I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day. I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?


--
Cheers, Rob

Bob Latham wrote:

RJH wrote:

I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC.
https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/convert-flac-to-alac.html

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this. Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?

The first paragraph of that web page says ALAC hasn't been proprietary
since 2011, seems correct

https://macosforge.github.io/alac/

Bob Latham wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:
Bob Latham wrote:

RJH wrote:

I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC.

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this. Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?

ALAC hasn't been proprietary since 2011

Happy with that, still can't see the advantage.

iThings can't play FLAC?

On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day. I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source for
playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if I
sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works very
well as a software server.

Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?


No, not really. More a ridiculous Apple quirk. Just about any media
application will play FLAC files natively except flippin iTunes.

I just can't see the advantage unless it is just that apple don't support
Flac by default which is a short coming of Apple not Flac. There are
plenty of Apple apps that will play hi-res flac.


Yes indeed - VLC is my app of choice. And it has half decent smartphone
support. But it has quirks like erratic gapless playback.


--
Cheers, Rob

On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day. I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source
for playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if
I sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works very
well as a software server.

Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?


No, not really. More a ridiculous Apple quirk. Just about any media
application will play FLAC files natively except flippin iTunes.

I just can't see the advantage unless it is just that apple don't support
Flac by default which is a short coming of Apple not Flac. There are
plenty of Apple apps that will play hi-res flac.


Yes indeed - VLC is my app of choice. And it has half decent smartphone
support. But it has quirks like erratic gapless playback.

Try Nightingale (http://getnightingale.com/) It works perfectly on a
Mac, can construct a database from the file metadata, can play gapless
audio and flac and the scaling of the display can be fudged so that you
can use it at a distance with a wireless mouse.

Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.

Arthur
--
real email arthur at bellacat dot com

On 18/10/2017 23:03, Arthur Quinn wrote:
On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

On 18/10/2017 08:50, Bob Latham wrote:
In article ,
RJH wrote:
I'd like to convert about 4000 FLAC files to 16/44 ALAC. Most of the
FLAC files are 16/44, a few are 24/96, and a few are in between.

Speed isn't an issue - I can leave the PC (or Mac) running all day.
I've
been using this recently to no apparent ill effect:

https://www.mediahuman.com/howto/con...c-to-alac.html

However, I want to be sure that the conversion is as accurate as
possible. Is there a way of checking, or a preferred method?

I'd would love to know why you wish to do this.

With a heavy heart ;-)

I'm going to park my music on a Mac Mini, and use that as the source
for playback through my hifi. It's an old machine so not worth much if
I sold it - but it's pretty much silent and low power consumption.

And the critical thing is that iTunes (the Mac software equivalent of
Windows Media Player - or whatever it's called nowadays) can serve the
music alongside a very capable smartphone app. iTunes is a pain on its
own - I can't get it to act as a simple media player. But it works
very well as a software server.

Â* Am I not correct in
thinking that Flac is open standard and anyone can build devices that
support it and Alac is proprietary Apple?


No, not really. More a ridiculous Apple quirk. Just about any media
application will play FLAC files natively except flippin iTunes.

I just can't see the advantage unless it is just that apple don't
support
Flac by default which is a short coming of Apple not Flac. There are
plenty of Apple apps that will play hi-res flac.


Yes indeed - VLC is my app of choice. And it has half decent
smartphone support. But it has quirks like erratic gapless playback.

Try Nightingale (http://getnightingale.com/) It works perfectly on a
Mac, can construct a database from the file metadata, can play gapless
audio and flac and the scaling of the display can be fudged so that you
can use it at a distance with a wireless mouse.


Thanks for the tip. Seems to work fine. From a quick play, navigating
the ~10,000 tracks is rather clunky, and I would prefer to use it
without a screen - it is attached to a largish TV which I'd prefer to
keep switched off when listening to music.

On which, the smartphone iOS app is no longer available. Also, it's 32
bit - a problem if it doesn't get updated.

Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.


Yes, thanks, one of those things I've been meaning to have a look at and
not quite managed. Again the iOS side of things (I have an iPad and
iphone) can be an issue, although Volumio seems to have it covered.

For now, though, the pain free option seems to be converting FLAC and
using iTunes.

By the way, thanks to the emailer for the tip to check that 'lossless
means lossless' - convert both files to wav, and file compare the
resultant wav files.


--
Cheers, Rob

On 18/10/17 23:03, Arthur Quinn wrote:


Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.

Arthur

I'm doing pretty much that: A Raspberry Pi, external USB disc enclosure
with 2 1TB drives mirrored, Runeaudio, and a Cambridge Audio DACMagic.
Works really well.

On 2017-10-24 19:39:49 +0000, Bob Latham said:

In article ,
Chris Bartram wrote:
On 18/10/17 23:03, Arthur Quinn wrote:


Otherwise, a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+Pro and an external USB
drive is cheap and hard to beat. The complementary smartphone app would
be Rune.

Arthur

I'm doing pretty much that: A Raspberry Pi, external USB disc enclosure
with 2 1TB drives mirrored, Runeaudio, and a Cambridge Audio DACMagic.
Works really well.

How do you shut down the Raspberry Pi?

Bob.

The Runeaudio app has a poweroff menu option which will cause the
Raspberry Pi to shut down in an orderly fashion and remove power from
the usb sockets. In this state it can be left powered up and asleep.
The R. Pi is fitted with a reset button (two wires from a pair of pads
to a membrane switch). It can be restarted by pressing reset.

Arthur

--
real email arthur at bellacat dot com

On 19/10/2017 12:46, Huge wrote:
On 2017-10-18, Arthur Quinn wrote:
On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

snip

I haven't really been following this thread but have you considered a
Logitech Squeezebox? The server software is open source and runs on macOS,
there are soft and hard clients, and although it's obsolete, the hardware
is easily available on eBay and there's a large enthusiast community.


Thanks - happy to give it a go. Just looking at wikipedia/ebay I see a
number of versions. I think the SB3 should do it? I don't think I need a
display.

--
Cheers, Rob

On 19/10/17 17:26, Huge wrote:
On 2017-10-19, RJH wrote:
On 19/10/2017 12:46, Huge wrote:
On 2017-10-18, Arthur Quinn wrote:
On 2017-10-18 16:56:45 +0000, RJH said:

snip

I haven't really been following this thread but have you considered a
Logitech Squeezebox? The server software is open source and runs on macOS,
there are soft and hard clients, and although it's obsolete, the hardware
is easily available on eBay and there's a large enthusiast community.


Thanks - happy to give it a go. Just looking at wikipedia/ebay I see a
number of versions. I think the SB3 should do it? I don't think I need a
display.

That should be fine. There's a smartphone controller client, too, so you
can drive the whole thing from the comfort of your armchair. Or you can
use the web interface on the server.

Why did Logitech scrap this product, I ask yet again!?


The installation and administration of LMS was too geeky for the
mainstream, I suspect.

The system also needed an 24/7 application server with power and noise
issues, where other media streaming devices were content with using just
SMB or DNLA (yuk) on simple NAS things.

As well as Logitech ditching the squeeze hardware line, another sadness
for me is the loss of the remote hosted (and LMS integrated) MusicIP
service that acoustically fingerprinted all of my (and others) music and
enabled an auto-DJ function with uncanny good selection tastes. The
iTunes Genius function is pants in comparison.

But, it's still a worthwhile product for me. Some time ago I even
contributed some software for it. I'm currently building something
in-wall dashboard like to put my SB3 straight in my eyeline while
wibbling on this computer. The current location on the equipment pile
isn't optimally visible from my seat.

--
Adrian C