Some SPC files fail to play #31

Basic information

TDE version: such as R14.0.12
Distribution: Debian Bullseye
Hardware: amd64

Description

I have a collection of game soundtracks in SPC format. These are Super Nintendo audio files extracted from actual game roms. I've had these soundtracks on my drive for around 20 years now and back in the KDE 3 days they used to play without problems in Amarok. However, TDE Amarok can't play most of these audio files. I know the files are correct since they play without problems in VLC.

Steps to reproduce

I'm attaching an archive with three files:

doesnt_play_in_amarok.spc
does_play_when_in_playlist.spc
playlist.m3u

The first file, doesnt_play_in_amarok.spc, will not play in Amarok - as the name implies. It plays without problems in VLC though. Second file, does_play_when_in_playlist.spc will play in Amarok but apparently only when you open the attached playlist.m3u file (which contains both SPC files). If I attempt to play does_play_when_in_playlist.spc by itself - e.g. by selecting File -> Play media in Amarok menu and pointing to does_play_when_in_playlist.spc or by double-clicking it in Konqueror - it does not play. This, I think, is quite strange since it shows that whether the file plays or not seems to depend on the way it is being opened and not on the file itself.

amarok_spc_bug.zip

79 KiB

Hi Janek. Amarok supports to type of audio engine. Do the file not work with both engines? If you are using the xine engine, are you able to play them with the actual xine application? There has been changes in xine lib in recent years, so just trying to understand if that affected the playability of those files.

xine is the only backend I have installed for Amarok. I tried running aKode backend for testing but had no success.

As for standalone xine player the doesnt_play_in_amarok.spc files does not play, so indeed this looks like a xine regression, whereas does_play_when_in_playlist.spc file plays correctly even without being part of a playlist, so Amarok could do better here.

Ok, thanks for both the confirmation that it is a xine regression and the tip about playlist. I agree we should be able to play the file regardless of whether it is in a playlist of not.