Internal player does not play files with special chars

The internal DO player does not play files with special chars in file names:

E.g.

Nomad_(I Wanna Give You) Devotion_(Original Instrumental 12″ Mix)_[65024].wav

includes the quote character ″ which is U+2033.

The player starts but nothing happens.

fyi:

I have the same problem when I right click on it and use "Open in Ultraedit" and get this error (see picture DO_OpenUEWithSpecialChars.jpg).

When I start Ultraedit, select and open the file it also does not work.

I have reported it to IDM support (Ultraedit) but they didn't have a problem to open the file - although they are using the same Windows 7, 64-bit English as I use.

When I right click in DO and select open with Hxd (Hex Editor) - this program opens the file without any problems ... (also other programs like Serato Scratch Live, etc. - no problem).

Mysterious. What exactly could be the problem?

I have this issue for years now ...

Thanks a lot!

I renamed a .wav file to that name, then double-clicked it in Opus. It opened and played in Opus's internal WAV player without any problems.

How are you opening the file? Have you configured the file type or a button or anything to run a command, or is it using Opus's Preferences / File Operations / Double-click on Files / Use internal sound player for WAV files setting?

Regarding UltraEdit, do you get the same problem from Windows Explorer? It looks like UltraEdit either doesn't support Unicode or is being run in a way which passes it an ASCII filepath. (Running it via an MS-DOS Batch Mode button might cause that, but otherwise it's probably not related to Opus at all and something wrong with UltraEdit.)

I am using Preferences / File Operations / Double-click on Files / Use internal sound player for WAV files and double click on the file or use right click "Play in DO".

I didn't config any file type or button, etc.

Yes

The support team from Ultraedit did the same as you - renamed a file to this file name. And for them it works! The same as just you did above. :wink:

Funny that Hxd (and others) are able to work with it.

I never made any special changes. I use Windows 7, 64-bit, English incl. all updates from MS - only the keyboard is German. :wink:

So it is really very very mysterious.

btw: I also had re-setup my Windows 7 3-4 times in the past years - but always the same problem (but never tried the internal DO player before). Just did it and got the error - and thought I ask a deeper expert like you. :wink:

Only thing I can think of is something like antivirus getting in the way, since that may intercept some of the operations in both cases.

It would be strange for antivirus to cause what you're seeing though, I think.

I also just right click and played the file with Windows Media Player and VLC (2.1.1) without any problems.

I'm using ZoneAlarm 12 (but also happend with versions before) - but it is a very good idea. I will disable ZA and try it again.

THANKS!

FWIW, I've read that disabling ZoneAlarm doesn't disable that much of it and it needs to be uninstalled if you want to fully test whether it's involved. (Whether or not it's worth uninstalling & later reinstalling to test this is your call, of course. It may turn out to be completely unrelated.)

Leo, do you need more fun? Here it is:

I disabled all 3 options in ZA (see screenshot DO_ZA_Prefs.jpg) - set them to off.

Double clicked on the file and the internal player played the file! What a surprise!

I wanted know which from these 3 settings was the reason:

Turned on the third option. Internal player plays.
Turned on the second option. Internal player plays.
Turned on the first option. Internal player plays.

What do you say now?

Uninstalling ZA was not required.

But UltraEdit still does not want to work with it. It does not matter which option to open I use (right click, open file in UE),

I will test now to uninstall ZA, restart PC and test UltraEdit open again.


After uninstalling ZA, there is no difference.

DO internal player plays (as after off/on setting the ZA preferences).
UE does not open the files in any way.

After installing ZA again (incl. re-boot), there is still no difference.

DO internal player plays (as before).
UE does not open the files in any way.

I only wonder how it has happened with DO. It maybe can only happen with a DO installation? I will retest it with the next release!

I will send the UE support team the link to this thread. There must be another problem - maybe with my UE preferences (which is the reason for another bug/crash only with my settings).

Thanks a lot so far!

More mysterious again.

I thought ok - DO works now.

I just started DO internal player twice or so (a "normal file name" track) - didn't click CLOSE. Played the other file with the special char too. Clicked close on both. Tried to click the special char file and DO internal player does not play again. Only the file with the normal file name.

Did the same with the ZA settings above.

DO player does not play the file with special char anymore.

What do you say now?

More and more mysterious.

Arghhhhh

OK - now - don't ask what I did - I don't know.

This file plays:

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\81_Redo MSLEA\65024\Nomad_(I Wanna Give You) Devotion_(Original 7″ Mix)_[65024].wav
(120 characters)

this not:

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\81_Redo MSLEA\65024\Nomad_(I Wanna Give You) Devotion_(Original Instrumental 12″ Mix)_[65024].wav
(134 characters)

Both include the special char - only the length is different.

I have removed the title from the file name and tried:

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\81_Redo MSLEA\65024\Nomad_(Original Instrumental 12″ Mix)_[65024].wav
(106 characters)

The length of the path + file name is the reason.

Don't ask me why the ZA made some differences above? Maybe I tried the wrong file name after the ZA prefs changes?

Please try it too - with a longer path+file name.

THANKS

The length of the path should never matter unless it goes above 259 characters.

I can't reproduce any of these issues with Opus (I don't have or care about UltraEdit :slight_smile:).

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_Sexual Healing_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(134 chars) ... does not play

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Pink Floyd_Another Brick In The Wall (Disco Tech Rework).wav
(116 chars) ... plays

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye__(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(120 chars) ... plays

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_Sexual_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(126 chars) ... plays

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_Sexual_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(126 chars) ... plays

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_Sexualx_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(127 chars) ... plays

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_SexualxH_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(128 chars) ... does not play (anymore)

The DO internal player plays only files where the full file path is only max. 127 chars long - on my Windows 7, 64-bit, US-English - using DO 10.5.3.0, 64-bit, English.

A right click on the files and "Pay with VLC" ... no problem. All are working.
A right click on the files and "Play in DO" ... as double clicks above.

It does not make any difference if I have Zonealarm running or not.

WHY ? .....

It works fine here using the exact same path (except with D:\ instead of M:).

If something in the chain of components involved in wav playback is blocking paths over 128 chars on your system, it doesn't appear to be part of Opus itself.


I will test it on my older netbook Windows 7, 32-bit, German and also on my new notebook Windows 8, 64-bit, German tomorrow - they are in my office.

Just testing it on my Windows 8, 64-bit, German notebook (bought in August/September), Setup is Original Windows 8 installed by Lenovo.

Tested with DO 10.5.3. 64-bit.

I'm playing from the same external hard disc via USB 3.0 - but I also tested it on my C: Drive with the long & short path on my Windows 7 PC yesterday - no difference:

Double click on the file to play with the internal DO player:

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_Sexual Healing_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(135 chars)

Player starts, shows the info like data rate, sample rate, sample size ... (as on my Windows 7), but does not start to play the music.

Copy the file to

M:\Test2\Marvin Gaye_Sexual Healing_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(87 chars)

and it plays without any problems.

After renaming the file to

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_SexualxH_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav
(128 chars)

=> not playing

but with 127 chars

M:\Music\Audio\00_Check-In\10_Tracks\12_Import Download\Marvin Gaye_Sexualx_(Divided Souls, Samuri & Le Alen Remix)_[Promo].wav

it is playing.

All variations are playing with VLC without any problems.

btw: The subject isn't correct anymore - the special char just makes no difference - there is no special char anymore (also tried to remove & - no diff).

Different PC's and systems ... same problem. Arghh ...

What do the PCs have in common that isn't part of a vanilla Windows install?

It sounds like they all have VLC installed (could be a factor since VLC breaks parts of the registry settings for filetypes you assign to it, tho I don't know if that would affect wav files).

Are there any codecs / codec packs they have in common?

Have they all had ZoneAlarm installed?

Do they all also exhibit the UltraEdit problem that seems similar and doesn't happen for the UE authors on their machine?

Have you tried using Process Monitor to see which files are being accessed when the wav file is played? It might shine some light on things.

Does it only happen with that USB 3.0 drive?

Nothing special. On my Windows 8 laptop:

Ritlabs The Bat 5.8.8
Opera 18
LibreOffice 4.1.3
DO 10.5.4.0
UltraEdi 20
Exact Audio Copy 1.0 Beta 3
Serato Scratch Live 2.5
foobar2000 1.3.0 Beta 5
Keyfinder 1.25
Tag & Rename 3.7.5 Beta 1
Lacie Desktop Manager 1.5.6 (external Hard Disc Config)

There are more by default but not on my Windows 7 PC were the same issue happens. The same programs & versions are also on my Windows 7 PC.

I didn't install any extra. All by default.

Yes. Zonealarm 12 (in the meantime).

UE problem is the same. But it is not a DO problem (except DO works or changed something "behind"). Also when I open in Explorer or UE itself I get the problem. I am sure they have a problem - it depends on the preferences. E.g. In my case (settings) UE crashed with macros. On their machine not. I have sent them my prefs and they had the crash. :wink:

I'll test this on my home PC later tonight.

No. Also internal on C: (same path tests).

Would it help to uninstall / install DO - without my preferences - let's say the default?

Should I send you my preferences for testing (as I did with the UE guys - and then they had the same problem)?

I still have another issue - when I copy the files on my backup (update when newer or size), DO works with 85 MB/s and more from USB 3.0 to USB 3.0.

When I run the sync the copy part breaks down to 20-30 MB/s.

It does NOT matter which file extension it is. It also happens with .ita and other big files.

I made an installation of DO on a laptop of a friend to sync the previous copied files. There was a default and the copy part of the sync ran with 85 MB/s.

So I am sure it is a DO problem - depending on the preferences. The columns in the listers during the normal copy/update itself and copy part of the sync are always the same (e.g. additional: owner, file-mod, file-creat, duration, location, description, size in bytes and size in short (KB,etc.)).

Thanks a lot for helping.

PS: I am planning to install Windows 8.1 on my laptop during christmas from scratch. Then I will re-test all issues after each step.

PSS:

I also have another (newer) problem since 10.5.x ...

when I copy a file over another I will be asked if I want to overwrite ("rename" dialog). I press "replace", but I'll be asked again - for the same file!

If I copy multiple files ("replace all") - I will be only asked two times for the first file.

Mysterious.

The process monitor logs will be the most useful thing, since they should tell us what's being accessed and what's failing (and may also involve which extra DLLs are getting involved in the APIs, e.g. Zone Alarm).

Re the other two things: Please use separate threads for separate issues.

Leo,

I've tried to re-create the problem - it doesn't happen anymore.

But in the meantime I've setup my PC with Windows-7,64-bit from scratch, so ...