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Pandora Timeshifting App: Main Discussion Thread


irieb

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my latest version of 7.4.0-improved is here, (be sure not only to replace the jar but integrate the default.properties file, or just replace it if you don't need to keep any settings)

ftp://ftp.netvision.net.il/home/m/max1/la...3md5_opt-in.zip

features:

0) playlist creation

1) editable save-folder and filename structure

2) will not rip the same file twice (a common bug where the current song saved is actually the previously saved song, now - it will not be saved at all, which is better than having a wrongly named, duplicate, mp3)

3) distributed error-correction and aviodance using mp3-md5-hash db opt-in option (this is a new feature that is disabled by default, if you don't mind accessing a 3rd party db online - enable it, I recommend it. your IP will not be given away nor used in any way)

4) when distributed error-correction is off - a local version of it is turned on - writing the md5 hashes to a local txt file and using it as a reference to detect duplicates and mismatches. this way - if a file was mis-named when it was ripped it will be fixed on the 3rd time it is ripped (when it's only ripped 2 times - you can't tell if it's a mistake on the 1st one and now it's correct - or the other way around. that's why the 3rd time is different)

5) "&" bug is fixed (7.4.0 drops anything after an ampersand in the song title or artist name) this version doesn't have this bug.

6) option to turn off (or change) the id3 comment.

7) fixed a bug where sometime the station will be detected as the first station you have on pandora.

*) internal logic changes: 1) changed definition of "is new" to 15-minute old, instead of 3-hour old. 2) added timestamp to logs (Ethan asked.)

bug reports are welcome! pm me if you have any questions.

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One of the guys using my version of the jar asked me a question about the "same md5 as last rip, skipping" error, and I found myself writing this long reply - so I thought I'd put it here for everyone.

here's a bit of background,

Pandora's Jar does not always "catch" the right file. it is possible to know with 100% certainty what is the title and artist of the currently playing song, but selecting the correct file from the disk is not as easy - and mistakes sometime happen.

One of the improvements of my version is that MOST of those mistakes are detected and avoided.

an MD5 is a hash function, this means that every mp3 file has a "fingerprint" that can be calculated using the MD5 algorithm.

What I do is take this for every song ripped. If I see that the song that's being ripped has the same fingerprint as the last one ripped I understand that we got the wrong file. one reason for such a thing can be that your internet connection is too slow and the song you are currently playing has not finished downloading yet, as such - it cannot be ripped yet.

wait 20-30 seconds and try hitting the "rip" button again.

if you are using "cruise control" you can click the "rip" button to re-try, but if you are not next to the computer it will just be skipped.

another important thing to understand about the difference between this version and the one you had until now is the cataloging of mismatches and unclassified files: when the mp3md5.enabled parameter is set to true (And uncommented) your computer submits a "vote" for every file it rips. a vote for example is: "I just ripped the song aa by the artist bb, and the MD5 of the file I got is mmm" in one of two cases a vote is considered a "match":

1) no other vote is recorded in the database for the given md5

2) the given vote matches the most common vote for this md5 so far.

other possible cases are:

3) the given vote DOES NOT match the most common vote so far for the given md5, the vote is recorded and the total number of votes for "aa bb mmm" is increased by 1. the file is considered a mismatch since the title and artist it was tagged (id3 tag) with are probably wrong. instead of being inserted into the mp3 archive it is saved under a directory called "mismatches" - it can later be "rescued" keep reading.

4) a fourth possible case is that the database was unavailable for a certain period of time, files that are ripped during this time are saved in a directory called "unclassifieds"

in both case 3 & 4 the file is saved with it's md5 as its name. you can use windows explorer's "detailed" view to see the artist/title the files are tagged with.

experiments so far have shown that I am reaching a total of less than 2% mismatched songs that are getting into the archive, which is much less than the 8% i used to get.

This is not perfect of course, this is where the magic comes in.

as time goes by, and more users contribute to the md5 database, it becomes more likely to be able to tell with certainty what the real artist and title of a song are - based solely on it's md5 hash.

I am working on a little application that will go over all the songs that you downloaded from pandora (archive + mismatches + unclassifieds) and will sort and tag everything as good as possible. giving you an indication of certainty levels (per file or grand total). indicating which files are still suspicious.

Let me know if you need any more details.

CF.

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Good morning...

I'm using Firefox2 Portable on a slower connection than I'm used to. I had problems with mp3s being named and tagged incorrectly no matter what I did.

I decided to try the version of Pandora's Jar that you just posted. After enabling the md5 check sum it wouldn't download anything except 2 mismatches. I reverted back to 7.4.0 and experimented all day.

If I set it to manual rip then play the songs and keep a close eye on the bar at the bottom of the firefox window and wait for it to switch from 'transferring.....something' to 'tansferring....something else' then I can hit the manual rip button and it saves it with no problem. If I hit the button before the bottom bar changes then it saves the previous song with the current song's tag.

Is there a way to make Pandora's Jar wait until that change takes place before it rips when set to cruise control? So that it does automatically what I can do visually?

Please forgive my ignorance. I know little to nothing about java script or flash.

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Thanks for the info.

Basically - PJ can't copy the file if it's currently being downloaded.

With my version you are protected against ripping the same file twice (under the same or different names), but not against mis-tagging files (ripping a different song under the current title). this is where mp3md5 comes in.

it helps prevent most (but not all) of the mis-taggings and saves the questionable files in a different directory.

Once my "fix-my-archive" utility (feel free to suggest names) comes out (sometime this week, I promise) you will be able to detect and correct wrongly named files in addition to automatic tagging of mismatched songs (if enough info exists about them in the db, if there is not enough information then simply wait a few days and run the program again. preferably listen to pandora with mp3md5 enabled so you'll contribute to the database in the meantime.)

Cheers,

CF.

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To my knowledge this issue hasn't been posted on so here goes:

I got the jar to run just fine, however when I try to rip a track it is not working. Moreso, even before I started using this sweet program, I tried to locate the mp3 file in C:Documents and SettingsDanaLocal SettingsTemp with no luck. I know what I'm doing as I have no problem locating them on my work machine but at home it doesn't appear to be placing the MP3 ANYWHERE. Has anybody else experienced this behavior?

Also, in the Jar screen, after the song starts playing, it says: "Band bio disabled", "Song stats disabled", and "Top fans fetch disabled" for some reason. I'm running the latest jar also.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions or help if anybody has any to give! Just let me know if you need any more info!

Thanks in advance!!

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Well my obvious noob tendencies have proved themself! I stupidly didn't check my flash version and upon downgrading to flash8 the rip function is working perfectly now! Thanks again CF for the very kind and patient assistance. I am signing up for a last.fm account now to fix the other issue. I hope to help another newbie in the future!

Cheers!!

Have you downgraded to flash8 on your home computer?

It sounds like you forgot.

However this is unrelated to the "artist bio disabled" which is caused by "get last.fm data" set to "off" in your settings...

Let me know if this helps.

CF.

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Every time I try I get this error:

unable to rip MP3 unable to find file make sure you have Pandora running in a FIRFOX browser

I'm using Firefox 2.0, Flash 8, and Java just updated. Any ideas?

UPDATE: nevermind, it saves them anyways...

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Hi, first time user here. I downloaded the latest version from the n00b guide. I had flash v 9 and eventually noticed that it would only work with 8, and just got that fixed. However, with flash 8, I can load pandora's player on their website but not in PJ - in PJ, it shows "Please wait, Pandora is loading" progress bar but never gets beyond that. Any ideas?

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Take a look at:

http://www.hak5.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4245

the last post there is the best solution so far...

(option 1- open pandora in a seperate tab, better for "Autorefreshing")

(option 2- right click the white frame, select "frame -> this frame only", wait a sec and hit "Back". with this option you'd better set 'auto refresh after _ songs' to 0)

and next time - read the thread (or at least the last message on it) before posting. [edit: sorry about that, didn't read carefully enough, I now see your situation is different]

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I did read that thread and unfortunately that's not the problem I'm having. The Pandora flash app does start... it just doesn't get to the second progress bar, where it says it's getting my personal info. The first progress bar completes and I'm left with a blank blue screen. If I read the other thread correctly, the problem there was some javascript hiding the flash frame when you don't meet the version requirements, which isn't happening to me. Thanks, though - I've read the topics on the first page but perhaps there's something else I have missed that might be of use.

(EDIT: Just to be safe, I had tried that fix with one tab open to pandora and one to localhost, and pandora's site worked fine everytime).

(EDIT EDIT: I apparently can save using PJ when Pandora is running in it's own window... odd, but I won't complain)

(EDIT 3: Can't get that to work again unfortunately... it had the blank Pandora flash app in PJ and a normal Pandora in another tab, but unfortunately PJ no longer detects the songs from that Pandora... I did get probably 20 songs or so that downloaded perfectly, so I'm not sure why it'd start / stop working this way)

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okay,

1) see my apology in the edit above.

It's really strange, first thing that comes to mind is that the half-loaded app kind of disturbs the other one in some way (but why only part of the time!?)

2) try this:

option a) clear all browser cache and cookies (notice you'll loose some configuration in PJ)

option b) edit (notepad) pandoragrabber.html and remove the link to www.pandora.com/?cmd=mini (just replace that with nothing, or remove the entire <a href line, or try both...)

let me know how it goes.

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Coldfusion

so is this version you made your modified version of pandora.jar not the one released from here & is the version below newer

then this one?

But when I tried to install the latestPandora20061217_0115am_mp3md5_opt-in.zip the way you said

my latest version of 7.4.0-improved is here, (be sure not only to replace the jar but integrate the default.properties file, or just replace it if you don't need to keep any settings)

nothing was getting ripped & the version number on the pandora.jar was still 7.4.0 beta. By the way here's how I did it - I copied the pandora.jar to the folder & then renamed the default.properties.example to default.properties & then copied it to the folder & no dice. Tell me if I did it right or wrong.

One more question was pandora.jar made from this site or somewhere else?

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Kalmani

1)

was pandora.jar made from this site or somewhere else

I don't understand your question.

2) the version from 20061217 is the newest available right now.

it still says 7.4.0 beta because I didn't change the version, I should have.

The jar in the zip file is a compilation of the sources that come with the 7.4.0 as available from the "noob guide" with a few changes that I made.

Nothing crucial was changed in the way files are ripped, so if your 7.4.0 "clean" worked - there's no reason my version won't work. most of the improvements in my version have to do with correctly naming files (still not perfect - but far better than the "clean" 7.4.0), other improvements are the ability to change the file-name format and getting rid of the "&" bug.

did 7.4.0 work before you replaced padora.jar with my version of the jar? could you better define "nothing was getting ripped"?

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yah it work before i tried yours...but when i tried your version, everything loaded up & worked fine except for the mp3 being saved on my computer...

btw, did i do it right by copying the jar the folder & renaming the default.properties file & then copying it to the pandora folder?

whats the best way of installing your version again - so i can do it right...thx again for your time.

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okay,

1) see my apology in the edit above.

It's really strange, first thing that comes to mind is that the half-loaded app kind of disturbs the other one in some way (but why only part of the time!?)

2) try this:

option a) clear all browser cache and cookies (notice you'll loose some configuration in PJ)

option b) edit (notepad) pandoragrabber.html and remove the link to www.pandora.com/?cmd=mini (just replace that with nothing, or remove the entire <a href line, or try both...)

let me know how it goes.

Thanks... I ended up getting it to work reliably with the two windows, here's how:

Start new firefox, load localhost then pandora... it'll rip for quite a while. The localhost tab changes names etc as the pandora tab changes songs. From what I understand of how pandora works this isn't particularly odd, as it's just reading whatever temp files it can.

When pj stops working eventually, firefox must be closed down and reopened, then it'll work for a while again. PJ might have to be restarted first if it's a socket error.

The only problem with this is reload doesn't work, since it refreshes the PJ tab and not the tab with the working player. I did try clearing the cache & cookies, same result, and didn't try editing the file as from the sounds of it that'd just remove the player that's there (doing nothing). Hopefully sometime it'll 'just work'.

As an aside, I couldn't get PJ to show up _at all_ in Minefield (nightly build of firefox). It threw some 404 type error. I had this problem a while back and am now using Firefox 2.0.0.1.

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I've been ripping mp3's from Pandora for at least a month - for some reason it has quit - the Java window just says "unable to rip MP3 unable to find file make sure you have Pandora running in a FIRFOX browser" - I do, of course, run Pandora in Firefox.

Firefox 2.0.0.1

PJ 7.4.0 beta

not sure about Flash version

what changed?

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