# Onkyo USB MP3 Limitations



## DaPhault (May 1, 2012)

Hello. Are there any known limitations for MP3 playback from a USB device, aside from what is in the manual (see below)?

I've got an TX-NR809 and just attempted to play an MP3 but receive the error "cannot play". I've played other MP3 media from the device, so we don't have a format issue. The only thing that is "odd" with this particular MP3 is the length; two hours and two seconds. The file is ~220MB. Is there a known issue with either length or file size?

Manual states:

```
MP3 files must be MPEG-1/MPEG-2 Audio Layer 3
format with a sampling rate of 8 kHz, 11.025 kHz,
12 kHz, 16 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 24 kHz, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz,
48 kHz and bitrates of between 8 kbps and 320 kbps.
Incompatible files cannot be played.
```
Thanks for any thoughts. Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place for this kind of question.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Ya, my guess would be the file length is to big. could you chop it into smaller pieces? You can use a free program called Goldwave.


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## DaPhault (May 1, 2012)

Ahh good 'ol Goldwave. Haven't used that in many years. Glad to see them still around. I usually use Sound Forge.

Anyway... after playing around with things, I've figured out the problem. I tried a few things, including cutting down the file without re-encoding, tried transcoding to fix any possible header issues, etc. but still was getting "cannot play".

I had an idea and to test it I put a file on my drive I know played before... and again, got the same error; cannot play. The problem was a result of the file(s) being in the root rather than a folder. After creating a folder and dropping in the files, they all played fine.

Stupid limitation, in my opinion.


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## 8086 (Aug 4, 2009)

Have you considered using DLNA to stream the file to the reciever? Perhaps this may bypass any size limitations. I noticed this worked well with my PS3, which had trouble playing certain large files from the hard drive but not over the network.


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## lccity (Jul 23, 2015)

I have similar problem with my Onkyo NR809 receiver. It can play back most mp3 files (from an USB drive) with some exceptions. These files are not big. Here is the info on one of the files:

General File
Les Miserables[04]-At the End of the Day.mp3
Size 4329 KB (4 MB)
Length 00:04:37
Demuxer audio 

Initial Audio Stream
Format 85
Bitrate 128 kbps
Rate 44100 Hz
Channels 2
Selected codec mpg123

The files are OK as I can play them from the computer.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

LC


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