error converting purchased flac files to mp3

[pcalv]

I have purchased to 2 albums in flac format from a partcular vendor in the last couple of months which have created md5 errors when converting to mp3 through dbpoweramp.

Today's purchase gave me the errors below:

Error converting to mp3 (Lame), 'C:\Users\Desktop\Goat - Fuzzed In Europe (flac)\4 - Goat - Fuzzed In Europe - Gathering Of Ancient Tribes.flac' to 'C:\Users\Desktop\Goat - Fuzzed In Europe (mp3 v0)\4 - Goat - Fuzzed In Europe - Gathering Of Ancient Tribes.mp3'
md5 did not match decoded data, file is corrupt.

Error converting to mp3 (Lame), 'C:\Users\Desktop\Goat - Fuzzed In Europe (flac)\2 - Goat - Fuzzed In Europe - Time For Fun.flac' to 'C:\Users\Desktop\Goat - Fuzzed In Europe (mp3 v0)\2 - Goat - Fuzzed In Europe - Time For Fun.mp3'
md5 did not match decoded data, file is corrupt.

I had the same issue a couple of months ago with another flac purchase. I contacted the vendor who told me:

"The md5 topic is a little complicated but we don’t actually create an md5 checksum ourselves so it’s just checking what’s written into the Flac codec and our tech guys have told me that the issue is due to the fact that this checksum doesn’t take into account the artwork that’s tagged to the file. In short, the image is tagged to the file after the flac is written containing the checksum so some converters for some tracks will in rare circumstances throw up this error. It’s something we’re looking to fix, but it doesn’t really indicate a corrupt audio file."

Can you let me know your thoughts as in many years of converting files these are the only two times I have ever had this error and they were both from files purchased from the same vendor.

[Spoon]

Re: error converting purchased flac files to mp3

They are not telling you the truth...

FLAC files contain a md5 checksum for the audio component, this value remains constant, regardless of what tags are written and all FLAC decoders will only compare the audio data component, not tags to the md5. The FLAC files you have are corrupted, the vendor just does not want to admit it.

[mville]

Re: error converting purchased flac files to mp3

I have purchased to 2 albums in flac format from a partcular vendor in the last couple of months which have created md5 errors when converting to mp3 through dbpoweramp...

Do you mind telling us who the vendor is?

[pcalv]

Re: error converting purchased flac files to mp3

Thanks for the feedback Spoon. It is what I thought the last time but gave them the benefit of the doubt. I'll contact them to get their feedback and report back.

[pcalv]

Re: error converting purchased flac files to mp3

Do you mind telling us who the vendor is?

mville - i would rather not mention who the vendor is at the moment until I give them a chance to give me their feedback this time.

[pcalv]

Re: error converting purchased flac files to mp3

Just to give you an update. I went back to the vendor who admitted their was an issue with the FLAC files. It sounds like there is a fault in the way the FLAC files are produced. They have replaced them with the WAV files which I had no problem converting to FLAC and MP3.