Topic: Fre:ac flac files suddenly not playing ??

[Billy Mumphrey]

I usually try to thoroughly troubleshoot my own problems before posting, but I can't figure out why suddenly, out of nowhere, the large flac files of my last 2 taped shows aren't playing in Windows Media Player or VLC. WMP says "We can't open <file name>. It's encoded in a format that isn't supported." Yet, all my other flac's are playing, except for the last 2 shows I've recorded. I haven't changed one single thing in my recording process or computer or software. No setting changes, nothing. Just randomly the large (raw) flac files from the last 2 show won't play. If I use freac to convert them back to wav, they play just fine. The show I recorded 2 weeks ago (and everything before that), the large raw flac files play just fine.

I did a quick mastering on one of the recent shows and rendered a quick 1 min sample to listen in my car, and a flac of that 1 min sample plays just fine in WMP. So strange and random, I'm wondering if anyone else has or is experiencing this. TIA

EDIT: I also uninstalled and reinstalled freac and same thing.

[u2_fly_2]

I usually try to thoroughly troubleshoot my own problems before posting, but I can't figure out why suddenly, out of nowhere, the large flac files of my last 2 taped shows aren't playing in Windows Media Player or VLC. WMP says "We can't open <file name>. It's encoded in a format that isn't supported." Yet, all my other flac's are playing, except for the last 2 shows I've recorded. I haven't changed one single thing in my recording process or computer or software. No setting changes, nothing. Just randomly the large (raw) flac files from the last 2 show won't play. If I use freac to convert them back to wav, they play just fine. The show I recorded 2 weeks ago (and everything before that), the large raw flac files play just fine.

I did a quick mastering on one of the recent shows and rendered a quick 1 min sample to listen in my car, and a flac of that 1 min sample plays just fine in WMP. So strange and random, I'm wondering if anyone else has or is experiencing this. TIA

EDIT: I also uninstalled and reinstalled freac and same thing.

Thats weird...it happend once with a concert I recorded (with Freac I mean)...then I tried DB Poweramp converter and that did the trick. Freac sometimes freezes as well if I convert large size waves or flac:s.

Lately it has worked very well (for the last year or so).

As far as I know I have not updated the software of Freac...if one do so...then thats usually when the problems starts to appear.

All the best to you.

[nassau73]

Just a long shot here - I don't know the size of the "large" files you are dealing with.

Some people have been reporting issues with drive recognition and file corruption due to the latest windows update  (KB5063878).

Try a couple of searches and see if any of the conditions apply to you.

I don't recall seeing if uninstalling the update alleviates the problem.

Also - look further into this forum. Usre Gone Fishin posted about this a few days ago
Windows 11 Large Files Handling - Major Issue for Aug. 2025 Patch New

[Billy Mumphrey]

These are excellent suggestions, thanks guys. I'm gonna try DB Poweramp later today.

I forgot about Windows updates, but I'm on Windows 10 and I just checked my update history. I do not see the specific update you mention, but there was an update a week ago and that definitely is a software change. I may be paranoid, but I would never rule out Windows 10 getting "buggier" as we get closer to Windows discontinuing all support for 10.

[Billy Mumphrey]

For completely un-related reasons, I got a new computer. Nice new fresh Windows 11 install, fresh install of Freac and SAME problem. Still wondering if anyone experiencing this? Very strange.... files won't play in VLC or anything.

[rastasean]

Does the flac file play with ffplay (from ffmpeg) or mpv? Is it any/every flac file or only ones you've recorded? If you don't have any other than the ones you've recorded, I'd recommend downloading something from LMA and trying those files in vlc, ffplay, mpv.

https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases
https://github.com/shinchiro/mpv-winbuild-cmake/releases

[Billy Mumphrey]

Does the flac file play with ffplay (from ffmpeg) or mpv? Is it any/every flac file or only ones you've recorded? If you don't have any other than the ones you've recorded, I'd recommend downloading something from LMA and trying those files in vlc, ffplay, mpv.

https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases
https://github.com/shinchiro/mpv-winbuild-cmake/releases

I've got a fresh install of Windows so not sure I want to add a bunch of new software right now, but they're not playing in Windows Media Player and VLC.

Smaller flac's were playing just fine, but every large one (usually 2 gigs due to splits on the recorder) but a few files that were around 1.5 gigs also had the same problem. I had recordings from my F3, F6, Tascam DR-05, and H1essential all have the same problem.

All I know is that out of nowhere, around late August, I followed my exact same routine of recording a show, copying the files onto my desktop PC, writing the info file etc and flac'ing the files. I usually like to test the flac's (by playing them) to make sure everything went well and it will eventually be safe to delete off my recorder. Well sure enough the flac's weren't playing, and Windows Media Player gave the error message "We can't open <file name>. It's encoded in a format that isn't supported." I tried the files in VLC and it simply wouldn't play the files. When I coverted the files back to wav (using freac) they played fine.

As mentioned before, all my old recordings, 2 gig flac files included, are playing just fine.

It's gotta be Windows and their new problems with large files, as documented on the web and by the post by Gone Fishin in the Post-Processing section. It happened on my Windows 10 PC right when that new Windows patch or update caused problems for others (and yes an update was installed before it happened). I tried rolling back to a previous edition and it didn't help. That computer was pretty old and starting to give me different problems so I jumped on a chance to get a new PC from a friend. Was hoping a fresh install of everything would solve all those problems, but here we are. Just wondering if I'm the only taper experiencing this.

Someone suggested above that I try DB Poweramp, and I went to their site but it looks like $48 bucks. I suppose I just need to try the trial version and maybe isolate freac as the problem. Curious that no other tapers are reporting this problem however. Like I said, once I convert back to wav the files are fine, or at least they play fine in WMP and VLC. That little OCD in me though is hesitate to archive these "masters" when there MIGHT be a problem with the flac conversion. *sigh, stupid technology.

EDIT: might try Foobar2000, will report here.

[papabliss]

Try audacity for the wav > flac conversion, it's free. Then you will know if it's the windows files size of something specific to fre:ac.

[rastasean]

Does the flac file play with ffplay (from ffmpeg) or mpv? Is it any/every flac file or only ones you've recorded? If you don't have any other than the ones you've recorded, I'd recommend downloading something from LMA and trying those files in vlc, ffplay, mpv.

https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases
https://github.com/shinchiro/mpv-winbuild-cmake/releases

I've got a fresh install of Windows so not sure I want to add a bunch of new software right now, but they're not playing in Windows Media Player and VLC.

What I recommend do not actually install on your computer. You download binaries and run them. In fact, they're likely smaller than the flac files you're trying to play.

[Billy Mumphrey]

Ok I tried Audacity, unfortunately you can't flac 32fp files without it dithering (or truncating) to 24-bit. Good thought, tho.

Foobar2000 can't convert floating point files, so not an option if you use any 32fp recorders.

Dbpoweramp trial version was experiencing the same issues as Freac. I do believe this eliminates Freac as the problem.

One thing I noticed is now my Tascam DR-05 24/48 files (non-32fp) are NOT experiencing the problem (in both Freac and Dbpoweramp). I'm like 80% sure they were experiencing the issue on my Windows 10 machine; I had a 2 week period where the only taping I was doing was with the Tascam and I remember still being super frustrated, but I've been working 2 jobs and I spent half of September working on my transmission, so it's possible it's just an issue with floating point files.

Maybe this is a sign to not archive my "masters" in flac haha. I'm still tempted to just flac them be done with it, since every single time when I convert them back to wav, they play just fine. Tonight after work I might try different levels of flac compression, I've always just used 8.

rastasean I just saw your reply, I will look into that for sure, all suggestions are welcome. I figured VLC was the ultimate test, it plays everything, but you have to be thorough with troubleshooting. Hopefully it's a Windows large file issue and they get it figured out in the next few updates.

[vanark]

This is the first time I am hearing these are 32 bit files you are trying to FLAC. Are your other files 32 bit as well? Is Fre:ac designed specifically to handle 32 bit files because I was under the impression that 32 bit and FLAC did not play well together.

[aaronji]

If I recall correctly, from FLAc v1.4 on, it supports 32-bit integer, but not floating point.

[vanark]

If I recall correctly, from FLAc v1.4 on, it supports 32-bit integer, but not floating point.

Thank you for clarifying. I got a little brief and dropped the floating point part.

[Billy Mumphrey]

Yes I definitely should’ve mentioned I’m primarily trying to flac 32fp files, that’s my bad.

A long time ago I googled whether or not Freac supports floating point, and if you google it now AI states that yes Freac supports floating point BUT the question is whether or not FLAC supports floating point (Freac does more than just Flac, it encodes and decodes to many different formats). I specifically remember someone here at TS saying that Flac is fine for 32fp, and I took that as confirmation. Not to mention that I’ve recorded somewhere around 100 shows with my F3 an F6, all in 32fp,  resulting in probably somewhere close to 200 files or so, that I’ve successfully flac’d and archived. Those files had no problems playing back in WMP and VLC. For some reason in late August my NEW recordings stopped playing after being flac’d. Old 32fp flacs playback just fine.

EDIT: I’m at work and heading to meetings, but a quick google and aaronji is correct, flac does NOT support floating point. It sounds like all my raw 32fp masters are converted to 32 integer files. Yay haha.

[papabliss]

Would WavPack meet your needs?  It states lossless compression that supports 32 bit float. From a quick read, seems like the compressed file will be 32 bit float.