INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: AoXoMoXoA on November 04, 2007, 10:20:07 am
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FLAC files - same issues still exist with file corruption from adding Cover Art to the files
When MC give message of "Failed to Update Tags":
File from after MC affixed cover art = Corrupted
Backup file copy from before cover art attached by MC = Not Corrupted
Please address this ASAP as corruption of files is a serious issue that can cause loss of data.
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Any more details? Which plug-ins are you using?
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Any more details? Which plug-ins are you using?
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see my post in the last build of MC where I went into detail (MediaCenter120338)
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perhaps this will help:
Media Center Registered 12.0.358 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
AMD Unknown 2001 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 429 MB
Internet Explorer: 7.0.5730.11 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.2900 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2900 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.2900 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 DLL, Copyright ? 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)
Ripping / Drive D: LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165H6S Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive D: LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165H6S Addr: 0:2:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No /
Portable Device Info
Removed devices:
Interface Plugins:
last.fm
Library Server
TiVo Server
UPnP Server
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12.0.363 is out.
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12.0.363 is out.
Ooops, thought I had gotten around to updating all my machines. Guess I missed one.
Be back in a bit after some testing of .363, although I saw nothing regarding flac files on the list of updates & fixes.
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AoXoMoXoA, I copied your post from the 358 thread:
I have a slight flac problem that comes up occaisionally.
I import & tag a flac file, rename by properties to it's new home (Artist\Album\filename), add cover art, and run audio analysis.
OK, here is where the problem arises: I sometimes come across a file that fails audio analysis. When I test the file in FlacTester it results in "ERROR MD5 CHECK"
When attempting to convert to a wav file MC fails to convert, and dbPower results in: "Error converting to Wave, md5 did not match decoded data, file is corrupt"
Since I habitually save a backup copy before most of this proceedure (for protection until I get to run a real backup), I was able to check the original file copy that had been untouched by MC only to find it is not corrupted like the one MC had processed.
I strongly suspect this corruption occurred while attaching cover art, but that is just a hunch brought about by the fact that this often has crashed MC.
edit: Just attempting to add cover art to a newly tagged/renamed/imported album and MC said it failed to update the files/tags. I went to the folder and using "Unlocker" I found that MC had the files "locked". Once I closed MC and re-openned it several minutes later it was now able to add cover art and update the tags with no issues and much faster that it has been doing.
What operations would cause MC to maintain a lock on the files it has already finished tagging and subsequently re-written to their new location?
Hoping this helps lead you down the right path to resolving this.
Do as Jim said and install the latest build, even though FLAC isn't mentioned in the change logs. It is important that you have the same build with the development team when they try to reproduce the problem.
I tried quickly embedding cover art to a few FLAC files and it worked without problems, but I didn't try to reproduce exactly what you explained and not with a large number of files.
Adding cover art to FLAC files is a heavy process because the tagging component usually must rewrite the compete FLAC files. The FLAC tags are in the beginning of the file and the default size of the padding block is only 4 kB, which is not big enough for usual cover art fles (padding block = empty area for additional tags).
Probably the In_FLAC.dll plugin needs to use a temp file when it adds cover art. After tagging is finished it deletes the original file and renames the temp file with the original name.
I am only guessing, but here are some questions that came into my mind:
Do you have enough disk space in the file location and in your temp location? Are the files local or on a networked drive? If you access them through network what is the connection type and speed?
Do you by any chance use the Auto-importer? I wonder if it could interfere the process and occasionally lock files when it shouldn't. Or maybe an antivirus program could do the same if it is allowed to scan all possible file types.
Perhaps the Flac plug-in doesn't have all the same safeguarding mechanisms that the MP3 plug-in has (also the ID3v2 tags are in the beginning of the). I'd quess that we would see a lot of bug reports if MP3 tagging had a similar problem.
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AoXoMoXoA, I copied your post from the 358 thread:
Do as Jim said and install the latest build, even though FLAC isn't mentioned in the change logs. It is important that you have the same build with the development team when they try to reproduce the problem.
I tried quickly embedding cover art to a few FLAC files and it worked without problems, but I didn't try to reproduce exactly what you explained and not with a large number of files.
Adding cover art to FLAC files is a heavy process because the tagging component usually must rewrite the compete FLAC files. The FLAC tags are in the beginning of the file and the default size of the padding block is only 4 kB, which is not big enough for usual cover art fles (padding block = empty area for additional tags).
Probably the In_FLAC.dll plugin needs to use a temp file when it adds cover art. After tagging is finished it deletes the original file and renames the temp file with the original name.
Yes, I have updated that machine now and will see how things go from here.
I honestly thought I had updated but now recall that I was processing some files and postponed the install.
I am only guessing, but here are some questions that came into my mind:
Do you have enough disk space in the file location and in your temp location? Are the files local or on a networked drive? If you access them through network what is the connection type and speed?
Do you by any chance use the Auto-importer? I wonder if it could interfere the process and occasionally lock files when it shouldn't. Or maybe an antivirus program could do the same if it is allowed to scan all possible file types.
Perhaps the Flac plug-in doesn't have all the same safeguarding mechanisms that the MP3 plug-in has (also the ID3v2 tags are in the beginning of the). I'd quess that we would see a lot of bug reports if MP3 tagging had a similar problem.
There is plenty of free disc space on both the system drive (where the temp file is located) and on the drive where the files are located.
I avoid the use of Auto-Import features as I prefer to maintain control and avoid interference.
I am not familiar with the inner workings of the flac plug-ins. I do know I rarely have any issues prior to adding cover art into the formula.
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12.0.363 still does the same
1) Test newly tagged & imported flac files with FLACTester - files test as OK
2) Locate album in MC, right-click/add cover art from file -
MC gives an error that it was unable to save tags "please check that file exists and is not in use by another program"
3) check file location, files do exist and are not in use (Unlocker.exe shows only MC had threads to those files)
4) test using FLACTester - MD5 error
5) using dbPower converer attempt to convert to wav -
"Error converting to Wave, md5 did not match decoded data, file is corrupt."
This does not occur every time to every file, but is intermittent.
It does occur only to flac files and only when adding cover art.
It appears to me that MC is either:
a) discovering an error in the flac file during the cover art process which was undiscovered by previous operations MC performed and undetected by other software (FLACTester, dbPower)
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b) causing corruption during the writing of the cover art into the file
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c) I have a strange disk read/write error that only occurs occaisionally and only to flac files which have had cover art added by MC
If this cannot be fixed, can there be a way to set for covers only to be inside mp3 files but not inside flac files?
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I can't seem to reproduce this.
Can we narrow it down some? Can you make it happen with ONE and only one flac file?
What are the images? jpeg, gif, etc. Color depth? Can you attach a non-working image to a post here so I can try it??
Thanks..
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Can you make it happen with ONE and only one flac file?
No, I can't control when it happpens or to which file, but I can isolate an affected file after corruption.
What are the images? jpeg, gif, etc. Color depth?
The images are jpg files of 500x500 pixels 24bpp color depth.
Can you attach a on-working image to a post here so I can try it??
I can attach an image, however since it may correctly attach to 9 tracks and only corrupt one or two I doubt it is the image file as the cause. Also after replacing the corrupted file with a good backup the same image correctly attaches.
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new error code from FLACTester:
ERROR_LOST_SYNC @ 0m 0 s
how about I email you the corrupted file, the uncorrupted backup file, and the cover art file?
I think MC has threads to the file in question and is tripping over itself trying to write the tags to include cover art. Sometimes instead of giving an error regarding inability to update tags MC will crash, after which it is fully able to process cover art without error or issues.
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Do the "bad" files play?
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Do the "bad" files play?
Have not tried that :o
Will do so the next occurrances and have an answer.
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I've finally been able to duplicate this. The .flac files do seem to fail the integrity test though they seem to play ok. The coverart seems to be broken in Scthoms version as well but I wasn't able to get a bad integrity test from it, so you should probably use his .dll until we can track it down.
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Thanks Bob,
Glad you were able to find something, hopefully it is related to what I am experiencing.
My first indication was MC saying it could not update the tags of a particular repeatedly. Only out of frustrsation did I look further and stumble across the bad test result.
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Interestingly, I closed MC after tagging/importing/renaming from properties to new location. Upon re-starting MC all files were tagged with cover art without incident. Surprisingly, MC also did this much more swiftly than normally.
Coincidence?
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It appears that when the artwork doesn't need to increase the size of the picture block, the whole .flac doesn't need to be rewritten and as such is quite a bit faster. I did compile a new plugin late tonite with a newer flac library which MAY solve the problem you see. When I went to a fresh set of tag free flac files and put the artwork into them it was faultless. I'll do more testing tomorrow before giving it a passing grade.
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The flac tagging/corruption problem should be fixed in the next build.
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excellent!
thanks