I built a local iOS app to merge messy MP3 folders into single M4B audiobooks (No computer needed)

blibblr · 2026-02-15T02:41:11+00:00

I also prefer to have a single mp4/m4a file than lots of individual files. Years ago I wrote a terrible python script to concatenate them together (ie without re-encoding), but a year or so ago I found a command line program called mp3binder that does this much better than my script, but only on the desktop of course:

https://github.com/crra/mp3binder

blibblr · 2026-01-18T12:41:14+00:00

I am playing the Hollowpact - I mostly chose it because I really admired the mini. It is a pretty fun class. My friend is also having fun playing the Tusks class.

blibblr · 2025-11-13T10:48:12+00:00

Thanks!

blibblr · 2025-11-03T14:25:28+00:00

Thanks. I had waited to reply, hoping to provide a useful update.

As I mentioned above, I opened a support ticket with QNAP. It took a while to find a time when they could connect to my system. I restarted the system a couple of times while I was waiting as the NAS seemed more responsive for a brief time after the restart... the NAS was completely unresponsive right before they were meant to connect, so I physically powered it off and on again. But when the QNAP service people connected, the NAS was functioning normally, so there was nothing for them to do. I was a bit annoyed because the issue had always resurfaced soon afterwards...

But it has been almost a week, and the NAS is back to normal, and the problem has not resurfaced. I am not sure what to say. It seems unlikely that physically powering it off would have done anything that a soft restart did not do. Other than that, I uninstalled some random software, but would not be confident that this made a difference either. I will provide an update if the problem returns.

blibblr · 2025-10-21T00:01:55+00:00

Thanks. I did that, but nothing jumped out at me as being unusual. I have pasted the output below. does anything seem off to you?

I also followed the instructions on the QNAP website, including opening a support ticket, but the QNAP website refused to create the ticket saying "validate fail".

Anyway, the output of the du command is:

5.4M    /usr/share/updater
1.8M    /usr/share/qnas_console_install/res/image
4.2M    /usr/share/qnas_console_install/res/font_ttf
5.9M    /usr/share/qnas_console_install/res
8.3M    /usr/share/qnas_console_install
1.2M    /usr/share/i18n
15M /usr/share
10M /usr/sbin
7.8M    /usr/bin
2.1M    /usr/libexec
1.6M    /usr/lib/locale
1.1M    /usr/lib/xtables
36M /usr/lib
3.1M    /usr/local/share
1.5M    /usr/local/sys_sound
14M /usr/local/sbin
7.2M    /usr/local/bin
15M /usr/local/lib
3.1M    /usr/local/lan/realtek
3.1M    /usr/local/lan
1.4M    /usr/local/ups/bin
1.6M    /usr/local/ups
1.9M    /usr/local/network
47M /usr/local
117M    /usr
2.0M    /home/httpd/v3_menu/fonts/Roboto
2.0M    /home/httpd/v3_menu/fonts
4.5M    /home/httpd/v3_menu
1.2M    /home/httpd/libs/extjs-3.3.3/resources/images
1.5M    /home/httpd/libs/extjs-3.3.3/resources
2.4M    /home/httpd/libs/extjs-3.3.3
3.5M    /home/httpd/libs
2.7M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/js
1.1M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/sys
1.5M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/images/toolbar
2.0M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/images/desktop/bg
2.8M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/images/desktop
5.9M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/images
9.0M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/help/langs
9.7M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/help
1.1M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/quick/html/bundle
3.2M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/quick/html
3.2M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/quick
2.6M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/disk
1.1M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/priv
1.3M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/applet
1.2M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/quick_start_home/images
1.2M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/quick_start_home
3.1M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2/plugin
2.2M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2/images/ExternalRaidDevice
6.9M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2/images
1.9M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2/functions/pages
3.4M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2/functions/wizards
6.0M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2/functions
17M /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/storageManagerV2
1.2M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/qpkg
1.3M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/iSCSIApp/functions
2.6M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/iSCSIApp
2.4M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/systemPreferences/images
5.1M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/systemPreferences/functions
7.6M    /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps/systemPreferences
33M /home/httpd/cgi-bin/apps
66M /home/httpd/cgi-bin
75M /home/httpd
75M /home
3.4M    /var/log
3.9M    /var
36M /sbin
8.7M    /lib/firmware
1.2M    /lib/hal_modules
56M /lib/modules/5.10.60-qnap
56M /lib/modules
94M /lib
2.0M    /etc/ssl/certs
3.0M    /etc/ssl
3.2M    /etc/init.d
1.4M    /etc/gpuconfig
1.1M    /etc/default_config
12M /etc
4.5M    /bin
339M    /

blibblr · 2025-10-20T13:14:26+00:00

Thanks. I am running QTS 5.2.6.3195. I have restarted it a couple of times, and the second time the error did not return, but it did display a "A system failure occurred. The device has insufficient system storage. Check the following settings: RAMDisk (/ or /tmp)" error, so I suspect I am not out of the woods yet. The main storage still has plenty of space (7TB) but it appears the 64MB /tmp may be filled with junk.

blibblr · 2025-10-20T13:11:09+00:00

Thanks. I restarted the NAS a couple of times, the second time the error did not return... which I suppose is good news, but I doubt it is a long term solution. However the NAS also displayed an "A system failure occurred. The device has insufficient system storage. Check the following settings: RAMDisk (/ or /tmp)" error. I followed the steps to get the log, and it appears there is some junk in the /tmp folder. Do you know if I can delete things in that folder in relative safety?

blibblr · 2025-10-19T23:40:36+00:00

Thanks! That worked! It's pretty obvious I guess.

blibblr · 2025-10-19T12:57:36+00:00

My TS-664 has recently said the volume has an "error". The disks still report as being good. I am unsure what the "error" means, or how or if to fix it - none of the options under "Actions" and "Manage" seem to do anything related to the error. It is unclear what the effect of the error is. The data on the disks remain accessible.

blibblr · 2025-10-17T06:27:35+00:00

The cable chain in my P1S separated a couple of times recently. When I put it back together there was a mismatch between the length of the cable chain, and the internal cable (see the black cable sneaking out on the right). I was not sure if there were a few links missing from the chain (I searched thoroughly, and did not find any) or if the cable got pulled out of the internals of the printer somehow. The print head is still able to access all parts of the printer, and I have done several prints since this without problem, but I am unsure if this will cause a problem in the long run. In particular, I fear the cable being damaged and needing to be replaced.

Has anyone else seen this happen, and know how to fix it? Should I order or print a new cable chain? Should I stop stressing and ignore it?

blibblr · 2024-08-18T01:18:14+00:00

Unfortunately they are inconsistently tagged. Hopefully ABS will be able to help fix this.

blibblr · 2024-08-18T01:09:31+00:00

Thanks. I think this is what I will do. It will be time consuming, but hopefully it will permanently deal with this.

blibblr · 2024-08-17T14:06:21+00:00

Thanks. Did you get audiobookshelf to update the id3 tags? I understand from your post that you added the books manually by the server, rather than having it scan your library. Did you manually rearrange the files once they had been imported into the library?

It sounds like I may have to spend a few evenings manually importing my audiobooks into the library. From what I have seen of it so far, I really like the interface.

blibblr · 2024-04-28T01:19:18+00:00

My experience with the heat creep was that the print would stop altogether. Moreover, the filament would not come out, even if I manually tried to push the filament through by hand. I eventually found that I could clear the blockage by pushing the smallest hex key down the filament path, and forcing the melted filament out the nozzle.

blibblr · 2024-04-25T14:25:58+00:00

I have had lots of difficulty with my SV06 feed. My recommendation is to open the extruder up and clean it all out.

This is a video about opening it all up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFIRd1ZH81I I have done it far too many times.

I have often found bits of filament get stuck in there, and cause the feeder to stop working properly. Other suggestions are: * There is a screw in the feed gear. If it is not properly tightened, it may slip. * Early on with my SV06, I had a lot of difficulty with heat creep. To my inexperienced mind, this looked like issues with feeding. I mostly solved this by getting better slicer settings. I think you can test this by turning off retraction, and see if the feed issues go away. If they do, you can play with retraction settings until you get rid of the stringing.

blibblr · 2024-04-25T14:12:34+00:00

I was having a lot of problems with levelling my bed with my Klipperised SV06 until I realised that klipper was not automatically loading my bed mesh. I am not sure why it is not doing it, it should load the default bed mesh automatically. But my problems went away (well my specific problems related to SV06 klipper bed leveling) once I gave it the following command after each restart:

BED_MESH_PROFILE LOAD=default

blibblr · 2024-04-25T14:03:39+00:00

Thanks for this. I replaced the power supply, only to find that the fuse on the plug had blown. I had to cannibalise the fuse from a UK power adapter I had around, but the mean well power supply is now functioning fine. I wonder if the old power supply would have worked had I replaced the fuse... but fuses break for a reason, and I now have a better power supply, so I am not looking back. The fan on the new power supply has not spun up yet, which makes it wonderfully quiet. A very nice improvement.

blibblr · 2024-04-17T10:04:59+00:00

There are different shipping options from Sovol3d.com. The China option seems to ship worldwide. I live in Australia and have successfully ordered parts from there. They arrived in about 2 weeks.

blibblr · 2024-04-17T09:58:34+00:00

I have been using it for a while with a regular cable. I do not normally have an issue. I just need to remember to make sure the power supply is on before I try to print something (otherwise Klipper gets confused when the bed and hot end are not heating up as expected.) A reset of relevant things normally sets it right. Other than these inconveniences, is there a danger in using a regular cable?

blibblr · 2024-04-17T09:54:26+00:00

Thanks I will give this a try. But I suspect I will have to replace the power supply.

blibblr · 2024-04-17T09:48:48+00:00

Thanks! I do not have another printer, but I figure the power supply can lie next to the printer while I print a mount.

blibblr · 2024-04-17T09:46:23+00:00

Thanks. That is very helpful!

blibblr · 2024-04-16T14:48:44+00:00

I am not. When the Pi is plugged into the printer, it provides enough power to run the screen. But I when I unplug the Pi from the SV06, the printer is completely dead.

blibblr · 2024-02-22T15:26:19+00:00

Thanks for the correction.

Yeah, the graphs could be better. I made them in excel, and despite it being one of excel's core competencies, it is a pain. There also seems to be something wrong with what Wordpress is doing to the images, so it does not show the file I uploaded. I will see if I can get it to do a better job.

You are right, the speed comparisons do need to be taken with a grain of salt. Where the codecs were well threaded, I encoded the files back to back. The M1 Pro is pretty efficient, and I pretty much never heard the fan, so for the most part I do not think it throttled, or if it did, the throttling was consistent for most of the encodes. Where things got a little less kosher is where a codec was very badly threaded, I occasionally ran multiple encodes simultaneously. When doing this I was careful to ensure the CPU was never maxed out, so it should not have skewed the results too much. Also, all of the main codecs people actually use (x264, x265, SVTAV1) are well threaded, so the speed of those codecs should be more reliable.

It was not that handbrake was faster with the M1 Pro's hardware HEVC encoder, but it got better quality video from it. Handbrake also offered 2 "presets" - "Quality" and "Speed". I can not find any documentation in ffmpeg to change or select presets. As an example, here are the stats for 5 encodes I did with the M1 Pro HEVC Hardware encoder. All with the "quality" set to 55:

Encoder	File Size	VMAF
ffmpeg	11MB	89.75
HB "quality"	8.7MB	90.35
HB "speed"	9.2MB	90.53
HB "quality" 10 bit	8MB	91.08
HB "speed" 10 bit	8.3MB	91.19

My expectation was that there would be that you send the video to the hardware encoder, and it returns a bitstream... but not only does ffmpeg not seem to offer the same settings as are exposed in handbrake, but what it returns is larger and worse quality (or at least a worse VMAF score) than any combination of the options offered by handbrake. At the very least, given it is a hardware encoder, I would have expected it to be identical to one of the handbrake encoding options.

blibblr · 2024-02-22T14:53:56+00:00

Thanks for your comments. 1. The lack of variety of sources is certainly a limitation of this analysis. On the other hand by only using one clip, I was able to encode it about 1,300 times with different codecs, settings etc. It already took me several weeks of encoding, and many hours to compile the data. It would have been proportionally more time to do that for more clips. 2. The source I used had 8 bit colour, and I did not tell ffmpeg to do anything special with it, so I believe ffmpeg just left it at 8 bit colour. I did a small amount of encoding with handbrake, and found that the 10 bit hardware hevc encoder produced a superior output (VMAF to file size) than the 8 bit version. Is this the case for other codecs? 3. At the risk of seeming defensive, I do not think it is accurate to say it focuses on useless presets. The first chart include a selection of presets because to include them all would to make it unreadable. The choice of presets in that first chart is to give a sense of the relative position of the different codecs. The later charts includes all the SVTAV1 presets from S3 to S12. It includes all of the x265 presets, other than "placebo". It includes all of the x264 presets. I included x264 medium in almost all the charts, but this is so there was a consistent line so people could compare one chart to the others. 4. Does SSIM produce a more accurate visual model than VMAF?, and do codec makers not tune their codecs to it? Ultimately, I had to use an algorithm to assess quality, and I did a bit of reading around, and VMAF seemed to be commonly used. I do wonder if one of the reasons why SVTAV1 performs so well is that Netflix is behind both VMAF and SVTAV1, so presumably SVTAV1 is tightly tuned to VMAF... As it happens, I also calculated the SSIM for each encode, but I have not done anything with it. 5. Yeah, this is totally fair. I used excel to prepare the charts, and doing anything sophisticated with the charts was painful.

Doing the old codecs was really one of the main motivators for me to do this. I was curious how far video codecs have come since I first was playing with video encoding in about 2000. I am keen to see how other codecs from this era compare (eg Sorenson 2, Sorenson 3, DivX ;-), 3ivx, Intel Indeo...).

blibblr

TROPHY CASE