file won't go over 2GB

[hellosailor]

Gale-
Between the express uncertainty of "My drive is/was an NTFS drive," and two computer systems, I wouldn't take that as a certainty without checking it. Since there's different hardware involved, and 2GB is one of those magic numbers that reflects certain things (like file system file size limits)...it just seems worth verifying. Sometimes, it just seems like burglars break in and change the hardware in random ways. (It must be burglars, right? (G) )

There are also more esoteric variations even within the different versions of NTFS. Going back to old an NT4 NTFS system, as I recall NT5 quietly performed a conversion to update NTFS which then made it incompatible with the older versions of the OS. And even today, while the number of files in an NTFS drive/folder is "unlimited" for all practical purposes, there actually are limits to the number of files, because of an oddity in how longer file names consume multiple 8.3 compatibility space, which in turn IS limited for each folder. Weird stuff, but "us civilians" aren't supposed to ever need to know about it. Until it hits us.

"2GB" just sounds like something worth verifying the file system over.

[steve]

I get your point hellosailor, but in this case it is not at all surprising that Audacity fails to create Flac files > 2 GB because that is a known limitation of the Flac encoder that Audacity uses on Windows. The thing that is surprising is that dfmcwade says that an older version of Audacity was able to create Flac files > 2 GB, which is news to both Gale and myself, though dfmcwade has not yet confirmed that the older Flac files play correctly, or checked with MediaInfo to show what the actual encoder was for those files.

[dfmcwade]

Yes, all of the old Flac files play correctly to the end.

[dfmcwade]

I will get back to you about the encoder.

[dfmcwade]

Sorry about my delay in getting back to you.

I didn't realize how easy it was to find the information about the encoder. The following are a smattering of the marathon shows that I've already posted the folder for:

6/30/07 9.4GB 1.1.2 20050205
7/21/08 2.6GB 1.1.2 20050205
12/22/09 2.1GB 1.1.2 20050205
7/25/10 4.6GB 1.1.1 20041001
1/4/11 4.0GB 1.1.1 20041001
8/26/12 4.2GB 1.1.1 20041001
1/6/13 3.4GB 1.1.1 20041001

Does that information help in this discussion?

Also, I did a radio show this last Wednesday. It was only 5:45 in length but it was compressed less than the others (43% as opposed to the last one which was 48%) and made it just over 2GB. And it played flawlessly. Its encoder was 1.2.1 and its date was 20070917. What do you make of this? I am going to do another test file overnight. I would rather record to .flac instead of RF64 because RF64 takes up a lot more memory than i want it to, and I don't know how much it will be supported in the future.

David

[Gale Andrews]

The following are a smattering of the marathon shows that I've already posted the folder for:

6/30/07 9.4GB 1.1.2 20050205
7/21/08 2.6GB 1.1.2 20050205
12/22/09 2.1GB 1.1.2 20050205
7/25/10 4.6GB 1.1.1 20041001
1/4/11 4.0GB 1.1.1 20041001
8/26/12 4.2GB 1.1.1 20041001
1/6/13 3.4GB 1.1.1 20041001

"1.1.2" would be the libflac encoder version used in early 1.3 Beta versions of Audacity.

"1.1.1" would presumably have been used in any 1.2 versions of Audacity where FLAC export actually worked.

Version 1.1.3 introduced the change "Large file (>2GB) support everywhere" but Windows builds of FLAC (supplied by the FLAC project) thereafter still had the 2 GB limitation unless stdout redirection was used (which may mean length is not reported correctly).

Also, I did a radio show this last Wednesday. It was only 5:45 in length but it was compressed less than the others (43% as opposed to the last one which was 48%) and made it just over 2GB. And it played flawlessly.

You mean, it had the complete 5 hours 45 minutes, not a few seconds short?

Its encoder was 1.2.1 and its date was 20070917.

That was the libflac encoder version in use before 2.0.6-alpha.

What do you make of this? I am going to do another test file overnight. I would rather record to .flac instead of RF64 because RF64 takes up a lot more memory than i want it to, and I don't know how much it will be supported in the future.

To me this is only of historical interest, even if it was true that that early 1.3 Beta on Windows exported valid FLAC files over 2 GB. The important thing is that the next 2.0.6 release of Audacity on Windows won't have the 2 GB limitation.

If you are not already doing so, you may subscribe here: http://audacityteam.org/#announce to receive an e-mail when we release new versions of Audacity. Then you will hear when 2.0.6 is released and you can update.


Gale

[dfmcwade]

Yes, the show I recorded last Wednesday was not cropped at all -- it was exactly 5:45.

So why do you think that all of my shows from between 2007 and 2013 (that had the encoder 1.1.1 and 1.1.2) made it over 2GB without a hitch? Again, I am only having this problem of not getting things over 2GB now.

David

[Gale Andrews]

So why do you think that all of my shows from between 2007 and 2013 (that had the encoder 1.1.1 and 1.1.2) made it over 2GB without a hitch? Again, I am only having this problem of not getting things over 2GB now.

I don't know (and I am certainly not interested in researching it given the problem no longer exists in our current code).

If I had to guess, it would be that our code was somehow compensating for the 2 GB limitation that existed in 1.1.1 and 1.1.2. When 1.1.3 added further support for greater than 2 GB then whatever in our code was avoiding the 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 limitation no longer worked. Did you finally establish that those 9 GB FLAC files actually play to their intended length?


Gale

[dfmcwade]

But I already told you that every single one of those files played to their intended length.

[steve]

But I already told you that every single one of those files played to their intended length.

You did, in the 33rd post in this topic, but that's pretty easy to miss for busy support people

So why do you think that all of my shows from between 2007 and 2013 (that had the encoder 1.1.1 and 1.1.2) made it over 2GB without a hitch?

Perhaps Flac support was cross-compiled on a Linux or Mac machine? Just a guess, and not really relevant to the current situation.