The VideoLAN Forums

Hello there,

I’ve been using the command-line interface of VLC 1.1.7 on Mac OS X to transcode .wav files to .ogg files; the .wav files had been extracted from a CD-ROM using a dedicated open source programme. In one case, the transcoded .ogg file had a length of zero bytes. I re-extracted the .wav file from the CD-ROM, thinking that the first copy might have somehow become corrupted, and compared the file lengths and the checksums of the two copies of the .wav file: they were identical. When I tried to play the .wav file via the graphical user interface of VLC, it would sit for a second or two, and then stop itself without playing; since nothing was recorded in the VLC crash log file, it didn’t seem to be due to a crash. I then transferred the .wav file to a Windows computer, and tried doing the same tasks with VLC 1.1.7 on Windows, and the same results occurred: the transcoded .ogg file there had a length of zero bytes, and the .wav file would make no sound when played there. I then tried playing the .wav file on the Mac OS X computer with a different open-source player, and that player was able to play the .wav file without problem.

Is there a known problem with some .wav files being unplayable in VLC 1.1.7? Is there anything that I can do to help determine what the problem is that affects this one particular .wav file? (All of the other .wav files were transcoded to .ogg files successfully, so I’m presuming that those .wav files would also play successfully.)

Thanks for your help!

My workaround for this situation was to extract it from the CD-ROM in the AIFF-C format rather than the WAV format; VLC 1.1.7 was able to play the track when it was extracted as AIFF-C, and also was able to transcode the .aifc file to an .ogg file.

To return to the question in my previous post — is there anything that I can do to help determine what the problem is that affects the single .wav file which could not be played (or transcoded) in VLC 1.1.7?

Since my last post, I have encountered a second .wav file that exhibits the same behaviour; fortunately, the AIFF-C detour to .ogg transcoding works for the second file as well.

Both of these particular .wav files remain unplayable (and untranscodable) in VLC 1.1.8; yet both are playable in at least one other open-source player. Am I the only person who has found unplayable .wav files in either VLC 1.1.7 or 1.1.8?

Yes.

Is there any interest in determining why these two .wav files don’t play in VLC 1.1.8?

The smaller of the two unplayable .wav files is 26 MB, and the larger one is 49 MB, so if there is something that I can do locally to help figure it out, please let me know.

Alternatively, if there is no interest in determining why these two .wav files don’t play in VLC 1.1.8, please say so, and I’ll fall silent.