Trouble converting/merging "some" m4b files

[The.Great.ESCape]

Problem occurs when attempting to convert/merge audiobooks consisting of multiple multi-part m4b(s) log shows access errors for a dll file. Oddly I can convert to mp3 no issue with musicbee, then merge via x-recode. Music bee seems to ignore the embedded Chapter info in the m4b(s) when converting. Wondering if how that data is used during conversion in x-recode might be a contributing factor. Anyone know a way to ignore Chapter info with x-recode or a utility that will strip only that info just so I can troubleshoot?

[The.Great.ESCape]

Please be kind if I'm missing something... operating on too little sleep for a while now... likely not at my sharpest.

[admin]

If I understood you correctly, you are trying to create an audiobook from the several m4b files? Are you using "Audiobook" as an "Output Format"?

There's an option to ignore the chapters - https://imgur.com/mZTyVmW

Anyway, if possible could you please send the input files and the Diagnostic information (it's under the About button) to xrecode@gmail.com (you could use https://wetransfer.com/ or any other sharing service).

[The.Great.ESCape]

No, Im using mp3 as output as I like having each audiobook as one file. If I need the parts separated I can always split it back up using the generated cue sheet. I know it's lossy, but audiobooks generally sound fine even at pretty low quality. This issue doesn't happen with all m4b(s) when trying to convert/merge to mp3. It has happened before though. I honestly believe it has something to do with the imbedded chapter-marks. They look peculiar to me, yet the m4b(s) can be played fine. When x-recode tries to convert using them it seems to gum up the works though. As I mentioned before, I can convert them fine using musicbee for example which is using lame encoder as well, but it seems to ignore the chaptermarks and thus bypasses the issue.

Should I be requesting a toggle feature to ignore odd m4b chaptermarks if they seem to be causing issues? Not sure where such a setting would be put as most settings seem to deal with output. Adding it to every format other than audiobook seems like it would be a bit inefficient. I don't know. I can work around the issue using other software that is less sophisticated, but x-recode is my favorite and I'd like to be able to handle it without resorting to other software.

[The.Great.ESCape]

Should have read that reply better... thanks I am going to try out that setting... to test my hypothesis. Thanks, will let you know if that does the trick

[The.Great.ESCape]

Well, I attempted merging the merging the m4b(s) to mp3 ignoring the chapter-marks via that setting in the misc tab. No errors were logged, but the resulting mp3 is far too short in duration for it to me correct. Going to try just converting the m4b(s) next to see if the durations match that way.

[The.Great.ESCape]

Okay, I guess that setting does not change fully until a new instance of x-recode is launched as it seems to have loaded the files differently now. It's still converting on this slow tablet, but I will let you know if it works this time.

[The.Great.ESCape]

Okay, so it seems my intuition was correct. Conversion/merging worked on the troublesome m4b(s) after the x-recode was set to ignore the chapter-marks and a new instance was started. So, thank you... now I know what to do when I want to convert/merge m4b(s) with odd chapter-marks in future. So I suppose this is solved unless an algorithm is added to negate the need for human intervention in such cases.