Official Qobuz Issues Thread

[nbpf]

8 hours ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

If you're here to play Stump the Chump, you win. Been streaming foe many years, but the .tar issue in which you speak if not on my radar.

Do you have an example?

Sure, take for instance the last album I bought from Qobuz. This is Mahler's 5th by Adam Fischer and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. The downloaded .tar file is  Qobuz-Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5.tar. Now unpacking this file yields

 

nicola@cirrus:~/share/audio/originals/qobuz$ tar xf Qobuz-Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5.tar 
tar: A lone zero block at 1345140
nicola@cirrus:~/share/audio/originals/qobuz$

 

We can try to be a little bit more verbose to see if we can get some more information:

 

nicola@cirrus:~/share/audio/originals/qobuz$ tar xfv Qobuz-Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5.tar  
Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5/
Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5/01-01-Gustav_Mahler-Symphony_No_5_in_C-Sharp_Minor_I_Trauermarsch_In_gemessenem_S-SMR.flac
Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5/01-02-Gustav_Mahler-Symphony_No_5_in_C-Sharp_Minor_II_Sturmisch_bewegt_Mit_grosst-SMR.flac
Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5/01-03-Gustav_Mahler-Symphony_No_5_in_C-Sharp_Minor_III_Scherzo_Kraftig_nicht_zu_s-SMR.flac
Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5/01-04-Gustav_Mahler-Symphony_No_5_in_C-Sharp_Minor_IV_Adagietto_Sehr_langsam-SMR.flac
Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5/01-05-Gustav_Mahler-Symphony_No_5_in_C-Sharp_Minor_V_Rondo_Finale_Allegro-SMR.flac
tar: A lone zero block at 1345140
nicola@cirrus:~/share/audio/originals/qobuz$

 

As you can see, the error is perfectly reproducible but we do not get any clue about what's wrong with the download. As a matter of fact, the content of the .tar archive seems to be fine. At least I do not hear any artifacts at replay time. Still, is is very annoying to get these false positive every time I buy a new album. If the difference is just one or two Euros, I typically buy from prestoclassical to avoid being annoyed by the error.

 

I suspect it is a systematic error because, as reported, it shows up on all Qobuz downloads on my system. I can provide dozens of similar examples and I have never seen this error on downloads from prestoclassical or, indeed, in any other .tar file. I have reported the issue to Qobuz a number of times and detailed my tar version, OS, etc. I never received any feedback from Qobuz. 

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

22 minutes ago, nbpf said:

Sure, take for instance the last album I bought from Qobuz. This is Mahler's 5th by Adam Fischer and the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. The downloaded .tar file is  Qobuz-Adam_Fischer_Dusseldorfer_Symphoniker-Mahler_Symphony_No_5.tar. Now unpacking this file yields

 

 

As you can see, the error is perfectly reproducible but we do not get any clue about what's wrong with the download. As a matter of fact, the content of the .tar archive seems to be fine. At least I do not hear any artifacts at replay time. Still, is is very annoying to get these false positive every time I buy a new album. If the difference is just one or two Euros, I typically buy from prestoclassical to avoid being annoyed by the error.

 

I suspect it is a systematic error because,....

I did check on this and although you may see a weird file tag, all of the files are being seen by you dac as bit perfect. There are many redundancies in a digital stream and these "errors" as you call them are simply not seen.

This is well understood by the engineers. There is no problem and this is not an issue. As you stated, it is inaudible, because the DAC sees no error. I'd like to thank my friend Gordon Rankin for the explanation, who said he was once puzzled by this as well. 

 

[sockpit]

2 hours ago, left channel said:

Getting people to search previous pages before posting a question? Harder than supporting ShairPnNA.

If this was directed at me, please tell me how my question was redundant or out of line.  Qobuz updates its iOS app.  Suddenly the shairport/airplay feature is unreliable.  I ask about it because this is the Official Qobuz Issue thread.  It has nothing to do with Qobuz trying to launch in the U.S.  That's great, but I'd like my subscription in UK to work correctly.

 

So I had issue--and one I hadn't found reported yet--and since Qobuz doesn't make it exactly convenient to report bugs and issues, approaching David seemed a reasonable thing to do.  

 

I've no desire to add to the sort of pissing matches that go on in these pages, and would even be happy to learn how to "search previous pages" more efficiently.  I have not found the search feature at CA very helpful . . .  Google is better.

[sockpit]

9 hours ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

No. As of now, our guys don't have any of the Sonore product. It's all one step at a time. I'm trying to be a conduit, however can't stress enough that it's still a beta product. At this point, the main goal is to get launched in N/ America, which unfortunately trumps this one feature.

And what's "beta" about the latest release of Qobuz iOS for my iPad?  In replying to my query you seem fixated on the new beta desktop app and the NA launch.  Yet my issue has to do with neither of these.  Should the problem continue, and I wish to report it to qobuz headquarters, might you supply me an efficient way of doing that: a reliable email address, for instance?  thx.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

1 minute ago, sockpit said:

If this was directed at me, please tell me how my question was redundant or out of line.  Qobuz updates its iOS app.  Suddenly the shairport/airplay feature is unreliable.  I ask about it because this is the Official Qobuz Issue thread.  It has nothing to do with Qobuz trying to launch in the U.S.  That's great, but I'd like my subscription in UK to work correctly.

 

So I had issue--and one I hadn't found reported yet--and since Qobuz doesn't make it exactly convenient to report bugs and issues, approaching David seemed a reasonable thing to do.  

 

I've no desire to start the sort of pissing matches that go on in these pages, and would even be happy to learn how to "search previous pages" more efficiently.  I have not found the search feature at CA very helpful . . .  Google is better.

 

Not at all. We know there are a lot of issues currently and no amount of questions written differently or with why model X doesn't work will change that currently. It's more likely that it will go away for another solution. Talking to the engineering guys tomorrow about it.

So this caught me a little by surprise since I've been here only since June. Thanks for the note.

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

7 minutes ago, sockpit said:

And what's "beta" about the latest release of Qobuz iOS for my iPad?

Sorry if I missed your question. There were a lot coming all at once about the DLNA... If I understand the question, you're having a prob streaming Airplay to your Sonore? I did some airplay tests today with an AppleTV and my Aurender. Both worked fine with no glitches. So not sure what the issue could be. I don't typically use airplay because of the re-sampling. If you'd like, please feel free to write support@ qobuz.com.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Guys - It’s great to have a contact at Qobuz and one that posts here and tries to help. Try replicating this at Apple, Spotify, Deezer, or Tidal. 

 

It looks like some people are taking David to task when a much better approach is to work with him, share information, and understand that it’s important to him that the launch is successful in the US. Unloading technical issues isn’t the best approach. David is a conduit, not a coder. 

 

Let’s use this relationship to benefit the CA  Community. 

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

4 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It looks like some people are taking David to task when a much better approach is to work with him, share information, and understand that it’s important to him that the launch is successful in the US. Unloading technical issues isn’t the best approach. David is a conduit, not a coder. 

 

Let’s use this relationship to benefit the CA  Community. 

Thanks and don't mind fielding info at all. I appreciate all of the music lovers that just want their gear to work. I would be the same if there were a button visible that didn't work and I needed it. We will have some concrete solutions for this before long. Can't say much currently, but be looking for a press release soon that should make us all very happy about the connectivity. Otherwise, bang away... I'm here for you all and count this as a blessing. I'm learning a lot too.

[sockpit]

14 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

30 minutes ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

Sorry if I missed your question. There were a lot coming all at once about the DLNA... If I understand the question, you're having a prob streaming Airplay to your Sonore? I did some airplay tests today with an AppleTV and my Aurender. Both worked fine with no glitches. So not sure what the issue could be. I don't typically use airplay because of the re-sampling. If you'd like, please feel free to write support@ qobuz.com.

Thank you.

[nbpf]

7 hours ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

I did check on this and although you may see a weird file tag, all of the files are being seen by you dac as bit perfect. There are many redundancies in a digital stream and these "errors" as you call them are simply not seen.

This is well understood by the engineers. There is no problem and this is not an issue. As you stated, it is inaudible, because the DAC sees no error. I'd like to thank my friend Gordon Rankin for the explanation, who said he was once puzzled by this as well. 

 

Thanks for looking into this issue! "lone zero block" messages are indeed errors, just check the tar documentation. An error message that systematically occurs at every download is simply unacceptable. How can one be sure that the data are not broken? What if a download is actually corrupt? Getting a false positive at every download is not normal: all other providers manage to package data that unpack flawlessly. If your friend Gordon Rankin has an explanation for the errors, please report it.  

[left channel]

7 hours ago, sockpit said:

If this was directed at me, please tell me how my question was redundant or out of line.

 

Dude. That was not directed at you at all. It was a joke about online forums in general, in response to the post immediately above it. I was attempting to lighten the mood a little. My bad. ?

 

[Cebolla]

Ironic that a post poking fun at those that don't properly read & check previous pages before posting, should use the non-issue of Qobuz "supporting ShairPnNA" as an example of something difficult. ?

 

Most of the relevant posts were even on the same page!

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

6 hours ago, nbpf said:

Thanks for looking into this issue! "lone zero block" messages are indeed errors, just check the tar documentation. An error message that systematically occurs at every download is simply unacceptable. How can one be sure that the data are not broken? What if a download is actually corrupt? Getting a false positive at every download is not normal: all other providers manage to package data that unpack flawlessly. If your friend Gordon Rankin has an explanation for the errors, please report it.  

 

You're welcome and don't typically mind trying to help with a unique question. I don't really have the time to track down reasons for an inaudible lone zero block code that the DAC doesn't see. As I researched and reported for you, the reason this is inaudible, is by the time your DAC received the file, it's bit perfect because of packet redundancies. Nothing else to report.

 

[nbpf]

49 minutes ago, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

 

You're welcome and don't typically mind trying to help with a unique question. I don't really have the time to track down reasons for an inaudible lone zero block code that the DAC doesn't see. As I researched and reported for you, the reason this is inaudible, is by the time your DAC received the file, it's bit perfect because of packet redundancies. Nothing else to report.

 

You might have nothing else to report but I have to report that I have just terminated my Qobuz Sublime subscription. I appreciate your support and I understand that you do not have time to contribute solving technical problems. I will keep my account open at least until the end of my subscription period. Should Qobuz manage to ensure that the quality of their downloads fulfills minimal industrial standards and implement a competent and responsive technical support, I would be happy to be a Qobuz customer again. 

[serendipitydawg]

A really basic question.

 

I have downloaded the Windows 32bit installer for my Windows 7 PC and I don't get a desktop icon for when I want to open Qobuz. I have an ASIO only DAC and I want to check that the Qobuz ASIO works before I attempt any free trial (which involves leaving payment details)

 

I have a user name and can login. I seem to have entered a mode where I can play 30 second extracts.

 

Would some kind soul point me in the right direction? 

[Cebolla]

On 8/16/2018 at 7:38 AM, nbpf said:

Streaming errors might be difficult to reproduce and hence to fix. But there are errors that are perfectly reproducible and none cares about at Qobuz. All .tar files I have downloaded from Qobuz generate a " tar: A lone zero block at ..." at unpacking. The zero block position "..." is different for different files but constantly the same for the same .tar file. I have reported this error many times and never received any feedback. Not even a notification that they had reproduced the error. I have never seen this problem with .tar downloads from prestoclassical, hyperion, etc. or, indeed, with any other .tar file. 

 

Hi nbpf,

 

I didn't realise that Qobuz currently only provides the option to download your purchased music file tracks contained in the (Linux favoured) tar archive file format. The zip archive format that I'd downloaded before appears to be no longer available from Qobuz, so no point suggesting you use that instead!

 

Using the Linux tar command on my Raspberry Pi (under the latest DietPi distro) to extract or simply list the contents of the Qobuz downloaded tar files definitely produces the "A lone zero block" warning message, though as you say the command otherwise completes as normal. Interestingly, there's no warning message when I use the Windows Z-Zip application (recommended by Qobuz for Windows users) to extract the tar file's contents.

 

Curiosity got the better of me, so I did an online search & had a 'look at the GNU tar file format doc and realised that the block referred to by the tar command warning message was always the final block (tar files use 512 byte blocks). Also, the tar file is supposed to have two zero filled blocks at the end of the file used to indicate its end.

 

I fired up a hex editor to examine the tar files from Qobuz and sure enough they only use one zero filled block for the end of file marker, hence the warning message. A quick but careful copy and paste to add the missing zero block and bye bye Linux tar command warning message. Also, the Windows Z-Zip application still work with the corrected Qobuz tar files.

[rickca]

On 8/16/2018 at 5:59 PM, nbpf said:

I never received any feedback from Qobuz. 

Really this is the message that @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist needs to communicate to Qobuz management.  Clearly @Cebolla has already figured out how to fix this.  Qobuz tech support really should have resolved this issue for you.

 

I'm not expecting David to intervene on individual support tickets.  That's not his job.  However, I am asking him to relay our concerns about the responsiveness of tech support.  I've been a Qobuz subscriber for 3 years.  I want his USA rollout to be very successful.  It's in his own interest to make sure Qobuz gets the message.

 

One of the reasons HQPlayer and A+ are so popular with CA users (besides great sound quality) is that Miska and Damien are exceptionally good at tech support.

 

[David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist]

27 minutes ago, rickca said:

Really this is the message that @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist needs to communicate to Qobuz management.  Clearly @Cebolla has already figured out how to fix this.  Qobuz tech support really should have resolved this issue for you.

 

I'm not expecting David to intervene on individual support tickets.  That's not his job.  However, I am asking him to relay our concerns about the responsiveness of tech support.  I've been a Qobuz subscriber for 3 years.  I want his USA rollout to be very successful.  It's in his own interest to make sure Qobuz gets the message.

 

One of the reasons HQPlayer and A+ are so popular with CA users (besides great sound quality) is that Miska and Damien are exceptionally good at tech support.

 

Hi,

 

Yes, thank you. Already done. When we start putting the engineering team back on this, the info should be very helpful.

[rando]

Will you be opening up a public beta or relying on the invite only private one which Chris is a part of?

 

On 7/26/2018 at 12:05 PM, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

Hi Everyone, Thank you for the interest. We still have a few tasks to complete, but by launch these issues will all be corrected. You're listening to a beta version and you'll even have more features that are available currently.

Stay tuned.

 

[David Young]

Hi @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist, would you comment on the response from Qobuz Germany that Qobuz integration with Roon is planned by the end of 2018?

 

 

English translation of Qobuz Germany response: "Their efforts have been worthwhile, and by the end of this year we are indeed looking to integrate Roon. As soon as the time comes, you will be informed about our blog and Facebook."

 

Original post:

https://www.aktives-hoeren.de/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9915

 

I understand, of course, that not all plans come fruition within intended timeframes but it's exciting news to me none-the-less.

 

Thanks very much!

David

[Dr Tone]

59 minutes ago, David Young said:

Hi @David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist, would you comment on the response from Qobuz Germany that Qobuz integration with Roon is planned by the end of 2018?

 

 

English translation of Qobuz Germany response: "Their efforts have been worthwhile, and by the end of this year we are indeed looking to integrate Roon. As soon as the time comes, you will be informed about our blog and Facebook."

 

Original post:

https://www.aktives-hoeren.de/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9915

 

I understand, of course, that not all plans come fruition within intended timeframes but it's exciting news to me none-the-less.

 

Thanks very much!

David

 

On 7/27/2018 at 10:42 AM, David.. Qobuz, Hi-Res Music Evangelist said:

By the time we launch, you will be very happy. I wish I could say more right now, but have been sworn to secrecy... You may be able to read between the lines, but for now, all I can say is that I totally agree. 

 

 

[David Young]

Thank you, @Dr Tone. I remember that post. No expected deliverable dates given at that point. Still sworn to secrecy at that time it would appear!

[shadowlight]

21 hours ago, serendipitydawg said:

A really basic question.

 

I have downloaded the Windows 32bit installer for my Windows 7 PC and I don't get a desktop icon for when I want to open Qobuz. I have an ASIO only DAC and I want to check that the Qobuz ASIO works before I attempt any free trial (which involves leaving payment details)

 

I have a user name and can login. I seem to have entered a mode where I can play 30 second extracts.

 

Would some kind soul point me in the right direction? 

 

I have a tendency of installing application in manner where everyone on the shared system has access.  When I did that I ran into the similar situation as you.  So if you used one account to install and another account to run you will not see the Qobuz icon.  You have to install the software as the user that you are planning to run it.  When I did that I got the short cut on the desktop and also in the program files.

 

If you used the same userid to install the software and you are missing the shortcut the software is install under c:\users\"username"\appdata\local\Qobuz\.

 

My shortcut is setup as following if you need to recreate it manually.  Just confirm the "app-4.0.28b011" directory based on your Qobuz software version:

Target: C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Qobuz\Update.exe --processStart "Qobuz.exe"

C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Qobuz\app-4.0.28-b011

 

[serendipitydawg]

 

1 hour ago, shadowlight said:

 

I have a tendency of installing application in manner where everyone on the shared system has access.  When I did that I ran into the similar situation as you.  So if you used one account to install and another account to run you will not see the Qobuz icon.  You have to install the software as the user that you are planning to run it.  When I did that I got the short cut on the desktop and also in the program files.

 

If you used the same userid to install the software and you are missing the shortcut the software is install under c:\users\"username"\appdata\local\Qobuz\.

 

My shortcut is setup as following if you need to recreate it manually.  Just confirm the "app-4.0.28b011" directory based on your Qobuz software version:

Target: C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Qobuz\Update.exe --processStart "Qobuz.exe"

C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Local\Qobuz\app-4.0.28-b011

 

Thanks shadowlight! It would appear that it's never too late to learn something new about Windows!

 

In all the years of using Windows 7 I have never created a shortcut from scratch before.

 

I now have an icon on the desktop, however when I fire it upthe Qobuz app is sluggish to useless.

 

Any further ideas anyone?

[shadowlight]

23 minutes ago, serendipitydawg said:

I now have an icon on the desktop, however when I fire it upthe Qobuz app is sluggish to useless.

 

Any further ideas anyone?

 

Sorry, no clue on the sluggishness issue.