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Text File | 1999-08-28 | 19.0 KB | 439 lines

_____________________________________________________________________ [ RightClick-MP3 help ] Aug 28, 1999 It's still FREEWARE baby! MrShannon@execpc.com ------------ http://execpc.com/MrShannon _____________________________________________________________________ First, maybe you can help me. Because of RightClick-MP3's sudden popularity, and the overwhelming number of downloads per week, I am going to be charged for bandwidth usages. Please understand that my intention is for RightClick-MP3 to be free, but I need help with the bandwith charges. If you would donate just one dollar to help me pay for the bandwith, then I can continue to make RightClick-MP3, and newer versions, available for download. So if you dig RightClick-MP3, please, send me a dollar or one unit of your country's paper currency to this address: MrShannon (Rc-MP3) P.O. Box 304 Pewaukee, WI 53072 USA You don't have to donate your money, but all I ask for is a dollar. Think of it in an hourly rate. If you make $5.00/hour, that's 12 minuets of work. You make $12/hour? Only 5 minuets of work. C'mon, you can spare a dollar for little 'ol me right? Q: How should I send the money? A: You can just put the dollar bill in an envelope and send it off, or to be safe, you might want to fold it up in a piece of notebook paper or something. Q: Can I send you more? (someone honestly asked me this) A: Sure you can, whatever you feel appropriate! Q: Do you take checks? A: For a dollar? Q: Do I get anything for it? A: You're getting RightClick-MP3 for free already... You're just being an awesome person by helping me out and you will have my gratitude for it! _____________________________________________________________________ Now on with the Troubleshooting and Question & Answer stuff... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: It doesn't work. What's up? A: You'll have to be more specific than that. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -00- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: How do you launch this program once installed? A: As the name implies, just RightClick and MP3 and choose Decode, or RightClick a wav and choose Encode. The items in the Start button are used to change the settings. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -01- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: After I install Rc-MP3, I RightClick on an .MP3 file, but there is no option to decode it, yet I can RightClick on a .WAV file and choose to Encode that. Are you stupid? A: Sometimes I am stupid, but this isn't entirely my fault. I make Rc-MP3 register it's Context menu options with file types based on their registry settings. This is particularly difficult with .MP3's because Justin Frankel (or someone at Nullsoft -- WinAMP people) keeps friggin changing the file type's description! Anyway, this seems to happen to people that use WinAMP to play their .WAV files, so I made a registry patch that should fix it. - Click on your Start button, then click on Run... - In the box marked Open: type "C:\Progra~1\Rc-MP3\WAV_fef.exe" - Click on OK - When asked if you want to continue with the patch, hit Yes - - - -1.1- - - - Q: When I RightClick an MP3 I don't get the menu options for Rc-MP3. A: I made a "patch" for you. It's in c:\program files\rc-mp3\ and it's called "Own-MP3.inf". You'll want to open that file (just double click it) and read the instructions inside. - - - -1.2- - - - Q: When I RightClick an WAV I don't get the menu options for Rc-MP3. A: I made a "patch" for you. It's in c:\program files\rc-mp3\ and it's called "Own-WAV.inf". You'll want to open that file (just double click it) and read the instructions inside. - - - -1.3- - - - Q: I just did part 1.1 or 1.2 and I cannot find the .mp3 or .wav keys A: Then you'll have to make them. Double click the wav&mp3.reg file located in c:\progra~1\rc-mp3\ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -02- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: Whenever I try to use RightClick-MP3 (on a wav, mp3, directory, etc) my computer reboots into DOS Mode. A: I havn't gotten a confrimation on this fix yet, but try this: 1. Go to your windows directory (usually c:\windows\) 2. A file called command.com will be there (cmd.exe for WinNT) 3. There should also be a file simply named "command" (a shortcut) 4. RightClick the shortcut named command and hit Properties 5. Under the Program tab, select "Normal Window" in the Run: field 6. Click the Advanced button and set the "Suggest MS-DOS Mode" option as the ONLY thing checked on that screen. - - - -2.1- - - - Q: When I right-click on a WAV and select the option to create an MP3, I get a DOS box that has GETCHAR in the window title. The box has some random characters in it, and it is locked up. A1: I have seen this happen on the Japanese build of Win98. I never came up with a solution. Perhaps "chev.com" (Change Environment) could prove useful. A2: You might want to try disabling the color ANSI if you're not running Windows NT. Just click on Start -> Programs -> RightClick-MP3 -> Settings -> Toggle ANSI Color - - - -2.2- - - - Q: When I RightClick an MP3 and choose to Encode it, I get the window that tells me what the settings are, then I press any key and the box disapears, with no new MP3 file. A1: This might happen if your wav file in not in the appropriate format for encoding. Please see Section 3 of this help document for a way around this. A2: This happens if you're using Xing MP3Encoder version 1.02 and you have an output directory specified. To fix it, set the output directory to the active directory (Start -> Programs -> RightClick-MP3 -> Settings -> Set Out Put directory -> Use Active). This also might happen if you're using Xing MP3Encoder version 1.02 and you're trying to use a variable bitrate. v1.02 of the encoder does not support Variable Bitrate encoding. You'll have to use a constant bitrate (I suggest 160kbps). People who own Xing's MP3Encoder v1.02 can upgrade to 1.50 via the internet by visiting their upgrade page and filling out a short from: http://www.xingtech.com/support/downloads/upgrades/ If you cannot upgrade to v1.5, you can still use Xing MP3Encoder v1.02. To use an output directory, you must edit the file c:\program files\rc-mp3\coder.bat and change the contents to read "set coder=X3v102". After you've done this you can use an output directory, but you still cannot use a variable bitrate. Also note that you cannot use Xing MP3Encoder v1.02 to rip from a CD, but you CAN use version 1.5 or BladeEnc. (see Section 6 of this help document for information on ripping a CD) - - - -2.3- - - - Q: When I RightClick and MP3 and try to encode it, I see the screen saying "Now encoding" but it just sits there. Nothin's happenin! A: I've had this happen when using any version of Xing's MP3Encoder. Just reboot your computer or try reinstalling Xing MP3enc (or use BladeEnc, heh). - - - -2.4- - - - Q: Every time I try to encode a wav file I get an illegal operation or something like this: BLADEENC caused an invalid page fault in module BLADEENC.EXE at 0137:004040b9. A: I got an eMail from Bill in regards to this. He actually found the "solution" on his own and sent me this eMail (edited for ease of reading)... At 7:54pm March 17th 1999 Bill wrote: If you remember, I had some problems encoding WAV files to MP3. After some experiments I did, I found out that the illegal operations are not caused by your program, but my cpu (AMD k6-2 at 300Mhz) getting over heated. I came to that conclusion when I tried to encode with the case of the my computer opened, and no problem occurred... Then I ran the program with the case closed and I got the Illegal op again. So the solution for me is to leave the case open every time I'm doing something with heavy CPU usage. Thank you! Bill.... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -03- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q1: I get the DOS box saying it is ready to go and to press any key. I press the space bar and I'm back at my desktop with no new file. Q2: Does the .wav file need to have a certain bitrate for conversion? Q3: When trying to encode to mp3 it says not a supported sub-type. ?? A: Your .wav file needs to be 8 or 16-bits @ 32, 44.1 or 48 kHz. To see what sample rate your wav is in, just RightClick it, go to Properties and hit the Details tab. There is some more info in your start button under RightClick-MP3 -> Settings -> Set Encoder -> Explain You can use the standard Windows Sound Recorder to change the sample rate of your .wav files. First start the Sound Recorder by clicking on your Start button -> Programs -> Accessories, then under Multimedia or Entertainment or something, click on Sound Recorder ( * - see below if it's not there). In the Sound Recorder, you must open your .wav file. Do this by clicking on File -> Open... then locate your .wav, click on it and click the Open button. Now to change the sample rate, you must click on File and then "Save as..." and click on the Change button which is at the very bottom of the Save as window. In the new window that comes up, you should see a spot labeled "Name:". Click on the Drop Down arrow and select "CD Quality" which should set the Format to PCM and the Attributes to 44.100 kHz, 16-bit, Stereo (you want can select another supported format if you wish, like 48.000 kHz or 32.000 kHz). Then click on OK, then change the name of the modified wav file, and finally click on the Save button. You can now close the Sound Recorder and use RightClick-MP3 to encode your new wav file that's in the correct sample rate. NOTE1: If you are increasing the sample rate of a wav file (for example 11kHz to 44.1kHz) the quality of sound will _not_ increase. NOTE2: If you decrease the sample rate of a wav file (for example, 48kHz to 32kHz), you will loose some quality. Not only that, but I will pick on you because you do not have to decrease the sample rate from 48kHz - it's a supported sample rate! * if, after searching the entire accessories menu, you do not find the Sound Recorder, you can install it by doing the following: 1. Click on Start -> Settings -> Control Panel 2. Double Click the Add/Remove Programs icon 3. Click on the Windows Setup tab 4. Click on Multimedia, then on the Details button 5. Scroll down and put the Check in for Sound Recorder 6. Click on OK, then OK again. It will now copy the needed files from your Windows CD or the hard disk, and you can proceed with the steps outlined above. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: When I decode an mp3 to wav it sounds terrible... Did I do something wrong? A1: Well, I don't think there's anything you could really do wrong actually. The only thing that would determine the quality of the .WAV file would be the original mp3's quality. Also, if you are doing things on the computer while it is decoding the MP3 it might affect the quality of the wav. A2: One other thing you can to do decode an mp3 is to simply use WinAMP to decode it. Just go into WinAMP's Preferences, then the Audio I/O tab, and under the "Output Plug-Ins" select the "Nullsoft Disk Writer Plug-In". Then hit configure to tell it where to write the .wav file and click OK. Now when you "play" an .mp3, WinAMP will actually write a .WAV file to the directory you told it to use. - - - -4.1- - - - Q: When I try to decode an mp3 into a wav, I get this message: "Cannot exec go32" A: I've only heard of this happening to 2 people running the German version of WinNT, but just incase someone else gets this to, I managed to incorporate a fix for you. You have to edit the Rc-MP3.bat file located in c:\progra~1\rc-mp3\ and find the two lines that start with "REM". just delete the "REM " and save the file. That seems to fix it. - - - -4.2- - - - Q: When converting from mp3 to wav, I'd like for the name to remain the same (except for the extension of course). For example, file.mp3 would become file.wav instead of !new!.wav A: I want it to do that too. I tried several different things but was unable to do it. It has something to do with the way Win95/98 handles it's variables and truncating the long file names. This is something I cannot do (at least not now). If you figure out a way to do it, by all means, try it and let me know if it worked. All the source is in Rc-MP3.bat - - - -4.3- - - - Q: When I encode a wav to an mp3 it sounds terrible, almost like it's under water or something... A: Make sure you're using a high quality bitrate to encode with. I suggest 128kHz or higher (the default is 160kHz). You can set the bitrate by clicking on your Start button -> RightClick-MP3 -> Settings -> Set Bitrate and click the level you want. The bigger the number, the higher the quality (and the larger the mp3 file). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -05- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: I have an MP3 Codec installed. Can Rc-MP3 use that instead? A: Unfortunately, Rc-MP3 can't use the Codec. It just uses command line utilities like BladeEnc and x3enc. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -06- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: Can I encode music straight off my Audio CD's? A: Yes! (probably). If you are running Windows95 or 98, AND you have RightClick-MP3 use an output directory, you can. I have included a neat Virtual Device Driver (.vxd) that will allow you to see some folders on your Audio CD that appear to contain .wav files. You can use RightClick-MP3 to encode these .wav files into an mp3. Here's how... There is a file in c:\program files\rc-mp3\ called cdfs.zip which contains a file called cdfs.vxd 1) go to your \Windows\System\IOSubSys directory and rename your existing cdfs.vxd file to something like cdfs.old 2) put the new cdfs.vxd from the zip in \Windows\System\IOSubSys 3) restart your computer 4) Choose a folder on one of your hard drives that you want your MP3's to be put in, RightClick it and choose "Set as Rc-MP3's Output Directory" Now you're ready to go to your CD Rom drive (through My Computer or Windows Explorer) where you will see a Stereo folder, then a 16-bit folder and then a 44hz folder. You'll then see the CD's tracks listed by number as a .wav file. Just RightClick it and choose to Encode it to an MP3 (do _not_ encode and delete). Your new mp3, straight off the CD, will be in the directory you chose as the Output Directory. NOTE 1: You _cannot_ use Xing's MP3Encoder version 1.02 (x3enc) to encode off a CD. You CAN use version 1.50, but in 1.02, you could not specify an output directory so it would encode the mp3 into the same directory as the wav. In this case, the wav is on a CD which you cannot write to. This means you'll have use BladeEnc or upgrade to v1.50 to rip a CD. People who own Xing's MP3Encoder v1.02 can upgrade to 1.50 via the internet by visiting their upgrade page and fill out a from: http://www.xingtech.com/support/downloads/upgrades/ NOTE 2: You're mp3 might have a lot of pop's and fuzz or just a bunch of nothing when you use this. That's because not all CD Rom's can do Digital Audio Extraction (like my damn'd CD Rom's). This is not something I can fix. You just need a new CD Rom Drive or something. NOTE 3: You cannot use this cdfs.vxd on WinNT (That's why it's not in your Rc-MP3\ folder if you're on NT by the way) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -07- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: Well, everything seems fine, but I don't see any of the pretty colors like you have in the screen shots. I want colors damn it! A: You're probably on WinNT right? well, I am afraid that's just tough and you cannot have colors. Why? because I couldn't get a utility that would load the ANSi.sys from command line for WinNT. I should have this fixed soon or at least a work around... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -08- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: I don't want the colors. A: Start -> Programs -> RightClick-MP3 -> Settings -> Toggle Color - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -09- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: How do I register RightClick-MP3? A: You don't. RightClick-MP3 is FREEWARE, which means there are no reg codes or disabled features. You can "register" your use of RightClick-MP3 by sending me eMail, but you can do better than that! You can send me a dollar (or whatever your base paper currency is from your country) at the following address (see the top of this document for more info): MrShannon (Rc-MP3) P.O. Box 304 Pewaukee, WI 53072 USA Rc-MP3 uses L3Decode v2.72 which is Fraunhofer-IIS's older decoder that was released with the shareware release of L3Encode. L3Encode and L3Decode use the same registration key. You can write eMail to Fraunhofer-IIS at sales@opticom.de or visit their web page at http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/ for information about registering L3Decode or purchasing MP3Decode (I don't know if MP3Decode will work with Rc-MP3 because I do not have it...). There is even more information in your Start button. (Start -> Programs -> RightClick-MP3 -> Reg L3Decode) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -10- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: When I right click on a wav I get the menu choices twice. If I uninstall, it leaves one set of choices which, of course, don't work. How to I get rid of the left over menu choices? A: You didn't uninstall the previous version before you installed this one like you were supposed to ;] - Click on Start, then click on Run... - Type "C:\Progra~1\Rc-MP3\MI_fix.exe" in the Open: filed - Click on OK. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -11- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: Does RightClick-MP3 support Batch Encoding? A: Yes it does. (What's Batch Encoding? Encoding a bunch of WAV files with one command). Just move or copy the WAV files you want to encode into a directory, then RightClick on that directory and choose to Encode. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q: This Troubleshooting and Q&A guide doesn't answer MY problem! What can I do now? A: Try eMailing me and we'll try to work it out. - MrShannon@execpc.com -