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Topic: How to repair a broken FLAC file? (Read 21783 times) previous topic - next topic
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How to repair a broken FLAC file?

I downloaded file Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grapelli - Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - 02 - R 26.flac and it appears to be dead.
If opened in CoolEdit it shuts down.
If played in winamp it doesn't show any information and when press alt+3 also shuts down.
When trying decode it shows flac_stream_decoder_error_status_lost_sync.
When trying to decode with "Dec. through errors" option, it tells the stream is too big to fit in a single WAVE file chunk.
Are there any repare tools available.
Can I save whats left from the file?

The thing is - all other tracks in album plays well. I looked to share of other people - some have converted other tracks from this album to *.mp3 but the second track everyone have left unconverted. It means many people have this bad experience with FLAC!

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #1 –
Quote
I looked to share of other people - some have converted other tracks from this album to *.mp3 but the second track everyone have left unconverted. It means many people have this bad experience with FLAC!


I wouldn't have conluded that anyone was having a problem with flac from this. I would have concluded that the original file is somehow irreparably corrupted.

Why not write the webmaster of the site and ask about it?

Mark

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #2 –
Thank you for response Mark!
But my question was are there any repare tools available for damaged flacs?

When you have damaged mp3 file, it has dead frames which may sound as click. Then they can by repared with cooledit.

The situation when the file does not open and there is no way to determine and access valid parts at all is unique to FLAC! What this message about chunk size means, does decoder thinks the file is longer then wav file can be - 202 minutes?

And the site you mentioned is closed. Otherwise everybody have been reported the error long time ago. But people are keeping the file in hope that some day, the repare tools will come up and they will be able to cure the track.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #3 –
Quote
But my question was are there any repare tools available for damaged flacs?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=301110"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


How do you even know it's an FLAC file?  Just because it has the file extension doesn't make it so.  Maybe some clown took an Excel spreadsheet and renamed it and that's the file you have. 

Can you examine the first 4 bytes of the file?  It should say "fLaC" (I don't know if that's always true, but the files I looked at all have it.)

Is the file size consistent with other songs on the album?  If you know the length of the song, use an average of the compression ratios of the other songs as a guide to calculate what the file size should be.

Not everything can be repaired.  What if the file was truncated and half of it is missing?

A quick Google search shows that the disc in question is easily available (it's only $10.99 on Amazon).  If you really want that song, you might have to buy it.  It will be quicker and easier than tearing your hair out over a corrupted file.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #4 –
Quote
When you have damaged mp3 file, it has dead frames which may sound as click. Then they can by repared with cooledit.

The situation when the file does not open and there is no way to determine and access valid parts at all is unique to FLAC! What this message about chunk size means, does decoder thinks the file is longer then wav file can be - 202 minutes?

And the site you mentioned is closed. Otherwise everybody have been reported the error long time ago. But people are keeping the file in hope that some day, the repare tools will come up and they will be able to cure the track.


'Sorry the site is closed - I'd guess getting the CD and ripping it may be your only recourse.

As to the repair tools, all of them depend on a file that is at least valid enough to decode. If you had an mp3 file that was so corrupted as to tell you that, say, the contents were 202 minutes (assuming it isn't really 202 minutes), cooledit and any other tool is going to have the same problem.

Problems with ripped music that result in "dead frames" are not problems with the MP3 per se, but with the original rip, IMHO. I use flac (and then convert to mp3 for playing in my car). I have a CD (Steve Winwood's "Back in the High Life") that is somewhat corrupted - cdparanoia on my Linux box was going to take a forever to rip it, so I ripped it with eac on my wife's Windows box. It has clicks and pops that could be masked with a repair tool that are clearly there in the original wav and the flac version. It converts nicely to wav, clicks, pops, and all. I'm not a fan of masking stuff like this (I know - that means I'm neurotic) and will try to have the CD polished and replace it if that doesn't work.

I.e.: I strongly doubt that the problem you are having has anything in particular to do with flac. If certain information is missing from a compressed/encoded file, it will not be able to be successfully decompressed/decoded, whether it was compressed with flac, ogg, mp3, aac, or some scheme you invented yourself.

I'd take the other suggestion and make sure the first 4 bytes are what they said to look for. Then I'd go buy the CD. 

Mark

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #5 –
Thank you for response everybody, I had good time readin it. The thing about tearing the hear was really about me  . I sometimes exagerate problems. Just when you start doing something and you sumble on something, you just rush into forums... Actually I have already deleted the file, but I downloaded it again from other unsuccessiful user and found that although files size is consistent - 13 Mb the first bytes (when opened in notepad) are:

ID3  _UTIT2    R 26TPE1  %  Django Reinhardt & Stephane GrapelliTALB  #  Le Quintette Du Hot Club De FranceTYER    1947TRCK    2TCON    JazzTENC  !  Exact Audio Copy  (Secure mode)COMM    eng Track 2APIC  fх  image/jpg  яШяа JFIF      яЫ C

For me it looks like Mp3 file although as I said its size - 13 MB reminds FLAC.
It has similar start as other mp3 from same album:

ID3    JTPE1  %  Django Reinhardt & Stephane GrapelliTIT2    Danse NuptialeTALB  #  Le Quintette Du Hot Club De FranceTYER    1947TRCK    12TCON    JazzTXXX  !  REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.85238647TXXX    REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -3.26 dBTXXX  !  REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK 0.85238647TXXX    REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN -3.26 dB
It is very fany but it is mp3 file, just has wrong extension.

I just cann't wait when it finish download and I see if changing file extension helps!

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #6 –
Quote
Thank you for response everybody, I had good time readin it. The thing about tearing the hear was really about me   . I sometimes exagerate problems. Just when you start doing something and you sumble on something, you just rush into forums... Actually I have already deleted the file, but I downloaded it again from other unsuccessiful user and found that although files size is consistent - 13 Mb the first bytes (when opened in notepad) are:

ID3   _UTIT2      R 26TPE1   %   Django Reinhardt & Stephane GrapelliTALB   #   Le Quintette Du Hot Club De FranceTYER      1947TRCK      2TCON      JazzTENC   !   Exact Audio Copy   (Secure mode)COMM       eng Track 2APIC  fх   image/jpg  яШяа JFIF      яЫ C


'Just for grins, I looked it up in Amazon.com for you and found this:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...1910561-6243928

(Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grapelli, Quintette du Hot Club de France: 25 Classics 1934-1940)

It appears that you have a single MP3 of this entire album.

<refrains self from preaching about unauthorized bootlegging> 

Mark

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #7 –
Quote
ID3   _UTIT2      R 26TPE1   %   Django Reinhardt & Stephane GrapelliTALB   #   Le Quintette Du Hot Club De FranceTYER      1947TRCK      2TCON      JazzTENC   !   Exact Audio Copy   (Secure mode)COMM       eng Track 2APIC  f?   image/jpg  ???? JFIF      ?? C

that's an id3v2 tag on the front of it... there could be anything after it though.

Josh

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #8 –
Changing the extension doesn't help, fixing it with BeSliced leaves unplayable 547 kb file.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #9 –
'Just for grins, you have looked up wrong disk. My has felloving tracklist:

01 - Old Man River.mp3
03 - Swing Guitars.mp3
04 - I Love You.mp3
05 - Tiger Rag.mp3
06 - Tears.mp3
07 - Dinah.mp3
08 - Then There Eyes.mp3
09 - Daphne.mp3
10 - How High the Moon.mp3
11 - Manoir de Mes Reves.mp3
12 - Danse Nuptiale.mp3
13 - Improvisation No. 5.mp3
14 - Nuages.mp3
15 - Black Night.mp3
16 - Danse Norvegienne No 2.mp3
17 - Micro.mp3
18 - Dream of You.mp3
19 - Place de Broukere.mp3
20 - Manoir de Mes Reves.mp3
21 - C-Jam Blues.mp3

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #11 –
I can perfectly well live up without the file. But I am afraid to use FLAC because one day some my file saved in FLAC will not open and nobody will be able to help me and thats pity because, I have to record some 40 CC tapes with lecteurs. And I wished to save them at first with losless codec before I apply noise reduction and decide bitrate for fitting all on one or two cd's.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #12 –
what evidence do you have to support that fear?

Josh

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #13 –
There's nothing wrong with saving them as .wav's if you don't trust flac. Flac is only going to cut them in half for you, and that's on a good day with the planets all aligned properly.

Mark

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #14 –
Quote
There's nothing wrong with saving them as .wav's if you don't trust flac. Flac is only going to cut them in half for you, and that's on a good day with the planets all aligned properly.

Mark
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=302192"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


woh sorry to interrupt the conversation but im surprised to see another albuquerque-ian

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #15 –
Quote
I can perfectly well live up without the file. But I am afraid to use FLAC because one day some my file saved in FLAC will not open and nobody will be able to help me and thats pity because, I have to record some 40 CC tapes with lecteurs. And I wished to save them at first with losless codec before I apply noise reduction and decide bitrate for fitting all on one or two cd's.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I have entrusted my entire audio collection to FLAC and have not had any problems.

I choose FLAC for archiving audio files because:

1) It is probably the most popular lossless audio codec currently in use.

2) Its developer releases regular updates to fix bugs, but has stated that he will strive to preserve the FLAC audio format as to not "break the format" playback in the future, so new players will be able to play your older encoded FLAC files.

3) Since the format and code is open-source, there should be FLAC players and encoders for years to come, plus see the growing list of software that supports the FLAC format in the thread here at:
[a href="http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=34401]http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=34401[/url]

4) If you are really worried about your FLAC files becoming corrupt, use the nice Windows GUI FlacTester app regularly to test your entire hard drive and/or DVD FLAC collection. It is available on the site:
http://www.vuplayer.com/other.htm

5) FLAC offers a good compression file size/playback speed tradeout. Plus the file compatability is very good between various FLAC supporting programs. Many conversion programs exist so you can later "jump ship" to another lossless format in the future with a batch audio conversion program like dbPoweramp or many others. You are not "locked in" to FLAC forever.

6) WAVE files usually have less error correction than FLAC files in my experience, plus tagging support in WAVE files is non-standard at best. I always seem to feel I will never know when a WAVE file "goes corrupt" until it is too late. FLAC's MD5 checksums give me much more of a peace of mind. Also FLAC Vorbis style tags are well supported and the default encouraged to be used by FLAC's developer.

I think you got a bad file download or an already corrupted FLAC file. Please don't let that one bad experience tarnish you from using a lossless codec such as FLAC. I doubt it is the FLAC format or the FLAC developer's fault regading why your audio file was corrupt.

Keep the faith and give FLAC a decent try for archiving your audios and music collection. Let us know how you make out with it.

Cheers!

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #16 –
Quote
I can perfectly well live up without the file. But I am afraid to use FLAC because one day some my file saved in FLAC will not open and nobody will be able to help me and thats pity because, I have to record some 40 CC tapes with lecteurs. And I wished to save them at first with losless codec before I apply noise reduction and decide bitrate for fitting all on one or two cd's.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=302189"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Jesus! You messed up something and blame FLAC. Besides your worry applies to any format to the same extent.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #17 –
Quote
woh sorry to interrupt the conversation but im surprised to see another albuquerque-ian

Yea, but if this guy had made that LEFT at Albuquerque, I'll be his file wouldn't have gotten messed up. 

Mark

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #18 –
Quote
what evidence do you have to support that fear?

Josh
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=302191"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


See, how it looks to me. The album at the begining was all in FLAC. Then somebody was unable to play the second track maybe because of unsuccessiful download. And decided to convert it to another format. It was not possible and the user converted at least other tracks to stop further corruption.
It's all only assumptions, but makes sense to me. It is not proof, but feeling or intuition.

One way or another I will give the FLAC some more try.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #19 –
Can you ABX that?

My personal experience with FLAC has been positive, no problems.
Considering it's popularity, it seems likely problems are rare.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #20 –
Quote
See, how it looks to me. The album at the begining was all in FLAC. Then somebody was unable to play the second track maybe because of unsuccessiful download. And decided to convert it to another format. It was not possible and the user converted at least other tracks to stop further corruption.
It's all only assumptions, but makes sense to me. It is not proof, but feeling or intuition.

then why don't you have a bad feeling about the source you got the file from, or the download process, or your hard drive, or ...?

aside from all the things that can go wrong in that process, on top of that the file has an id3v2 tag in the front of it which is not supported by FLAC.  the decoder tries to skip those (maybe that's why the other files played) but that may not always work.

Josh

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #21 –
Quote
Quote
what evidence do you have to support that fear?

Josh
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=302191"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


See, how it looks to me. The album at the begining was all in FLAC. Then somebody was unable to play the second track maybe because of unsuccessiful download. And decided to convert it to another format. It was not possible and the user converted at least other tracks to stop further corruption.
It's all only assumptions, but makes sense to me. It is not proof, but feeling or intuition.

One way or another I will give the FLAC some more try.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=302468"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

If you have an unsuccessful download, that isn't the fault of flac.  That's a bad download and it can happen no matter what file format you are using.  If you have file corruption after the file was downloaded that suggests that either something bad was done to it (i.e. putting ID3 tags on it) or else possibly issues with the hard drive it is stored on.  Neither of these problems are flac's fault, and every alternative format is just as susceptible to the problem.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #22 –
Filo47,

Do think that thousands of us would trust our music collections to something that doesnt work? FLAC is the most popular lossless audio codec in the world. I hate to say this but your e-mails are a bit annoying in that you are blaming your mistakes on Flac even when they are pointed out to you.

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #23 –
OMG if you don't trust FLAC, use Monkey's Audio, Wavpack, OptimFrog, anything else.
Infrasonic Quartet + Sennheiser HD650 + Microlab Solo 2 mk3. 

How to repair a broken FLAC file?

Reply #24 –
Josh,

There must be some education or warning about producing/writing bad tags in FLAC files that you can give developers who are implementing FLAC in their programs. I just found another developer who released FLAC support to their audio conversion utility who only does ID3v2 tags (no Vorbis tag support for saving FLACs). I don't know if these will create "corrupt" FLAC files or not for users, but having developers out there using non-supported tags might create an illusion in FLAC users minds that FLAC is creating corrupt or broken FLAC files. Maybe you can make this point to use Vorbis tags for FLAC files more prominantly featured on your developer sites/web pages and also place a warning about this in the FLAC source code so the developers will see it.

Maybe someone can produce a GUI utility that will check to make sure FLAC files are in the proper format (no IDv2 tags at front of file, option to remove/replace any IDv1 or IDv2 tags) and also the option to verify/test FLAC files using the MD5 checksum for possible corruption. Perhaps that utility can correct badly formatted/tagged FLAC files and re-write them using using the latest encoder with the proper Vorbis tags and the correct encoding compression level that the user wants also.

Thanks,

Adam