NooMoahk
Member
Posted 2 years ago
I'm using an MP3 file and I receive this error:
"The media file specified for this alarm is either missing, corrupted, or there is no codec or audio output device available to play it."
It just uses a bunch of windows error message beeps in place of my alarm. The same thing happens when I check "Use external media player for alarm". I had this issue in version 2.0 but I couldn't fix it. You told me to use the beta and that didn't fix the problem either. Any help would be great.
Mark
Administrator
Posted 2 years ago
Thanks for the extra report, NooMoahk. Right now, it looks like the internal media player doesn't support all MP3 files (specifically ones that have certain ID3v2.4 tags in them; other ID3 tags should be OK). Typically, either converting the files to a different format or stripping out the ID3 tags should solve the issue, but there could also be conflicting codecs that sometimes cause problems. I'm working on various workarounds now, so all I can recommend is to stay tuned. 
As for the external media player not working, the only time Citrus reverts back to "beep mode" when using an external player is if there was a problem launching the media player. Citrus basically just enacts the same action that double-clicking on an MP3 file would take, so check to make sure that double-clicking on an MP3 file starts playing the file. If not, you may need to adjust the default player program.
Hope this helps!
Anonymous
Posted 2 years ago
I've insured that the program opens(foobar2000) when double clicking an MP3 file. Stripping the tags did not work, nor did converting to a wma file. Would a codec issue cause the external player not to open either? I did find a workaround, though. When I changed the default application for MP3 files to WMP it worked fine. Why would Citrus have an issue with foobar?
I've actually been using the older Citrus and it's working ok. It's like version 1.5 or something(the one with the red clock icon). It opens my external player fine, but it doesn't exactly provide all the features your most recent one has.
NooMoahk
Member
Posted 2 years ago
Oops, wasn't logged in. Old one was version 1.0.5 not 1.5, my bad.
Anonymous
Posted 2 years ago
This application is exactly what I am looking for . . . but it doesn't work for me.
The above problems are not remedied in version 2.2. All of my media players work flawlessly (no codec issues whatsoever) and I'm using MP3s that have nothing but alpha-numeric filenames and have had all of their ID3 tags stripped, but I still get the above mentioned media error. (Windows XP)
Has there been any more work done on this problem?
Mark
Administrator
Posted 2 years ago
Citrus relies on Windows to play the media it requests, not any specific media player, so if Citrus is beeping instead of playing media, it's usually the result of either a codec conflict, or a missing codec.
I recommend uninstalling any third-party codecs to see if that resolves any conflicts. Unfortunately there are a lot of poorly-programmed codecs out there that don't play well with others. If you're still getting this error message, you may be missing a codec; in this case, try installing some trusted, open-source ones (many users have reported success with ffdshow, for example). On Windows XP, many users have reported that this lightweight codec solves the ID3v2 problem: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/MP3_Parser_DirectShow_Filter.htm
I've been looking into alternate solutions to the DirectX API for playing media, but there are often too many drawbacks. Naturally, as soon as I find something more reliable, I'll update Citrus to ensure it works with as many media files as possible.
Anonymous
Posted 2 years ago
It won't play songs with names or tags in Asian Language neither...
You can try this: ????
Mark
Administrator
Posted 2 years ago
Songs with Asian filenames have been supported since Citrus 2.1, but there's a possibility that, without the right codec installed, that Asian language ID3 tags could be problematic. I'm looking into these problems and hope to come up with a solution for the next version. Stay tuned.
Anonymous
Posted 2 years ago
Hi,
Thanks for a well designed program. I'm also having problems with playing media files. Citrus seems to work for almost all of my music. However, almost all of the songs that I've gotten recently, in the past week, don't seem to work. Some of this music is old though, like from the year 2008 and 2000.
At first, Citrus couldn't play the song and would enter beep mode. I've tried playing around with MP3 Parser and ffdshow, but haven't gotten much.
Two main errors currently:
-When I test a song that works, and then close the alarm window, I get an error pop up. "Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt." I get this error even on songs that I've previously had no problem with.
-Some songs work for about 10 seconds and then the whole Citrus program shuts down.
-With mp3 parser, I think I can get some songs to not enter beep mode, but instead play for 10 seconds and then shut down.
I hope this was helpful and has potential to be resolved.
Thanks,
Zhe