Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate (Read 9360 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

I recently ripped a load of CDs using CDEX. For some reason (i guess i got the string wrong) all the FLAC files are showing up with the incorrect length and bitrate in WMP11 and other players.

I dont wan't to rip all those CDs again. Is there a way to fix this? I understand it is possible to fix this with MP3s, using the "fix mp3 header" util in Foobar.

FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

Reply #1 –
Try to open your files with foobar2000, if there will still be a problem, you can easily re-encode tracks using foobar2000' built-in converter (just a few clicks).

FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

Reply #2 –
Thanks, I will try using Foobar. I used Foobar before to open my FLAC files (which it did), though was unable to fix the headers in the same way as it can for MP3 files. Will re-encoding fix this problem?

Out of interest, what it the part of the .flac file which is wrong when the bitrate and file length (in seconds/minutes) aren't displayed correctly? WMP11 lists all my FLACs as being 3:00:00 (3 hours) long, and I cannot skip through them.

FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

Reply #3 –
Quote from: danhackley on
WMP11 lists all my FLACs as being 3:00:00 (3 hours) long, and I cannot skip through them.

That may be due to bug in WMP11 or DirectShow codec (I guess you're using Illiminable's). You can try to update FLAC DirectShow decoder to the latest version.

Try to open a problematic flac file in foobar2000 or Winamp (the latest Winamp supports FLAC out of the box) and see if the track duration is correct or not.

FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

Reply #4 –
Hi, I don't think its a bug with the music player software - I think it's a problem with the way the flac was encoded. These flacs do not play on any software, including my iPod (with Rockbox, which supports flac).

I'll check the files with Foobar and Winamp. If the files are reading as incorrect length in those, is there a way to fix them ? Is it the cuesheet which is incorect ?

Foobar shows the flac files as having the incorrect length (3:22:53.943 (536870902 samples)) and shows no embedded cuesheet.

Below are the properties for the flac file, according to Foobar.

12-The Tourist.flac
E:\FLAC test directory\Radiohead - OK Computer\12-The Tourist.flac
0
36 374 545 bytes
2007-07-20 14:01:50
3:22:53.943 (536870902 samples)
44100 Hz
2
16
24 kbps
FLAC
lossless
reference libFLAC 1.1.4 20070213
no

Foobar has now converted these files again to FLAC, but this time they show the correct length. I'm now going to transfer them to my iPod to check they work !!

Re: FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

Reply #5 –
If someone wants to fix FLAC file length without reencoding, you can use MKVToonix-gui, and it will result with .mka file with correct length and copied audio stream.

inb4 - if you extract the audio file from such .mka Matroska container with MKVExtractGUI2 and the last compatible MKVToolnix v.20 for this tool, it will show incorrect length again (and same Audio MD5 as before).

I tried this MS script, but it looks like it serves for some other issue. It didn't fix the length:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/kb5003430-flac-encoded-music-file-is-corrupted-when-metadata-is-edited-in-windows-explorer-38619369-0787-44a8-950f-b408114ae856

But probably that bash script should work:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6322354.html#6322354

Re: FLAC showing incorrect length & bitrate

Reply #6 –
Is there some current tool creating otherwise valid files that just have wrong length? You do realize you replied to a 16 years old thread.

Muxing a FLAC to Matroska is not a fix. It's not a FLAC file anymore and can't be expected to work in normal FLAC-supporting software.

The bash script you linked is a script that re-encodes the FLAC file. One should be extremely careful when blindly re-encoding files that show up corrupted. They most likely are corrupted and should not be "fixed" by recompressing. Re-creating them from valid source like ripping from a CD again is a better option. At least if the intention is to have lossless audio.