Syntrillium Backup Forums :: View topic - Can't open more than 30secs of APE in CEP 1.2a

William Rose · Location: USA Posts: 467

Hey, just wondering if anybody's heard of this ?

I've searched the forums here and over at Monkey's Audio.

Cool Edit will begin to open the ape file, and as the progress bar gets about a third of the way home, the whole box abruptly disappears revealing 15 to 30 secs of the file.

File size is as it should be. Happens regardless of APE's compression mode.

I'm using Windows ME, 512megs Ram, Athlon 1.4 ghz, plenty of HDD space.

I suppose maybe I'll try Winamp and see if it fully opens any of these files.

ozpeter · Location: Australia Posts: 3200

I've used monkey's files successfully with CEP2.0 (haven't actually tried with the latest version - although the idea of lossless compression is seductive, in practice in relation to today's big drives the game doesn't seem worth the candle - to me) - but this doesn't really answer the question re 1.2a, does it.

- Ozpeter

William Rose · Location: USA Posts: 467

Well, the enticement for me is that it's lossless (of course). If you can halve the size of any file,(audio or otherwise) I'm inclined to think you should. And, of course, I'm saying that on the premise that the compression routine is stable and takes relatively little dinking around with. Which as you can see from my post.....so far......These are the types of problems that would certainly qualify as a "drawback" to weigh against the benefits.

But for Crissakes, how could I justify not using it if I could ?

Am I worried about running out of disk space ? - No.
But I am concerned about using less of it. Half the file size with no compromise toward fidelity, to me, is a no-brainer. Waste is Waste.

William Rose · Location: USA Posts: 467

Ok, I take it back.

Ozpeter, I see what you mean about "the game not being worth..."
I spent a little time over at the Monkey Hut and, although they seem to have an active forum, it's otherwise a mess. Seems like every 5th post is a link to a new version. 3.083f1, 3.091a2c (beta), etc. etc.
And compatability isn't really gauranteed.

Course, I don't think that's why you lost interest, and it seems like alot of other forum members have had some luck with it. Getting it to work at least.

At any rate, I won't die without it, but it sure seemed like something to look into.

Oh well, into the ditch. Along with the rest of the crap. Dead

ozpeter · Location: Australia Posts: 3200

I actually found it worked well - I spent some time carefully testing that it did really recover bit-for-bit the original material - and was generally enthusiastic about it - but then somehow I simply haven't actually used it.

Some have complained about the length of time between Cool Edit releases - I have to say that the kind of daily release that some products 'enjoy' is indeed a bit of a worry!

- Ozpeter

William Rose · Location: USA Posts: 467

Ok, I just realised that, in Cool Edit Pro's "Open Waveform" dialog box, I can highlight any .ape I've made and succesfully "preview" the file all the way through. But subsequent attempts to "open" any of them have failed.

I did get one .ape to fully open in edit view. It was originally an MP3 I had laying around.

So, I tossed everything and tried to duplicate the success. Same file, didn't work.

Weird....

AndyH · Posts: 1425

I never tried to open such a file in CE, but I do use Monkey's Audio for backup to CDR. So far no problems (and no desire to look for an updated version, once I installed more than a year ago). When I want something from backup, I copy from CDR to a temp directory and have MA uncompress it. I guess opening directly into CE would be simpler, but then I generally just want to make another audio CDR, which doesn't involve CE anyway.

William Rose · Location: USA Posts: 467

You know, at first, I somehow had the impression that you had to use Monkey's interface to compress. I don't know why.

Anyway, it was awful. Occasionally, I could get it to complete a file or so. But then, it wouldn't even think about decompressing the file it just made.

That's what made me go to CEP for this in the first place. To see if it handled the compression any better. And it does. Flawlessly, it appears. And then, the same deal. It won't open the file for editing.

I wish I could find some older versions of the application and filter. God knows they've made enough of them. Would love to try them.

This would be so nice to have available to use.

jasper · Posts: 16

you should try this:

'new lossless file filter!'

wavpack