Constant Crashing When Previewing In File Browser

[ag101]

Hi guys.. Let me preface by saying - I absolutely LOVE Ableton Live, but I'm honestly ready to give up on it after having problems with the software crashing.
Without fail, the program is crashing when I try to preview longer mp3s in the File Browser.

I'm running live 8.2.2 in Windows 7 x64.

I haven't run into an instance where it hasn't crashed within 5 minutes or so.. Tried with Raw mode enabled and disabled and still nothing. I'm getting very discouraged and already had to buy Reaper (which I absolutely cannot stand) to handle my mp3 samples.

Can someone please help me out here?

[longjohns]

often with mp3 problems it is good to make sure your quicktime is updated.

just throwing that out there

[ag101]

Thanks for the reply.. I'm not sure what Quicktime has to do with it (since it doesn't handle my media in the first place), but I have the latest version.

[Angstrom]

the Quicktime library is used by Ableton as a method of decoding Mp3s
so you are most likely using it even if you think you are not

On my XP system the quicktime is absolutely fucked, quicktime is broken and iTunes / QT browser plugin both exhibit stuttering playback issues.

I'm going out now so I dont have time to guide you through it - but search the ableton site via google for the page about options.txt


and try putting this option in it

-PreferDirectShow

see if that helps

[ag101]

Wow.. That option.txt actually seems to have worked.. A quick 5 minute test-run and no crashing as of yet..

Will report back with whether or not it solved everything after my session today.

Thanks for the help!!

[guildmage]

Man, you are a lifesaver You nailed it in the head.

What I suspect happened, is that I started getting a lot of errors while trying to load some MP3s (error: something along the lines of orange bar with "File is corrupted or Live cannot open due to licensing" - I forgot exactly what it said). So I found a solution which was to upgrade to the latest version of Quicktime. I believe, that must have upset something, because ever since I upgraded Quicktime, it started to crash Abletone like crazy while previewing MP3 in the browser (though, all MP3 started to work and no more orange corrupt file error).

Then simply. followed your guide which was to open the options.txt file (where to find it, look at: http://www.ableton.com/pages/faq/options_text) ... and I've added that line:
-PreferDirectShow
saved the file, restarted the software and voila!

Now, it just works... no crashes, Abletone plays all MP3 and I'm just a happy bunny again.

My rig:
Win 7 (64), 8GB RAM, AMD Phenom X4 955 @3.9Ghz OC'ed
Using ASIO4ALL, latest Quicktime and Abletone Live 8.2.1

thanks man, you rock

[Angstrom]

I'm glad it helped.

[guildmage]

Oh noes, it is still happening
It was absolutely fine last night, been testing it for like hours and all was fine. Switched off my PC, today came after work... tried and baam crash in like first 2 mins. Checked the options file, the command is still there, but it just crashes all the time? I'm going to remove latest Quicktime and somehow maybe install the previous version or something?
What I do not understand is that I have also a Launchpad edition of Live which funny enough is also crashing.. so how is that possible? It must be caused by that damn Quicktime, or my reasoning is fail?

edit:
After un-installing latest version of Quicktime completely from my PC. I am unable to crash my Abletone, tried everything and it refuses to crash (which is good), however some MP3 cannot be loaded due to: "The file "some music file.mp3" could not be read. It may be corrupt or not licensed." (which is not so good).

I'm too tired tonight to go through "older" version of Quicktime in a bid to find the one that works, will test maybe tomorrow or so... for now will keep testing Abletone without that bloody Quicktime.

oh dear.

[Angstrom]

Hmm, without QT it should default to using the directshow. Are you sure the option text is exactly as above ? The minus sign is a crucial part of it.
If it's already in there I'm a bit baffled. It could be one of a few small mistakes perhaps, such as that the options text is in the wrong place, in a prefs folder for a previous version for instance. Or that it is missing the capital O in Options.txt
I think that is another factor.
Good luck

[guildmage]

Right now, I suppose the issue I am having must have something to do with my PC. I have to admit, it is not purely used for music only. I do play games a lot, use photoshop and dozens of other programs, my misses also tend to install a lot of rubbish on it.

What my conclusion is in the end, after removing Quicktime Abletone does not crash, it works just fine. Now regarding, my issues with some MP3 not being able to load .. well I found a workaround, as soon as I remove ID3v2 tags from the files, all mp3's play without any problems.

So until I reinstall my PC from scratch, or get a laptop dedicated for music only.. I will have to leave with that. Was never a big fan of ID3 tags anyway.

Hope this helps for you guys. Truth is, that the Quicktime should really be installed on a machine with Abletone, and that option Angstrom posted works great.. so keep that in mind.
happy abletoning ppl,its a magnificent piece of software really=

[DJ Arramon]

What my conclusion is in the end, after removing Quicktime Abletone does not crash, it works just fine. Now regarding, my issues with some MP3 not being able to load .. well I found a workaround, as soon as I remove ID3v2 tags from the files, all mp3's play without any problems.

So until I reinstall my PC from scratch, or get a laptop dedicated for music only.. I will have to leave with that. Was never a big fan of ID3 tags anyway.

I'm gonna have to try that when I get home... I'm having the same prob with mp3's crashing in the preview pane. Some don't crash, some do. I thought it may have been memory limitation issues, but mp3s arent that big comparably especially if you chop them up. I have Quicktime installed AND alot of the newer mp3s i got are tagged. thanx for the suggestion!