File Formats

[motley]

Up until now I have ripped and purchased all of my music using Apple lossless however I have just ordered a Synology Nas and need to consider if I need to rip all of my music again I guess in to FLAC as in the medium term a Naim Uniqute maybe on the cards and I want to move all my music files from my PC to the NAS but in a format that will suit everything.

Or do I need 2 copies of everything in different formats

I also use an Apple tv2 with a Ipod touch every now and again to stream music via wifi.

 

[scene]

You don't need to re-rip, there are apps that transcode from one lossless format to another, i.e. ALAC to FLAC, dbPoweramp is a good option - if you're PC (as opposed to Mac) based.

There's also software out there that let's you have the files in one format, and presents them to kit in multiple in the same format.

Personally, with all the Apple kiy, I'd stick with ALAC and hope NAIM start supporting it and look at the transcoding option if they don't.

 

[motley]

Thanks Scene, when you say "other software", is this stored on the NAS? as the reason for the NAS is to remove the need to have the PC switched on.

Thanks

 

[scene]

Most NAS do not do anything more than act as a dumb file server, so no software to convert or stream media files is provided. However, having said that, some NAS (like the readyNAS I have) provide "iTunes streaming software" - which is in reality the free Firefly software - that scans the media files on your NAS and presents them to iTunes as a remote iTunes library using Apple's DAAP protocol (sorry - that's horribly technical).

Basically, Firefly allows you to have FLAC (say) files on your NAS and for iTunes to see them and play them. However, they are only streamed and so cannot be synched onto an iPod, etc.

 

[motley]

Thanks, I can see that there is no perfect solution at this time.

 

[scene]

Yep, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to, too

 

[Pete Shields]

I'm finding it a pain the neck too!

I'm trying to balance between Sonos and Ipod/itunes

I'm in the process of converting all of my CD's to Flac and putting onto my NAS drive.

I also have now created two separate MP3 directories.

The first one is read by sonos and Itunes.

The second one just by itunes and holds the duplicated mp3 versions of my flac files.

As I convert an album to FLAC, I move the mp3 version over to the second mp3 directory if I want to make them available for playback on my ipod.

Itunes can therefore read the Mp3 files and Sonos reads the Flac files and the balance of the MP3's (which I seldom listen to anyway).

Works for me....

 

[scene]

Pete Shields:
I'm finding it a pain the neck too!

I'm trying to balance between Sonos and Ipod/itunes

I'm in the process of converting all of my CD's to Flac and putting onto my NAS drive.

I also have now created two separate MP3 directories.

The first one is read by sonos and Itunes.

The second one just by itunes and holds the duplicated mp3 versions of my flac files.

As I convert an album to FLAC, I move the mp3 version over to the second mp3 directory if I want to make them available for playback on my ipod.

Itunes can therefore read the Mp3 files and Sonos reads the Flac files and the balance of the MP3's (which I seldom listen to anyway).

Works for me....

With your set up, how come you didn't decide to rip into ALAC - which Sonos supports - and use the transcoding option of iTunes v10+ to allow it to transcode the ALAC files to MP3 on synching your iPod?

 

[Pete Shields]

QUOTE: "With your set up, how come you didn't decide to rip into ALAC - which Sonos supports - and use the transcoding option of iTunes v10+ to allow it to transcode the ALAC files to MP3 on synching your iPod?"

I bought my Sonos system about two years ago. Not sure whether versions of Itunes at that time included the transcoding option, so I went down the FLAC & MP3 option. Think i'm stuck with it now as I've ripped about 800 albums to date!

 

[scene]

Not necessarily. With something like dbpoweramp, you can bulk convert all your FLAC files to ALAC in one go. If you wanted to. You can then use the transcoding option of iTunes to convert the ALAC files to MP3 on synching - which does increase the synchronisation time.

It's just a thought.

 

[Pete Shields]

Will the quality degrade on converting from FLAC to ALAC?

Not as bothered about the ipod quality, but want the Sonos quality to stay as good as it is?

 

[scene]

Pete Shields:
Will the quality degrade on converting from FLAC to ALAC?

Not as bothered about the ipod quality, but want the Sonos quality to stay as good as it is?

FLAC and ALAC are both lossless formats - compressed in different ways. When uncompressed they are identical, so playback should be the same.

 

[Lee H]

I always seem to follow Scene on this kind of thread!

I bought a Sonos almost 2 years ago and ripped everything to Flac. I recently batch converted using dbPoweramp to create another AAC library which sits on an external HDD. Now, my Sonos looks at the Flac files and my iTunes looks at the AAC.

I know that iTunes can transcode, but not to the quality I want, plus as it's on an older PC it takes some time - hence the batch convert. Right now, I use an iPhone but who knows what I'll use in the future, which is why I went for AAC over ALAC for my mobile files.

 

[scene]

Lee H:
I always seem to follow Scene on this kind of thread!

I'll type slower next time.
I bought a Sonos almost 2 years ago and ripped everything to Flac. I recently batch converted using dbPoweramp to create another AAC library which sits on an external HDD. Now, my Sonos looks at the Flac files and my iTunes looks at the AAC.

I know that iTunes can transcode, but not to the quality I want, plus as it's on an older PC it takes some time - hence the batch convert. Right now, I use an iPhone but who knows what I'll use in the future, which is why I went for AAC over ALAC for my mobile files.

Yes, I agree it's horse for courses. iTunes is a pain with Sonos when it comes to artwork, and would not be my first choice, if I didn't want to sync mp3 versions of my tunes and videos to the iPad. I wish iTunes did a better job of the artwork and/or that someone would fix up the script that used to work with the older version of Sonos.

 

[PJPro]

Lee H:
I always seem to follow Scene on this kind of thread!

I bought a Sonos almost 2 years ago and ripped everything to Flac. I recently batch converted using dbPoweramp to create another AAC library which sits on an external HDD. Now, my Sonos looks at the Flac files and my iTunes looks at the AAC.

I know that iTunes can transcode, but not to the quality I want, plus as it's on an older PC it takes some time - hence the batch convert. Right now, I use an iPhone but who knows what I'll use in the future, which is why I went for AAC over ALAC for my mobile files.

Seems your problem is actually iTunes. Why not use something else, like foobar2000?

 

[scene]

PJPro:Lee H:I always seem to follow Scene on this kind of thread!

 

[Lee H]

PJPro:Lee H:
I always seem to follow Scene on this kind of thread!

I bought a Sonos almost 2 years ago and ripped everything to Flac. I recently batch converted using dbPoweramp to create another AAC library which sits on an external HDD. Now, my Sonos looks at the Flac files and my iTunes looks at the AAC.

I know that iTunes can transcode, but not to the quality I want, plus as it's on an older PC it takes some time - hence the batch convert. Right now, I use an iPhone but who knows what I'll use in the future, which is why I went for AAC over ALAC for my mobile files.

Seems your problem is actually iTunes. Why not use something else, like foobar2000?

I also have mediamonkey which can sync to my iPhone and transcode. My PC is quite old and not very powerful so it really is my machine rather than the software. Even dbPoweramp took 4 days to convert 11,000 Flac to ALAC!

 

[PJPro]

scene:...Does foobar2000 allow you to synch with an iPod or iPad?...
Aye. Take a look at this.

 

[scene]

PJPro:scene:...Does foobar2000 allow you to synch with an iPod or iPad?...
Aye. Take a look at this.
Thanks for that.

Actually, still being thick here. The link says that iPad supported wih version 3.2 of the software only, I assume that's not iOS 3.2 is it, as my iPad is on 4.21?

 

[Anonymous]

Cant u just download the flac plugin for ITunes/Quicktime? A quick google seems to find one.

Though I dont think this would let u stream flac between devices as Itunes treats all network music as mpeg stream. But for just playing back on various apples there are flac plugins (except the ipod).

If u still want to stream flacs something like iSedora might be useful.