2.1.5 Linux Mint 17.1 GStreamer Error

[Raymond Popp]

SoundConverter 2.1.5 Linux Mint 17.1 GStreamer Error: Could not initialize supporting library. (filename.m4a) when attempting to convert file from m4a to flac. Attempted both folder and file level conversions with same results. Now, some older m4a files did convert, so it could be that whoever created these problematic m4a files used a currently SoundConverter unsupported process.

Example file acoustic ID: 76e5ca5f-7ab5-4436-9c61-4efb6e860c25

soundconverter --debug
SoundConverter 2.1.5
  using Gstreamer version: 0.10.36
  using 8 thread(s)
  using gio
/usr/lib/soundconverter/python/soundconverter/ui.py:1506: Warning: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::sm-connect after class was initialised
  gnome.init(name, version)
/usr/lib/soundconverter/python/soundconverter/ui.py:1506: Warning: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::show-crash-dialog after class was initialised
  gnome.init(name, version)
/usr/lib/soundconverter/python/soundconverter/ui.py:1506: Warning: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::display after class was initialised
  gnome.init(name, version)
/usr/lib/soundconverter/python/soundconverter/ui.py:1506: Warning: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::default-icon after class was initialised
  gnome.init(name, version)
Queue start: 1 tasks, 8 thread(s).
launching: 'giosrc location="file:///home/ray/Working%20Music/Melissa%20Manchester/If%20My%20Heart%20Had%20Wings/01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a" ! typefind name=typefinder ! fakesink'
have_type: audio/x-m4a 01 - The House That Love Built.m4a
Queue done in 0.052s (1 tasks)
found_type 01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a
Queue start: 1 tasks, 8 thread(s).
launching: 'giosrc location="file:///home/ray/Working%20Music/Melissa%20Manchester/If%20My%20Heart%20Had%20Wings/01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a" name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! audiorate tolerance=10000000 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! audio/x-raw-int,rate=48000 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! flacenc mid-side-stereo=true quality=5 ! giosink location="file:///home/ray/Working%20Music/Melissa%20Manchester/If%20My%20Heart%20Had%20Wings/01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a~829281~SC~"'
got file duration: 266
found_tags: 01 - The House That Love Built.m4a
found_tags: 01 - The House That Love Built.m4a
 album=If My Heart Had Wings (<type 'unicode'>)
 track-number=1 (<type 'int'>)
 artist=Melissa Manchester (<type 'unicode'>)
 title=The House That Love Built (<type 'unicode'>)
 genre=Pop Soul (<type 'unicode'>)
 date=<GstDate: 1/1/1995> (<type 'gst.Date'>)

Error: <b>GStreamer Error:</b>
Could not initialize supporting library.
<i>(01 - The House That Love Built.m4a)</i>
error in task, skipping rename: file:///home/ray/Working%20Music/Melissa%20Manchester/If%20My%20Heart%20Had%20Wings/01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a~829281~SC~
Queue done in 8.575s (1 tasks)

(soundconverter:6115): GStreamer-CRITICAL **:
Trying to dispose object "flacenc0", but it still has a parent "pipeline1".
You need to let the parent manage the object instead of unreffing the object directly.

[Michael Schwendt (mschwendt)]

A GStreamer Error could be anything outside Soundconverter, such as a non-working GStreamer codec.

Can you play back those .m4a files with an audio player that uses GStreamer 0.10 as a backend?

In case you want to do some trouble-shooting, notice the debug line starting with "launching:":

launching: 'giosrc location="file:///home/ray/Working%20Music/Melissa%20Manchester/If%20My%20Heart%20Had%20Wings/01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a" name=src ! decodebin name=decoder ! audiorate tolerance=10000000 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! audio/x-raw-int,rate=48000 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! flacenc mid-side-stereo=true quality=5 ! giosink location="file:///home/ray/Working%20Music/Melissa%20Manchester/If%20My%20Heart%20Had%20Wings/01%20-%20The%20House%20That%20Love%20Built.m4a~829281~SC~"'

It is a GStreamer pipeline you can run with the "gst-launch-0.10" tool outside Soundconverter in your favourite terminal to test GStreamer. See the manual page "gst-launch-0.10" and its Examples section. Following the examples and sometimes creating a simpler pipeline one can find problems with GStreamer codecs or the pipeline.