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How To Play Flac's On a iPod

Asked by Crazysah,

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Neowinian

Advael

Posted
Posted

I have an iphone, and have been able to stream FLACs through the Orb Live application without much apparent loss in quality, or converting the file. However, I'm unsure as to how exactly the streaming is handled. But this may have implications for whether FLAC support can be easily accomplished.

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Grand Master

deletedxyz

Posted
Posted

I suggest using Rockbox's wiki page and forums.

You have three options at this point:

1) Familiarize yourself with Rockbox and replace the existing iPod OS.

2) Use MediaMonkey since it allows a user to automatically transcode your FLAC files to MP3 or AAC on the fly without creating duplicates when transferring to iPod. (Not freeware)

3) Drop the idea of trying to play FLAC files on an iPod and just create iPod compatible music files from your FLAC files. (eats up your hard drive space).

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Mentor

Steeley

Posted
Posted

This is actually quite easy. I convert FLAC to Apple Lossless so I can use them in iTunes all the time. Here's how:-

1. Download and install dBpoweramp from http://www.dbpoweramp.com/download.htm

2. Download and install the apple lossless codec from http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-m4a.htm

3. Download and install the FLAC codec from http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-flac.htm

4. Open dBpoweramp batch converter and navigate to the folder containing the FLAC files.

5. Click convert.

6. Choose the apple lossless codec.

What will happen is dBpoweramp will convert the FLAC files to Apple Lossless. They're both lossless formats so you won't lose quality. You'll also get to keep the FLAC files; dBpoweramp just adds the Apple Lossless files to the same folder.

Once it's finished close dBpoweramp and open the folder containing the FLAC files (which now also contain the Apple Lossless files). Select the Apple Lossless files and drag them into iTunes.

I have an awesome stereo which is why I use lossless in iTunes. But for my iPod I check the option that says convert to 128kbps. There's no point having lossless on an iPod because the quality of the headphones is poor. Checking this option doesn't convert your existing FLAC files, it just makes a second temporary version exclusively for the iPod.

The good thing is with dBpoweramp and these two codecs you can use it forever and a day. It won't expire. The only downside is if you don't purchase it you can't use both cores of your CPU when converting, so it's a bit slower, but only marginally.

Edit:- Just noticed this guy posted his question in March. This is a rehash of a topic no doubt already solved.

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Neowinian

mar9en

Posted
Posted

Hi Steeley, you posted this months ago, but I followed your directions and the converted files did show a loss in quality. I had an album of FLAC files that were going to replace files I already had in iTunes. I converted those files to Apple Lossless per your instructions and dragged them to iTunes. However, when I played my old versions, my new Apple Lossless versions, and my FLAC versions, the first two were indistinguishable from each other, even though one was a remastered version of the other. I thought maybe the headphones I was using was causing it, but then I went to play the FLAC versions, and they sounded much better (they played in VLC). It was strange, because the Apple Lossless versions of my FLACs are nearly fives times the size of the old versions I had in iTunes, yet they sounded identical.

What did I do? How do I get the FLAC sound in iTunes?? :( Also, if I bought better headphones for my iPod, or played the iPod through a speaker dock, would I get that high quality sound?

Thanks for any advice!

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Steeley

Posted
Posted
Hi Steeley, you posted this months ago, but I followed your directions and the converted files did show a loss in quality. I had an album of FLAC files that were going to replace files I already had in iTunes. I converted those files to Apple Lossless per your instructions and dragged them to iTunes. However, when I played my old versions, my new Apple Lossless versions, and my FLAC versions, the first two were indistinguishable from each other, even though one was a remastered version of the other. I thought maybe the headphones I was using was causing it, but then I went to play the FLAC versions, and they sounded much better (they played in VLC). It was strange, because the Apple Lossless versions of my FLACs are nearly fives times the size of the old versions I had in iTunes, yet they sounded identical.

What did I do? How do I get the FLAC sound in iTunes?? :( Also, if I bought better headphones for my iPod, or played the iPod through a speaker dock, would I get that high quality sound?

Thanks for any advice!

I'll do my best to help you. What format were your "old versions" in? You seem to be distinguishing "old versions" from "FLAC" and "Apple Lossless". If your old versions are MP3s that aren't already in a lossless format than converting them to Apple Lossless or FLAC won't improve the sound quality.

Say you're converting a 5Mb MP3 file that's encoded at 192kbps to Apple Lossless...you're still going to have an MP3 with a 192kbps quality, but it'll have a larger file size filled with blank space.

You need to convert FLAC to Apple Lossless (or vice versa), or from the CD to Apple Lossless (or FLAC) if you want to have a lossless format and the best sound quality. You cannot convert from a lower quality file to a higher quality file and expect it to sound any better.

does itunes automatically reconvert them to 192 mp3 like the zune software does if you don't uncheck an box in the settings

You can choose a setting like that for the iPod itself...but that doesn't change the original files in iTunes.

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Grand Master

jonhapimp

Posted
Posted
Oh, and I just had another thought. In iTunes itself under the import settings you need to change that to "import using Apple Lossless Encoder". If you have it other than that it will convert to a lower quality upon import.

that's what i thought, except i don't use itunes i just use zune software

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Collaborator

kiwi89

Posted
Posted
Hi Steeley, you posted this months ago, but I followed your directions and the converted files did show a loss in quality. I had an album of FLAC files that were going to replace files I already had in iTunes. I converted those files to Apple Lossless per your instructions and dragged them to iTunes. However, when I played my old versions, my new Apple Lossless versions, and my FLAC versions, the first two were indistinguishable from each other, even though one was a remastered version of the other............

Ok, when you are comparing these files you need to use the same player.. so go and get foobar2000 so you can compare correctly - you will need the plug in so it can play alac. itunes may have been applying some processing to the music (enhancements and such), this would cause the music to sound worse (itunes just sounds bad imo).

Next, when you are converting files you need to make sure that you aren't converting lossy (mp3, aac, wma etc..) to lossless formats (flac, alac, wav etc..) - this will cause a drop in quality. Converting a lossless format to a lossless format (flac to alac) will cause no drop quality.

What did I do? How do I get the FLAC sound in iTunes?? :( Also, if I bought better headphones for my iPod, or played the iPod through a speaker dock, would I get that high quality sound?

Thanks for any advice!

You can't get the flac sound in itunes from what I know. Maybe there is some way, but normally if you want it to sound the best it can I would recommend foobar or songbird or something like that.

Better headphones would make a great difference, you could easily spend >$100AUD (for something low range) - that should get you something good enough. Personally I wouldn't use an iPod dock and expect great sound - they aren't the best for that.

Hope that helps.

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Neowinian

mar9en

Posted
Posted
I'll do my best to help you. What format were your "old versions" in? You seem to be distinguishing "old versions" from "FLAC" and "Apple Lossless". If your old versions are MP3s that aren't already in a lossless format than converting them to Apple Lossless or FLAC won't improve the sound quality.

Sorry, that was confusing. The "old versions" were an album of songs I already had on iTunes, which I had burned from a CD into mp3s. The FLACs I had were high quality remastered versions of the same songs. I wanted the remastered FLACs to replace the old album. The FLACs should and did sound much better than my old album.

I tried reimporting the Apple Lossless files into iTunes after switching to AL encoding, and the FLACs still sounded better. So I played the Apple Lossless file on VLC, and kiwi89 you are right -- it's iTunes that just doesn't sound as good. This is a huge bummer. I use iTunes and iPod for everything, and an iPod dock to play music (my computer speakers are not good). I guess I will need to invest in something different to take advantage of the remastered sound.

Thank you so much for your help, everyone!

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