#240546 - 07/11/2004 03:04
Rio Receiver makes pop sounds on certain songs
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new poster
Registered: 26/10/2004
Posts: 5
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My Rio Receiver will make popping sounds on certain songs, in the same location in the song. When playing the song on the PC, it plays fine. I usually use the windows media player to save the original cd to the PC on the highest quality setting. Any ideas? Thanks
Steve
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#240547 - 09/11/2004 00:25
Re: Rio Receiver makes pop sounds on certain songs
[Re: vodkanut]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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By any chance, are the songs in the WMA format?
And, by any chance, are the songs recorded at 190kbps instead of 160kbps? (If I recall correctly, 160 is the default, and 190 is the high setting. Or something like that.)
A similar problem happened on the empeg-car player. It turns out that the WMA decoder for the ARM chip (which is a binary file- no source code- supplied by Microsoft themselves) had a bug which prevented high-bitrate WMA files from playing properly, and you got pops and such in the files.
If this is what's happening on the Rio Receiver (someone from Cambridge would have to verify if it is), then the only solution is to re-rip those CDs as either MP3 or as lower-bitrate WMAs.
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#240548 - 09/11/2004 01:41
Re: Rio Receiver makes pop sounds on certain songs
[Re: tfabris]
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new poster
Registered: 26/10/2004
Posts: 5
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You guys are great. I kinda sorta follow that answer, part of it, though I don't know what a ARM thingie does. I know binary means 2. My neighbors think I'm a computer wiz cuz I can install a hard drive, ha. I think I did copy them at the 190kbps. I first tried saving them as wav files, thinking that would be best, but the receiver won't read those. I can't find a mention in the receiver manual to what type of files it will read. Can most people hear a difference between these different bit rates? I kinda wonder about the people who claim they hear a big difference between vinyl records and CDs.
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#240549 - 09/11/2004 02:56
Re: Rio Receiver makes pop sounds on certain songs
[Re: vodkanut]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
You guys are great. I kinda sorta follow that answer, part of it, though I don't know what a ARM thingie does.
Sorry about that. 
Here's a more layman's explanation. More words, but I hope it's better...
When you use Windows Media Player to rip CDs, by default it makes WMA files, which stands for "Windows Media Audio". This is a proprietary Microsoft-only digital music format. It's not "open" like MP3 is.
In order for the Empeg Car, Rio Car, and Rio Receiver products to play WMA files, they needed to enter a license agreement with Microsoft. Under this agreement, they don't get the source code for the WMA player software, they only get something called a "binary", which is shortand for "runtime binary executable", in other words, it's the compiled program code without the source instructions that would let the Rio guys modify it and fix bugs. In more other words, they're stuck with whatever Microsoft sent them.
This is all because Microsoft is very paranoid and protective over its proprietary music format, in much the same way Apple is protective over their proprietary (and incompatible) music format.
Anyway. The deal is that the Rio products use a special kind of CPU that's different than desktop PCs. They use a CPU called an ARM processor. That means the binary file is specially built just to run on the ARM processor (as opposed to, say, an Intel x86 processor like your Windows PC).
Well, being a Microsoft product, that binary file has a bug. The bug is: If you use Windows Media Player to rip your CDs at the highest quality setting, it will pop and click when played back on the Rio Car/Empeg Car player.
I'm assuming that the Rio Receiver, being a descendant of the Empeg Car, has the same bug. I'm not certain about that and I'd need someone from Cambridge to confirm or deny this.
Anyhow, if that's the case, there's no fix for the bug on the Rio Receiver. There are third-party player programs for the Receiver but they require a bit of techy knowledge to set up, and your post just indicated that you're not the techy type.
So the only solution for you is to re-rip your CDs either as MP3s or as lower-quality WMAs. Try re-ripping just one CD at the lower quality setting (160) and see if it fixes the problem with your Rio Receiver.
If you decide you want to try MP3 instead of WMA, start here.
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#240550 - 09/11/2004 03:41
Re: Rio Receiver makes pop sounds on certain songs
[Re: tfabris]
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new poster
Registered: 26/10/2004
Posts: 5
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I will worship your image at night.... I'm not worthy...I'm not worthy...I like to dive a bit into the tech world, more than the average coach potato Joe, but nowhere near you guys..My personality is the sales type, but my dad is an engineer, so I have this weird blend. Can anyone ever crack the source codes they use?
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