Question

Microsoft sound object MCI32.OCX and Windows Sound Recorder Recording appears to work but length stays at zero

Asked by: GHG-RCH

We write a Digital Dictaton Product.
We use the Microsoft sound object in MCI32.OCX
On some systems when a recording is started the recording appears to progress, no error is returned but the recording length does not increase.
This is intermittent. On one site with several hundred users it occurs maybe once or twice a day seemingly at random.
We are using USB devices, primarily Philips Speech Mikes.
When this happens closing our software and using Windows Sound Recorder (which I think uses the same object) the same thing happens.
Sometimes unplugging and re-connecting the USB device resolves the problem
If not then sometimes rebooting the machine works
Sometimes rebooting several times does not work, and the problem occurs just running Windows Sound Recorder, so I don't think anything our software is doing is causing the problem.
Any ideas as to what might be causing this problem, how to detect it and is there any way of correcting the problem in software.
I now detect the problem by monitoring the file length and reporting when the recording length is static when it should not be, but I have no way of fixing the problem in software.

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Asked On
2009-10-15 at 12:11:59ID24816033
Tags

Microsoft sound object

,

recording

,

no progress

,

MCI32

,

Windows Sound Recorder

Topics

General Multi-Media Software

,

Computer Sound Cards

,

VB Objects

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-10-17 at 00:35:55ID: 25595137

I dont think windows recorder will record for any great length of time, it's only used for short recordings of 60 secs.
Which windows? xp or Vista?
Are they saving the recording correctly?
waiting till it has transcoded the clip
They may have to check the sound is not muted for the mic as well.
If they have a few things running on the system and are not following a proceedure correctly windows may have a lockup on the reorder and until it's refreshed wont run.
Windows recorder tuturial
http://library.albany.edu/imc/pdf/Windowsoundrecording.pdf
Workaround
You could use Audacity, it is a free open source recorder, it uses the line in/mic or stereomix you select the input options.
 but it requires a full duplex  audio card to record what you hear in the speakers.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Audacity
http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html
http://polaris.umuc.edu/de/ezine/how_to/audacity/audacity.htm

 

by: GHG-RCHPosted on 2009-10-18 at 11:13:20ID: 25600753

Thanks for the comments.
The issue here is not really Windows Sound Recorder, but the underlying MCI32 OCX sound object.
We have our own Recorder (part of our Digital Dictation solution) and occasionally everything looks OK but the sound length does not increase.
The point about Windows Sound Recorder is that it uses the same MCI32 object and when the problem occurs in our recorder, closing ours and running Windows Sound Recorder you see the same problem, which indicates that the problem is in the object not our code.
You are right about Sound Recorder only giving 60 seconds.
Systems I have seen the problem on are XP, but we have very few VISTA implementations. Vista does not have Windows Sound Recorder, but some brain damaged system where Record is separate from play.
This is not a mute problem, if sound is muited, the length does increase, but no actual sound recorded.
Thanks for the pointer to Audacity, we cannot use it as our own recorder has all sorts of facilities users require for Digital Dictation and integrates into other products. It could be useful for testing sound systems on Vista however.

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-10-18 at 14:47:30ID: 25601574

Hi, this is out of my league if you're using some sort of code you made, but with vista putting 2 and 2 together, Vista natively uses some sort of HD digital audio, I'm not using Vista so bare with my bad description, but check the speaker configuration and that the audio is on analog or something like that.
http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2006/09/7682.ars

 

by: GHG-RCHPosted on 2009-10-19 at 14:14:32ID: 25609124

Thanks for trying.
You are correct about our using our code, but the problem also occurs with just Windows Sound Recorder.
Most of our customers are XP, not Vista, but we support both, so the link is interesting, though not helpful with the problem.
This problem is intermittent and occurs on different PCs at different times but not very often.

 

by: MeretePosted on 2009-10-19 at 22:55:19ID: 25611315

OK that makes it more dificult to pin down, intermitten/sometimes happens/ issues may very well be
the program you are using
The MCI32.ocx file by default do not exist on the windows Vista operating system. Therefore, if you try to run an application that uses the file, you may receive the following error
mci32.ocx not correctly registered
here's a couple of ideas to fix the ocx.
http://www.instant-registry-fixes.org/how-to-fix-mci32-vista-errors/
http://forums.techarena.in/software-development/1103985.htm

 

by: GHG-RCHPosted on 2009-10-20 at 12:55:07ID: 25617873

Thanks again.
We are getting a bit hung up on Vista here. Vista is not really the issue.
The issue is that the sound system (whether ours or Windows Sound Recorder) appears to be recording OK but the file length does not increase.
I woull kike to know what might cause this and how to correct it if it occurs (from within my software) without having to re-boot the PC. Sometimes a re-boot does not work, often it does.

 

by: GHG-RCHPosted on 2009-11-04 at 10:58:55ID: 31641825

Some userful information but nothing that helps with the problem.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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