. I've never used the Quick Convert menu but it should take you straight to the Window for selecting an encoder preset, as your second screenshot shows. I assume it bypasses the other options that could be included in a conversion preset (such as adjusting the volume using ReplayGain, or adding DSPs for processing) but I don't actually know.

The presets in your first screenshot are conversion presets, hence some are configured for downmixing etc. I don't have any conversion presets configured to use SoX as I don't use it much.

I assume you've ventured into the converter configuration by clicking on the three dots at the bottom of the conversion preset list (your first screenshot). Everything that can be configured via the window that opens becomes part of a a conversion preset when it's saved on the left.


[Attachment 88825 - Click to enlarge]

I would like a "Quick Convert" button on the toolbar if possible.

FB2K is great, as just about every menu item can be used to create a toolbar button, but the default UI is still somewhat primitive when it comes to the buttons themselves. On the toolbar area where the buttons are located in my configuration, the gaps between the buttons are actually buttons without any icons, as there's no way to add a spacer between them. Clicking on a gap between the buttons will attempt to open the Facets Library Viewer, but as Facets has been added to the GUI, clicking on an icon-less button will only cause the left side of the UI to flash blue a couple of times.

To add a Quick Convert button, right click somewhere on the button area and select Customise Buttons. In the window that opens navigate to Context/Convert/Quick Convert. You should be able to work out how to add it as a button, or modify an existing button to open Quick Convert. It's BYO button icon though, and I recall there being limitations on the icon dimensions. It's been a long time since I added those toolbar buttons so I can't remember exactly. To start off though, you could easily change one of the icon-less buttons I added as a spacer to open Quick Convert instead of it trying to open Facets.

[hello_hello]

Select "Add" & add these if any are not already there:
Under "Additional decoder folders" add the ones in the window in image (01) if they are not already there.

The area at the bottom of the Command Line decoder wrapper is for specifying the location of the command line decoders you want to configure it to use. The location of SoX doesn't need to be added. Did you configure it to decode wave files as well as vob files for a reason?

If you use an encoder preset and FB2K doesn't know where to find the encoder specified in the preset, it'll ask you where to find it. In the case of ffmpeg, it's being used as both an encoder and a decoder, but it chose to reside in the Encoders folder.

It's odd that you can decode vob files with the Command Line decoder wrapper while ffmpeg decodes, but the FFMPEG Decoder wrapper, created specifically for decoding with ffmpeg, won't decode them.
As far as I know the Command Line decoder wrapper has to decode the whole file, or at least large chunks of it, in order to support seeking, so navigating can be quite slow. The FFMPEG Decoder wrapper doesn't have that issue, so you're probably better off decoding vob files with it if you can.

[hello_hello]

@ hello_hello,
I still can not play or convert a .vob file.
I'm not concerned about playing a .vob but it would be convenient if I could extract the audio track or convert it.

FB2K doesn't do any extracting, only decoding, but I think extracting the audio with the appropriate tool first is a better idea. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night wondering if there was a container audio delay that wasn't accounted for.

I think the penny has finally dropped and I know why I've struggled to find foobar2000 components on the foobar2000 site. When you click on the components link, it appears to default to only showing components that have 64 bit versions. If you click the "Windows 32" link at the top of the components page, the 32 bit-only components should be visible.
I mentioned all that as you indicated you'd like to be able to display video, and foo_mpv can be found there.

I haven't had a desire to play video with foobar2000 so I've never download foo_mpv myself, but if you're feeing adventurous...
It's listed on the site as "mpv Video 0.6.10 beta".

[cholla]

The location of SoX doesn't need to be added.

I added it when SoX was not working.
I removed it & the SoX conversions are still working.

Did you configure it to decode wave files as well as vob files for a reason?

I believe this was something I tried to see if Sox would convert a .wav file.
This was before using sox_ng.exe .
I have now removed this also.

It's odd that you can decode vob files with the Command Line decoder wrapper while ffmpeg decodes, but the FFMPEG Decoder wrapper, created specifically for decoding with ffmpeg, won't decode them..

I have .vob selected in the FFMPEG Decoder wrapper.
If I uncheck Command Line decoder wrapper i get errors when I open a .VOB.
Even before I try a conversion. When trying a conversion also.
When Command Line decoder wrapper is checked the opening & conversions of the .vob work.

as there's no way to add a spacer between them.

I found a way to add a spacer.(separator)
Richt click on the toolbar & select "Customize buttons".
Select separator as in the image below.
It will be at the bottom.
Just use "Move UP" & keep moving it up to where you want it.

[Attachment 88838 - Click to enlarge]

This is now the GUI of the foobar2000 you posted. the red foobar icon is the Quick Convert menu.

[Attachment 88839 - Click to enlarge]

I haven't had a desire to play video with foobar2000 so I've never download foo_mpv myself, but if you're feeling adventurous.It's listed on the site as "mpv Video 0.6.10 beta".

I have the foo_mpv in my old F2K but it did not work.
I will give the new version a try.

In case this might interest you.
A friend ask if F2K would play .mid files & it will if you add foo_midi & a sound font like Timbres Of Heaven.sf2 .
I don't use this much but it is nice to have if I want it.

[hello_hello]

I found a way to add a spacer.(separator)
Richt click on the toolbar & select "Customize buttons".
Select separator as in the image below.
It will be at the bottom.
Just use "Move UP" & keep moving it up to where you want it.

I'd forgotten about being able to add separators, but at the time I wanted to group the buttons a bit due them all being the same color, and the only way to create a similar space between them was to add multiple separators, which started to look ugly. Now if the separators could be configured to be transparent... but alas....

When I looked at your foobar2000 screenshot I found myself wondering if I'd placed the Stop and Play/Pause buttons in the wrong order. I have no idea why my brain decided to take note of it at that moment, but I checked the other players I have on this PC and the Play button being first was something they had in common. Even AviDemux has it first. I wonder if that's why I feel a little hesitant as I move the cursor towards them. Or maybe its more that they're just so small....

In case this might interest you.
A friend ask if F2K would play .mid files & it will if you add foo_midi & a sound font like Timbres Of Heaven.sf2 .
I don't use this much but it is nice to have if I want it.

It's probably not something I'd use much either, but I'll check it out anyway for future reference. Thanks.

[cholla]

Now if the separators could be configured to be transparent

The separators are almost transparent on my OS anyway.Just a narrow/indented gray bar.

When I looked at your foobar2000 screenshot I found myself wondering if I'd placed the Stop and Play/Pause buttons in the wrong order.

I changed the order now.It only took a few seconds.
I looked at my older version of f2k & it also has the Stop first.
I do like the Play/Pause first better.

This is on a Windows 7 32-bit OS.
On a different OS "your milage may vary".

I installed foo_mpv.
It worked to some extent but poorly with the videos freezing on most formats.
I worked with it & the problem was having the Command-Line Decoder Wrapper checked √
I unchecked √ Command-Line Decoder Wrapper in Preferences/Decoding & left only the vob setting in case I needed it.

foo_mpv needs FFmpeg Decoder Wrapper √ checked in Preferences/Decoding to work.
The reason it did not work for me with FFmpeg Decoder Wrapper at first was I left the:
Preferences/Playback/Decoding/FFmpeg Decoder Setup
Additional arguments: -loglevel 0 -drc_scale 0 (the default setting for a format).
This needs to be blank for mpv Video foo_mpv to work on any format.
Like this image:

[Attachment 88846 - Click to enlarge]

The conversion also still works this way.
At least all the ones I tested including SoX.