HDX WAV to FLAC conversion

Posted by: blythe on 26 November 2013

Reading up on firmware 1.7a it would appear that you can convert the entire HDX library to FLAC, replacing the original WAV files.

You can also choose to rip all future CDs to FLAC

 

The option to create MP3 versions means you keep the original WAV (or FLAC) files and the MP3s are saved to a different location.

What bit-rate are the MP3s encoded at?

 

Can anyone confirm that converting the entire WAV library to FLAC using the HDX will retain/embed all the tags that are associated with the original WAV files?

 

Hopefully, if I get these answers, I can the update to 1.7a with confidence 

 

Cheers, Martin.

 

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by WonkyBit

I went through the process of converting my WAV files to FLAC files. The UnitiServe can transcode the FLAC to WAV on the UPnP side of things so the NDX is happy.

 

Also have created a full set of MP3s which show up in the LQ folder.

 

The ripper seems to rip to WAV then convert to FLAC in a queue.

 

Posted on: 06 January 2014 by oscarskeeper

Has anyone done this wav to flac conversion and tried transcoding?

 

Any comments?

Posted on: 06 January 2014 by Bart
Originally Posted by oscarskeeper:

Has anyone done this wav to flac conversion and tried transcoding?

 

Any comments?

I have.  It works!

Posted on: 06 January 2014 by blythe

Great!

so what are your thoughts Bart on the sound quality compared to WAV?

Any problems with retaining the tags? Or was it plain sailing?

Martin.

Posted on: 06 January 2014 by Bart
Originally Posted by blythe:

Great!

so what are your thoughts Bart on the sound quality compared to WAV?

Any problems with retaining the tags? Or was it plain sailing?

Martin.

I am perfectly happy with the sound quality and am convinced that I cannot tell the difference between flac transcoded to wav and wav played as wav.  The metadata shows up in nStream (and nServe) just as before.

 

Interestingly, Tag (for OS X) cannot open the flac's created by the uServe.  But Metadatics can.  I'm not sure what's up with that (but note that Tag has not been updated since 2006, and it may be some legacy issue, but it does seem fishy). 

Posted on: 07 January 2014 by oscarskeeper

Bart, thanks for your comments - really helpful

Posted on: 07 January 2014 by blythe

Thanks Bart - I will have a go at doing the same when I'm back home with my system. (Transcode to FLAC)
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'll save a back-up of the original WAV files "just in case", so I can revert if I feel I can hear any difference in sound that I'm not happy with 

Posted on: 08 January 2014 by Bart
Originally Posted by blythe:

Thanks Bart - I will have a go at doing the same when I'm back home with my system. (Transcode to FLAC)
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'll save a back-up of the original WAV files "just in case", so I can revert if I feel I can hear any difference in sound that I'm not happy with 

Be sure to save a copy of the backup before your system does its own timed backup, as when it does, it'll only be backing up the new flac MQ library and I'm pretty sure it overwrites the old wav files in the backup of the MQ library.

Posted on: 08 January 2014 by blythe

I have two back-up NAS drives; I'll simply disconnect one of them before I update ;-)

I'll then keep it in a safe place "just in case"!

Posted on: 25 January 2014 by GraemeH

I'm having to use the HDX to change WAV's to FLAC's and 900 albums is set to take 9 days apparently!

 

G

Posted on: 25 January 2014 by Yvan

Hi GraemeH,

 

Wow, a day for 100 albums...  let's hope that the system won't have any bug in 9 days. Will you be so kind to keep us posted ?  thanks !

Yvan

Posted on: 26 January 2014 by blythe

I can feel a 10 day holiday coming on when I plan to do the conversion 

Posted on: 26 January 2014 by WonkyBit

The wav to flac conversion is run in the background so you play music, rip CDs and convert at the same time.

 

As a data point my US did the conversion a bit faster than 100 discs per 9 days.