compression from wav to flac+mp3 not happening on one song

[Bob McGee]

I recently purchased a B2 and have the same problem as Bob in this message "Compression problem with B2"

https://groups.google.com/g/brennanb2/c/xLKWWaOxFC0/m/jQA7rFveBgAJ

I have performed all of the same operations recommended in that thread and still I have at least one WAV file that never compresses to flac and mp3.

I did a web update, version B2B Jan 11 2021.
I have turned on the NAS
I have compression set to flac + mp3
I have performed these steps:
Press & hold stop to put in standby.
Turned off power with switch in the back.
Wait a minute or so.
Powered back on.
Select Compress Now from maintenance menu.
Walk away, left alone overnight.
Woke it up by turning the volume knob.
Checked the offending album through NAS and the WAV is still there and no corresponding flac or mp3.
I have read that this process  can take up to a week? I have manually reviewed the files (for the cds I ripped) through rhe NAS function and there only appears to the one wav that refuses to compress...and I would think that it it would do this immediately after selecting Compress Now.

Attached is a screen shot of what I can only assume is a debug output from the hdmi port. There clearly appear to be an error "Result 32512 No such file or directory"

There is an ampersand in the song name, which I believe caused a problem in the past, but this has been fixed?

Thanks

I

[Brian R]

Hi Bob

To prove  the point why don't you rename the offending Wav using 'and' instead of '&' then Scan disk and 'Compress Now'.

I had an album which defied all efforts to compress, I finally sorted it by altering compression to flac (it was formerly set to flac+mp3) the album then compressed to flac, I reset the compression to flac+mp3 and it added the mirror file at next standby period.

Brian

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Bob,

I reckon the Brian is correct; the ampersand character is almost certainly causing the problem.  You can see where 'Scratch & Sniff' has been parsed into 'Scratch \ & \ Sniff'.  The backslash character can cause other problems as it is a 'reserved' character which can cause problems when other functions are used by the system.  It looks like a fix for one problem has created another.

The 'B2B Jan 11 2021' version has a fix shown below: 

• The system will play tracks if paths contain ampersands

However, I think that this is only to allow PLAYING of tracks.  In the B2, the 'flac + mp3' encoding process first generates the 'flac' track and then generates the 'mp3' track.  The 'mp3' encoder element is a totally separate function.  It looks to me like the mp3 encoder function either cannot process ampersands, or cannot process the backslash characters.

Another character that the B2 will happily process in the ripping to 'flac' option is the 'reverse single quote' or grave accent (char 96, hex 60).  However, when you use the 'flac+mp3' option, the 'mp3' part of the process will stop dead when it hits this character in a track name.  On looking at the mp3 encoder function, the 'reverse single quote' is used by the encoder to pause and wait for another command to be input, which of course does not happen.. So the process hangs at that point, never to move on.

So as Brian suggests, change the '&' to 'and' and all should be well.

Regards,

Peter.

[PMB]

Hi Bob,

Please let us know if changing '&' to 'and' fixes the problem and I will add it to the bug list.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Bob McGee]

Yes, changing the '&' to 'and' then running compression did produce expected flac and mp3 files and consequently removing the wav file.

Thanks

[PMB]

Hi Bob,

Thanks, I'll add this to the bug list.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Thomas Seidel]

Dear All,

I'm running my B2 for a couple of years without any problem. Since Software-Update Dec.3 2020 the compressing form .wav to mp3 doesn't work anymore. I tried all your suggestions from A to Z to no success. It tried different CDs, also one's which I already ripped and converted successfully in the past.  "Compress Now" stops after a few seconds. 

I help myself with converting the files on computer to mp3 and then importing them to B2, but I would like to know the reason for this problem.

If somebody has any clue I would be glad to hear from you,

kind Regards

Thomas

[PMB]

Hi Thomas,

Are you using the 'FLAC' setting or the 'FLAC+MP3' setting?

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Thomas Seidel]

Hi Paul,

I'm using 256 mp3 setting; but I tried also FLAC + mp3 to no success.

Thomas

[PMB]

Hi Thomas,

It appears that the latest MP3 compression software doesn't like the  &  (ampersand) character or reverse quote.

Please see if this could be your problem. Meanwhile I have added it to the bug list.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Thomas Seidel]

Hi Paul,

thanks for quick response; 

no, that seems not to be the problem. I also ripped a CD, which is unknown to MusicBrainz or Amazon and was saved as album3601, track01 until track10; no strange (ampersand) characters. I tried to compress first and rename the album later. Same result: Compressing stops after a few seconds, files remain in .wav

Thomas

[PMB]

Hi Thomas,

It sounds like Album 3601 may be the problem. If there are other files to be compressed, try deleting 3601 and try 'Compress Now' before ripping the CD again.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Thomas Seidel]

Hi Paul,

what did I do so far:

* I deleted all CDs which could not be compressed

* run SCAN

* saved 

* switched off (switch at plug) and waited until HDD went to sleep (I hear a buzz in my speakers)

* unplugged B2

* went to sleep myself ;)))

* today in the morning I plugged in B2, the starting routine performed without any problem, files on HDD can be played.

* Put Settings for compressing to FLAC and 256 mp3

* I ripped another CD (Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms), which was immediately recognized by MusicBrainz and waited 

   for one hour without any action by B2.

* Went to "Compress Now", B2 stopped after a few seconds, file remains in .wav

* Changed Settings to 256 mp3, same result.

So, If nobody else faces this problem, I think it's the B2 itself. The HDD capacity of 500 GB is now used with 410 GB, 3.618 albums with 47.520 mp3 files, 0 FLAC, 0 ACC, 0 WAV (... after deleting the freshly ripped Dire Straits CD).

Thomas

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Thomas,

Upon looking at your stats, I'm wondering if the problem is being caused by disk capacity.  The 500GB HDD is really about 480GB, and that should still leave plenty of space.  However, the 'Scan Disk' report of 410GB is a report of the size of the 'Music' directory which sometimes is not the same as the total disk space used.

If you go into 'Settings' --> 'Maintenance' --> 'Free Space' and run this, you will get a true value of used space.  It might take a few minutes to run.

For example, here is my 'Settings & Status' report after running 'Scan Disk':

Software Version B2B Jan 11 2021 08:27:24

20196 tracks in 1490 albums 628 artists

0 WAV 6835 FLAC 13361 MP3 0 AAC

Capacity 976.52G Used 235.48Gb

USB 0 tracks in 0 albums 0 artists

8 Youtubes

and here is my 'Settings & Status' report after running 'Free Space'

Software Version B2B Jan 11 2021 08:27:24

20196 tracks in 1490 albums 628 artists

0 WAV 6835 FLAC 13361 MP3 0 AAC

Capacity 976.52G Used 516.72Gb

USB 0 tracks in 0 albums 0 artists

8 Youtubes 

The reason for the big difference in my case is that I have two versions of the 'Music' directory on the HDD.  'Scan Disk' can only see one of them, whereas 'Free Space' sees everything, so is more accurate.

Let us know the result of this.

Regards,

Peter.

[Thomas Seidel]

Hi Peter,

things getting more confusing ! I run the 'Free Space' and the surprising result was:

The Capacity of 0.00 GB led to the effect, that no new mp3 uploads were possible, the name (title) of the imported files

were visible on HDD,  but no files were saved.

I switched off the B2, started again, same result.

Subsequently I deleted the imported mp3 files, run Scan Disk again and 

and checked Settings & Status: the capacity went back to 500 GB, used 410 GB, OK !

Next Step: I imported new mp3 files again and they were correctly saved on HDD, so far so good.

The origin problem with no compressing of any ripped CD is still there. 

Thomas

[PMB]

Hi Thomas, 

Try running Free Space again and if you get a 0.00GB result run Scan Disk.

You could also try -

On the web UI -

Click the 'COG' >> click the 'Spanner' (to open the debug monitor)

On the B2 -

Use the front control to navigate to 'Compress Now' - don't select it yet

On the web UI -

Click 'Clear' to empty the monitor window

On the B2 - 

Select 'Compress Now'

The debug monitor will hopefully show that the B2 is attempting to compress a track and display the name. This track/album should be deleted and 'Compress Now' tried again.

By the way - the B2 will not go into Standby (and start compressing) if the web UI is open.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Thomas Seidel]

Hi Paul,

I acted accordingly and here is the result of the debug window:

I ripped another CD, title and tracks were recognized by MusicBrainz, 

Closed the Web UI and waited; Compressing started as expected but stopped after a few seconds; the ripped tracks remain in .wav

Repeating your suggestions did not lead to any other result.

Thomas

[PMB]

Hi Thomas,

Martin released a new version of software today which fixed the problem with compressing tracks to MP3 with  "&"  in the title. It might be worth trying. 

Let me know if it helps.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Bob McGee]

Thanks for the update Paul. I did a web update and re-ripped the CD with the offending "&" and the conversion from wav to mp3 went kn seamlessly in the background. Note that my setting is flac+mp3 and I have not tested other mode.

Bug resolved!

[PMB]

Hi Bob,

Glad to hear that the software update worked.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[PMB]

Hi All,

I understand that Martin B is also working on other illegal characters, such as ` (reverse quote) which will be included in the next release - check the Latest Software page - link - for any updates (not sure when that will be yet).

Paul

Brennan Support.