FLAC to an I Pod?

[Womaz]

Can this be done?

I still buy CDs and I rip them to my NAS drive in Flac format.

Can i use my I pod as a music player using FLAC files. This would stop me having to rip the CDs twice.

Any guidance appreciiated

 

[cheeseboy]

unfortunately not. Apple uses it's own format ALAC.

What version of ipod is it. If it's an older one you can look at putting rockbox on it, which would then allow playback of FLAC.

 

[matt49]

Apple devices won't play FLAC files. Your best bet is to download some audio codec converter software. dBpoweramp will do a batch convert. You can use it free for a trial period. There are also perfectly good freeware file converters.

I rip my files as ALAC which plays on all the devices I own. It's lossless like FLAC.

Matt

 

[tino]

Whilst you can't play FLAC you can convert to ALAC. However if you are going to the trouble of conversion for a portable audio device why don't you think about converting to high bit rate (>192k) MP3 or AAC in order to conserve space. I imagine lossless ALAC would take up much more precious iPod memory space for questionable improvement in sound quality if you are using the standard headphone output or Airplay?

I maintain 2 libraries ... one is FLAC for my hifi and the other is MP3 for my phone/portable audio. It's very easy to convert from the original FLAC using software like Foobar 2000, and if you have a large library, just set you computer to do it overnight while you sleep.

 

[Infiniteloop]

Whilst you can't play FLAC you can convert to ALAC. However if you are going to the trouble of conversion for a portable audio device why don't you think about converting to high bit rate (>192k) MP3 or AAC in order to conserve space. I imagine lossless ALAC would take up much more precious iPod memory space for questionable improvement in sound quality if you are using the standard headphone output or Airplay?

I maintain 2 libraries ... one is FLAC for my hifi and the other is MP3 for my phone/portable audio. It's very easy to convert from the original FLAC using software like Foobar 2000, and if you have a large library, just set you computer to do it overnight while you sleep.

I always rip my CD's to either AIFF or ALAC (Apple Lossless) then use iTunes for its library organising abililities. When you plug your iPod into iTunes, it will ask you if you want the files it copies onto it in a smaller format, thus giving you the option of two sets of files, without having to keep both sets on your computer.

 

[steve_1979]

Download a FLAC to ALAC converter off the interwebs.

 

[iMark]

I would convert all the FLAC files to Apple Lossless (ALAC). Since you are using iTunes already to sync your iPod there is no reason not to switch to ALAC. Even hires FLAC downloads easily convert to ALAC.

There are many software options for batch conversions. On my Mac I have used Max for conversions.

http://sbooth.org/Max/

To save room on the iPod I have set iTunes to automatically downsample all files to 256 kbps AAC. That's more than good enough for casual listening by earphones or in the car.

 

[tino]

The OP has a library in FLAC format. We should wait to hear back and understand whether his/her hifi system is capabale of playback using ALAC (and at the sample rates of the original FLACs) ... it's not clear that it is so they maybe better off with FLAC for their hifi and separate conversion to ALAC/AAC/MP3 for the iPod (conversion being performed with or without iTunes).