FLAC for iTunes

There are two parts to this. First you need a QuickTime codec that can play FLAC compressed files, this has been available for some time here http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/

However the above does not support the file format normally used by FLAC files (think of the file format as the Envelope, and the FLAC compressed music as the letter inside that envelope).

This page describes an additional plugin which may solve this for you.

http://barelyfocused.net/blog/2006/10/12/native-flac-in-itunesquicktime/

However, while FLAC is lossless, is fairly widely supported (except without a great deal of effort in iTunes and on iPod) and produces files that are a bit smaller than other lossless formats, I feel it is too much hard work for very little extra benefit. I would instead suggest you use Apple Lossless which works with all the following (some times admittedly with additional plugins).

iTunes (of course)
iPod (of course)
Apple TV (of course)
iPhone
Windows Media Player (yes really!)
Media Center (yes really!)
Xbox 360 Media Extender (yes really!)
Roku Soundbridge
SlimDevices Squeezebox
Sonos ZonePlayer
Foobar 2000
WinAmp
dbPowerAmp
VLC
MPlayer

3rd Rock-

I think I hear where you are coming from. I do a lot of burning/trading of live music & just got my mac. The 1st thing I did was find all the tools I need for what I love. I have found some good stuff for what I need.

1) If you just want to listen to FLAC tunes I got a program called Cog. I don't know exactlty where I got the free DL but it is great.

Here are a few sites that may help.

http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/10/05/a-beginners-guide-to-lossless-audio/

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/06/cog-open-source-audio-player/

http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/09/23/how-to-convert-shn-files-to-mp3-using-osx/

http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/07/02/bittorrent-osx/



2) If you want to convert, I have been using a FREE DL called xACT & it converts EVERYTHING, SHN, Vorbis Org (or whatever that is called).

Your putting the cart before the horse. I don't
intend to save files as flac. I intend to play files
that are already flac. And it's not too little
benefit. It is a common format out there in the
non-Apple world, which is a mighty big world. I had
already tried that first link (xiph) so now I'll try
the second one also.

I said nothing about saving as FLAC, my suggested solution is a playing solution as you requested. However, as I also pointed out EVEN IN THE NON-APPLE WORLD, it is now possible to happily use Apple Lossless, even in Windows Media Player!

By the way, flac is half the size of AIF

as is apple lossless

Apple Lossless sounds like lossless,
FLAC really is lossless. Absolutely identical to the original CD.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/features.html
http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/FLAC


It's up to you if you take this into account. 🙂

Audiophiles are audio lovers, as the term says. I am a music lover.

Apple Lossless sounds like lossless,
FLAC really is lossless. Absolutely identical
to the original CD.

Apple Lossless as its name states is a lossless format like FLAC is. Yes they use different compression algorithms, and arguably FLAC is more efficient (very slightly) in producing smaller files, and doing so with slightly less CPU overhead. But as both are lossless and preserve the original sound data (but compressed unlike AIFF and WAV) they are equal in sound quality.

It used to be that FLAC was indeed far more widely accessible since Apple Lossless is a proprietary format (unlike FLAC), but Apple Lossless has been reverse engineered and is now widely available, even for as I pointed out Windows Media Player.

Maybe you are getting confused with AAC which Apple have described as [near] CD quality. AAC is not the same thing as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), AAC is indeed a lossey format which while superior to MP3 is of course never going to be as good as a lossless format like FLAC or Apple Lossless.

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)