Hello!
I always update my system Manjaro Plasma with “yay -Syyu”
I see there are 3 packages with problems.
The message is …
Packages not in AUR: lib32-libva-vdpau-driver libkcddb5 libva-vdpau-driver
I know there are no orphans.
Are these packages related to the GPU?
I don’t know if this is relevant but as GPU I use the one integrated in my Intel i9 processor.
Thanks in advance!
Not to the GPU directly, but related to the graphics rendering, yes.
Those packages are orphans now.
Presumably they were in the AUR earlier, but then they were dropped from there, possibly because they had been flagged out-of-date and they were not being maintained.
Another option is that they were once in the official repository, but that they were dropped from there as well.
I have removed the 2 vdpau-driver packages and it seems there are no problems.
BUT if I try to remove libkcddb5, there’s a dependecy that would be removed too (soundkonverter) and I don’t want that.
Is there anything I can do?
You can remove them, then you can install Soundkonverter when you’re finished. Interestingly it seems to be out of the repos too…
I tend to prefer Soundconverter myself, is there any reason to prefer soundkonverter?
I would add that soundkonverter is archived as of 2022 and should be retired… it’s a veritable spider with 45 dependencies.I guess that “k” in “konverter” is related to KDE and that’s what I use.
I have removed sounkonverter and now I can’t install it again because libkcddb5 is required and it doesn’t exist.
I was not aware of the existence of SoundConverter.
I will try it.
Thank you very much to both of you!
Soundconverter is wonderful - what it lacks in ‘fine tuning’ it gains with sane settings…
It’s just one of those things (like Audacious) that’s been around forever and survived for being good at what it does. For anything else, you just write yourself an ffmpeg script 
You can open a folder with, or drop on - and my current output is for Opus - challenge yourself to hear the difference between a FLAC file and Opus at it’s ‘normal’ setting, and if you can - bump it up to the high, very high, or insane.
3.5 GiB of Opus on my Android at Opus (normal) is superb (though I’m no longer 20 years old so my hearing isn’t perfect now).
Set the parallel jobs (4 is good for me) and then just watch out for the Delete and Results (Location) for the output.
Something I used to do more is to simply ADD an extension, so you can have ‘magic.flac’ come out as ‘magic.flac.opus’
I didn’t know the Opus format.
I’m afraid my hearing isn’t perfect either, but since I have almost everything in this format I will continue to use it.
And besides, my car understands the FLAC format …
I will take everything else you have told me into consideration.
Thank you very very much!
Your car should also understand the Opus format - after all Opus, along with AAC, are the default audio codecs for YouTube & YouTube Music. From Opus (audio format) - Wikipedia:
Opus replaces both Vorbis and Speex for new applications, and several blind listening tests have ranked it higher-quality than any other standard audio format at any given bitrate until transparency is reached, including MP3, AAC, and HE-AAC.
As an open format standardized through RFC 6716, a reference implementation called libopus is available under the New BSD License. The reference has both fixed-point and floating-point optimizations for low- and high-end devices, with SIMD optimizations on platforms that support them. All known software patents that cover Opus are licensed under royalty-free terms.[10] Opus is widely used as a voice over IP (VoIP) codec in applications such as Discord,[11] WhatsApp,[12][13][14] and the PlayStation 4.
Understandably, you want to stick with the format you have been using (FLAC), and that is perfectly fine. However, if you ever do feel the need to change audio formats, then you should have no qualms about switching to Opus.
Ok, time to play… first download this archive. It contains a very high quality WAV file (Eye in the Sky) which you can drag to your player (Audacious is good - you can see the bitrate as it’s playing… this will be important).
I converted that WAV file to give some comparisons… you need to listen on your highest quality gear, be it good loudspeakers (to judge imaging, depth, width etc) or headphones.
Now listen carefully, and tell me if you hear any difference…
The file size I put in the name… also the history.
I find music at ‘Low’ is constrained - but podcasts/audiobooks are perfect.
I cannot hear ANY difference between Opus (Normal) and the original WAV file for most files…
This is playing through my Monitor Audio loudspeakers as well as my Sennheiser headphones.
Perhaps there might be someone under the age of 25 here who might be able to hear some slight difference - but it’s doubtful unless they have very good hearing and equipment.
Any of those freaky people - just rip the WAV to Opus High, Very High, Insane… I guarantee it will be completely transparent at one of those settings.
Disclaimer: Guarantee of quality - No Money ReturnD
Don’t be a luddite - Opus is by far the best way to rip audio files for listening.
I put the equivalent of 12GiB music on my Android phone (Opus - normal) and it takes up under 3 GiB on my microSD.
This topic was automatically closed 3 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.