How does one enable CDDB support

[edpatterson]

Subject says it all. I went through all the options on both my Windows and Ubuntu boxes. I could not find CDDB mentioned anywhere. Searching the forums eludes to a configuration setting that simply does not exist.

I am running 1.1.7 under Windows Starter on an Acer Aspire One.

Really, I have looked and searched. The only thing I came up that matches my systems is the download album art setting.

Thanks for any help

Ed

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It should be on by default.
All->Input->Access->Audio CD

[edpatterson]

It shows the freedb.freedb.org:8880 cache 300ms settings but nothing ever come up.

I tried all of the album art settings, still nothing. Out of desperation I tried Ripper-X, Sound Juicer and Music Player on my Ubuntu box and <shudder> Media Player, CDEx on Windows, all of them populated the album, artist and tracks.

I must have something funky with my system. Any ideas, I tried the restore defaults buttons. Is there a log file somewhere that I can review?

I appreciate the assistance!
Ed

[Rogee]

I'm also having problems retrieving CD track titles. Everything appears to be set up properly, but it only shows "Audio CD - Track 01", etc.

Is is supposed to happen automatically? Is there a button or menu item to force it to look for the track titles?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Look at the logs

[hardynicks]

Look at the logs

Where are these located (on Windows 7)? The freedb feature seems a bit flaky, I just put a CD in, played and it successfully loaded the tracks, but it kept giving me different album art for each track- why would there be separate art for each track, surely it should just give the same art that is assigned to the first track/album. I then played a few different ripped albums, tracks, then right clicked and clicked 'play with VLC' with the same audio CD from explorer again, this time no track info loaded at all.

[thetown]

Subject says it all.

CDDB never worked. I gave up on it.

[hardynicks]

Subject says it all.

CDDB never worked. I gave up on it.

It hasn't worked at all up till recently, now it's partially working I'm not giving up yet ! Using the same freedb database, DVBViewer gets the track info every time so it's not a problem with freedb, please get this fixed soon VLC....

DVBViewer seems to be using http on port 80 with /~cddb/cddb.cgi path per comment 1.7 on the freedb faq whereas VLC seems to use cddbp on port 8880, maybe http access is more reliable?

http://www.freedb.org/en/faq.3.html#17

[thetown]

DVBViewer gets the track info every time so it's not a problem with freedb

Yeah, ExactAudioCopy, foobar2000... no problem at all to get simple track infos from freedb. Damned, even CDValet still works.

But what I really dislike about this: the VideoLan Organization still explicitly promotes the non-functional CDDB(freedb) CD Info Feature.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

DVBViewer gets the track info every time so it's not a problem with freedb

Yeah, ExactAudioCopy, foobar2000... no problem at all to get simple track infos from freedb. Damned, even CDValet still works.

But what I really dislike about this: the VideoLan Organization still explicitly promotes the non-functional CDDB(freedb) CD Info Feature.

The volunteers are waiting for your help.

Did you try to force the port to 80 ?

[Lotesdelere]

It's tied to the Interface -> Privacy / Network interaction -> "Album art download policy" option.

If this option is set to "Manual download" then no connection to freedb.org is performed.
If set to "When track starts playing" then it will update the playlist accordingly.
However if it's set to "As soon as track is added" then it instantly crashes VLC when trying to play the CD, at least it does on my system.

[hardynicks]

The volunteers are waiting for your help.

Did you try to force the port to 80 ?

Yes, this didn't help unfortunately, I would like to help but I am not a programmer as I'm sure most people who post here aren't. Would changing the caching value help?

It's tied to the Interface -> Privacy / Network interaction -> "Album art download policy" option.

If this option is set to "Manual download" then no connection to freedb.org is performed.
If set to "When track starts playing" then it will update the playlist accordingly.
However if it's set to "As soon as track is added" then it instantly crashes VLC when trying to play the CD, at least it does on my system.

That is weird as I have no Interface -> Privacy setting, are you sure you have that correct? The only preference I can find which is at all about album art is Interface>Main Interfaces>HTTP with a tickbox "Export album art as /art", which I currently have unticked.

[Lotesdelere]

I'm talking about the Simple Preferences (All is UNticked) then in the Interface section scroll down to the bottom of the right panel.

[hardynicks]

I'm talking about the Simple Preferences (All is UNticked) then in the Interface section scroll down to the bottom of the right panel.

OK I see, but if I select 'As soon as track is added' or 'When track starts playing' it does not crash but neither setting loads album art or track listing.

(using Windows 7 32 bit)

[thetown]

It's tied to the Interface -> Privacy / Network interaction -> "Album art download policy" option.

If this option is set to "Manual download" then no connection to freedb.org is performed.
If set to "When track starts playing" then it will update the playlist accordingly.

I've tried every option and have never seen a track listing for an AudioCD.

I receive Album art, though (eg for MP3s), but not for AudioCDs.

However if it's set to "As soon as track is added" then it instantly crashes VLC when trying to play the CD, at least it does on my system.

No crashes here neither Vista nor 7.

[thetown]

Did you try to force the port to 80 ?

Yes.

Both for 8880 and 80 the verbose 'messages' are:

...
cdda debug: p_sectors: 15, 285717
cdda debug: p_sectors: 16, 326252
cdda debug: fetching infos with CDDB
cdda warning: CDDB error: (null)
qt4 debug: IM: Setting an input
main debug: looking for meta fetcher module: 1 candidate
...

Not sure what to do with the path for http-access (/~cddb/cddb.cgi), though.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Very weird... It just means that it didn't find a match

[thetown]

Still no freedb Audio CD track listings in v1.1.8.

[hardynicks]

Very weird... It just means that it didn't find a match

That cannot be the problem, DVBViewer uses the same freedb database & gets tracklisting every time I have tried, VLC gets it hardly ever.

[thetown]

Very weird... It just means that it didn't find a match

That cannot be the problem

Of course not, I always counter-check with EAC, first a CD with only one hit, then a CD with multiple hits.

But still no freedb Audio CD track listings in v1.1.9.

"CDDB CD info" should get removed from the (Windows) Features matrix.

[Antman]

No joy for me here under Windows Vista Business SP2...

I first tried this in v1.1.8 but noticed v1.1.9 was out (VLC's Check for Updates didn't see this for some reason). The same thing happens in v1.1.9.

In All Preferences I have the following settings in Input / Codecs->Access modules->Audio CD:
Caching value in ms: 300
CDDB Server: freedb.freedb.org
CDDB port: 8880

In Simple Preferences I have the following setting in Interface->Privacy Network Interaction:
Album art download policy: When track starts playing.

Watching in TCPview I can see VLC connecting to 195.214.216.38:8880 when I start playing a CD. This resolves to mirror.freedb.org so it appears to be going to the right place. The connection persists until I quit VLC but I don't get any track information in VLC.

I'd like to see what appears in VLC's logs but it seems I mustn't have the right set of dead chickens to wave over it. No amount of monkeying with All Preferences' Avdanced->Logging settings creates a log file - let alone put anything in it. Anyone know how to get logging working so I can see what's going on here?

[Antman]

Ok, so logging is broken too. Found Tools/Messages and tried capturing what was going on. I can't see a way to attach log files to posts so I've filtered the result down to those messages containing "cdda":

qt4 warning: Input option: cdda-caching=300
main debug: adding item `cdda: //F' ( cdda: //F:\ )
qt4 debug: Adding a new MRL to recent ones: cdda: //F:\
main debug: processing request item cdda: //F node null skip 0
main debug: resyncing on cdda: //F
main debug: cdda: //F is at 0
main debug: Creating an input for 'cdda: //F'
main debug: requesting art for cdda: //F
main debug: `cdda: //F:\' gives access `cdda' demux `' path `F:\'
main debug: creating demux: access='cdda' demux='' path='F:\'
main debug: no access_demux module matched "cdda"
main debug: creating access 'cdda' path='F:\'
cdda debug: using winNT/2K/XP ioctl layer
cdda debug: p_sectors: 0, 0
cdda debug: p_sectors: 1, 20130
cdda debug: p_sectors: 2, 34060
cdda debug: p_sectors: 3, 49742
cdda debug: p_sectors: 4, 66557
cdda debug: p_sectors: 5, 87185
cdda debug: p_sectors: 6, 103295
cdda debug: p_sectors: 7, 133185
cdda debug: p_sectors: 8, 148330
cdda debug: p_sectors: 9, 168812
cdda debug: p_sectors: 10, 188580
cdda debug: p_sectors: 11, 207697
cdda debug: p_sectors: 12, 226382
cdda debug: p_sectors: 13, 243345
cdda debug: p_sectors: 14, 268215
cdda debug: fetching infos with CDDB
cdda warning: CDDB error: (null)
cdda debug: CD-TEXT information missing
cdda debug: track[0] start=0
cdda debug: track[1] start=20130
cdda debug: track[2] start=34060
cdda debug: track[3] start=49742
cdda debug: track[4] start=66557
cdda debug: track[5] start=87185
cdda debug: track[6] start=103295
cdda debug: track[7] start=133185
cdda debug: track[8] start=148330
cdda debug: track[9] start=168812
cdda debug: track[10] start=188580
cdda debug: track[11] start=207697
cdda debug: track[12] start=226382
cdda debug: track[13] start=243345
main debug: using access module "cdda"
main debug: removing module "cdda"
main debug: `cdda: //F:\' gives access `cdda' demux `' path `F:\'
main debug: creating demux: access='cdda' demux='' path='F:\'
main debug: no access_demux module matched "cdda"
main debug: creating access 'cdda' path='F:\'
cdda debug: using winNT/2K/XP ioctl layer
main debug: using access module "cdda"
main debug: TIMER input launching for 'cdda: //F' : 147.000 ms - Total 147.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 147.000 ms)
main debug: creating demux: access='cdda' demux='' path='F:\'
main debug: `cdda: //F:\' successfully opened

The CDDB error isn't exactly helpful. Don't know if it matters but the second block of track start sectors is missing an entry for track[14] (the leadout).

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

How many tracks are on your CD?

[thetown]

Still no CDDB/freedb functionality in 1.1.10.

[bitterkitten]

yeah I haven't gotten cddb to work for a long time either, confirm newest version still no-go.

If there are no plans to remedy this (and I'll live if there aren't, duh) - does anyone have any other suggestion besides using a different media player? Something else embed-able in VLC?

thanks v-lan-ers. It's not like it's necessary, but it would be nice. : )

e