Flash Player Problems

Investigating...

Flash is very sensitive to bitrates. At the moment I believe it can only handle constant bitrates with a sample rate of 44khz. if you try loading other bitrates or especially different sample rates it will give the chipmunk effect.

Here's a patch that only displays the flash player if the file is 44kHz. Please review that it works correctly.

This is a great idea. I gave it a quick test and it worked for me. I've applied the patch to CVS...

I know absolutely nothing about this module. But I just wanted to mention that Flash will handle 11025, 22050 and 44100Khz files just fine. Tying the module down to 44100 should be unnecessary and will very likely backfire on some streamed broadcasts etc.

My 10p,
-K
P.S The file link in the original post is dead..

This is true for embedded mp3s, but my experience with streaming mp3s in Flash points to this as being a problem. Do you have any working examples of this flash mp3 player streaming mp3s that aren't 44.1 Khz? Also I do not believe the samplerate is as much of a culprit as the bitrate. I don't think this patch should be applied until we can concretely determine what is the origin of the problem. I suggest we roll back this patch until the reason can be concretely determined. We need to setup some test cases to nail this problem for sure.

Farsheed

Ok I've setup a test scenario here. It goes through various combinations of bitrates and sample rates. I had best results with 128 kpbs and 44100 Hz. It was tested on the 4.6 version of the module but since we are testing the Flash Player itself and not the module the results should still be valid. It is true that 11025, 22050, and 44100 sample rates are supported (but not others) and the bitrates seems to cause undiagnosable problems. Let's roll back this patch.

Platform: Windows XP w/ Firefox, Cable Internet, Site5 server, Drupal 4.6

*Stuttering start means that it will only play a short half second portion of audio and then stop.
*Stuttering finish means it will cut off before finishing playing all the way through.
In most stuttering cases by repeatedly pressing the play button the audio will eventually play completely through. My guess is the stuttering is due to some sort of caching, loading, or bandwidth limits. It was quite annoying and hard to diagnose since it was not consistent. Feedback and verification much appreciated.

TESTFILES LOCATED AT: http://playlist-demo.drupalart.org

Constant Bitrate, 192 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo [OK]

Constant Bitrate, 128 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo [OK]

Constant Bitrate, 112 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo [ stuttering start/finish]

Constant Bitrate, 96 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo [ stuttering start]

Constant Bitrate, 64 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Mono [ stuttering start/finish]

Constant Bitrate, 128 Kbps, 32000 Hz, Stereo [plays at faster speed, stuttering start]

Constant Bitrate, 96 Kbps, 32000 Hz, Stereo [plays at faster speed, stuttering start]

Constant Bitrate, 96 Kbps, 24000 Hz, Stereo [plays at even faster speed, stuttering start]

Constant Bitrate, 96 Kbps, 22050 Hz, Stereo [stuttering start]

Constant Bitrate, 64 Kbps, 22050 Hz, Stereo [OK]

Constant Bitrate, 32 Kbps, 11025 Hz, Stereo [stuttering start/finish]

Variable Bitrate, 125-180 Kbps VBR [OK]

Perhaps modifying the patch so that it will only load 11025, 22050, or 44100 Hz mp3s would also be a good solution.

zirafa, thanks for taking the time to research this problem. I've attached a patch that, as you suggested, limits the flash player to 11025, 22050, or 44100 Hz files. Please review it and let me know if it works for you.