SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

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webmoebius
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SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by webmoebius »

I noticed that recently, on line MP3 audio served even by simple HTTP is extremely distorted when played directly within a SM 2.46 browser window (which I'm running on Win-XP). I previously never had this problem, but it is getting extremely annoying. When the MP3 URL is pasted into other Windows applications I'm running under Win-XP, such as Win-Amp or VLC-Player, the MP3 audio decodes without distortion. However, when a raw MP3 URL is directly pasted into the SM browser URL bar, the player that comes up appears to be the browser's built in audio player and this player playing inside the SM browser window decodes the MP3 in extreme buzzing distortion. Here is a test sample of a radio show broadcast MP3 on line:

http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/4 ... loaded.mp3

Could someone try this and tell me [1] what audio player is called up in SM 2.46 to playback the MP3 stream and [2] does the audio decode normally or is distortion similar to how I described it?

Previously, I had QuickTime plug-in set up so that it would handle all in-browser audio playback. But now, QT plug in no longer loads to handle audio streams for some reason and I even checked the SM browser HELPER APPLICATION window for MIME types associated with MP3 and even though QT is still the designated handling plug-in, the QT plug-in is no longer called up to play the audio content, even though the QT plug is definitely in ALWAYS ACTIVATE mode. This problem is getting annoying because even when playing back MP3 samples such as on Amazon, I get the same problem.
TPR75
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by TPR75 »

Under Windows 7 Professional works correct (Intel E8400, 8 GB RAM, GTX750Ti). Must be something with WinXP or your hardware (rather very old, I presume).

EDIT: Did you disabled "hardware acceleration" within SeaMonkey?
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webmoebius
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by webmoebius »

TPR75 wrote:Under Windows 7 Professional works correct (Intel E8400, 8 GB RAM, GTX750Ti). Must be something with WinXP or your hardware (rather very old, I presume). EDIT: Did you disabled "hardware acceleration" within SeaMonkey?
Nope, SM browser hardware acceleration has always been disabled. I doubt it's a Win-XP specific audio issue. I've never had any audio issues like this before with SM or any other way of decoding MP3, and neither Win-Amp or VLC-player has problems decoding the MP3 HTTP stream either. It's a new issue specific to SM 2.46 browser when internally decoding MP3. What I'd like to know is if another SM 2.46 user using the same operating system playing that stream has problems. It may also be something about that stream, because when I play other MP3 files on my local storage the SM browser has no problems either even though the same browser window plug-in loads. But when I play that stream from the server or download it to my local storage and play it, the same problem occurs.

<Minutes later>
Decided to look into the contents of that stream further. Since I downloaded a copy of that stream last night, I loaded it up into my digital audio editor and noticed that it is a MONO MP3 file at 128 kbps and suspected that this might be the key to the problem. I converted it to a 2-channel mono file and then re-saved it in MP3 format and then test played the same clip in SM browser itself and the distortion disappeared. So it appears that SM 2.46 browser's built-in audio codec has problems handling MONO MP3 audio clips and plays them with extreme distortion. This problem has only occured in recent SM browsers and it now totally makes sense because MP3 clip samples on Amazon are also mono MP3 streams and it causes the exact same problem. I just tested this on an older version of Firefox (version 31.6) running on Win-XP and there are no problems decoding the mono MP3 stream either. This is a SM specific audio issue in handling mono MP3 files.
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therube
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by therube »

So it appears that SM 2.46 browser's built-in audio codec has problems handling MONO MP3 audio clips and plays them with extreme distortion.
Have you converted some (other) clips to mono, opened them in SeaMonkey... ?


SeaMonkey 2.46, Win7, clip sounds fine to me.
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webmoebius
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by webmoebius »

therube wrote:Have you converted some (other) clips to mono, opened them in SeaMonkey... ? SeaMonkey 2.46, Win7, clip sounds fine to me.
I had another person with Win-XP Pro running SM 2.46 try the same mono MP3 audio stream and the exact same problem occured. So I'm nearly 100% sure this is an SM codec problem when running under Win-XP. I haven't convered clips from stereo to mono to test, but I'm pretty sure that this problem pertains to mono MP3 playback only. There are no problems with Win-Amp or VLC-Player playing back same stream directly when pointing to that URL. The distortion occurs only when SM browser is playing it back.
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RobertJ
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by RobertJ »

webmoebius wrote: Here is a test sample of a radio show broadcast MP3 on line:

http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/4 ... loaded.mp3

Could someone try this and tell me [1] what audio player is called up in SM 2.46 to playback the MP3 stream and [2] does the audio decode normally or is distortion similar to how I described it?
There is no distortion when I play that stream. Also there is no apparent plug-in used. I also tried this with some local mp3 files and had to issues. Again there does not seem to be a plug-in used. Note that I'm on a Mac.

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JayhawksRock
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by JayhawksRock »

On WinXP, for me a 3rd party player is required for that file to play. It does play but the quality is what I would expect on XP.... not very good
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frg
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by frg »

This should be all Gecko Code decoding and playing it. You could try Firefox 49 and see if it also occurs there. If yes file a bug but it will probably be not fixed because Gecko 52 will be the last version supporting XP. Personally while I still use XP on another PC, for HTML5 XP is just self torture at this point in time. Neither drivers nor the base is updated any longer.

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therube
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by therube »

the quality is what I would expect on XP.... not very good
Why would the OS have a bearing on the quality of an mp3 clip?
What player are you using?
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vladmir
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by vladmir »

http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/4 ... loaded.mp3
Win-XP
SM 2.46 - "extreme buzzing distortion".
Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - "extreme buzzing distortion".

SM 2.48b1, SM 2.40, SM 2.39, SM 2.35, SM 2.1 with VLC plugin, SM 1.1.19 with VLC plugin - no problems.
Fx 52.1.0 ESR, Fx 51.0.2 dev nightly, Fx 48.0 dev nightly - no problems.
AIMP-3, Winamp, VLC - no problems.


http://2.cdn.echo.msk.ru/snd/2017-04-24 ... o-1800.mp3
SM 2.46 - no problems.
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therube
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by therube »

http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/4 ... loaded.mp3
Win-XP
SM 2.46 - "extreme buzzing distortion".
Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - "extreme buzzing distortion".
OK.
I'd call it "jittery".

SM 2.46, jittery
FF 49.0.2, jittery

FF 52.0 EME-free, sounds fine.
External player (MPlayer), fine.

The RU clip plays fine everywhere.

Odd.
Wonder why?
Fire 750, bring back 250.
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RobertJ
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by RobertJ »

.
I tried http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/4 ... loaded.mp3 on SM2.46 on Mac and it sounds just fine.

Is this an OS issue and if so why/how? Would assume that the OS should have nothing to do with it.

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therube
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by therube »

Transcoded the cbc.ca clip; lame.exe in.mp3 out.mp3, & (out.mp3) still was crap in SM 2.46 / FF 49, WinXP.
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vladmir
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by vladmir »

Win-XP SM 2.46, Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - "jittery".
http://moskva.fm/radio/nashe-radio
http://moskva.fm/radio/rock-fm
http://moskva.fm/radio/best-fm
http://moskva.fm/radio/radio-jazz
http://moskva.fm/radio/biznes-fm
http://moskva.fm/radio/govorit-moskva

Win-XP SM 2.46, Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - no problems.
http://moskva.fm/radio/eho-moskvy
http://moskva.fm/radio/radio-kultura


Win-XP SM 2.46, Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - "jittery".
http://media.govoritmoskva.ru:8880/rufm.mp3
http://media.govoritmoskva.ru:8880/ru64.mp3
Win-XP SM 2.46, Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - no problems.
http://media.govoritmoskva.ru:8880/ru32.mp3

Win-XP SM 2.46, Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - "jittery".
https://www.kommersant.ru/fm/player - 32, 64
Win-XP SM 2.46, Fx 49.0.1 dev nightly - no problems.
https://www.kommersant.ru/fm/player - 128
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Frank Lion
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Re: SM 2.46 browser, MP3 audio decoding extreme distortion

Post by Frank Lion »

webmoebius wrote:http://mp3.cbc.ca/radio/CBC_Radio_VMS/4 ... loaded.mp3

Could someone try this and tell me [1] what audio player is called up in SM 2.46 to playback the MP3 stream and [2] does the audio decode normally or is distortion similar to how I described it?
The 'player' is internal and the problem is caused by it trying to force stereo decoding on a mono source. Luckily, the solution is a simple one -

Put about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. Right click any entry in the about:config window and select New > Boolean and put this as the entry - media.forcestereo.enabled and make sure that it is selected as false. This only needs doing once.

Refresh your audio page and your problem will be gone...as if by magic.
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