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FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 9:09 pm
by Matt
I upgraded from twonky v4.x to TwonkyServer v6.0.23 and the system no longer seems to transcode FLAC files.

I've installed flac.exe, updated the flac-wav.desc and flac-wav.location files (also created a flac.location file based on info from twonky tech support). Contents of these files and the clients.db file appear below.

Observations
- It appears as if the flac.exe transcoding is not taking place (no converted WAV files being created, and Roku Soundbridge client reports "This music format is not supported", and the tracks are preceded by an X (rather than a musical note symbol).
- When I run flac.exe manually with the command string I've got in the .desc file the file is converted properly.
- MP3 files display and play correctly on the Roku.

I'd be so grateful to anyone who can help with instructions or troubleshooting guidelines (for example, how to diagnose of the transcoding command is actually running, what variable values are being used for $infile and $outfile, etc.)

Here are the contents of the files I think are relevant. (All files downloaded from publisher's web sites as of 11/14/2010)

GENERAL SETUP
TwonkyManager installed in C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia
FLAC installed in C:\FLAC (including flac.exe and other installation files)

Contents of files

C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\cgi-bin\flac-wav.location (also have same contents in a file called flac.location) [one line]
c:\FLAC

C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\cgi-bin\flac-wav.desc [6 lines]
# transcode audio (FLAC to WAV)
exec: flac -d $infile -o $outfile
# capabilities
from=audio/x-flac
to=audio/x-wav
asynchronous

C:\Program Files\TwonkyMedia\resources\clients.db [excerpt]
>>
NA:Roku Soundbridge
AV:M
HP:chunked
MT:avi,divx video/avi
MT:lpcm,pcm audio/lpcm
MT:m4a,mp4.a,3gp.a,m4b audio/mp4
MT:mp1,mp2 audio/mpeg
MT:ogg audio/x-ogg
MT:wav audio/wav
DD:SoundBridge
SC:roku
DB:FIX
XM:DLNANO

...Thanks!!

Re: FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 9:37 pm
by nschertz
Having same trouble too.

Re: FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:32 am
by nschertz
Matt did the same thing you did with same result. In my situation, I have a couple of things to add.

Running two machines with different Windows OSs on same network. Tried streaming Flac files on both machines - no go

First machine is running Windows 7 64-bit.Flac.exe won't install in Windows 7 64-bit, so unable to transcode on this machine
I then loaded on Windows XP machine. Did as you indicted above. Flac.exe loaded fine, but still no transcoding.

Internet streaming and mp3s work on both machines. Really like this software, but frustrated with this flac situation.

Re: FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2010 10:24 pm
by nixeus
anyone get this to work? I am still having issues on getting FLAC.exe to transcode using Twonky

Re: FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 5:55 am
by nschertz
nixeus,

I'm still struggling with this. I have contacted Packet Video (PV) support via email. They have played back the same things we have tried. I haven't given up, but have set aside for a while until I get a little additional help. I wish Twonky would make transcoding easier. I've even tried to use FFmpeg instead od Flac. no luck. I'm sure I'm missing some little nit. Can someone who has had success on a Windows 7 or Windows XP post the specifc steps that they followed. I've seen allot written in these forums about older versions working fine, but nothing on version 6.0.28 - the latest version. Even PV h is sending me instructions for version 5 of the server... Wonder if there is something else required for version 6.0.28. Can anyone out there help??
Thanks

Re: FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:53 pm
by Valaar
Hello

I do not have the same system than you, but I have also tried to read all my FLAC files to my DLNA client (Panasonic viera plasma). After many tries, it (almost) worked.

For the transcoding of FLAC, I use ffmpeg in the flac-wav.desc :

# transcode audio (FLAC to MP3)
exec: ffmpeg -i $infile -ab 320k -ar 48000 $outfile
# capabilities
from=audio/x-flac
to=audio/mpeg
dlnaprofile=MP3
asynchronous

You will notice that I convert my flac to the lossy format MP3 instead of wav. The reason, strange as it seems, is that the panasonic accepts only mp3 and aac audio files... Could it be the same problem in your case ? Maybe you should try to transcode to MP3, just to see if it works.

The reason why I said it "almost" worked is that when I start listenic to a flac, it sometimes stops abruptly after a while, telling me that the file format is not supported. I still hav no idea why.

Re: FLAC Transcoding Question

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:12 am
by ThyMaster
Hi,

encoding for Roku clients stopped working from version 6.x on.
I don't what they've done to the code but they managed to kill this feature for good.

IMO the is no way to convert FLAC to anything else to play this on the RokuSB. Funny enough FLAC conversion works with PS3 w/o a problem (at least since version 6.0.30).

So I'm sticking to TMS 5.1.6

- ThyMaster