Playback of media files (mp3/wav) in Lister?

[Pathduck]

Hello,
not sure if this is something known - but since some time ago I'm unable to playback audio files in TC using the Lister or Quickview. It just shows the file contents in text.

I seem to remember it was possible natively in TC without any plugins, or possibly it was using Irfanview which I have installed. I am able to view image files so it's using Irfanview, and Irfanview should also be able to play mp3 and other media files.

Is there any configuration I need to check?

I want to avoid using any additional plugins because I have no need for more advanced playback like other plugins offer.

[Gral]

Change line under [Lister] section, should be:
Multimedia=1
or change setting using TC interface:
open any file with Lister and go to Options - Configure, check "Multimedia (AVI,WAV)"

[Pathduck]

Thanks Gral - but I already have enabled Multimedia.

Here are the settings for Lister:
Image: https://i.imgur.com/F1ShmME.png

I notice now though, that TC does play WAV files natively. Thing is I'm sure it also did mp3 as well before, but maybe I remember wrong?

[Gral]

TC plays MP3s fine out of the box.

[Pathduck]

TC plays MP3s fine out of the box.

Yes, that's what I mean, it used to play mp3s, now it just displays the content as text. So something must be interfering with it. I can playback wav files using Lister, but not MP3. Not sure what's wrong.

[Gral]

Try to start TC with clear INI file, e.g.:
totalcmd.exe /i=new.ini
or
totalcmd.exe /i=%COMMANDER_PATH%\new.ini
even form running TC so this new instance will use new INI file.

[Pathduck]

Yep, a really good idea - unfortunately, it didn't change anything
Still won't play mp3, but still played wav.

So something must be up with my system? But it would be interesting to know how Lister triggers the playback of media files and if there's a way to check it?

[Dalai]

Did you try different MP3 files, especially with different bit rates, i.e. VBR vs. CBR, high vs. low BR?

If nothing helps, you can still use a Lister plugin like mmedia or AmpView.

Regards
Dalai

[Pathduck]

Yes, I've tried different MP3 files, but most I have is just plain CBR 320.

The strange thing is, I can see the Lister media thingy just a split second before it shows the text. So looks it tries to load but somehow fails. I suspect DLL-hell, or something missing on my system. But only thing I think of WMP which is installed and works fine to play mp3.

- So what DLLs are involved in the lister playback?
- Maybe I have a copy of that DLL in my system directory, if so which?
- How is the media playback launched?

I'd like to avoid using a lister plugin though, to keep things simple.

[Hacker]

Pathduck,
Do the MP3s play using mplayer2.exe?

Roman

[Gral]

Hacker
I doubt if it exists in the system.

[Pathduck]

Pathduck,
Do the MP3s play using mplayer2.exe?

Roman

MP3s play using MediaMonkey, VLC, Zoom Player, WMP and Foobar. Not sure about mplayer2 because I don't have it, but I do have an old mplayer.exe and it plays there as well

[petermad]

2Pathduck
What happen if you press "4" while Lister is showing the mp3 file as text?

[Dalai]

2Hacker
Thought about it, too, but mplayer2.exe hasn't been part of Windows since at least Win7, and my attempts to copy it from XP and make it work on Win7 failed a couple of years ago.

Regards
Dalai

[Hacker]

Pathduck, Dalai,

MP3s play using MediaMonkey, VLC, Zoom Player, WMP

OK, since mplayer2.exe starts WMP this won't help us.

Roman