Media Explorer preview routing issue

[the brok]

Hi all,

for some reason the routing to either a "selected track" or to a track named "Media Explorer Preview" doesn't work reliably here. sometimes it works - sometimes it doesn't. I did set up the track with correct naming, etc. At first it did not work.
The strange thing is - when it eventually worked (no clue why), i saved the track as a track template, just to be on the safe side. Now, after a few minutes that it worked (still the original track used, not deleted and then loaded the track template) - it suddenly doesn't anymore. So _then_ i deleted the track and loaded it from the track template in hope that this solves the problem - still doesn't work.
If i route the preview to the main outputs, it works perfectly.

Am i doing something wrong (if so, please tell me what to do), or can someone confirm that this is a bug?

[Zzibbubby]

I also encountered a similar problem, but only with .m4a files.

Basically when I preview a .m4a file with the "Play through first track named "media explorer preview" or first selected track" option Reaper uses output 1-2 and not the selected track.

With .mp3 and .wav files it works perfectly though

(7.29, Windows 11)

[the brok]

Originally Posted by Zzibbubby

I also encountered a similar problem, but only with .m4a files.

Basically when I preview a .m4a file with the "Play through first track named "media explorer preview" or first selected track" option Reaper uses output 1-2 and not the selected track.

With .mp3 and .wav files it works perfectly though

(7.29, Windows 11)

Strange enough. But i updated yesterday - and after updating it seems to work. Will observe if it stays stable or if it, like it did previously, at some time will suddenly stop working again.

[markhw]

I'm on the latest Reaper version v7.33 and I'm having this issue. Previewing m4a files in media explorer, the audio output is being routed somewhere... else. It's like it's going out to my Windows system output or something. Not outputs 1-10 on my Model 12 mixer.

[schwa]

In the media explorer, if you show the media properties for the m4a file, what decoder is used? There will be a line like "using XXX decoder for audio".

[Zzibbubby]

Originally Posted by schwa

In the media explorer, if you show the media properties for the m4a file, what decoder is used? There will be a line like "using XXX decoder for audio".

It says:
"Using ffmpeg/libav DLL decoder v58.134.100 for video
Using VLC decoder (v3.0.x) for audio"

(btw I'm on Win11, Reaper v7.34)

[schwa]

Does this file contain video?

[Zzibbubby]

I tried with a .m4a file that has no video content and with a .m4a file that has some video content, doesn't seem to make a difference.

[Dstruct]

Confirmed (7.34). Tested with this video: https://www.sample-videos.com/video3...y_720p_1mb.mp4

Length: 0:05.312
Video: 1280x720@25.00fps, Aspect=1.00, Decoding format=I420/YV12
Audio: 48000Hz 6ch 16bps

Using Windows Media Foundation v2 decoder for video and audio

Encoded video format: H264
Encoded audio format: AAC

Metadata:
    Abtastgröße: 16
    Abtastrate: 48000
    Audioformat: {00001610-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
    Bildbreite: 1280
    Bildhöhe: 720
    Bitrate: 408840
    Datenrate: 1273488
    Einzelbildrate: 25000
    Gesamtbitrate: 1682328
    Geschützt: 0
    Kanäle: 6
    Kugelförmig: 0
    Länge: 53120000
    Medium erstellt: 1970/01/01:00:00:00.000
    Stereo: 0
    Videoausrichtung: 0
    Videokomprimierung: {34363248-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}

[schwa]

Video preview can't go through a track because the playback pipeline is different than it is for audio. For the next build, REAPER will support previewing through a track for format that are decoded by a video decoder but do not contain a video stream (for example, m4a).

[Dstruct]

Thanks

[Zzibbubby]

🙏🏻