Ripping/Import Problem with Single-Track CDs on B2

[Kurt Fendt]

Hi,

I've been trying to rip two CDs (John Cage), the first CD with one single long track (1+ hour), the second one with one short track (12 min.) plus one long track (1+ hour). Ripping failed multiple times for both CDs on  my new B2 with the latest software.

I then ripped the two CDs and converted them to Flac on my computer (Mac) and tried to upload them via the web UI. The tracks with 1+ hour length failed to upload while the shorter one (12 min.) uploaded fine.

For trial purposes I split one of the 1+ hour long tracks into a 45 minute and a 18 minute track. The 18 minute track upload fine, the 45 minute track failed to upload multiple times.

Is this a feature for a bug?

Or maybe, the B2 doesn't like John Cage?

Thanks for any hints,

Kurt

[Daniel Taylor]

Hmmm, interesting.  I don't think I've seen this before.  You may have uncovered a problem, or it may be that the length of the track is just coincidental to some other problem.  Unfortunately, I'm at a loss right now to come up with anything to try that might shed light.

In the meantime, there are two other ways you can attempt to get the long songs onto your B2.  1) copy the album onto a USB stick and do an Import; 2) setup your B2 as NAS and transfer that way (be sure to run the Scan Disk command afterward so the B2 will recognize that the new files are there).

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Kurt,

I would suggest that you could copy the ripped CDs from your Mac to a 'FAT32' formatted USB stick, then transfer the stick to the B2 and run 'Main menu' --> 'USB Functions' -> 'Import from C' and see if that gets around the problem.

If you need to format the USB stick first (most sticks are 'exFAT' formatted), then plug the stick into the B2 USB C port and go to 'Main menu' --> 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'Format USB C'. 

But make sure of two things first.

1.  Before formatting the USB stick, make sure that there is no data on it that you would want to keep, as formatting deletes all data from the stick.

2.  Do NOT use the 'Format HDD' command; this command deletes all of the music on the B2's internal hard drive.

Regards,

Peter.

[JFBUK]

Hi Kurt,

How big is the large ripped file ?

I don’t know if the B2 uploads direct to the hard drive or whether the B2 uploads to the SD card as a transitional step before it copies to the hard drive.

If it’s the latter then the file may be too big for the SD card.

I have read of similar issues with Raspberry Pi computers ( which is what the B2 is under the cover) when uploading files and it was an SD card free space problem.

John

[Sean Inglis]

Hi Kurt,

I've just tried uploading a few large files through the web interface.

2 files of 413Mb and 326Mb failed with "413 - Request Entity Too Large"

A 3rd file of just under 200Mb succeeded after around 2 minutes.

So at least from the web interface perspective, this looks like a limitation of the way it's been configured on the device.

S

[Kurt Fendt]

Hi Sean and John,

Interesting. Thanks for trying it. The size limit must be somewhere around 200MB as one of the larger portions of the split original 1-hour file that I tried to upload was 226 MB and it failed.

I'll try Daniels and Peter's suggestions next and report back.

Thanks so far,

Kurt

[Sean Inglis]

Just tried a 1.2Gb audiobook via usb - this was successfully transferred and started playing with no problems

It did struggle when I attempted to scrub all the way to the end of it but to be fair at 46hrs long it's an extreme case.

[Kurt Fendt]

Hi all,

Thanks for all your help and insights. I managed to upload the larger FLAC files without any problems via NAS.

Takeaway: 1) single-track or long-track CDs can't be ripped; 2) FLAC files larger than 200MB can't be uploaded via the Web UI.

-> USB and NAS uploads have no restrictions.

Related open questions: 

1) Had I uploaded the original AIFF files via NAS would the B2 compress them as if ripped directly from the CD (after a Scan Disk)?

2) What are the best/default FLAC settings if compressed with an external tool? Mine have several options for sample rate and compression level.

Kurt

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Kurt,

I think that you have encountered a couple of bugs there, if so Paul will pick up on those.

In answer to your Q1, I think the B2 would assume that track has already been compressed and would therefore not process it.

For Q2, I have selected Level 5 compression but don't see an option for sample rate, so perhaps some of the other forum users would comment on that.

Regards,

Peter.

[Kurt Fendt]

Thanks, Peter.

Your answer to Q1 makes perfect sense.

Q2: One of my tools defaults to 44100 Hz sample rate and level 4 compression (16 bit) which is probably a good compromise. Sample rate options range from 8-96 kHz and compression levels from 0-8.

Best,

Kurt

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Kurt,

No problem!  I've just looked into some of my music collection tags and the frequency is set at 44100 Hz also.  As the compression is lossless, I think that the levels only affect the music track size and the rate of decompression when the music track is selected for playing, so is probably not very important.

Regards,

Peter.

[PMB]

Hi All,

I have made a note of the rip and upload issues, thanks.

The B2 uses level 5 FLAC - as far as I know this only affects the resulting compressed file size.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Kurt Fendt]

Hi Paul,

Good to know about the B2's compression level, even though it might only minimally affect compressed file size.

Kurt