Transcribe not keeping track of time in Ubuntu 13.10

[FClaveau]

Hi,

I'm using transcribe with Ubuntu 13.10. I installed transcribe through the ppa for Ubuntu 13.04 because none is available for the latest version of Ubuntu and transcribe failed to work when installed with "python setup.py install".

The problem with my install is that transcribe does not keep track of total time, time elapsed, remaining and so forth. In consequence, I cannot use various functions such as "skip to" (Ctrl+K) and go back, go forward (Ctrl+Left or Right), and probably more. The only (imprecise) way I found of moving inside an audio file is by scrolling left or right the position indicator.

The traceback I get is:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/transcribe", line 291, in update_file
    duration = ns_to_time(self.player.duration)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/transcribe/player.py", line 81, in duration
    dur = self.pipeline.query_duration(gst.FORMAT_TIME, None)[0]
gst.QueryError: query failed
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/transcribe/player.py:102: Warning: comparing different enum types: GstState and GstStateChangeReturn
  return gst.STATE_PLAYING in self.pipeline.get_state()
WARNING:root:query failed, cannot save current position

Your help would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
François

[Frederik Elwert (frederik-elwert)]

This is strange, I cannot reproduce this in 13.10. It works for me.

Am am happy to take further hints (or better yet, patches), but I’m afraid I cannot fix this by myself.

[FClaveau (francois-claveau)]

Hi,

I tried it on another computer (also with Ubuntu 13.10) over the weekend and I get a similar problem, but this time the program simply crashes.

The traceback this time:
 File "/usr/bin/transcribe", line 302, in update_file
    duration = ns_to_time(self.player.duration)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/transcribe/player.py", line 81, in duration
    dur = self.pipeline.query_duration(gst.FORMAT_TIME, None)[0]
gst.QueryError: query failed

I can file in a new bug report, but the error message seems to be the same as in:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/transcribe/+bug/998515
https://bugs.launchpad.net/transcribe/+bug/1039866

Sorry I cannot help directly with the fix; it would imply learning python for me!

It's too bad because I really liked the program; simple and useful.

Best,
François

[Frederik Elwert (frederik-elwert)]

What does mean “crash” in this case? Does transcribe actually terminate with that traceback? Or do you just get a crash report? If the latter is the case, and transcribe works for you otherwise, this is pretty harmless. The worst thing that happens is in most cases that transcribe will not save the current position for future sessions.

This bug is annoying and has been bothering me for quite some time, but it does not prevent usage of transcribe. I hope it will be fixed by a proper port to the new GTK3/GStreamer1.0 stack, but I currently do not have the resources for such an undertaking.

[FClaveau (francois-claveau)]

Sorry, I did not explain the event properly. What I experienced over the weekend was that, when I invoked transcribe from the terminal, it opened fine. Then, when I chose a file in the "Recent files" from the drop-down menu, I got a crash report, a new window of transcribe opened while the original one stayed there. The original window could play the file, but it did not track time.

Now, I am on my other computer and I found a simple way to make transcribe work: not trying to open a file using "Recent files"! If I start transcribe normally and open a file with the usual "Open", time is tracked and everything seems fine.

I understand that you don't want to investigate further, but let me just add that I got another traceback when I tried to open a file of length above an hour:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/transcribe/helpers.py", line 81, in ns_to_time
    return datetime.time(h, m, s, ms)
ValueError: hour must be in 0..23