ALAC streaming

dBpoweramp will transcode easily, though, depending on how you ripped in the first place, there may be issues with getting the album artwork out of iTunes.

will dbpoweramp transcode while streaming?

-joe

yep - thought the streaming product of the dbPoweramp family is called Asset upnp. You can download free trials of both in moments. foobar is another (free) product which has upnp streaming capabilities with transcoding.

If you wanted to convert your ALAC stuff in advance, you woulduse the dBpoweramp batch convertor.

How much cost and effort would it be for Naim to support ALAC? The lack of support means I'm probably not buying a Naim box. And yes I do know that I can batch convert. I just don't want too. I bet I'm probably not the only one that feels this way.

quote:

I bet I'm probably not the only one that feels this way.

Yes you are - I asked everybody and turns out you're the only one in the world who wants to stream ALAC to a Naim box. However, I think I read the new HDX understands ALAC so I guess they are going to do it just for you.

quote:

How much cost and effort would it be for Naim to support ALAC?

How much cost and effort would it take for Apple to support FLAC? Zilch.

Apple makes it hard/impossible for others to natively decode ALAC in products. And to add insult to injury they make if difficult to use the most ubiquitous audio formats (WAV and FLAC) with their core software/products.

If its not an Apple issue I would bet that it is a "license fee" in which people dont want to pay Apple to support a codec used by very few people.

-Patrick

the "other" British company supports streaming ALAC btw

ffmpeg (free open source) supports ALAC

I doubt it's a license fee issue

-joe

quote:

Originally posted by jtktam:
the "other" British company supports streaming ALAC btw

ffmpeg (free open source) supports ALAC

I doubt it's a license fee issue

-joe

Decoding ALAC is a bit of a grey area (IIRC)...

Apple never published the specs of ALAC, but some programmers have (by comparing uncompressed and ALAC compressed) worked out how Apple Lossless encodes it's data. I believe there is a grey area about the legality of the ffmpeg ALAC decoding (and other such work).

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:

quote:

I bet I'm probably not the only one that feels this way.

Yes you are - I asked everybody and turns out you're the only one in the world who wants to stream ALAC to a Naim box. However, I think I read the new HDX understands ALAC so I guess they are going to do it just for you.

Well, aren't we presumptuous and arrogant today.
Maybe I should have been a bit more clear about my hopes and desires. It was the Qute and NDX that I was referring to. And forgive me if I boor you but I don't really understand why the ALAC support is just for and ipod and not streamed from an Airport Express.

quote:

Originally posted by Eloise:
Decoding ALAC is a bit of a grey area (IIRC)...

Only if Apple have a patent on a specific part of ALAC decoding, others have said it is based loosely on FLAC so it is unlikely that a patent exists, and even if it does exist X years down the line then it becomes a licensing issue or removal.

quote:

Originally posted by Edot:

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:

quote:

I bet I'm probably not the only one that feels this way.

Yes you are - I asked everybody and turns out you're the only one in the world who wants to stream ALAC to a Naim box. However, I think I read the new HDX understands ALAC so I guess they are going to do it just for you.

Well, aren't we presumptuous and arrogant today.
Maybe I should have been a bit more clear about my hopes and desires. It was the Qute and NDX that I was referring to. And forgive me if I boor you but I don't really understand why the ALAC support is just for and ipod and not streamed from an Airport Express.

My attempt at humour didn't translate - apologies no offence meant.

quote:

Originally posted by Edot:
How much cost and effort would it be for Naim to support ALAC? The lack of support means I'm probably not buying a Naim box. And yes I do know that I can batch convert. I just don't want too. I bet I'm probably not the only one that feels this way.

I'm sure that there are even more people that wonder why Microsoft and Apple don't support FLAC, unless it's because it flies wholly devoid of any shreds of DRM.

quote:

Originally posted by David Dever:
I'm sure that there are even more people that wonder why Microsoft and Apple don't support FLAC, unless it's because it flies wholly devoid of any shreds of DRM.

Because Apple and Microsoft want to 'lock' you into their respective platforms. There exists no universal lossless codec (excluding wav and aiff which have no compression), in the long term it is not going to be ALAC as Apple have not opened it up, it certainly will not be WMA Lossless, so it leaves FLAC. DRM does not factor into music any more (thank goodness).