Flac files corupted after taging

Marninger · January 19, 2008, 10:22am

I have a lot of wav files ripped with EAC that I like to convert to flac (better support for tags and less space). As my EAC cue sheets ar "non conformant" I have tried to use Mp3tag v2.39 to update tags after the conversion but then the files seam to get corupted.

I have not found any special instructions for configuring Mp3tag to tag flac files and have made no attempts to do this . . . as I would not know what I am doing

But I guess I am doing something wrong . . . or have something configured wrong . . . and need expert help. Anybodu knows of some special configuration I should use . . . or maybe even a better way around the problem?

In case needed to understand the problem I paste some typical error messages below.

ERROR MESSAGE FROM FOOBAR2000 v0.95 WHEN PLAYING FLAC FILES AFTER TAGING

Decoding failure at 4:06.782 (Unsupported format or corrupted file):
"C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\109. Queen - No-one But You.flac"

Decoding failure at 6:14.770 (Unsupported format or corrupted file):
"C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\110. Queen - It's Late.flac"

OUTPUT FROM FLAC -T FOR THESE FILES

flac 1.2.1, Copyright © 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007 Josh
flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Type `flac' for de

Queen - No-one But You.flac: testing, 95% complete

Queen - No-one But You.flac: ERROR while decoding data

                         state = FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_ST

flac 1.2.1, Copyright © 2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007 Josh
flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you
welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Type `flac' for de

Queen - It's Late.flac: testing, 96% complete

Queen - It's Late.flac: ERROR while decoding data

                    state = FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM

OUTPUT FROM FLACTESTER WHEN TESTING COMPLETE ALBUM

[1/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\101. Queen - We Will Rock You.flac...ERROR_FRAME_CRC_MISMATCH @ 1m 55s
[2/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\102. Queen - Now I'm Here.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[3/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\103. Queen - Stone Cold Crazy.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_UNPARSEABLE_STREAM
[4/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\104. Queen - Hammer to Fall.flac...OK
[5/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\105. Queen - I Can't Live With You.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[6/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\106. Queen - Seven Seas of Rhye.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[7/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\107. Queen - I Want it All.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[8/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\108. Queen - Those Are the Days of Our Lives.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[9/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\109. Queen - No-one But You.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[10/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\110. Queen - It's Late.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[11/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\111. Queen - Headlong.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[12/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\112. Queen - Put Out the Fire.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[13/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\113. Queen - I'm In Love With My CAr.flac...OK
[14/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\114. Queen - Sheer Heart Attack.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[15/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\115. Queen - One Vision.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[16/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\116. Queen - Tear it Up.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[17/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\117. Queen - Keep Yourself Alive.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
[18/18] C:\Music\Queen+ CD1 [FLAC]\118. Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls.flac...FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM
18 files, 16 errors [1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,14,15,16,17,18]

igroucho · January 19, 2008, 3:31pm

I cannot believe this has anything to do with mp3tag. You imply you have converted your wav-files to flacs - how did you do that?
(About tagging flacs: Look to find what tags are supported by flac. This is one page I have used to find out:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?Slim...erSupportedTags
under Options Dialogue -> Tag panel you can then add tags you want beyond the standard ones)

Marninger · January 20, 2008, 8:24am

Thank's for your reply Igroucho!

I think Mp3tag is the best tagger around and I have used it for some time to tag my .mp3 files . I have never before had a problem with it and I am not saying it has to be somthing wrong with Mp3tag . . . but something is wrong and I need help to find out what . . . or to find a way around the problem.

I used Flac 1.2.1 to convert and the .flac files are Ok until after I append tags to them and even after tagging they play allright up to right before the end of each song. I first updated to the latest version of Foobar as I though maybe my old version not support some newer tags. But then I found I have the same problem when using the Squeesebox . . . and when I checked the files and found they realy are corupted.

I have fidled around trying to find out what is wrong or find a way around the problem and it it is during one of those sessions I got the crc error on the first file. When I redo the whole thing from start, converting - tagging and testing I only get the "ERROR while decoding data state = FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_END_OF_STREAM" error.

Now, maybe I got something backwards and am doing something wrong . . . or maybe I have something that is not configured as it should on my PC . . . but as the problem manifests it self at the end of the file I wonder what is appended there when you tag them . . . anybody knows?

Florian · January 23, 2008, 12:42pm

Does this also happen when using the current Development Build?

Marninger · January 23, 2008, 4:02pm

Florian,

Now everything is working as it should I am not shure what was wrong but reformating the drive and reinstalling Windows and all tools from scratch fixed the problem.

If nothing else it made me read the fucking manuals and I my ripping, coding, taging and replay gaining skills are vastly improved.

Sorry if I wasted time for you and others and thanks for the best tagger around

Marninger · January 24, 2008, 11:52am

Florian,

The problems back

Careful step by step change & test indicates that it is adding a picture to the tags that creates the problem.

I have used an EAC (secure mode) rip to wav files of the CD "The music still goes on" by ABBA as test objects. I then used the following test sequence to change and test all files after each step.

Converted the files to FLAC,
Use Mp3tag 2.39 to first add tags based on file name (Track, Artist, Title)
Then to manually add Album, Year, Genre and Comment and save the tags to all tracks
then to add a 250*248 pixel / 8KB JPEG cover picture and save it to all tracks.

The files tested Ok until after step 4, - but even after this some files where Ok

Runing the test a second time different files where Ok / corupted after step 4

But then runing it a third time with a 100*99 pixel / 3KB JPEG cover picture all files check out Ok

So this seams to be related to the size of the picture you use. But going back to FLAC reference documentation i can not find anything on size limitations or what would be a safe size. In fact there is even this example " 4|-->|CD|320x300x24/173|http://blah.blah/backcover.tiff" that seam to indicate that at least up to a 32030024/173 picture should be safe, - and thats a bit larger then my orignal test picture . . . but then only the URL is attached???

Do you have any additional information on what size should be safe to use?

Marninger · January 26, 2008, 4:28pm

I've now converted and tested about 20 more albums and had the same problem with 3 of them.

As standard I use a to about 250*250 pixels scaled down version of the scanned cover. The actual file size of the picture varies (depending on how well JPEG compression works on the bit map) but it seams to end up somewhere between 5 and 12 KB. Even though the problem seams to be size related some of the larger files has worked Ok

One thing I have noticed though is that in all cases where there is a problem afterwards it takes longer time to save the tags to the files and tmp files are used during the process

In each case where there has been a problem I have tried to change the size of the picture slightly and then tag it to a fresh copy of the flac files . . . . and so far this has worked!