How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

2024-09-03 16:32:15

I have old files in MPC format, converted by unknown means, but except in the AVSMediaPlayer I could not playing them anywhere else.
MediaInfo gives a contradictory picture, although it correctly determines the length of the track and that it is Musepack SV7, but every time it gets confused with the version of the writing library - then 2.51 alpha, then 1.12 beta, then 1.64, etc.
I would like to know how else to open this file and what kind of subformat is this?

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #1 – 2024-09-04 17:14:30

As I understand it, the whole problem lies in the experimental codec that is part of the Helix RMbin. Therefore, it was necessary to ask more simply - what is the MREGPlus version there?

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #2 – 2024-09-05 02:47:52

Seems to be SV 7.15.   I think this was an experimental version pre-sv8 that should not have been used .

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #3 – 2024-09-06 03:47:26

I dug a little deeper:
https://hydrogenaud.io/musepack/klemm/www.personal.uni-jena.de/~pfk/mpp/index2.html#test-encoder-binaries

"These are versions absolute unusable for archiving!
File format can be changed from one hour to another!
Files can't be decoded in the future!

Some changes are done:
  - different bitstream! (marked as Version 7.15)"

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #4 – 2024-09-06 14:38:16

Quote from: shadowking on 2024-09-06 03:47:26

I dug a little deeper:

Great find! So @AardyRus might decode his files with these binaries

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #5 – 2024-09-06 19:25:38

Thanks, it's a great find, of course! But the probability that something suitable will be found among a bunch of old binaries is not great!
Besides, there is a ready-made solution - this is FreeAudioEditor2017, which opens MPC SV7.15 files for editing without problems!

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #6 – 2024-09-07 10:20:57

There is an utility - mpc2sv8 - included with the musepack linux packages.
Does it handle such files?

~> mpc2sv8
mpc2sv8 - Musepack (MPC) sv7 to sv8 converter v1.0.0 (C) 2007-2009 MDT
Built Jan 25 2024 00:00:00
Usage:
mpc2sv8 <infile.mpc> <outfile.mpc>
or
mpc2sv8 <infile_1.mpc> [ <infile_2.mpc> ... <infile_n.mpc> ] <outdir>

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #7 – 2024-09-07 10:22:44

Aah I see, no it can't,
at least not without errors
"An error occured while decoding, this file may be corrupted"
The resulting file is recognized as SV8 by mediainfo, but I haven't tried playing it

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #8 – 2024-09-07 10:25:29

anyway, here's the result of running
mpc2sv8 Sound.mpc o.mpc

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #9 – 2024-09-07 10:29:37

FWIW, mpc2sv8 is also part of the Windows version, see https://www.musepack.net/?pg=win
Direct link: https://files.musepack.net/windows/musepack_windows_2009-04-02.zip

Re: How to fix a problem with playing old MPC or MPEGPlus files?

Reply #10 – 2024-09-07 18:39:16

No, the mpc2sv8 utility will not help in this case, as all other available binaries did not help either.
I would also like to dig into the NCTAudioCompress3 library, what is indicated there about "MP Plus SV-8", but I think it's useless.
In short, if anyone has such non-standard MusePack files, distill them using the FreeAudioEditor into a format convenient for you, and do not bother!