The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

[Ringo]

The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened. What do I need to do to decompress this file?

[Spoon]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

Check it is a valid flac file, try the newest flac dbpoweramp codec.

[Ringo]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

I'm thinking I have all the most recent flac files, Here are the error messages I'm getting when trying to decode file;

filename.flac:***Got error code 0:FLAC_STREAM_DECODER_ERROR_STATUS_LOST_SYNC

The error above lists itself 3-times then I get this one;

filename.flac: ERROR: stream is too big to fit in a single WAVE file chunk

files were downloaded from metallica's live concert downloads

[xoas]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

I believe that the most recent Flac Codec is still in beta and available from the Beta Test section of the forum here:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=5348

There are instances where this codec will be able decode Flac files that the older codec cannot.

One other option to try is to test convert your Flac file. This is done just like a regular conversion except that where you specify the codec for your output file (like wav or mp3) choose "Test Conversion (No Write)." This will tell you whether dMC can read the file or not. If it cannot, you may not have the right codec installed, the file may be corrupt or it may be protected (although I think you would know that by now if that were the case).

If you can test convert the file then could you tell us how big the Flac file is, whether there is any indication of what version of Flac was used to create it, the level of compression, and what your output format and settings (bits, frequency, bitrate and channels) are?

Good luck and best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Ringo]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

I tried the new version of flac.exe. I get the same results.
when I loaded it it said it removed the old files. How can I be sure?
I've tried so many things, maybe I just have a big mess.

[xoas]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

Can you Test Convert any of these Flac tracks?

[Ringo]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

The file was downloaded from the metallica website. I can't play it or decode it to wave. What mite I be doing wrong?

[Ringo]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

Was not able to test convert the file

[xoas]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

Can you tell me any of the particulars about this file such as file extension, file size, does your system show it to be an audio file in any way?

I assume you can do other conversions and that you could rip or convert a file to Flac if you wanted. See if you can do that.

The odds are your file is corrupt, that the Flac codec is corrupt or that your version of dMC (dBpowerAMP Music Converter) is corrupt (assuming you have installed the Flac beta codec). If you can use the Flac codec otherwise and if dMC is otherwise working ok the likely culprit is your file.

I had an unpleasant visit to the Metallica.com website (too much content for a dialup connection) and couldn't find any audio files to download there. Perhaps you could give me a link to where you got the file from. But meanwhile, try out the Flac codec and see if you can find out anything about the file extension and file size.

Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Ringo]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

This file was downloaded from the metallica website, it has the ".flac" file extension.
My son at college downloaded it for me and then forworded it to me as an e-mail.
could it have been corrupted through an e-mail?
I tried the convert program using a cd and converted to and from wave to flac and
and the convert worked fine, then went from flac to wave, no problem.
I would appreciate any help or thoughts.

My son downloads through the school network, it took him less than an hour to download two of the live shows. He didn't seem to have any problems that way. He uses win-amp he put the plug-in in and said he could not play the file straight out of the download as .flac. I told him to e-mail me the smallest file in the group Which is 7,381kb, which does match the downloaded size, and thats were I'm stuck, I can't seem to do anything with it.

I contacted the their support, and here is there reply;

Check out the support link on that site:

http://www.livemetallica.com/faq.asp

Whan you do this the best I can do is end up right back to you guys.

[xoas]

Re: The CODEC required to decompress '.flac' could not be opened.

I've got a son off to college also. Nice to know he's getting cable tv for "free" and a better internet connection than I can get at home, also for "free."

7,381kb, which does match the downloaded size

Are you comparing the size of your file to the size of your son's file, or are you making reference to the file size for this file reported at the download site?

Your file size is suspiciously small. I looked up a file I had ripped to Flac with a playing time of 2 minutes, 19 seconds. The Flac file size was around 12698 kb. This means that your file, if it were complete would only have a playing time of maybe 1 minute, 20 seconds or so tops which does not sound right for a live recording unless it was an intro of some sort.

If you can easily do so, confirm what the playing time for your track is supposed to be from the website, and/or confirm the size that the downloaded file is supposed to be. If your son can do so, he might also be able to access his download manager to see what the reported size of the downloaded file was supposed to be.

I mention this because the FAQ's in your Metallica link do make mention of issues with incomplete downloads. So it is possible that the file may be incomplete or that it may be corrupt and this is what I suspect. If you can confirm what the original files size and/or playing time for the file SHOULD be this should give you a ball-park estimate as to whether the file is complete or not.

I also learned that the site specifically seems to mention the particular set-up of WinAmp with the Windows Flac installer front-end plug in for playing these files and that there is reference to using a Flac plug-in for Nero for burning or converting these files. Based on this, I would believe that the definitive test for whether the file is corrupt/incomplete or not is whether it can be played or converted through either of those packages (and making sure that either of those packages works for Flac files you know to be ok).

could it have been corrupted through an e-mail?

This is possible but it is way more likely to have been corrupted in the download process since your son can't get it to work either.

I am also not sure whether your son downloaded this file as a separate file or whether he downloaded it as part of a live show "cd". If so, the question would be whether any of the tracks of this cd play or not. I don't know enough about the download protocol being used to know whether the download process utilized sends each track in sequence (thus if a download is incomplete you have usable tracks up to the track that got interrupted) or if all the tracks together make up a package (such that an interruption to the download for any track at any point will result in no tracks being playable until all the incomplete data is finally available).

If your son does have any playable files from this site, he could perhaps check these files against the ones that do not play (in terms of playing time versus file size).

Bottom line is that if he can use WinAmp with the Flac plug-in to play a good flac file (which you could provide him with, if necessary-just don't embarass him with your choice of music his inability to play some or all of these Metallica downloads would indicate that his downloads are either incomplete or corrupt. The Metallica site gives a link for use in such situations.

Hope this helps. Be interested in hearing how it all turns out.

Best wishes to you and your son,
Bill Mikkelsen