FLAC files generating FindSync errors

[Jeffry67]

Hello, it’s the first time for me posting in this forum. Please tell me if I'm on the right place?

I’ve got a mystery around Muse Simulation Theory album that maybe you could help me solve.

I’ve bought the album from HDTracks, the 24/96 version in FLAC. I’ve played the album a couple of times and while looking at MinimServer log I found that the files were generating « FindSync LOST_SYNC » messages. I contacted HDTracks and they told me that my hardware couldn’t decode the lavf encoding they are using. I was able later to download the AIFF version of the album. I played the album in either native AIFF or 24 bit WAVE through MinimStreamer (aiff :wav24), no messages were generated anymore.

For comparison purposes I decided to create a FLAC version of the album hoping I would get rid of the messages this time. I used MAX on MacOS to do the conversion from AIFF to FLAC. This time it was even worse, I couldn't play the files at all. My SuperUniti streamer saying that it failed playing the song. MinimServer was full of « FindSync LOST_SYNC » messages (see attached log). I tried also converting from AIFF to WAV to FLAC hoping this time it would really solve the issue but no, same messages again and streamer unable to play them.

Anybody here have a clue of what’s happening?

I'm using:
Synology NAS (DSM 6.2, latest version) running MinimServer and MinimStreamer (latest version). Renderer is a NAIM SuperUniniti. I converted files with MAX on MacOs.

Another thing and maybe it’s just my hears but it seams that when I play the AIFF files on the SuperUniti the sounds is more detailed and softer than when converted to WAV. Any comments on that? That’s why I wanted to have a FLAC version of the album, to do a direct compare with AIFF.

Thanks for helping me guys!
Jean-François

[simoncn]

Welcome to the MinimServer forum!

Either the file is corrupt or it contains a variant of FLAC encoding that the MinimStreamer internal FLAC decoder can't handle.

To find out which it is, try playing the FLAC file without using flac:wav transcoding in stream.transcode. This uses your renderer's FLAC decoder instead of the MinimStreamer internal decoder.

Also, try playing the file using "flac:wav;" instead of "flac:wav". The version with the semicolon at the end uses ffmpeg to decode the FLAC file instead of using the MinimStreamer internal decoder.

After each change to the stream.transcode property, restart MinimServer to make sure the change is visible to your control point.

[Jeffry67]

Hi Simon, I was able to convert my AIFF files to FLAC by doing this : Convert AIFF to WAV using dbPowerAmp and then convert WAV to FLAC with MAX. This time, no more error messages from MinimServer (with and without the semicolon) and files play well on my SuperUniti.

I couldn't convert WAV to FLAC using dbPowerAmp, it was always saying "Error initializing FLAC encoder". Converting AIFF to WAV to FLAC using only MAX wasn't working also, files were unplayable. I really wonder what's special with this Muse album!

I haven't tried playing the original FLAC files with the semicolon.

Thanks
Jean-François