I would like to propose an improvement to the handling of embedded cue sheets in FLAC, introduced in version 13.1.0. As far as I understand, the current implementation uses metadata block type 5 (CUESHEET). This results in cue points being exposed as generic chapters labeled Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and so on during FLAC playback. If possible, I suggest revisiting the implementation and instead using metadata block type 4 (VORBIS_COMMENT) to parse cue-related metadata.
Problem solved:
For use cases such as DJ mixes—one of the most common reasons to embed cue sheets—this approach is not informative enough. Track titles and artist names are not displayed by applications, making the cue sheet significantly less useful. In practice, the user only sees numbered chapters instead of meaningful track metadata.
Brought benefits:
This would allow applications to display full track information, making embedded cue sheets genuinely useful and improving the overall appeal of the project.
Other application solutions:
The foobar2000 player already supports this approach for embedded cue sheets, allowing it to display full track information.
Yes, embedded cue sheets are handled correctly when using a local storage source, but they do not work when accessing FLAC files over SMB. My mistake — in my case I was using SMB and didn’t test the local provider first. At the same time, separately stored cue sheets are handled properly over SMB, which makes the issue specific to embedded cue sheets.
And one more thing — and sorry for going slightly off-topic — I’m also experiencing an album-splitting issue when multiple album files contain embedded cue sheets, and even when using file-based cue sheets. I’ve uploaded the second file from that album that I previously shared for reference.
