Flac vs Apple Loseless

madeinstein:

Is there any difference in quality between the two?

If anyone asked this question before please point me to relevant topic.. thanks.

If both are perfect rips, then there is zero difference as they are turned back into PCM before playback, and being lossless, the PCM data is identical.ÿ

The only difference is that FLAC is and always will be DRM free, and free to use by anyone, whilst ALAC is Apple owned, and 'potentially' ÿDRM'ableÿ

pudley:

The only difference is that FLAC is and always will be DRM free, and free to use by anyone, whilst ALAC is Apple owned, and 'potentially'  DRM'able 

Thanks.. and FLAC doesn't play on iTunes/Apple TV and  Apple Losseless does only play on iTunes/AppleTV

Have to say that I really like the fact that flac is free. And it is supported by all the software I want to use. The PS3 is the slight fly in the ointment....but TVersity provides a convenient work around. I'd like to fix that issue more permanently.

Have to say that if I was using a Mac, I'd be iTunes all the way. As I'm using a PC, iTunes would be my last choice.

I'm really dissapointed with PS3 as media center.. The trailers section on PS3 network is so so rubbish! I was hoping that PS3 is going to do something like AppleTV but it's not happening.. I do like opensource stuff like FLAC but I'm having less and less time to play with all this configuration and I'm going more towards simple solution and this is what Apple is about.. TVersity is cool.. but I don't want my PC to run everytime I want to listen to music/watch movies.

So anyway my next purchase is AppleTV and I'm going to convert all my music to Apple Losseless (I would prefer FLAC if I could). Then I get AirPort express for my second room and I will use my IPhone to control the thing..

Yeah, I know where you are coming from. I'm thinking more along the lines of setting up network shares and copying .flac files to every device on the network. Can then just play them locally. Trouble is, what are the devices?

Have thought about these. Gigabit ethernet, optical out, small, quiet.

Also thought about PS3 with a different OS. Don't know how difficult it is. Seem to remember a previous memeber saying ubuntu was tricky. And I want Vista or XP. I'll have to do some research.

I think I'm getting old and after spending the hole day in front of the PC I just want something that doesn't need much twiking and just works.

The Eee PC looks cool though.. and is cheap..

I've found Apple Lossless to make slightly larger files than FLAC, but the difference is not that great.

eg FLAC 319.7MB Apple Losslessÿ338.8ÿis a difference of about 6% for the new Bryne and Eno album

The simplicityÿof iTunes, Airport streaming and my iPod / iPhone more than makes up for this.

ÿApple Lossless does not have DRM if you make them yourself. The iTunes Plus MP4 files are also DRM free iirc.

I use MAX on macosx to convert from FLAC to Apple Lossless, it will do the reverse conversion tooÿhttp://sbooth.org/Max/

If you install the boxee modified program onto your Apple TV, then you can play FLAC and a lot of other formats with no fuss.

ÿNo need to convert big collections, and a hell of a lot of other reasons to try it out too!

External USB storage!

Will play nearly all Video Codecs including MKV

FLAC support

Online TV and radio streams fully supported.ÿ

www.boxee.tvÿ

madeinstein:

I think I'm getting old and after spending the hole day in front of the PC I just want something that doesn't need much twiking and just works.

And that is what holds the PC / Mac back from being a mainstream music / video option. Put a disc in and it works - that's what most people want. There's no way of guaranteeing that on a PC or a Mac at the moment.