skipping at end of track

i've had an m3 for about 24 hours now, and everything's been great except for one thing

at the end of SOME tracks (haven't really noticed any sort of pattern to it), the audio skips before switching to the next song. there really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when it does it, just sort of randomly and sporadically. anyone else had this problem and/or know how to fix it?

thanks

I think there have been a couple of threads on this topic, something to do with files encoded with VBR (Variable Bitrate) as apposed to CBR (Constant Bitrate). I think if you re-encode the offending files can help.

I was thinking of buying an m3 in the near future but this for me is CRIMINAL. Don't get me wrong i'm a massive meizu fan and I love their players and what they have planned for the future but.......an mp3 player that does not display or play VBR mp3 files correctly!!! this is a deal clincher for me as I have many vbr mp3 files. This should have been rectified in the very first firmware update and tbh there really is no excuse, an mp3 player should play ALL mp3's......bottom line (especially a very popular method of encoding such as VBR). Even smaller companies than meizu don't have such problems with VBR. Being on the forum for quite a while now has kinda of put me off buying an m3. Not the small amount of people complaining about players crashing and stuff because I know most of them are isolated incidents. But hard facts about m3 glitches, (eg. VBR and the hold switch issues etc.) Lets not forget meizu ONLY make mp3 players, fair enough they are a small company but when their players primary functions do not work it doesn't inspire much faith. I will obviously be looking out for firmware updates to rectify these issues but for now i'm sticking with my sony NW-HD5.

Originally Posted by /\/\@D/\/\@/\/

I think there have been a couple of threads on this topic, something to do with files encoded with VBR (Variable Bitrate) as apposed to CBR (Constant Bitrate). I think if you re-encode the offending files can help.

Unfortunately, converting the files to CBR won't help. Most of my music collection are CBR MP3 files, and they do skip. It's definitely a playback bug that affects the M3 and the M6 (I've got both). I have some players from Creative, Cowon, an old cheap-o 256 MB unbranded player and even an MP3/CD player from Panasonic, and the tracks that skip on the M3 and M6 play just fine on all those devices.

The bug appears when you play songs with no silence at the end. It seems to be some problem with buffering. I hope Meizu won't "skip" fixing this bug in the next firmware.

I'm sorry but if they have the money and resources to build this:

Meizu's New Factory

they MUST have the money and resources to fix VBR and most other minor glitches.

Arghh! How widespread is this problem? I was about to get an M3 but all my files are EAC VBR and I'm sure not about to re-encode them. Does this happen on a lot of songs?

Between this and the tagging/album track order issue someone mentioned on here I'm starting to wonder if I should get something else (too bad because other than these issues this player seems perfect!)

Unfortunately, this happens on a *ton* of my albums, and I must say that it's driving me insane. If there isn't some sort of easy fix I might have to find another player...grrr

Originally Posted by steampie

Unfortunately, this happens on a *ton* of my albums, and I must say that it's driving me insane. If there isn't some sort of easy fix I might have to find another player...grrr

What format is your music in? How is it ripped?

i have this problem too...there seems to be stuttering at the end of each track. sometimes when i pause the m3, when i listen back, the song become corrupted with noise and weird sounds.....i use other player to play that song, no problem....meizu, please fix this in the next firmware.....!!!

i e-mailed meizu with regards to this problem and they emailed back saying that the m3 can play VBR correctly and are clearly unaware of the problem.

can anyone confirm whether these are isoloated incedents or if this is a common problem????
Anyone playing VBR without any problems at all?

Someone above said it wasn't VBR that is the problem, but maybe tracks with no silence at the end (like dance mixes or live albums, or tracks that blend together like on Dark Side of the Moon). For the people with problems, does it happen on 'regular' songs too? (songs that don't blend into the next)

Also, what codecs are people using who have th problems (MP3, AAC, etc.)

Originally Posted by sere83

i e-mailed meizu with regards to this problem and they emailed back saying that the m3 can play VBR correctly and are clearly unaware of the problem.

can anyone confirm whether these are isoloated incedents or if this is a common problem????
Anyone playing VBR without any problems at all?

Have never had any problems with skipping\stuttering but to be honest I had no idea if my 4800 mp3 files were CBR or VBR. 90% of them I have ripped with Easy CD-DA Extractor at CD quality setting 128Kbps.
Last night I used EncSpot to check them out and found they are all CBR.

Wanting to investigate the problem furthur I ripped, encoded and converted 209 files using Easy CD-DA Extractor Lame 3.97 VBR quality setting 2 normalised.

This is the info displayed by EncSpot:


All this means very little to me but I spent today listening to all 209 tracks and not a skip\stutter in any of them.

I think it may rely on where you get your music from. Downloading single music files at a time like p2p programs (limewire, emule) or perhaps a website can be played around a lot and get corrupted.

If you get a whole album, or you rip your self using a program that rips to decent quality, i think is better and doesn't give that problem. Because they all have their ID3 intact, and filename nicely named.

Don't quote me on this but its based on my experience and know how.

hmmm, thanks for the test /\/\@D/\/\@/\/, this will be useful in deciphering the problem. Can anyone who has problems playing back files give some information about the files that skip? could it simply be any tracks (CBR or VBR) with no silence at the end? or perhaps download corruption? This is a recccuring problem so we need more people to test out VBR or tunes with no silence at the end. Any help is greatly appreciated as it will affect whether i purchase an m3

Sorry, but I have to disagree. While badly encoded files can certainly trigger playback problems (playback stopping in the middle of the song, freezing the player and others), my experience with M6, M3 and other DAPs and portable devices proved me that it's not the problem in this case.

I've got a 4,500+ music collection ripped using Easy CD-DA Extractor (320 kbits/s CBRs, with LAME versions 3.92 through 3.97), a bunch of tracks I downloaded from eMusic (192 kbits/s VBRs also encoded with LAME) and some albums I bought directly from record labels and indie artists (mostly 256 kbits/s CBRs, all encoded with LAME again).

Among all those I've got an assortment of live albums and continuous DJ mixes. All these play just fine in the following devices:

• my three DAPs from Creative Labs: Zen Vision:M, Zen V Plus and an old Zen Micro;
• a DAP/PMP from Cowon: Cowon D2;
• my brother's "cheap-o" unbranded 256 MB MP3 player;
• my neighbor's son very old 256 MB MPIO FY-200;
• my girlfriend's Philips GoGear 1 GB flash player;
• my girlfriend's old CD/MP3 player from Panasonic;
• my girlfriend's Nokia cell phone!
• one of my co-worker's Sandisk Sansa e280.

Well... it's a list of 10 (TEN :eek devices from different manufacturers and with very distinct specs where all my live albums and DJ mixes play seamlessly (I'm not counting the two PCs at my home and my workstation at the job, since they're not portable audio devices ). That said, I think it's unlikely that a bunch of not properly encoded/ripped MP3 files would play perfectly in all the devices from that list.

The only devices that have problems with my MP3 files are my Meizus M3 and M6. I'm definitely sure that it's not a problem in the music files, but a problem in the firmware code for music playback instead. This has been already said before in other threads.

Regards!!

Originally Posted by Almoxil

Sorry, but I have to disagree. While badly encoded files can certainly trigger playback problems (playback stopping in the middle of the song, freezing the player and others), my experience with M6, M3 and other DAPs and portable devices proved me that it's not the problem in this case.

I've got a 4,500+ music collection ripped using Easy CD-DA Extractor (320 kbits/s CBRs, with LAME versions 3.92 through 3.97), a bunch of tracks I downloaded from eMusic (192 kbits/s VBRs also encoded with LAME) and some albums I bought directly from record labels and indie artists (mostly 256 kbits/s CBRs, all encoded with LAME again).

Among all those I've got an assortment of live albums and continuous DJ mixes. All these play just fine in the following devices:

• my three DAPs from Creative Labs: Zen Vision:M, Zen V Plus and an old Zen Micro;
• a DAP/PMP from Cowon: Cowon D2;
• my brother's "cheap-o" unbranded 256 MB MP3 player;
• my neighbor's son very old 256 MB MPIO FY-200;
• my girlfriend's Philips GoGear 1 GB flash player;
• my girlfriend's old CD/MP3 player from Panasonic;
• my girlfriend's Nokia cell phone!
• one of my co-worker's Sandisk Sansa e280.

Well... it's a list of 10 (TEN :eek devices from different manufacturers and with very distinct specs where all my live albums and DJ mixes play seamlessly (I'm not counting the two PCs at my home and my workstation at the job, since they're not portable audio devices ). That said, I think it's unlikely that a bunch of not properly encoded/ripped MP3 files would play perfectly in all the devices from that list.

The only devices that have problems with my MP3 files are my Meizus M3 and M6. I'm definitely sure that it's not a problem in the music files, but a problem in the firmware code for music playback instead. This has been already said before in other threads.

Regards!!

Does this only happen with songs that flow into the next? Does it happen with albums that were ripped as a whole?

Just trying to nail this down. Wonder why it is happening to some people and not others. Like the poster above, this is holding me off from buying an M3, which I would do immediately if this weren't an issue. (I really want a compact flash player NOW and after lots of research decided on the M3, and then this! Grrrrrr....)

Yes, "regular" CDs with silence between the tracks don't have this problem (at least, I haven't had this issue with my "non-live" albums).

Originally Posted by /\/\@D/\/\@/\/

Have never had any problems with skipping\stuttering but to be honest I had no idea if my 4800 mp3 files were CBR or VBR. 90% of them I have ripped with Easy CD-DA Extractor at CD quality setting 128Kbps.
Last night I used EncSpot to check them out and found they are all CBR.

Wanting to investigate the problem furthur I ripped, encoded and converted 209 files using Easy CD-DA Extractor Lame 3.97 VBR quality setting 2 normalised.

This is the info displayed by EncSpot:


All this means very little to me but I spent today listening to all 209 tracks and not a skip\stutter in any of them.

/\/\@D/\/\@/\/, after reading your post, I'm inclined to think that the problem might reside in the firmware code that deals with pre-buffering. You say that you've never had the problem with your 128 kbits/s CBRs from EZCCDAX. Almost all my music collection was ripped using the same program, but using a 320 kbits/s profile. Since a 128 kbits/s MP3 file has less than half the data than a 320 kbits/s file, it's easier to deal with. Maybe the pre-buffering portion of the code isn't efficient enough when dealing with high bitrate files (> 192 kbits/s). Only thinking...

Originally Posted by Almoxil

/\/\@D/\/\@/\/, after reading your post, I'm inclined to think that the problem might reside in the firmware code that deals with pre-buffering. You say that you've never had the problem with your 128 kbits/s CBRs from EZCCDAX. Almost all my music collection was ripped using the same program, but using a 320 kbits/s profile. Since a 128 kbits/s MP3 file has less than half the data than a 320 kbits/s file, it's easier to deal with. Maybe the pre-buffering portion of the code isn't efficient enough when dealing with high bitrate files (> 192 kbits/s). Only thinking...

I wonder if this would happen with LAME -V2 (which is VBR, and targets, I think, around 192 kbp/s), which is what I rip with. Still I have some other stuff that might be higher bitrate, and anyway this shouldn't happen regardless. (When is the next firmware update coming??)

BINGO! I did a test with my Meizu M6: (sorry, didn't do the test with my M3. Though, since the problem happens on both players, the results should apply to the M3 too -- I'll do the test on it later, when the battery is fully charged )

I re-ripped one of my live albums with the same profile I always use in Easy CD-DA Extractor, but at 128 kbits/s CBR, instead of 320 kbits/s CBR. Worked like a charm. No stutter, no noise, no nothing...

Re-ripped the same CD again, at 320 kbits/s (like the original ripped files, only to dismiss the "badly encoded file" argument). Copied to my M6, played. Stutter/skipping on track change again.

So, this is my best bet: the firmware code for music playback isn't able to handle track change for high-bitrate files with the current firmware, or the buffer doesn't have enough space to hold data for the ending track and for the next track at the same time, or both :eek:.