Need some help with "Verify"

[tbaker2500]

I think I have the problem narrowed down to Powerpress, but I may be wrong. Any help I can get I'd appreciate.

Our podcast is www.drabblecast.org. MP3's are working fine. I use podcast Channels, with one set up for M4A's.
M4A's straight out of Garageband work fine, and Verify properly when checked in the Wordpress post.
Sometimes I need to change artwork post production (I host, not produce this show), and I use a windows tool called Chapter Master to alter the artwork. It produces a .M4B file. Now, many players don't seem to understand M4B, and my understanding from reading the web is that it's just an indicator that it's bookmarkable. I change the extension to .M4A. Using Powerpress before version 3.0, I upload this file, verify it, and it works great!
On Powerpress version 3.0 and above, upon verify I get an error message like:
"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 94371840 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 71 bytes) in /home/drabblecast/drabblecast.org/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/getid3/module.audio-video.quicktime.php on line 457"

Here is the file I was trying to verify:
http://www.drabblecast.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Drabblecast-244-2.m4a

I think it's possible that there is something wrong with the file, but it plays in Quicktime.

Thanks for the help!
Tom

[angelo]

I would not use Chapter Master, if it does not save the m4a /m4b optimized for the web (headers at the beginning of the file) then you will have this problem. I would use iTunes to write your ID3/m4a tags to the media. Same directions as for Mp3 ID3 tags found here: http://www.podcastfaq.com/creating-podcast/audio/id3-tags/

Also, m4b is for audiobooks, it adds a lot more complexity to your m4a formatted file in the form of metadata. If the Chapter Master software is also adding additional metadata, and you're not utilizing it, then you may be introducing unnecessary clutter in your m4a file. Now if you do create audiobooks full of chapters and multiple images at specific times in the audio, then you should save the file as m4b (not m4a) and keep in mind it will only play correctly in Apple based software which includes Quicktime and all Apple portable devices.

Other than slightly smaller file size, there's no advantage to using m4a over mp3 for normal podcasting. The only real advantages to m4a is when you introduce either the audiobooks feature and/or DRM, which most podcasters do not do.

[tbaker2500]

This podcast does indeed fully utilize chapters and individual artwork for chapters, hence why they use this format. Using your Channel feature, we can provide a MP3 feed for those who don't have the capability.

The original file, as it comes out of Garageband, is an M4A with full chapters and artwork for chapters. Is a M4B file structured differently?

Why did I not have problems pre Powerpress 3.0?

Thanks
Tom

[angelo]

In powerpress 3.0 we added m4a to the verify feature, before 3.0 powerpress only detected the file size (not the duration). It may be that you have so much chapter info that the getid3 library can't find the header info within the first 512k of the file. You can increase this if you can edit your wp-config.php.

[tbaker2500]

Yes, I can guarantee there is more than 512k worth of art for the chapters. What do I alter in wp-config?
I can also experiment with smaller images and see if that fixes it.
Thanks
Tom

[angelo]

I would rather recommend experimenting with the verify download size setting, it's a lot easier. You need to add the following line to your wp-config.php, it needs to be somewhere in the top or middle of the file. Below the require_once line near the bottom will not work.

Code: [Select]

define('POWERPRESS_DOWNLOAD_BYTE_LIMIT', 1500000);
The value above will download the first 1.5MB of the file. The default value is I believe 500000, so the example above increases that by 3 times.

For those with this problem with mp4/m4v, there is a separate define for video, POWERPRESS_DOWNLOAD_BYTE_LIMIT_VIDEO.

[tbaker2500]

Ok, changing the download setting didn't help. I even bumped it to 5mb. Still getting this error message:
"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 94371840 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 60 bytes) in /home/drabblecast/drabblecast.org/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/getid3/module.audio-video.quicktime.php on line 457"
(Yes, I killed the php processes to make sure value was loaded.)

So I've gone back into Chapter Master, and tried doing the simplest change, of removing one of the covers. And verify still blows up. So, Chapter Master is changing the file in a way that Verify don't like.

Still haven't gotten a response from the writer of Chapter Master.

Anybody know some good software for altering chapter images?

[angelo]

If your on a MAC, use the software Apple gives you, it should have the tools necessary as audiobooks is their idea.

[tbaker2500]

I have both OSX machines and Windows machines. However, like I stated earlier, I'm not authoring these files. Therefore I don't have the source. iTunes or Quicktime don't allow me to modify the chapter artwork. Therefore I need a third party utility. :-(

[angelo]

Ahh that sucks, who ever created the media for you should have also given you the originals.  Someone else may have a recommendation.

[handyguys]

Just a though - could it also be a PHP memory ceiling? Try adding more memory to PHP.

[angelo]

94371840  bytes is a lot, and PowerPress only downloads the first 1MB of the media file to verify it. My only guess is that the application is taking the lazy way about writing the tag information and tacking it on at the end of the file, which means it is not stream-able. You can test that by trying to play the file and skipping forward immediately after clicking play, and see if the player plays nearly instantly or if it has to wait till it downloads the file to that point. (if it needs to download the file up to that point then it's placing the meta information at the end of the file.

[tbaker2500]

Hookay. I FINALLY found a better chapter editing package. For those who care, it's called Chapter & Verse.
It creates a file that verifies right away.
Problem solved, moving on with life. :-) Thanks for all the help.
Tom