How to bypass arbitrary bit-rate limit on Apple Lossless?

[ikon42]

If you've seen the dreaded red exclamation mark (!) next to your files in Audio Station, one reason might be that your file's bit-rate is greater than 512 kbps. Is there a way to disable this arbitrary limit? I have a DS212+ with DSM 4.0-2198 and the existing limit means Audio Station refuses to play most of my music library. Also, the transcode option in Settings only appears to be available on specific hardware, and it's not showing up for me.

I've seen posts in this forum asking what the red exclamation mark means, but with no answers. It's extremely annoying that users have to figure this out for themselves, rather than Audio Station giving some explanation for the icon. The documentation I've read suggests that Audio Station displays that icon when it is unable to play a file's format. This was misleading because I have all my music in Apple Lossless, yet some songs in an album would play fine while others would have the red exclamation mark icon. The common thread among all songs that did play is that their bit-rate was less than 512 kbps. The same is true for FLAC, where Audio Station will refuse to play any song with a bit-rate greater than 512 kbps.

It feels ridiculous that DSM4 limits my ability to play high quality music and omits any option to transcode the audio to something it can play. Using the DiskStation as a music server was one of my primary reasons for buying.

[nepal55]

Hi ikon42

I'm having exactly the same problem. Have you received an answer from Synology? - have you managed to fix the problem?
I'm disappointed as well.

Thanks in advance.

[fujirou]

I am using Audio Station 4.0-2304 and playing FLAC or ALAC files on Google Chrome without any problem.

The reason red exclamation mark appears should be you are using IE. Since IE does not support WAV playback, all formats need transcoding will be unable to play, including FLAC and ALAC.

[ikon42]

The reason red exclamation mark appears should be you are using IE. Since IE does not support WAV playback, all formats need transcoding will be unable to play, including FLAC and ALAC.

That's a good guess, but I'm not using IE. I use Safari on a Mac. Audio Station can play FLAC files through Safari as long as the files have a bit-rate of 512 kbps or less. So the question remains, "what test is Audio Station using to determine that Safari cannot play FLAC files with a bit-rate greater than 512 kpbs?"

I tried Google Chrome and it does work better (no red exclamation marks and more files are playable), so clearly there's a test that a browser can pass that will cause Audio Station to play high bitrate files.

[ikon42]

I'm having exactly the same problem. Have you received an answer from Synology? - have you managed to fix the problem?

I tried talking to Synology Support about this a while ago but the person I spoke to couldn't help. I'll try again because somebody at Synology has to know what test Audio Station uses to determine browser compatibility.

As previously suggested, you could connect to Audio Station using Google Chrome (and maybe Firefox too). Safari is my preferred browser so I'm going to file a bug report with Apple. In my case, I use the Media Renderer mode now (instead of Streaming Mode) to play audio to my AirPlay stereo receiver. I presume that transcodes everything to a lossy format, but at least I can play my entire library.

[ikon42]

I am using Audio Station 4.0-2304 and playing FLAC or ALAC files on Google Chrome without any problem..

I missed fujirou's mention of Audio Station 4.0-2304. I was previously using Audio Station 3.0-2204 which does not work correctly. Getting the latest Audio Station does indeed fix the problem, which is a big relief.