[strangedaze39]

I tried converting a couple albums from FLAC to Apple Lossless, I can already play FLAC/OGG in my itunes but it takes up more resources to play the flac then the lossless or mpeg,mp3,vbr format and I can't add little things like album art or tags. So in a way itunes native support would be worth the time to convert the 20 or so albums I already have in FLAC.

I'm comparing Nirvana MTV Unplugged against itself one FLAC and one in Apple Lossless. In theory their shouldn't be any difference since they're both lossless, but I can hear a slight volume increase in the Apple Lossless which isn't really a good thing. And the Apple Lossless sounds a little more Twangy is the best way I can describe it, yet it is mostly acoustic guitars. I'm converting the music with iTunes converter and have all eq's and sound enhancers turned off like normal.

Just thought some of you might have feedback or ideas what's going on, and if you have any personal experiences with this.

 

[ph0rk]

likely the player(s) aren't decoding them reliably - if you have tow different player apps there is no telling.

Lossless is lossless - upconvert both to WAV and do a bit by bit compare - they should be identical.

 

[brainsalad]

I do everything, album art and many of the tags in FLAC and using Foobar, Winamp, or MediaMonkey and the system resource impact is neglible. Is it a requirement that use ITunes?

 

[HFat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by strangedaze39 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I can hear a slight volume increase in the Apple Lossless

replaygain?

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ph0rk /img/forum/go_quote.gif likely the player(s) aren't decoding them reliably - if you have tow different player apps there is no telling. Lossless is lossless - upconvert both to WAV and do a bit by bit compare - they should be identical.

What do you use to do bit-level comparisons ? - I can do some primitive checking of wav files in audacity but it doesnt allow really detailed comparisons of file differences.

 

[Shoreman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by strangedaze39 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried converting a couple albums from FLAC to Apple Lossless, I can already play FLAC/OGG in my itunes but it takes up more resources to play the flac then the lossless or mpeg,mp3,vbr format and I can't add little things like album art or tags.

How are you able to play FLAC in iTunes?

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What do you use to do bit-level comparisons ? - I can do some primitive checking of wav files in audacity but it doesnt allow really detailed comparisons of file differences.

Foobar binary comparator: Foobar2000:Components 0.9/Binary Comparator (foo bitcompare - Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase)

 

[shuttleboi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by strangedaze39 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I tried converting a couple albums from FLAC to Apple Lossless, I can already play FLAC/OGG in my itunes but it takes up more resources to play the flac then the lossless or mpeg,mp3,vbr format...

That doesn't seem right. FLAC is known to be much faster to decode than Apple Lossless, meaning it takes up less CPU time. See:

FLAC - comparison

 

[hciman77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Febs /img/forum/go_quote.gif Foobar binary comparator: Foobar2000:Components 0.9/Binary Comparator (foo bitcompare - Hydrogenaudio Knowledgebase)

Thanks

 

[AgainstTheGrain]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoreman /img/forum/go_quote.gif How are you able to play FLAC in iTunes?

i have the same question

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AgainstTheGrain /img/forum/go_quote.gif i have the same question

The Xiph QuickTime Components allow iTunes to play FLAC encoded audio files.

 

[Downer]

Quote:

The Xiph QuickTime Components allow iTunes to play FLAC encoded audio files.

I think this doesn't let you play Flac files,only OGG maybe or I wasn't able install it correctly...

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Downer /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think this doesn't let you play Flac files,only OGG maybe or I wasn't able install it correctly...

It allows you to play FLAC encoded files, but only when placed in a Ogg container. It don't support the native FLAC container.

 

[Downer]

I am just thinking out loud here... would it better to convert flac to wav and then let itunes play it? If not, hard drive space isn't a issue...

 

[Scrith]

Just a guess, but I bet there is some post-processing going on when it plays back a format it supports natively vs. something being played via a QuickTime plug-in.

I recommend comparing the two file formats in a program that is not notorious for screwing up audio, like Foobar2000.