FLAC Audio not playing via Web Client

[jxb1234 9]

I am now using MP3tag. I couldn't find a way to convert FLAC ID3 -> FLAC tags, so I deleted all tags and refetched each back from MusicBrainz by manually entering the album name and selecting the album from the search results. It was quite time-consuming.

 

I see that new albums that EAC is creating now only contains FLAC tags. It is also embedding the cover art into the track files.

 

Is there a bulk way to remove all cover art from files? (assuming that Emby doesn't need this and fetches album art when scanning)

 

Also, is there a way to renumber the tracks? Some are 01, 02, 03 and some are 1/14, 2/14, 3/14 etc. I'd prefer 01, 02, 03 as this allows correct sorting of files on disk.

Edited June 13, 2018 by jxb1234

[simpman 6]

For conformity in tagging I use MusicBrainz Picard. Just be sure to set in options > tagging > remove ID3 tags from FLAC for it to work in Emby.

[jxb1234 9]

I'm trying to use MusicBrainz Picard. I just can't seem to get it to work.

 

I drag a folder containing the album tracks to the 'Unmatched Files' section, they immediately move to the right side "non-album tracks" folder, and from there they turn pink and the track names appear.

 

I cannot drag them back to unmatched folder to be 'clustered' together, it doesn't let me drop them in there.

 

I've followed their quick quide but what i'm seeing happen is different to what they show happening.

 

EDIT:

 

I've managed to get this to do stuff now.

 

It would be easier to use if it auto-clustered all files in the dragged in folder.

Edited June 13, 2018 by jxb1234

[ryandavidg 30]

I am now using MP3tag. I couldn't find a way to convert FLAC ID3 -> FLAC tags, so I deleted all tags and refetched each back from MusicBrainz by manually entering the album name and selecting the album from the search results. It was quite time-consuming.

 

Glad you got sorted out in the end, but for future reference in MP3tag you can get rid of/convert the ID3 tags by simply

-pointing the directory at the folder/cd in question (under file)

-select all the tracks (highlight or ctrl A)

-right click on selection and choose 'tag copy'

-'tag paste'

 

Done. It only pastes vorbis, not ID3 tags when it comes to FLACs so this resolves the issue.

 

MP3tag is really useful in many other ways, like generating file names from tags etc.

[aaron.heck 0]

Glad you got sorted out in the end, but for future reference in MP3tag you can get rid of/convert the ID3 tags by simply

-pointing the directory at the folder/cd in question (under file)

-select all the tracks (highlight or ctrl A)

-right click on selection and choose 'tag copy'

-'tag paste'

 

Done. It only pastes vorbis, not ID3 tags when it comes to FLACs so this resolves the issue.

 

MP3tag is really useful in many other ways, like generating file names from tags etc.

 

This worked for me, thank you!  Only thing is that after 'Tag Copy', I had to do a 'Remove Tag' which wiped the tags.  Then a 'Tag Paste' put the FLAC format tags in place.  When I just did copy/paste, I ended up with ID3 tags.

[wyldemusick 2]

One more thing to convince me to give up on Emby, alas. I've never had software have issues with EAC rips to FLAC before.

I'm not about to redo the tags in my entire collection...I'll be at it for years.

[wyldemusick 2]

Okay, it might be possible for me to fix some of this, but it will take a LOT of time. I can run all the FLAC files through the dbPowerAmp converter, and that will, it seems, fix the issue.**

Given that I just ripped my entire collection in the past couple of months, that's likely going to be a couple of months work just on the newly added stuff alone, and never mind the music files on the second server....

 

Ye gods. IS it that hard to add code to get around this? Plex did, VLC has it, Winamp has it.

** Except, not, as it seems that in the test case Emby now recognizes exactly one track of the album.

[ebr 14940]

Okay, it might be possible for me to fix some of this, but it will take a LOT of time. I can run all the FLAC files through the dbPowerAmp converter, and that will, it seems, fix the issue.**

 

Given that I just ripped my entire collection in the past couple of months, that's likely going to be a couple of months work just on the newly added stuff alone, and never mind the music files on the second server....

 

Ye gods. IS it that hard to add code to get around this? Plex did, VLC has it, Winamp has it.

 

** Except, not, as it seems that in the test case Emby now recognizes exactly one track of the album.

 

In this case it is not our code that is having trouble with this combination so it is hard for us to control.

[Luke 37134]

Right, all we're doing is using the web browser audio player.

 

If you need proof try playing the flac file in the browser directly without using emby. With chrome you can drag a media file directly into a new tab and it will start playing.

[Luke 37134]

@@wyldemusick, does my response help ease your concerns?

[Happy2Play 8319]

Not seeing any issue playing flac files.  Are we referring to a specific app?

[wyldemusick 2]

Right, all we're doing is using the web browser audio player.

 

If you need proof try playing the flac file in the browser directly without using emby. With chrome you can drag a media file directly into a new tab and it will start playing.

 

Hm. I see what you're saying.

 

No, unfortunately it doesn't ease my concerns given the reported experience with playing the same files in Edge, and my just-now experience in playing one of those buggered EAC rips in Firefox even as I crankily type this.

 

Again, yes, this is an issue with Chrome and the fucked up EAC FLAC files. My point still stands, however, that other apps have code that deals with the problem -- Plex does it, VLC does it, Firefox does it, Edge does it, Winamp does it.

 

Are you saying your team can't do it?

[wyldemusick 2]

Not seeing any issue playing flac files.  Are we referring to a specific app?

 

Yes. It turns out that Exact Audio Coder allows a checkbox for ID3 tags in FLAC files, which is off-spec. The result is that FLAC files encoded that way (as with around 4,000 of my album rips, joy) cause Chrome to shit the bed, and thus likewise with Emby when the web app is open in Chrome.

 

Numerous other apps get around this problem somehow, even when they run inside Chrome.

 

For my part, the choice of solution to this is a) run a reconvert on thousands of albums, 2) make Firefox the default (might not be a bad idea, considering Chrome, but I have Chrome rather set up these days, and Firefox less so) or 3) scrape Emby off the machinery, wave goodbye to $5, and look for a better method.

 

Frankly, at this point I'm leaning towards HTPC.

[ryandavidg 30]

There are solutions online where people have come up with batch files or other methods to mass convert their FLAC files to fix this problem, might be worth looking around a bit more. I honestly think it's worth fixing at some point, having these ID3 tags in FLAC files is just storing up potential problems for the future imo, even if some software currently has workarounds. I know how long it took to rip my collection in EAC so I understand your frustration (still don't know why it has the ID3 option).

[Luke 37134]

Yes you are right we should add a workaround for this. It is on our backlog. We just haven't gotten there yet. Thanks.

[ryandavidg 30]

Given that I just ripped my entire collection in the past couple of months, that's likely going to be a couple of months work just on the newly added stuff alone, and never mind the music files on the second server....

 

Looked into this a bit more and on Linux the ID3V2 utility can be used to easily remove ID3 tags from a whole FLAC library, eg:

https://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,35593.msg658902.html#msg658902

(or even just "find . -name "*.flac" -exec id3v2 --delete-all {} ; " on the command line)

 

I've found a Windows equivalent and made a batch script (so one can point it at the library, click once and get it all done) but just want to test it thoroughly with different EAC rips and directory structures before posting it here.

[ryandavidg 30]

This turned out to be a a really easy solution for removing ID3 tags on Windows systems, just a 100kb download and a one line script. It's recursive so should pick up all FLAC files in subfolders/levels below the folder you point it to.

 

- Download id3mtag from https://squell.github.io/id3/  (Windows binary d/l link towards the bottom of the page)

 

- Extract folder to a suitable location

 

- Paste the following line into notepad/wordpad, changing the music path to the location of the music you want to change tags for (I would suggest going down to an individual album before pointing it at your entire library, just to check you are happy with the results)

 

id3 -2 -d -R "D:\Music\*.flac"

 

- Save this text file as "id3 remove.bat" in the folder you just extracted (Important: The bat file must be in the same directory as the id3.exe file you just extracted, otherwise Windows won't know where to find the ID3 application unless you set up a system path)

 

- Double-click/run the bat file you created, give it a bit of time to do its work as you won't get any screen feedback on progress with this simple script - a one album test should be a matter of seconds though.

 

- Check results, id3 tags should be removed from all FLAC files in the specified location

 

 

I tested this by ripping a couple of albums using EAC with the ID3v2 tag options enabled, then I copied them into a couple of multi-layered folder structures to test the script. All worked as expected (see below) and the files became playable in Chrome. I would recommend testing them yourself on an album though, and then maybe a group of albums, before unleashing it on your whole huge library, just as a final test. Mp3 files and tags were unaffected in my test, as expected.

 

View in mp3tag:

 

Before running script, won't play in Chrome (note ID3 tags).

 

 

After running script, will play in Chrome

 

 

@@wyldemusick

 

(Notes on the script:

-2 = process ID3v2 tags

-d = delete tags

-R = recursive)

Edited September 1, 2018 by ryandavidg

[wyldemusick 2]

Looked into this a bit more and on Linux the ID3V2 utility can be used to easily remove ID3 tags from a whole FLAC library, eg:

https://www.avforums.co.za/index.php/topic,35593.msg658902.html#msg658902

(or even just "find . -name "*.flac" -exec id3v2 --delete-all {} ; " on the command line)

 

I've found a Windows equivalent and made a batch script (so one can point it at the library, click once and get it all done) but just want to test it thoroughly with different EAC rips and directory structures before posting it here.

 

Thank you for doing the work on this, and it's worth giving it a go rather than using dbPowerAmp to reconvert that many files.

[wyldemusick 2]

Yes you are right we should add a workaround for this. It is on our backlog. We just haven't gotten there yet. Thanks.

 

I'll accept that answer. It's not liek you're an Apple dev team -- the lack of bloat is a dead giveaway.

[Luke 37134]

Thanks for the feedback.

[c0utta 10]

Listening to music via web player I sometimes receive a "No compatible stream" error, but emby should be direct streaming the FLAC.

 

 

Log attached - and I was listening to "Black Boys on Mopeds" by Sinead O'Connor.

 

I just click "Got It" and move on, but thought you should know.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

embyserver.txt

[Happy2Play 8319]

Probably do to ID3 tagging.

 

This topic may help if that is the issue.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Happy2Play

[c0utta 10]

Yep, that's what it was.

 

I think you meant to link to https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/55997-flac-audio-not-playing-via-web-client/

 

Thanks for your solution

[Happy2Play 8319]

Sorry yes that link.

[handspiker2 1]

It's been 4 years, any luck on the ID3 issue escaping the backlog?  Ran into the issue today.