FLAC streams from "Manual Internet Radio Streams" are forcibly transcoded to .mp3?

[nan3454]

I added couple of FLAC streams to "Manual Internet Radio Streams" (for example 60North Radio - http://r5.zetcast.net/flac, which plays flac in browser), but this streams plays as .mp3 320 when streaming thru Asset with Android apps such as BubbleUPNP and UAPP (local flac files plays fine).

I use trial R2025-03-12 [Linux-ARM64] on Raspberry Pi 3B+ (Raspberry Pi OS Lite)

[Spoon]

Best to enable debugging in Asset, play the radio stream (for for a few seconds), then look at the end of debug log, post the end here.

[nan3454]

Here

[12:30:01] ===========ProcessFileRequest================
[12:30:01] http://192.168.1.35:26125/content/c2/b16/f44100/r3-co469895E40C6ED426.forced.mp3
[12:30:01] =============================================
[12:30:01] Content-Range: -1 to -1
[12:30:01] User-Agent: NSPlayer/8.0.0.3801
Opening audio file: http://r5.zetcast.net/flac
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
->-> [Close]
<-<- [Close]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
->-> [CloseInternal]
<-<- [CloseInternal]
->-> [Close]
<-<- [Close]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
StreamingDecodes [Get]
->-> [Open]
Opening file 'http://r5.zetcast.net/flac' for read access: Opened
Audio file is Ogg-FLAC [Open]
Loading FLAC Sub-Decoder [LoadExternDecoder]
Decodes [Get]
Decodes [Get]
Decodes [Get]
Decodes [Get]
Decodes [Get]
->-> [Open]
Opening file 'http://r5.zetcast.net/flac' for read access: Opened
Init FLAC:
Reading Meta Data:
contained 0 tags:
->-> [ReadIDTags]
<-<- [ReadIDTags]
->-> [FillAudioProps]
Encoder: FLAC reference libFLAC 1.3.3 20190804
Sample Count: 0
<-<- [FillAudioProps]
->-> [FillAudioInfo]
Uncompressed WFX (sent to db): Format Tag: 1 Channels: 2 Bits per Sample: 16 Samples Per Second: 44100 Bytes Per Second: 176400 Block Align: 4 CB Size: 0
Audio Length: 0 mili-seconds 0 bytes 1411 kbps
<-<- [FillAudioInfo]
Creating Decode Buffers: Created
<-<- [Open]
->-> [LoadEncoder]
<-<- [LoadEncoder]
->-> [BeginConversion]
Converting to '[memory]' encoder settings ' -b 320 -bypassregchk -cbr_only -force_iso="1"'
Lame encoder settings: -b 320 --strictly-enforce-ISO -t --noreplaygain -r --little-endian --bitwidth 16 - -
Lame encoder settings 2: /usr/bin/asset/Asset-R2025-03-12-Linux-ARM64-trial/bin/lame -b 320 --strictly-enforce-ISO -t --noreplaygain -r --little-endian --bitwidth 16 - -
<-<- [BeginConversion]

Streaming Radio MP3 Transcoded [1999999999 bytes]: http://r5.zetcast.net/flac
Transcoding from Format Tag: 1 Channels: 2 Bits per Sample: 16 Samples Per Second: 44100 Bytes Per Second: 176400 Block Align: 4 CB Size: 0
Transcoding to Format Tag: 1 Channels: 2 Bits per Sample: 16 Samples Per Second: 44100 Bytes Per Second: 176400 Block Align: 4 CB Size: 0
Serve Entity Set to: audio/mpeg

[Graham39]

I added couple of FLAC streams to "Manual Internet Radio Streams ...

Ditto with Radio Paradise ... R2025-03-12 [Linux-x64] on Synology ...

Log snippet attached

Asset-log.txt

[nan3454]

Only works with "RADIO as LPCM" in Audio formats settings. With "RADIO as is single" I have an error " Illegal MIME-type (code 714)"

[Spoon]

Asset has to decode the radio streams and send out, so LPCM is correct for lossless playback.

[PeterP]

First, mixing internet radio with UPnP is problematic in general because not every player provides a sensible way to send an infinite-length stream; either LPCM or as-is are the best solutions if your player agrees with them. Everything else is broken/inferior one way or another; transcoded MP3 is the default because it has the highest chance of playing everywhere.

[Graham39]

... either LPCM or as-is are the best solutions if your player agrees with them.

Yes, but no, but yes, but no ... it appears that Asset is converting FLAC to MP3 when "as is" is selected without allowing the player/control software an attempt at playing the FLAC stream ... Would it not be better if "as is" did what it says on the tin? Alternatively, remove "as is" as an option and have LPCM as the default selection.

In any event, thank you to the OP for telling me something that I should have seen for myself ... plus ... LPCM works for me in all of the cases that I have tried so I am content.