emby not support cue+ape or cue+flac music files?

[wolong_zb 8]

any plan to support ?

 

thanks

[Luke 37067]

Hi there, it's not currently supported. It's possible for the future, it just depends on what the user demand for it is. Thanks.

[Beaker1966 2]

+1

It would be a feature PLEX doesn't have.. Wouldn't that be enough motivation to implement it.

[jamvids 37]

+1, Would love this feature, especially if Android Auto is happening

[Deathsquirrel 741]

+1

It would be a feature PLEX doesn't have.. Wouldn't that be enough motivation to implement it.

Another way of looking at that is 'this is a feature even a much larger company couldn't be bothered to throw resources at' so that's not the angle I'd take

[Luke 37067]

Right, we'd love to support everything we possibly can. But we don't have unlimited resources so we do have to make difficult decisions about where to allocate our time.

[amuro9999 1]

+1,hope this feature!

[Beaker1966 2]

+1  Yes Please

 

[RanmaCanada 345]

This is ancient stuff that very few people still use these days, mainly audiophile "snobs".  It similar to how those of  us who had most of our content in iso format or raw image directories, were abandoned many years ago (yes I am a videophile "snob" with lots of remuxes now).  Properly separate your files and have them named correctly, like everyone else.  There is no point in throwing resources at a feature that a handful of users are going to use.  I mean the team still can't get HDR working properly on Apple TV and they've been at it for 2+ years.  

[Fweep 4]

Indeed the image+cue format, being designed for CD-R burning, is quite similar to .iso or raw DVD/BD directory structures. And yes, it's also low priority. I personally would never use it. I think enough people use it to justify supporting it eventually, though. For some people it is the only way to ensure gapless playback. In the meantime, CUETools can split and reassemble image+cue rips with no loss, preserving the HTOA and original cue sheet.

[andresch 1]

Hi FLAC+CUE users,

after years of searching for a media server for my music library consisting of FLAC+CUE files I solved the problem in a way that should work for everyone who has a music library on some NAS that supports docker for any media server supporting FLAC (incl. Emby):

https://github.com/andresch/trackfs

Trackfs creates a virtual filesystem (aka FUSE) in which it splits up all FLAC+CUE files into individual tracks (without permanently allocating disc space). It also copies all (most) meta data (incl. pictures) into the individual tracks. Then you use that virtual filesystem as source in your media server.

Hope this helps some of you too. Comments/questions on github are welcome.

Andreas

Edited January 4, 2021 by andresch

[Carlo 4330]

4 hours ago, andresch said:

Hi FLAC+CUE users,

Very cool idea!

[dustcrops 0]

+1 please

[fgp303 0]

+1 please!

[Gilgamesh_48 943]

I find no value in this idea at all. However if it does not adversely impact overall performance I have no objection unless Emby needs to expend significant resources to implement.

It is not worth much in either time or money but it does not seem to be in any way important to me. It seems like a rather extreme use case for a rather tiny number of users.

[Carlo 4330]

Is anyone still using ape or cue files?

It's kind of like asking for div support for movies.

[Ronstang 202]

On 7/22/2022 at 7:07 PM, cayars said:

Is anyone still using ape or cue files?

Well, yes but it's an outdated protocol that only a handful of people use because it really doesn't make much sense.  I'm and audiophile and I am particular and while I have tons of cue files across my collection I rarely use them.  Having a "CD image" and using a cue file to play doesn't even make sense anymore.  If you really want to be able to re-create a CD that is just like the original and you care about disc space, which makes no sense with today's cheap large HDs, then do as I do......Rip your CDs to FLAC individual tracks with a cue sheet for the sole purpose of making a proper CD again if necessary.  It doesn't make much sense to store images you need a cue file to play.  Doing it this way makes your collection more versatile.  You can easily play individual tracks, convert them to mp3 for your phone, and create multiple playlists based on mood.   I'm picky but I either have converted all my CD images to individual tracks + cue file or will do when I revisit my music collection.

As for APE, never used it as I don't like anything Apple.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Ronstang

[Carlo 4330]

Yep that about sums it up quite nicely.

It's really no different then what some people still do with disks.  Make a rip so you can reburn a disk if you want or to convert again later if you ever wanted to.  Then create an optimized streaming version or two depending on need.  Compared to video conversion music files as fast.  Typically I'll go for high quality FLAC which I use on my phone as well as even there storage is pretty easy these days.  But if needed a more compact version in mp3 format could easily/quickly be made from the FLAC versions.

[fgp303 0]

18 hours ago, Ronstang said:

As for APE, never used it as I don't like anything Apple.

APE is monkey audio which was one of the 1st losless audio codec in the pre flac area. I think the support for APE is a handy thing, i have some old relase in this format (i can convert out to flac, wav) this isnt an issue, however the .cue file support is some good.

.cue file is a descriptor file where stored the the track points, and index points. Keep in mind this very usefull a mixcd where dont have silence between the tracks and the sound is continous. Here the cue file show/tell when start the next track from the single wav, flac, mp3 or other formats.

So i still think the .cue support would be really good option because it can handle very the gapless formats + it can hold index markers from the cds. (some cd have index points, not just track points.)

I take this from official FLAC wiki:

"A CUE file can optionally be created when ripping a CD. If a CD is read and ripped perfectly to FLAC files, the CUE file allows later burning of an audio CD that is identical in audio data to the original CD, including track order and pregap..."

from the link, you can check how work:

Cue sheet (computing) - Wikipedia

you can see how working, also can hold loots of important datas, like ISRC code, cdtext and etcs.

I think the .cue file support is very handfull and i note again its a common, well used extension for FLAC, WAV, MP3, AIFF. also work with APE, VW (wavepack another preflac lossless format)

I also note cue file support is work well with foobar, but i dont really want use DNLA from foobar just for music files. If emby can handle its a win situation for us who ask it.

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by fgp303

[Ronstang 202]

11 minutes ago, fgp303 said:

APE is monkey audio

Thanks for that info, I never knew that.....I don't know why I just assumed it was apple, probably because I hate all things Apple.  I do have some APE images from a long time ago but have converted most to FLAC, I actually prefer WavPak to FLAC but emby does not support it so I have to switch back to FLAC now.

And the info you provide about cue files just reinforces what I said....their main purpose is to recreate a perfect copy of a CD.  I realize Foobar can use them for playback and I used to use that to listen to my music but it is only quick and easy to use a cue sheet for playback if you are listening to a whole album....which I usually do but most people these days do not.  I have never tried to use cue sheets from multiple CDs to create a playlist.  I am not even sure how to do that and if possible it would be clunky to have do do it for 1000 songs.  Like I said, if you want the ability to recreate a perfect copy of an audio CD then a cue sheet makes sense and is easy to create and small to store but it still makes more sense to RIP the CD to individual tracks with a cue sheet than to a CD image with one. 

As for gapless playback in a playlist most players I use provide this function without modifying your files or having a cue sheet from my experience.

[fgp303 0]

26 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

As for gapless playback in a playlist most players I use provide this function without modifying your files or having a cue sheet from my experience.

Yup, but cue file able to handle this individualy and also have option for each track as gapless or not from a same single file format. Without cue cant reproduct the gap between the files (sometimes this is not a standard 150 frames, sometimes 0, sometimes more or less 150 frames). lots of tracks go out in single format like mixcds with flac+cue format - however i also saw in DSF (DSD) file in this way. 

So in this way, its not just about recreating, it able to handle how to play it correctly with gaps or indexes (some classical or sample cds have indexes points).

Also hate Apple stuffs while i use some apple gadget but they are a horror cloosed ecosystem.

DSD also would be a fantastic thing which not work in emby DNLA and i need to use twonky server for that files.
So at moment Emby cool for movies and fine for individual audio tracks where they are not in flac/cue format or DSD.

if all can be in one in "motor hood" that would be awesome pro feautures.

allmost all other media players like JRIVER (it play cue and DSD also) have this options. Jriver is mainly used by senior faces with separate hiend DACs and this is payware thing, emby can easily do an alternate to jriver and able to pull in money from them.

i will drop a PM about .cue file, cos not all info fit here to public

Edited July 25, 2022 by fgp303

[Thoth33 0]

Please add this

[airium 0]

From my usage, cue+image is the best way to archive CD album, particularly if you listen to soundtrack, talk and drama like me.

For example, a soundtrack album can be stored in just 2 files (cue+flac) instead of 20-50 smaller files which is painful for HDDs. CUE sheet is capable of saving necessary metadata, incl. title, artists, gain, date, comment and more. I can neatly update audio metadata without touching the audio file. "cue+image" in fact means storing files in "metadata+audio" layout. Using cue+sheet also avoids long file path and illegal characters in track titles. Fewer files, isolated metadata/audio, compact filenames = a good practice for managing larger music library like over 1TB.

Supporting cue+image then means Emby is friendly to this storage preference. It's of course a minor scenario as more people only listen to singles and save individual tracks.

[Ronstang 202]

@airium I agree with everything you said, and it would be nice if emby supported this protocol but those of us that still use cue+image as an archive strategy are an ever smaller growing population so the chances of the dev team getting any time to do this for the few is rather unrealistic.

I have an entire 2TB hard drive of cue+image but since hard drives are so damn cheap I also have another 2TB with all that music in FLAC and another hard drive with all those tracks in TWO versions of mp3s.....as ripped and those with modified gain for use on my phone to play in the truck or cars.  So while I agree with you on the cue+image debate I just have that hard drive in a closet for use as archival purposed only.  With hard drives being so cheap and reliable these days I see no reason not to have my music in multiple formats for immediate use in any situation or device.  I can go to the respective HD and copy those files to any device in minutes for use right then.  There are not many applications that even support cue files anymore that are in widespread use.

I am probably one of a small community that still use CueTools to rip and archive all my CDs.

[Dullard 4]

I find CUE sheets are great for audio that doesn't separate cleanly into tracks and that is often listened to all at once, but sometimes you still want to skip about.  Of course if Emby could play FLAC files without gaps that would be just as good (IMO).

So I would like to +1 this request and the one for Gapless FLAC too.