Is Apple lossless a mistake?

[roger06]

All my CDs are ripped to my NAS in Apple lossless. This works fine for streaming to my Apple TV. However, it seems no other devices such as Sony BD player, Samsung phone or Nexus tablet will play them.

Do i need to convert or re-rip them? It seems Apple lossless is the only format that preserves the track / artist / album info.

Advice appreciated...

 

[Andrew Everard]

Do i need to convert or re-rip them? It seems Apple lossless is the only format that preserves the track / artist / album info.

FLAC will do the same, but then your ATV will turn its nose up at your tracks and won't play them. One solution might be to get a media server package on the NAS able to transcode on the fly, so you point your non-Apple devices at that one, and they see a format they can handle.

I believe the Synology can be set up to transcode to PCM on the fly, which would be a solution, but I'm not entirely sure about the set-up for this. Will do some reading and come back to you – unless a Synology owner would like to chime in?

 

[roger06]

Sorry, should have mentioned it's a jailbroken ATV running XBMC which I believe will play FLAC...

 

[roger06]

Ah, but iTunes won't convert to FLAC. Grrrr...

 

[cheeseboy]

I think XBMC supports ALAC (apples lossless) so not a problem 🙂

 

[roger06]

I think XBMC supports ALAC (apples lossless) so not a problem 🙂

Yes, that's not the problem though. None of my other devices seem to want to play it...

 

[DandyCobalt]

Ah, the joys of digital music :wall:

My CD player plays CDs and my turntable plays vinyl :clap:

 

[BronC]

There are android music players that claim to support apple lossless. Here is one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.avs234&hl=en Its called andLess.

 

[6th.replicant]

Ah, the joys of digital music :wall:

My CD player plays CDs and my turntable plays vinyl :clap:

Hmm... after a morning of router/wi-fi grief and endless AirPort re-sets - hear what your saying :wall:

 

[roger06]

Ah, the joys of digital music :wall:

My CD player plays CDs and my turntable plays vinyl :clap:

Where's the fun in that? :dance:

 

[cheeseboy]

I think XBMC supports ALAC (apples lossless) so not a problem 🙂

Yes, that's not the problem though. None of my other devices seem to want to play it...

sorry, ignore me 🙂

 

[scene]

Ah, the joys of digital music :wall:

My CD player plays CDs and my turntable plays vinyl :clap:

Hmm... after a morning of router/wi-fi grief and endless AirPort re-sets - hear what your saying :wall:

With my turntable plugged into my Sonos, I can play my vinyl in any room in the house, without ripping (vinyl heaven!) Can't remember the last time I had to reset my router or sonos (probably just put a jinx on the whole thing! :doh: )

 

[MajorFubar]

Is Apple lossless a mistake?

only if the need to stream via incompatible hardware is an important consideration. Which is a bit of a lame answer, but it's the determining factor. I chose Apple Lossless because I knew I'd only ever want to stream via Apple hardware (that and the fact FLAC isn't natively supported on Apple devices). Tools like XLD and Max will bulk-convert for use with incompatible hardware.

 

[AnotherJoe]

If you're likely to buy an amp or blu-ray that supports FLAC & DLNA then I would suggest FLAC as the way to go.

Then theres no need for extra kit like ATVs and the like.

As for your Android phone/tablet not playing ALAC - get Poweramp from the Google store.

 

[Dan Turner]

Hi Roger,

Andrew is right, what you need is a media server which will transcode the ALAC files on the fly into something that your other devices are compatible with. I have the same NAS as you and I believe that the standard Synology media server can do this and transcode to PCM - you can install that from the package centre within the DSM interface.

Alternatively I use Serviio (for video, but same principles apply) which has been packaged for the DS212j, and with that you can specify a renderer profile for each device so that it tailors its transcoding behaviour to exactly what that device can handle. There are instructions for how to install serviio on the web and the serviio forum is very good.

Back to your OP, because 'lossless' is just that, if you wanted to change formats then you could convert the files to another lossless or uncompressed format with no detrimental effect. Tools like Max for the Mac will do that, or even iTunes as long as you stick with formats it likes. No need for re-ripping!

hope that helps!

Dan

Edit - just seen your other thread about Twonky. That should enable you to do a similar thing, although the CPU overhead doesn't sound good, so I'd recommend giving the standard Synology media server a go, or Serviio.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Ah, the joys of digital music :wall:

My CD player plays CDs and my turntable plays vinyl :clap:

Where's the fun in that? :dance:

Listening 🙂

 

[manicm]

Do i need to convert or re-rip them? It seems Apple lossless is the only format that preserves the track / artist / album info.

FLAC will do the same, but then your ATV will turn its nose up at your tracks and won't play them. One solution might be to get a media server package on the NAS able to transcode on the fly, so you point your non-Apple devices at that one, and they see a format they can handle.

I believe the Synology can be set up to transcode to PCM on the fly, which would be a solution, but I'm not entirely sure about the set-up for this. Will do some reading and come back to you – unless a Synology owner would like to chime in?

Will the MinimServer you mentioned elsewhere not do the trick? Seems great.

 

[roger06]

Well I've had a play with converting a few tracks to FLAC and my Apple TV / XBMC plays them fine. So that's an option, but then each time I rip a CD to iTunes I'll have to convert it before sending to my NAS which would be a pain.

However, I've installed the Audio Centre on the NAS and have downloaded the Synology Android app and this quite happily plays the Apple Lossless files so perhaps the problem is solved that way...

 

[Overdose]

Alternatively rip in dual format and manually add the new rips to iTunes.

 

[theexcitableboy]

From the moment I started my digital collection I knew I'd have format issues later on down the line - which was why I ripped FLAC, ALAC and 320k MP3 versions of all my music. Sure, it takes up a little more space but it's saved me so many headaches, what with Android, Apple and Microsoft all under my roof!

 

[Midrangesnareslam]

The majority of my music is stored on my Synology NAS in FLAC format. The iTunes Server allows iTunes (and thus the ATV when iTunes is open on the MBP) to see the library as a shared library on the NAS. I am not sure but I think it converts the FLAC files to WAV 'on the fly'.

Alternative is to 'push' the FLAC files to the ATV using Synology DS Audio app on IOS device.

 

[fr0g]

If I were you I would rip in ALAC and MP3 (320 Kbps).

Play the MP3 where the ALAC doesn't work. They sound the same anyway imo, but you also have a lossless version for archive or transcoding later.