Squeezebox Players

[greenkiwi]

So I just purchased a Touch because it claims to have Apple Lossless playback support, but I can't seem to get it to work.

I have Apple Lossless files, encoded at 44.1kHz from inside iTunes.  I've copied them onto a USB stick and plugged that stick into the touch.  I can successfully play:

1. MP4 AAC files from iTunes Match

2. 96/24 FLAC files

But I cannot play the Apple Lossless files on the drive.  Is this supported?  Is there anything else I need to do to get this to work?  It just says "Problem: cannot open file for: XXXX"

Apple Lossless, 44100 Hz, Stereo (L R)

995.26 kbit/s

44.1MB

This is my Touch Player info:

Player Model: Squeezebox Touch

Firmware: 7.7.2-r9663

Player IP Address: 192.168.0.100

Player MAC Address: 00:04:20:23:c6:d1

Wireless Signal Strength: 100%

[squeezeit]

Are those songs protected with DRM? 

[garymc]

Did itunes ever sell ALAC files, DRM or not? I don't think so, but not sure.   One thing you might try as an experiment is to install LMS on your computer, put those files on your computer (or usb drive, etc.) and then connect the TOUCH to the LMS running on your computer. Will the Touch play those files then? I don't use ALAC files so can't test. Not sure whether the "tinyLMS" inside the TOUCH can handle ALAC. I recall reading about all sorts of odd issues with "tinyLMS" and playing ALAC files in the past.

Another approach is to convert the ALAC files to FLAC. This is lossless to lossless so you don't lose any quality. You can do this with foobar2000, dbpoweramp, or other programs.

Frankly, I find keeping itunes stuff an Squeezebox stuff totally separate is a much better answer.  I too have lots of ipods, iphones, ipads, etc. an do use itunes for those, but I keep a primary library of FLAC, mp3, m4a (where I have no FLAC version of the mp3/m4a) files that I use with SB stuff.  Then I create a mirror of the FLAC files with mp3 versions.  So for itunes, i point it at a library that has lossy stuff.  Anyhow, once set up it is trivial to keep it all synchronized and organized.

[greenkiwi]

---

squeezeit wrote:

Are those songs protected with DRM? 

---

As far as I know, ALAC never has DRM.  In my case these are all rips of CDs I have.

[greenkiwi]

Thanks for the tips.

I have LMS on my NAS and it converts ALAC to FLAC on the fly... and I could always move my entire collection to FLAC, but my real goal here is to be able to use this w/o having to have a computer running.   And iTunes on the Mac doesn't really seem to like FLAC

I guess  I could try it from my Mac with iTunes to see what it sends.

How do you manage to keep your libraries in sync?  This is what scares me about a solution with multiple libraries and formats.

If i'm going to have a computer running, I might as well just keep using the cheaper AppleTV and iTunes/iTunes match.

[garymc]

nope, itunes and mac will never deal with FLAC.  Regarding keeping my libraries in sync. I have about 70,000 files at the moment in my active library. I'm in the midst of a major reripping project so that most everything I have will be FLAC.  In my "old" library I have about 220,000 tracks.  But for now, here's how I deal with the 70,000:

FLAC rips of albums are in:

x:\music\flac\artist\album\tracks......

songs that I have in only MP3 or AAC, I put here:

x:\music\mp3aacONLY\artist\album\tracks....

Songs that are mp3 COPIES of FLAC files, I put in:

x:\mp3copy\artist\album\tracks....

OK. now everything is in correct directory. I use dbpoweramp to do a batch conversion of all my FLAC files to mp3. It copies over all the tags and artwork automatically.  And on these mp3 copies I add a field to the tag called %contentgroup% (which shows up as the field GROUPING in itunes).  In this field I have the text "COPY FROM FLAC".

In Logitech Media Server, I tell LMS that my music library is located in x:\music, so this picks up all FLAC files and all the files that I only have in mp3/aac.

In itunes I tell it that my music library is

x:\music\mp3aacONLY\

So it automatically picks up those files.  Then in itunes I select FILE > ADD FOLDER TO LIBRARY then select the directory:

x:\mp3copy\

This adds all those mp3 copies to my itunes library.

So now my itunes library has all my mp3/aac only files AND all my mp3 copies from FLAC.  And my mp3 copies from Flac can be identified by sorting on the GROUPING field. So if I decide I want to make new versions of my mp3 copies (maybe a lower bit rate) I simply find these in itunes, sort on GROUPING, delete those files from library (and tell it also from harddrive).  Now those files are gone and I can recreate all the FLAC mp3 copies and readd to library.

If I create a bunch of new mp3 copies from my FLAC files, I simply do the FILE > ADD FOLDER TO LIBRARY step again, selecting the x:\mp3copy\ directory. It will scan the entire directory, but only add the new files to your ITUNES. It won'd double count the files that are already there.

All this sounds very complicated, but in reality it is quite simple (even with some other steps I left out that I also do related to adding replaygain values, modifying SOUNDCHECK values, etc.) And when done I have a LMS library with lossless files to the extent possible and I separately have an itunes library with all lossy files for use with my iphone/ipod/ipad.  And note that I do NOT select the "integrate with ITUNES" option in LMS.  As from an LMS/ITUNES point of view I am NOT integrating the two.  More than you wanted to know I'm sure, but what the heck.

[greenkiwi]

@garymc  Thanks for the very detailed description.  That makes a lot of sense.

Is dbpoweramp smart enough to only convert files that aren't already in your x:\mp3copy directory?

Do you point iTunes at the x:\mp3copy directory or the x:\music\mp3accONLY directory?

Thanks again.

[garymc]

---

greenkiwi wrote:

@garymc  Thanks for the very detailed description.  That makes a lot of sense.

Is dbpoweramp smart enough to only convert files that aren't already in your x:\mp3copy directory?

Do you point iTunes at the x:\mp3copy directory or the x:\music\mp3accONLY directory?

Thanks again.

---

yes, i recall that it asks me if I want to overwrite the existing ones and I simply say NO.  Been a while since I created any mp3copies.

You can point itunes at either of the mp3 directories as your itunes library and then add the other one using File > Add to Library > Folder.  Doesn't really matter which you use as long as you are consistent. I use the x:\music\mp3aacONLY directory.

The vortebox appliances I use (basically headless/keyboardless computers running as NAS's that run LMS and serve my music have another approach that is even easier (but I'm just used to using my other approach). With the VBAs, you click on a button on the webGUI (the way you control the VBA), and tell it to create a mirror image of your FLAC directory as mp3 files. It does this, only creating mp3 files when ones don't exist.  So with the VBA approach, one can always keep a perfect mp3 mirror of your FLAC files by clicking a single button.