FLAC playback problems on WD TV Live players (Hub and HD)

Hey guys,

First post, new owner of WDTV Live Hub and I’m having problems playing back specific FLAC files in my collection.

The hardware:

  • WDTV Live Hub running latest firmware
  • WDTV Live Plus HD (with latest firmware)

The problem :cry:

  • Whether I’m accessing the FLAC songs via a Network Share or locally on the internal WD Live Hub itself the player will cycle through all tracks on an album quickly as if it’s scanning them, but play no tracks and get stuck in a scanning loop.
  • I’ve noticed that when this behavior occurs, no meta data (ID3v1 and v2) tags show up for those tracks
  • The songs cannot be played, the playback bar doesn’t move.
  • HOWEVER, other albums / songs will play back perfectly (also FLAC based).
  • All FLAC tracks are 2 channel and standard 44.1khz rips from my CD collection.

Questions:

  1. Does anyone know if there are “offending” parts of a FLAC file (metadata, cover art, filename, etc?) that would prevent the file from playing back on WD Live media players?
  2. Is there a glitch with the WD TV Live media players with FLAC files in general?  I do NOT believe it’s the encoding of the FLAC file itself, as I can play back these files on other players.

Other Players tested:

  1. Sonos players work fine with the offending FLAC files that won’t play on the WD TV Live media players
  2. Squeezebox players work fine too
  3. VLC app on a Mac works fine too
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