Preview flac files on desktop with quicklook

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Level 1

26 points

Preview flac files on desktop with quicklook

i have a feeling that when i first got my macbook pro 15" with os x 10.5 leopard that i could preview / listen to flac files on the desktop, with quicklook and without converting them to aiff or any other format.

now i can't get that to happen with flac files at all & can vaguely remember that it stopped when i installed some more software or made a change that i couldn't get back from.

did i imagine this ?

is it possible to listen to flac files without converting ?

cheers,

mark

Mac Book Pro 15" 2.5GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.7), iLife 7, QT Player 7.5, Office 2004

Posted on Jun 22, 2009 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,758 points

Jun 22, 2009 12:05 PM in response to Mark Webber

Nothing that would have come on your Mac as shipped by Apple would play FLAC files, so if you had that capability previously, it would have come from some third-party software and either would have been a QuickTime plugin or would have provided a QuickLook plugin. You might try the Xiph QT Components.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

Jul 12, 2009 7:37 PM in response to Mark Webber

Try Perian
<http://perian.org/#detail>
It adds a lot of file types to QuickTime.

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Answer 3

Mark Webber Author

Level 1

26 points

Jul 13, 2009 2:28 AM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

i'm not sure if you can use perian to play flac files - i already have it and it doesn't seem to be doing much for me.

these programmes can definitely play flac

http://cogx.org/download.php
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24882/play
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

and i always use xAct to convert to and from flac and other formats
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14246

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Answer 4

Mark Webber Author

Level 1

26 points

Jul 12, 2009 4:06 PM in response to Mark Webber

i coulodn't work out what to do with xiph, and i don't know if it's connected but i since realised i could listen to flac files with vlc.

cheers.

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Answer 5

Mark Webber Author

Level 1

26 points

Jun 23, 2009 2:08 AM in response to varjak paw

dave

thanks for your help. i installed xiph but can't see that has changed anything - still not sure how i can play flac files without converting them ...

mark

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