wave.Error: unknown format: 65534

[erikparr]

I'm trying to process a bunch of different soundfiles but I run into a problem when pydub tries to load a wav file that is:
96000 sample rate
24 bits
stereo
1 second

at line:
sound = AudioSegment.from_file(file)
returns:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/erikparr/Documents/_Projects/LandscapesStudy/LandscapeStudy/convertAudiofilesToWav.py", line 17, in
f2w.convertAll(60)
File "/Users/erikparr/Documents/_Projects/LandscapesStudy/LandscapeStudy/flac2wav.py", line 107, in convertAll
sound = AudioSegment.from_file(file, frame_rate=48000, channels=2)
File "build/bdist.macosx-10.10-x86_64/egg/pydub/audio_segment.py", line 427, in from_file
File "build/bdist.macosx-10.10-x86_64/egg/pydub/audio_segment.py", line 460, in _from_safe_wav
File "build/bdist.macosx-10.10-x86_64/egg/pydub/audio_segment.py", line 136, in init
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/wave.py", line 511, in open
return Wave_read(f)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/wave.py", line 164, in init
self.initfp(f)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/wave.py", line 144, in initfp
self._read_fmt_chunk(chunk)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.10_2/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/wave.py", line 274, in _read_fmt_chunk
raise Error, 'unknown format: %r' % (wFormatTag,)
wave.Error: unknown format: 65534

[agieocean]

Can you try downsampling to 48kHz and see what happens? PyDub Python seems to have issues with anything over 48kHZ.

[queengooborg]

Same thing happens with an AIFF file that I have. It matches the info about the WAV file that @erikparr mentioned, that is, 96 KHz 24-bit stereo. Dropped down to 44.1 KHz, and the loading worked like a charm.

[cool-benson]

I'm having the same error for different cause. When I read 5.1 channel aac file it also gives the same error. Following is the setting of my aac:
aac(LC), 48000Hz, 5.1, fltp, 249kb.s

my solution for now is use ffmpeg to reduce the channel to 2.
ie ffmpeg -i 6channels.wav -ac 2 stereo.wav
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/AudioChannelManipulation

[jiaaro]

@cool-benson I think the cause of the error in your case is fltp (the Planar floating point format)

[cool-benson]

@jiaaro but I also checked the stereo one working it also says fltp. Following is the spec.
Stream #0:0 Audio: aac(LC), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 150 kb/s

[Cybernetic1]

A Chinese web site says that it is due to WAV file format, not the fault of ffmpeg.
The solution is to use the sox utility:

sox input.wav -b 16 -e signed-integer output.wav

[cancundeyingzi]

一个中文网站说是WAV文件格式，不是ffmpeg的错。 解决方案是使用该sox实用程序：

sox input.wav -b 16 -e signed-integer output.wav

能提供一下出处么?谢谢