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My 20 year functional SONOS system is now throwing "incorrect encoding" error messages.

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After a long period of not frequently using my Sonos Play 5 Gen 1 based system I turned it on this morning to find that while I can DNLA MP3 encoded files. My 22,000 FLAC and AIFF encoded files are returning a “file not correctly encoded” error. For the last 20 years or so the system has worked absolutely fine. The last time I used it was Dec 2023. So I guess a recent firmware update is to blame.

All my music is stored locally I do not stream or own music purchased online.

Is there any common wisdom which I am missing on this matter which may guide me out of this situation ?

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A

Anthony_531Answer

Thanks Corry. I am scrambling around a bit here and I need to get through a few more bits of deduction to start to understand where my problem might be. This has all come as a bit of a shock as this has “just worked” for over 15 years,

OK SOLVED !!

The DNLA protocol relies on SSDP find the DNLA renderer SONOS devices. However the renderer requires that the DNLA server serves it in the correct format - this was my problem, some how the DNLA server which I use for SONOS had changed from:

Output Format → “Original”

To

Output Format → “MP3 High Bandwidth when necessary”

That was screwing it up.

I can’t get the Sonos S1 app to even see the music share at all. Weird.

Anyway back to Jriver Media Centre 20 and Jremote for me.

Cheers all.

UKMedia

Are you using the S1 or S2 App?

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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

A

Anthony_531Author

I don’t know why you are asking me that question, I have S1 on my phone purely as a device interface but I don’t use it.

Control of my Sonos devices is via DNLA which as I say above is working just fine. It’s decoding my previously for 20 years working FLAC and AIFF files which does not work. Other file formats in my library work perfectly as they have always done.

Please keep the focus on my question.

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UKMedia

Can you check for updates within the Sonos App. Can you play music from the Sonos App as a test?

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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

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Antifon

Prodigy III

Something that Sonos’ decoding for FLAC is very inconsistent about is bit depth (may also be true of AIFF but I don’t use that). Are you able to check whether your FLAC files are encoded with a bit depth of 24-bit or less?

The problem that I’ve found is that a lot of files seem to be encoded at 32-bit, and sometimes the system will play these files correctly and sometimes it won’t. It may be that Sonos has tightened up on this in a recent update and is policing the limit (of no more than 24-bit) more tightly?

[Edit: BTW, it’s DLNA, not DNLA - the latter is something to do with libraries!]

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Anthony_531Author

Red wine always helps :)

There are no updates - I am on 16.3fw and yes the app plays crap off the internet fine.

My problem is that there has been a codec update I am pretty sure.

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UKMedia

Something that Sonos’ decoding for FLAC is very inconsistent about is bit depth (may also be true of AIFF but I don’t use that). Are you able to check whether your FLAC files are encoded with a bit depth of 24-bit or less?

The problem that I’ve found is that a lot of files seem to be encoded at 32-bit, and sometimes the system will play these files correctly and sometimes it won’t. It may be that Sonos has tightened up on this in a recent update and is policing the limit (of no more than 24-bit) more tightly?

It needs to be below 16 bit for the S1 App: https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library

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Remember: Sometimes Red Wine helps :)

A

Antifon

Prodigy III

Something that Sonos’ decoding for FLAC is very inconsistent about is bit depth (may also be true of AIFF but I don’t use that). Are you able to check whether your FLAC files are encoded with a bit depth of 24-bit or less?

The problem that I’ve found is that a lot of files seem to be encoded at 32-bit, and sometimes the system will play these files correctly and sometimes it won’t. It may be that Sonos has tightened up on this in a recent update and is policing the limit (of no more than 24-bit) more tightly?

It needs to be blow 16 bit for the S1 App: https://support.sonos.com/en-gb/article/supported-audio-formats-for-sonos-music-library

I suspect that link is out of date - I think S1 supports 24-bit, but they haven’t updated that doc.

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Anthony_531Author

OK - thanks for that pointer - I am happy to transcode the library - but I need to know where to go

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Antifon

Prodigy III

It would be worth tagging Sonos staff @Corry P because he corrected me on this in a previous recent thread, where he stated that although one of the support docs says 16-bit, current support (under S2) is 24-bit. He should be able to confirm whether S1 is still on 16-bit for FLAC - hopefully not!

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Corry P

Sonos Staff

Hi @Anthony_531 & @Antifon

From internal documentation:

Sub (Gen 1), Play:5 (Gen 1), Play:3, Play:1, Connect (Gen1), and Connect:Amp will automatically downmix any 24 bit audio to 16 bit when streaming from Music Library, a NAS share, or from your Android phone or tablet.

So, a Play:5 Gen 1 will not play 24bit audio from Music Library, but it will not prevent playback of the file either - it will down-sample (downmix is incorrect terminology) 24 bit audio to 16 bit audio and then play it.

No devices will play 24bit with S1 software.

@Anthony_531 - do your AIFF files play at all? Even for a second? Or do they fail instantly?

If they do play but then fail, the first thing I would check for is local interference. If, however, they all fail instantly, then it does appear that something is awry.

In either case, please submit a support diagnostic and reply here when you have done so, but please don’t share the given number. Please let me know which room you attempted playback in, and the file type. Thanks.

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"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Albert Einstein

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