Howdy,
Within the last two weeks - I have used at least the last three builds of MC for rather large "restoration" project. I recently moved the household to Windows Home Server 2011 in late July and somewhere in the process of getting the data back onto the new server - about 600 of my FLACs were damaged. Presumably during file copy or some other process that I have not been able to yet to determine.
As a result of this discovery - I tested the entire library to isolate the problem files and then set out to either re-rip or restore backups of the files if available. I was able to restore about 95% of the problematic files and also made MAJOR changes in how and where I back up all my "masters" - those FLACs that have been ripped, fully tagged , peak levels and replay gain attached and are considered to be my master archive copies.
With respect to the issue at hand - my MC workflow to create my master copies is to move files around, clean their properties, tag , apply replay gain, album art and finally move them to my final staging folder. I do all of this using the Drives and Devices item on the tree. That is to say - ALL files I work with are "outside" of the MC realm. None of the editing or conversion that I do within this workflow involves anything actually "in" a real library.
So - using the above - once I prepare an albums worth of material and move them to my final "staging" folder, three things happen:
1. A copy of the files are sent to \\SERVER\Music via Windows Explorer (To be used in the "real" MC library)
2. The mobile copy is created
3. The master files are moved to my master archive on an external drive. (using Windows Explorer)
It is during step 2 that I have noticed issues. For mobile play I use MC's Convert Audio dialog. My settings when I press Options are:
Under Converter (Left Pane)
Destination = My Music folder (local c drive)
And Create 2 Levels of Directory Structure is checked.
Mode = Leave Original File; Do Not Add Destination File To Library
Options = Convert 4 files at a time
Under Encoding (Left Pane)
Encoder = MP3 Encoder
Encoder Setting = VBR Extreme (Preset)
For about every 3rd set of MP3 I create - I keep getting Conversion Failed. Most frustrating is that this is not repeatable nor does it have any pattern. The flacs are all standard spec and all test fully positive using Audio Tester. The files in question are created by either dbPowerAmp or by EZ-CD Extractor.
I have played around with the amount of files to convert at once and messed around with every other option and still I get failures. I need to maintain the 4 files at a time or MC is simply too slow to deal with for lots of files. By contrast - dbPowerAmp is at least twice as fast converting these FLACS to the same LAME VBR Extreme format and it has never had a single conversion failure in over two weeks of solid work. It's main drawback however - is that it cannot preserve all of my custom MC tags whereas converting a fully tagged FLAC from MC using MC's convertor creates a MP3 file that has all of my custom tags when I bring the file over to my local mobile MC library.
This is most frustrating and I would like to know if I can use logging or some other method to try and capture a "reason" for these failures. Again - this is not repeatable and has no "trigger" that I can see. I also cannot find a single fault in any of the FLAC files I am trying to convert as they all test positive in both Audio Tester and convert perfectly using dbPowerAMP and EZCD Extractor.
Any tips would be helpful.
Cheers,
VP
Author
Topic: Problems converting FLAC to MP3 [no longer a problem] (Read 3500 times)