anyone here know if there is a way to create the "playdiscs" used at starbucks? starbucks uses a playnetwork powerplayer that reads CDR's that contain about 12-16 hours of music, all compressed into a .aud file with a index that's a .txt file. any help will be appreciated greatly

Bump this! I have been searching everywhere for an answer! There must be somewhere to get this software. It creates one VERY large .aud file, with all the songs strung together, end to end as one file, and a seperate .txt track, with the expiration date, version number, and then the name of each track and performer, along with a cue start and end point for that track. I have never seen anything else like it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bump.

I also have been trying to find the secret of the Playdisc, we used to have two CD players at work, the Playnetwork one and another one which ALSO played standard CDs, unfortionatly someone ruined it for everyone and played the "because I was high" song uncencored (most moronic shift supravisor in the work) Anyway, the area manager took away that CD player and left us with the playdisc CD player and frankly those CDs are really crap (listening to one now with WinAmp)

Anyway, my manager asked me to figure out how the CDs work so that I can be in controle of what music is played and only my CDs would work in the CD player (Ie No High song).

I've figured out how the tagging system works, I figured out that the file format is simular to the one command and conquer uses. I figured out that I can listen to the CDs in winamp...But I cant figure out how to actually get songs into an AUD file that will play on the playnetwork CD player.

Any help would be great, otherwise i guess we're stuck with Bella Luna - something to beleive in.

plz post a sample of the txt file

More people have been struggling with this .aud fileformat. Read here and also find an example of the index file.

Is it really the same file format used as in Command and conquer, or is it just accidental that they have the same file name extension?

Thanks again in advance for any help in getting through this situation. And ... bump.

Has anyone tryed maybe changing the file extension to something like a .zip or a .rar ? The reason I ask is because it has to be some form of a compressed file to be able to hold all this info. And another weird thing I don't understand is in the .txt file it calls these songs .wav's, which is very odd since waves are the biggest, you'd think it'd be a mono very low bitrate mp3 of some sort. Anyone?? Please help, Starbucks music sucks ass!

Hey, I actually found a good lead here, if anyone still cares.......
http://www.nice.com/products/cem/media.html#3

Download their player and it says it converts your .wav's to .aud's , so I'm guessing it does the opposite. Hope this helps.

A "nice" try, but this software does not recognize the .aud track from the Starbucks disc. I think this is like the C&C thing, i.e. the format just happens to be called .aud. But we must remain vigilant. Lucinda Williams must be stopped. And the sweet sound of [your favorite band] must ring through the house of the bean once more.

Some mentioned they could play the *.aud file with winamp......i havnt tried that yet, however i went along other route. I downloaded CDex ver. 1.51, copied the *.aud file to my harddrive and renamed the file extention to *.mp3. Then under the Convert menu in CDex, i selected (convert compressed audio files to wav files). It took about 12 minutes to convert and process that huge file, but the end result is the creation of a *.wav file THAT IS OVER 5 GIGABYTES IN SIZE!!! My next step is to convert a bunch of mp3's into one huge mp3, and then convert that into one huge .wav file, and then try and convert that using the reverse command under the the Convert menu, (convert wav files into compressed audio files) and then rename the file extention to *.aud. I will post as soon as i have further details. Peace out all!


P.S. I can be reached at aeontrancender@yahoo.com and aeontranscender on Yahoo Messenger

I've been watching the thread for a while, and just now started working on the playdisc, I just wanted to let you all know I was able to chenge the experation date on an expired disc and it worked fine. I am checking tommorow to see if i can change the playlist order and "programs" preset on the disc.

Couple of other things, I think the disc is actually in .aud format, however the Playdisc player uncompresses it while it plays. I could be wrong, but it sounds logical. To test this i'm going to convert the file to a streamed wav, and back into a mp3 file. then rename the file to an .aud and burn it with the playlist to a cd. if the player reconizes it we're all in business.


Also just so everyone knows, in the playlist file, the start time and length are both in seconds... just incase no one caught that, i'm still confued on what the ID number stands for however..or why it's describe as a wav file... any guesses?

Last, i found this stuff out, i'm not sure what it all means so i'll just post it for everyone to see.

Size: 673138688 bytes,
Header found at: 578 bytes,
Length: 27253 seconds,
MPEG 1.0 layer 3,
40kbit, 5177989 frames,
44100Hz 2 Channel,
CRCs: No,
Copyrighted: Yes,
Original: No,
Emphasis: None


Later everyone

I am also trying to crack this problem, with the limitied knowledge i have... I'm using the Aloha Kona disc as my model... if you all want, i can post the .txt file for you to look at...

I haven't been able to take one of these CDs home yet, but it seems like its just a large mono mp3 file.

Either that, it could be a series of mp3 files strung together (which seems to make a lot more sense for editing purposes)

I don't think the ID tags in the index mean anything, except to help find the original unencrypted song.

I'm not sure why the first song starts at 2048...

Anyway, if it is just a large collection of smaller mp3 files, then it should be simple to write a script to re-encode and combine them, while pulling the ID3 info and placing it into an index.

If it's one giant continuous music file, then someone with more knowledge of music formats will be needed.

Here is a google cache of another thread about this topic, with an example of the index file:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache...ex.php/t-31167

(the original site appears to be dead)

Thanks for the WinAmp solution, it does work!

Has anyone discovered what program we could use to convert our own songs to the Starbucks format? - I'd love to bring in some of my metal music : )

The hell with fiddling around with software...I'm much better at hardware, and I should have taken this approach along time ago. On the back of the unit are input/output RCA jacks, and a bolted-on metal cover to prevent tampering. I bike to work, and one of the many tools I carry on me is a multi-hex key wrench, which I used to remove the cover, plug my Aiwa CD player in with a mini-plug to RCA splitter, and seconds later, I had Rammstein's Engel drifting down from the overhead speakers! Now that is music to close a store to! During business hours, I play dream and trance softly....cuz if a customer complained, and they went back and looked at the Playnetwork machine, it would be all over! I have a Nokia 3650 and I will take pictures on my next shift, and post them for everone. Laterz!

while that obviously works, its not quite as elegant as a cd burned with the playdisc format. besides, how many other people here would be able to open up the back of the system and attach a portible cd player *while at work*?

done properly, custom music on one of these things should be near undetectable. (maybe even print some labels & cover art)
then again, that probably wouldn't help if you fill the cd with death metal.

Hmmm,a copy of that disc with "tuned-in"porn sound and perhaps your boss voice?THAT would be a laugh..

Hello guys, i am now on the wagon of cracking this. I have been wanting to do this for a long time now. Anyways i was doign some searches on the net and came across this. The MixViewer V2.0 it suposedly can convert aud to wav, i am going to go and get a cd from work later and try it, so i figure maybe it can do it back the other way as well and we could make oru on cds. here is a link to the site i found it on,

http://raymtan.hypermart.net

But this might not be the same aud as we need and it might be for westwood games, btu hey i figured it might help. Anyways i hope this helps. Peace

Katon

Hi everyone, i just wondered by and was shocked to see such a response here!!! unfortunately i do not enjoy the comforts of starbucks employment anymore, but alot of my friends still work there. I had found that C&C *.aud link before, but it did not work for the playdisc format. I heard from some one that playnow liesenced the MP3 format at like 64kbp format to fit all those sounds in mono on a cdr. It's the way the index file sorts everything and the precise bitrate that needs to be founbd to duplicate your own cdr in the thing. I would lve to here the "cowboy bebop" soundtrack or my personal mix of aimee mann/yoko kanno at 'bucks thanx guys!!

IT seems simple to play a playdisc...
Mine says this in winamp:
Size: 416106496 bytes
Header found at: 578 bytes
Length: -24152 seconds
MPEG 1.0 layer 3
40kbit, 3200819 frames
44100Hz 2 Channel
CRCs: No
Copyrighted: Yes
Original: No
Emphasis: None
size, meaning merely the file length, the header location I doubt matters too much as per location, the length is humoungous, and past the length is the format... its .MP3, and renamed to playdisc.aud, but it is mp3, it is 40KbPS, 44KHz stereeo audio... oh yeah and there is NO, ABSOLUTELY NO ID3 tagging at all, if you wish to make your own playdisc, it has to follow those rules of the file, and then the index "data.txt" is interesting... it contains the locations of each song, and the name of each song as well as seemingly its whole id3 tag and some simple stuff, just wanted to make sure everyone understands this...

What Archvile2k4 says is true - getting the disc to play within Winamp is not a problem, though my file information is a little different:

Size: 282970112 bytes
Header found at: 2048 bytes
Length: -25390 seconds
MPEG 1.0 layer 2
80kbit, 1084176 frames
44100Hz Mono
CRCs: Yes

As you can see it's an MP2, not an MP3, though I suspect that doesn't make too much difference.

The format of the music is not proving to be of any problem to me whatsoever, I'll encode as MP2 and if that doesn't work, then as MP3. What, however, is proving to be more difficult is working out how to determine my own start and length fields.

The data.txt i'm working with is thus:

[Playlist]
Version=3.1
ID=437968
Title=#61 BLUES & JAZZ
Programs=2
Songs=115
ProgramAdvance=1
SongAdvance=1
Expiration=2004/09/27

[Program1]
ID=23316
Title=GOT A FEELING CALLED THE BLUES
ProgramPlay=Next
MaxPlayTime=0
SongPlay=Random
Songs=74
Commercials=0

[Song1]
ID=513243.WAV
Title=Amtrak Blues
Artist=Hunter, Alberta
Start=2048
Length=2027364

[Song2]
ID=42151.WAV
Title=At Last
Artist=James, Etta
Start=2029568
Length=1802972

[Song3]
ID=494107.WAV
Title=Baby How Long (How Long Blues)
Artist=Sunnyland Slim
Start=3833856
Length=1655118

etc....


Seeing as:-

[Song1] Start=2048

and the header is found at 2048 bytes, I assume that to mean the songs are catalogued according to where they appear in the playdisc.aud file. Reading that back I realize it doesn't really make any sense, so I'll try and explain a little better:

if Song1 starts at 2048 bytes and is 2027364 bytes long and then Song2 starts at 2029568 bytes (the discrepancy of 156 bytes attributable to silence? See note about silence below) and is 1802972 bytes long, and the file is comprised of only these two songs, that would then mean we have a file of 3832540 bytes in size or 3.83Mb.

To confirm, the playdisc.aud i'm working with is 269Mb (282,970,112 bytes) and the final song Start=278081536 and Length=4887772 for a total of 282,969,308 bytes. The discrepancy of 804 bytes I'm not sure how to explain - any ideas?

Basically, the obstacle i'm facing is how to determine my own Start and Length fields? I'm using Audacity v1.2.0-pre3 as my sound editor but it doesn't have bytes exclusively as a selection format. My guess is to have Song1, Start=0, Length=(the individual file's size in bytes). How does this sound?

Sorry if my language is confusing, I'm trying to be as precise as possible - just want to make my own cd!

twisted logik

Hope you all see this. I have been tring to register here for a long time now. Finally after getting a new email and some time from work and school here you go. The playdisc is an mp3 format but it is also mp2. The mp2 format i know can easily be created. Just use toolamegui and use the batch encode to encode wav's and mp3's. Use 80kbit, 44.1, and error protection. I don't want to explain too much details, the program is rather strait forward. After you will have several mp2's somewhere. It is best to arrange them alphabetically. Go to ms-dos prompt and cd\ to the directory of mp2's. Type

dir > Text.txt

This will create a text file of all the files in that folder. Open a spreadsheet, such as excel, and import the txt file. Use fixed width and after it is opened all you need is file name and file size. Get rid of the rest. Now save it as a text file again. Now this is the manual part, if If i could program this would be much easier. Add six spaces between each line.

i.e.
line 1






Line 2

Save then open it backup in the spreadsheet and use some of the spreadsheet commands to set up the file.

[ |SONG 1 | ]
ID |= |
Title |= | test.mp2 (=cell with file name)
Artist |= |
Start |= | =last start + length
Length |= | =cell with file size of corresponding mp2

The space between each | equals a new cell.

Save this as a csv “coma delimited” file, this will add a coma for every cell seperator. Rename to data.txt. Open it back into your spreadshet this time open it as delimited and use no separator. In the spreadsheet edit / replace or “ctrl h” in excel and replace all , ‘ “ with nothing. Save. Now add in the Playdisc data at the beginning and don’t forget to add the [ProgramAll] section near the end. Looking at the disc file you will see what I mean. I haven’t tried the toolame mp2 or mp3 let so just try it for know. I do know that TMPGenc creates the right mp2’s but no batch encoder. I think that the playdisc players can play cdrw’s so give it a try. And ask your manager first, this can get you fired if you play something uncool and i don't know the legal stuff behind this. I just looked into this for educational reasons of mild programming. For everything else.

Have fun
\ / Out

Hi bukleme,

You've given us all a lovely pile of information to work with, so many thanks!

Just a question though - you neglect to mention how you come to making the file:

PLAYDISC.AUD

How do you do this?

Does mp3wrap http://mp3wrap.sourceforge.net do the job?

Or MP3 Cutter and Joiner? http://www.winmp3tools.com/mp3cutter

How about WinRar? http://www.rarlab.com

I've made a ZIP archive, no compression (store) and called it PLAYDISC.AUD, I can play the file in winamp and it's just the files strung together. It creates a header at 65 bytes though. Any ideas?

twisted logik