Advice needed : flac file doesn't play

[ip8g_345]

I have few flac files which behave strangely :

They are played PERFECTLY on my computer and on Logitech Classic SB (straemed by logitech media server).

They can be played on Sansa Clip Zip but I hear many cracks.

They CAN'T be played on Cowon J3 at all

All of them are as follows ( by ffmpeg -i)

Duration: 00:08:30.66, bitrate: 416 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Audio: flac, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16

Any ideas what it might be ? I've never run into something like it.
Any tool to check the validity of files ( I don't know if this is the reason since as I mentioned they are fine on my computer and SB)

[Urne]

Hmm, how high compression level did you use on those FLAC files? I had a issues playing FLAC files myself, but that was because I compressed them with highest compression level. They froze my J3 when attempting to play them, or slows it down so much rendering the device unusable. Have you tried using a lower compression level?

[ip8g_345]

Urne, thanks for the advice. I'll try lower compression today evening

[ip8g_345]

It was a high compression level. Strangely Sansa Clip can play it (with cracks), but Cowon J3 just freezes. I never run inot yjis problem before.


Urne, thanks again.

[ip8g_345]

Additonal explanation : I played with flake long time ago and forget it. Flake is an alternative flac encoder which allows higher level of compression (beyond 8 in regular flak) . I think I used compression level 10 or 11 just to check is it worth it. Apparently flac files beyond 8 or 9 compression level are problematic to play on both cowon j3 (freezes) and sansa clip zip (cracks and noises). My advice : Don't use higher cl it since savings in space are absolutely minimal, just stick with default level 5. Additional problem is that once flac file is encoded, there is no utility which shows what was the cl, so you only can guess based on size ( I checked ). The only way to find out is to convert the file to wav format and then encode back to flac with different CLs and see the size.
I used option -f in regular flac encoder to correct the file which decodes/encodes from flac to flac .so
flac -5 -f sample.flac
generates samle.flac file with CL 5 and write it instead of original file ( that if you don't want to keep the original, otherwise use -o option to give a new output file)

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by ip8g_345

Flake is an alternative flac encoder which allows higher level of compression (beyond 8 in regular flak) . I think I used compression level 10 or 11 just to check is it worth it. Apparently flac files beyond 8 or 9 compression level are problematic to play on both cowon j3 (freezes) and sansa clip zip (cracks and noises). My advice : Don't use higher cl it since savings in space are absolutely minimal, just stick with default level 5

As you can see from the J3 user manual PDF, FLAC compression 0-8 is officially supported.

[ip8g_345]

Yet another proof that small prints/details are indeed important ( I think when I encoded it I didn't have cowon j3 though).

It would be nice if cowon j3, instead of just freezing, would simply refuse to play and issue a warning like "unsupported level of compression or something".
I needed to reset the player couple of times

It's a pity there is no utility which shows cl in encoded flac. I am wondering is it because technical difficulties or nobody need it. Somebody suggested to put cl in tag when encoding. May because of it's technically impossible to derive from already encoded file, cowon can't check/recognize it and chockes trying to play it