Audio file getting bruised.

Sardonic · October 8, 2024 at 6:17 PM

Hi, I am experiencing a weird problem with High and standard resolution audio file, they will play over and over perfectly fine until randomly a "scratch"will be heard, once it happens the scratches can be heard over again at the same time.

The interesting part is that the file became corrupted, I have listen to the same audio file on a different support with the same annoying noises while the original file from another source on laptop plays perfectly.
What I use:
Raspberry pi 4 with DAC+
Libreelec latest version
Music library stocked on a USB memory flash drive.

Thank you.

**Da Flex** · October 8, 2024 at 10:57 PM

Funny issue, I never heard about that. Like a broken vinyl record.

Playback is a read-only process, so LE can't be the cause. I think your USB drive has reached end-of-life.

Sardonic · October 8, 2024 at 11:03 PM

Extract of damaged Audio file at 4s. and 8s.

https://whyp.it/tracks/214504/a5-circle?token=ocMJA

Sardonic · October 8, 2024 at 11:09 PM

Quote from Da Flex

Funny issue, I never heard about that. Like a broken vinyl record.
Playback is a read-only process, so LE can't be the cause. I think your USB drive has reached end-of-life.

Nope, it happened on different type of USB flash drive!

**Da Flex** · October 9, 2024 at 2:57 AM

Which audio format / codec do you play? I don't see it in the link.

Sardonic · October 9, 2024 at 3:07 AM

I have all sorts of music with different codec and type. It is not discriminating any type of audio!

The played track:

Format : FLAC
Format/Info :
Free Lossless Audio Codec
File size : 111 MiB
Duration : 5 min 23 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 862 kb/s

Audio Format :FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Duration :
5 min 23 s
Bit rate mode :
Variable
Bit rate : 2 856 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R

Sampling rate : 96.0 kHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 110 MiB (100%)

HarryH · October 9, 2024 at 5:42 PM

Which file system do you use for your thumb drives? Maybe this makes a different.

Sardonic · October 9, 2024 at 7:10 PM

Quote from HarryH

Which file system do you use for your thumb drives? Maybe this makes a different.

Hi,

A exFAT (version 1.0). I believed that it also happened on NTFS.

**Da Flex** · October 9, 2024 at 7:42 PM

It's scary that a read-only access damages files. I assume a lot of buffering is going on in the background, because audio is large, and has a lossless codec.

format your USB drive as EXT4
if it doesn't work, create a swap file (I suggest to create it at the same USB drive, swap file size: twice RPi RAM size)
[How to] Enable swapfile on LibreELEC

HarryH · October 9, 2024 at 7:44 PM

Both are non-native Linux file systems. Can you prepare a thumb drive with ext4 and test again? If you have no Linux to fill the stick with content directly, maybe you can copy from your laptop via network to it.

Note: All file systems on external drives (such as SD cards, USB sticks, etc.) are vulnerable during cached writes, so you should make sure that you do not remove the drive from the running system without taking special measures. For the test with ext4, I would recommend not unplugging the drive until the system has shut down properly.

Sardonic · October 9, 2024 at 7:54 PM

Quote from Da Flex

It's scary that a read-only access damages files. I assume a lot of buffering is going on in the background, because audio is large, and has a lossless codec.
format your USB drive as EXT4
if it doesn't work, create a swap file (I suggest to create it at the same USB drive, swap file size: twice RPi RAM size)
[How to] Enable swapfile on LibreELEC

Thanks, I will try that. Just for the info It happen also with light mp3 to heavy DST and WAV audio file.