Splasm Software Discussions

I love how simple ABB is for me to use in order to get all of my CD audiobooks into iTunes, and I'm glad it was just updated for better Leopard compatibility. However, I'd love to see a couple minor irritations addressed:

It seems to embed chapter artwork at really low resolution - 100px or so? That might have looked fine on the small-screen Nanos, but all of the new iPods and iPhone are much higher resolution, so the images look really blurred when you see them full-screen. An option to allow at least 320px embedded artwork that would look great across the entire line would be awesome.

Also, I wish there was a way to over-ride the 12 hour maximum part length. I know some iPods don't really like files that big or tracks that long, but the iPhone seems to handle them fine, and I'd assume the iPod Touch does as well (thanks to a much better chapter navigation). Aside from having the last chapter or two cut off an audiobook and not realizing I don't have the ending with me, it's a bit annoying in the chapter list to see something like "2 - 23 Chapter Name" from only having chapters 22 onward in the second file.

Like I said, I love ABB and it was worth the money after using it once, but having these couple of minor things addressed would be fantastic.

I definitely would like to see chapter artwork as well. But since I play the created audiobooks via AppleTV I would appreciate the support for full size artwork for each chapter.

I second this, I have audiobooks that are in one file that are alot larger than 12 hours, and it is annoying that I have to split them when creating my own m4b's

The 12 hour limit is a function of Quicktime, which ABB uses. If they found a way around this it would cost a lot more than it currently does. Audible with its deep pockets has not found a way to change this either.

Actually, the QuickTime limit is dependent on the sample rate, and files can be longer than 12 hours with lower sample rates. I have created many audiobooks sampled at 32KHz that are up to 18 hours in length. I'd love to see this feature added to AudioBook Builder.

The following is taken from the Read Me file included with the Join Together Applescript (from Doug's Applescripts):

QuickTime Export Size Limit
My friends at 3AM Coffee Software have pointed out that QuickTime can only export about
thirteen and a half hours of audio in a single file:
"The 13½ limit comes about because QuickTime does not (easily) allow more than 2 billion
samples in a single file. CDs are ripped at 44,100 samples per second (44.1 kHz), so this
works out to about 13½ hours. If your tracks have a different sample rate, take 596 and
divide by the sample rate that iTunes reports (in kHz) to get the maximum number of hours
that [QuickTime] can handle (e.g. 596/44.1 is about 13.5)."

I add my vote to the request not to down-res the chapter artwork.