AAC to FLAC Conversion

[Paden]

Hi all
I've ust found out that I can't scan through AAC files as they're not nativley supported.
What's the easiest/best way to convert from AAC to FLAC & is this this the best solution?
The files are mostly iTunes+ & I'm guessing there'd be no detrimental effect in the conversion to FLAC.
Also I've equalised all these files with mp3Gain, will this adjustment be carried over in any conversion process?

Cheers, Paul

[Paden]

Answering my own question it looks as though dbpowerAmp Music Converter will do the trick.

Cheers, Paul

[Bytec]

Why do you convert lossy format to lossless format? It's a waste.

What platform do you use to run Squeeze Center?

[Paden]

Hi Bytec
I discovered that I was unable to scan through certain tracks on my Classic.
I believe this is due to the fact that AAC is not natively supported & that on-the-fly conversion FLAC has to occur.
If I do the conversion myself, hopefully I'll be able to scan all tracks the same.
I appreciate that I wont be gaining any audible benifit but I shouldn't loose anything should I?
Also I'm using Windows Home Server.

Cheers, Paul

[badbob]

You'll be going from a proprietary locked in codec to a open source one.

[Paden]

You'll be going from a proprietary locked in codec to a open source one.

Hi badbob
*newbie alert* what does your post actually mean? :-)

Cheers, Paul

[ShutterShock]

Recently I've been doing a lot of converting of AAC to FLAC (using dbpoweramp). Results are very good. Once the files are in FLAC, the 'burden' of decoding the music moves from SqueezeCenter to the actual Squeezebox hardware.

Also, with AAC file bit rates up around 256, isn't arguable that audio quality is very close to lossless -- thus making FLAC a natural choice? Comments appreciated.

[badbob]

Hi badbob
*newbie alert* what does your post actually mean? :-)

Cheers, Paul

AAC is Apple codec, so some other standard music players won't play it. It's like comparing ALAC to MP3, all players will playback Mp3 but only ipods play ALAC. For example my iriver h140 plays flac, mp3 and ogg but not aac or alac.

[Phil Leigh]

Hi badbob
*newbie alert* what does your post actually mean? :-)

Cheers, Paul

Let me translate... Apple file formats "bad", Flac "good". :-)

[pfarrell]

Paden wrote:
> badbob;391777 Wrote:
>> You'll be going from a proprietary locked in codec to a open source one.
>
> *newbie alert* what does your post actually mean? :-)

If you ignore the "codec" part, it means going from a proprietary Apple
Corp software product (AAC) to an open source (flac) one.

While Apple may or may not be nice today, and maybe tomorrow, you don't
know. They may decide to charge a fee for using their proprietary
software, that is their right.

Flac is free in several senses. The software is free (no money) and free
to use and change (open source license). So while someone could make
flac$, and could charge money for it, it would not be flac and not be
free (money or license).

This to me is the critical and most important part.

flac is free because the license says it is free.

"codec" is the thing that changes bits. Codec is the general term,
compressor (wav to mp3) is the more specific one.

Flac takes wav/pcm files and makes them be flac files, or vice versa.
Its fast, free and always will be


--
Pat Farrell
http://www.pfarrell.com/