Music what media player do you use?

[Wazzerphuk]

I rip everything to FLAC. Quality



Why is FLAC a pain in the arse? It takes seconds to rip a track accurately to FLAC and then I can convert to what I want, when I want. Filesize is all about lossless, if you want quality you need the space. As for compatibility, check the list of vendors offering native FLAC support. Being open source and free of shitty patents works wonders.

Size mainly, compatability second. I'm fully aware that FLAC is loseless, you seem to be saying this like I'm some kind of n00b? That's one of the reasons it's SO impracticle. My current Music folder stands at over 250Gb - a collection of that size in FLAC would be a huge pain in the arse in terms of cost and powering everything. So while I'd like to move to FLAC, it's not viable.

 

[Deebs]

Size mainly, compatability second. I'm fully aware that FLAC is loseless, you seem to be saying this like I'm some kind of n00b? That's one of the reasons it's SO impracticle. My current Music folder stands at over 250Gb - a collection of that size in FLAC would be a huge pain in the arse in terms of cost and powering everything. So while I'd like to move to FLAC, it's not viable.

Oh come on. If you want quality you pay for it, be it the equipment or the storage to accomodate it. You cannot have it both ways.

My FLAC library is now nearing 400gig, I keep 3 copies on 3 separate devices. Do I care about the cost? Fuck no, I care about the quality and the amount of effort put in to rip most of my CDs to FLAC.

Likewise, my amp, speakers and cable costs thousands. If I wanted shit quality I would not invest in it. FLAC is the number one container for those that strive to have lossless audio in a container that no **** can come along and slap a patent on.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

You don't care about the cost because you earn plenty of money.

I'm supposed to invent money to move to FLAC? Or am I supposed to eat? Try living in the real world please and acknowledge that not everyone is in a position to buy 5 1TB HDDs and a monster PSU to power it all.

 

[Deebs]

You don't care about the cost because you earn plenty of money.

I'm supposed to invent money to move to FLAC? Or am I supposed to eat? Try living in the real world please and acknowledge that not everyone is in a position to buy 5 1TB HDDs and a monster PSU to power it all.

Eh?

A 1tb drive is less than £55.

 

[Deebs]

Actually my beef is that you diss FLAC as it is a pain in the arse. It is not. You diss FLAC because of the size requirements to support a lossless format. Much like you may diss NAND cos it cos thousands of pounds instead of £20 like a Bush appliance.

There is nothing wrong with FLAC.

 

[Cyradix]

xbmc on my mediacenter, mpc on the other machines...

 

[Lakih]

Winamp or more often spotify for music
vlc and more often then not xbmc on my Apple TV 2 for movies


And just to join in on the Flac poop flinging... i have everything saved as mp3 atm for the sole reson that i havent had the time to download all that music... again...

Yes Flac is great but i did a test with two audiowhore friends of mine, they couldnt hear the difference between a good quality ripped mp3 and a Flac of the same song (Rhianna - Don't stop the music). I would like to move my whole collection to Flac because there is so many shitty mp3s with aweful quality... but it will take a shitload of time... size is not a factor, as Deebs pointed out, a 1TB or 2 TB disc comes dirtcheap today.

 

[Deebs]

Winamp or more often spotify for music
vlc and more often then not xbmc on my Apple TV 2 for movies


And just to join in on the Flac poop flinging... i have everything saved as mp3 atm for the sole reson that i havent had the time to download all that music... again...

Yes Flac is great but i did a test with two audiowhore friends of mine, they couldnt hear the difference between a good quality ripped mp3 and a Flac of the same song (Rhianna - Don't stop the music). I would like to move my whole collection to Flac because there is so many shitty mp3s with aweful quality... but it will take a shitload of time... size is not a factor, as Deebs pointed out, a 1TB or 2 TB disc comes dirtcheap today.

To be fair it also depends on the equipment that you are listening to the formats on. Cheap audio equipment will hide the fact that it is MP3 or FLAC. Trust me.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Likewise, my amp, speakers and cable costs thousands.

Eh?

A 1tb drive is less than £55.

This is what I was talking about. You live in a world where thousands on audio equipment is acceptable. I live in a world where a purchase of 5 or 6 1 TB drives would be a major purchase and drain all my expendable income for at least a month, if I were to spend on nothing more than essentials. Apologies for not living in your world!

 

[Deebs]

This is what I was talking about. You live in a world where thousands on audio equipment is acceptable. I live in a world where a purchase of 5 or 6 1 TB drives would be a major purchase and drain all my expendable income for at least a month, if I were to spend on nothing more than essentials. Apologies for not living in your world!

Your music collection could live on 1 1TB drive which costs £55.....

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Not in FLAC.

 

[Zenith.UK]

I agree with Waz.
Deebs, you say a 1TB drive is "only" £55. I have to pass up buying the nice stuff because I have to pay for mortgage, council tax, bills and food before even thinking of buying anything for myself. If I want to buy something for myself, I have to plan in advance and work extra overtime the month before the purchase.


I use KM Player for all my media playback on my PC.
PS3MS for watching on TV.

WMP was uninstalled straightaway.
VLC doesn't "feel" streamlined.
Winamp has far more features than I need.
MPC was adequate but had some issues with inidividual videos.
iTunes. Never used it. Never will.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

And if someone were to upgrade to FLAC only, they'd need a new sound card to replace onboard, and a new PSU to power the drives.

 

[Sparx]

i personally cant hear the difference between flac and mp3

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Clearly you haven't spent enough on cables

 

[Zenith.UK]

i personally cant hear the difference between flac and mp3

Now that is down to your playback device and headphones.
I use my phone (Desire) for music and originally I couldn't hear the difference between FLAC and mp3. When I changed to Sennheiser earphones, it totally changed. I can hear a lot more of the subtle sounds and clearer high end sounds. Mp3 sounds "squelchy" on high frequency sounds, FLAC doesn't.
Mp3 flattens bass sounds, FLAC doesn't.
Basically, I can't tell the different between CD and FLAC, but I can tell the difference between CD and mp3.

 

[Sparx]

i use sennheiser HD215 and sennheiser hd25 i dont fuck around with headphones

 

[Deebs]

I agree with Waz.
Deebs, you say a 1TB drive is "only" £55. I have to pass up buying the nice stuff because I have to pay for mortgage, council tax, bills and food before even thinking of buying anything for myself. If I want to buy something for myself, I have to plan in advance and work extra overtime the month before the purchase.


I use KM Player for all my media playback on my PC.
PS3MS for watching on TV.

WMP was uninstalled straightaway.
VLC doesn't "feel" streamlined.
Winamp has far more features than I need.
MPC was adequate but had some issues with inidividual videos.
iTunes. Never used it. Never will.

My point was that FLAC is NOT a pain in the arse just because someone cannot afford to meet the requirements to store them and play them back. It is like saying a Ferrari is a pain in the arse because I cannot afford one. Total rubbish.

And if someone were to upgrade to FLAC only, they'd need a new sound card to replace onboard, and a new PSU to power the drives.

If you want to hear CD quality then yes you possibly would have to replace the soundcard and speakers. How big is your music collection?

Clearly you haven't spent enough on cables

People that care about the quality of their music will spend the right amount on the right equipment to achieve that.

Now that is down to your playback device and headphones.
I use my phone (Desire) for music and originally I couldn't hear the difference between FLAC and mp3. When I changed to Sennheiser earphones, it totally changed. I can hear a lot more of the subtle sounds and clearer high end sounds. Mp3 sounds "squelchy" on high frequency sounds, FLAC doesn't.
Mp3 flattens bass sounds, FLAC doesn't.
Basically, I can't tell the different between CD and FLAC, but I can tell the difference between CD and mp3.

FLAC cannot improve on the quality of the source, it is merely a lossless format.

 

[Z^^]

Winamp it really kicks the lobsters ass?
Vlc
why do you have anything else? thise two do fine playing anything*


*except my 1080p final fantasy advents child at 12gb

 

[Deebs]

Winamp it really kicks the lobsters ass?
Vlc
why do you have anything else? thise two do fine playing anything*


*except my 1080p final fantasy advents child at 12gb

For video I use XBMC on a Mac Mini connected to the TV. Works like a charm

 

[GimmlyThe3rd]

WMP since ever? k-lite codec pack.

 

[GimmlyThe3rd]

I use to have Razer headset and soundcard etc, about £300 worth. couldn't tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and flac. any more money than that to hear a slight difference is more money then sense. Games rocked though and my trance/electro etc, could hear people on BF2 sneaking up behind me in what direction

 

[DaGaffer]

To be fair it also depends on the equipment that you are listening to the formats on. Cheap audio equipment will hide the fact that it is MP3 or FLAC. Trust me.

This. I'd guess for most of us we're a. not in an environment optimised for audio quality (I'd say this is true for 99% of modern houses) and b. most of us don't have decent audio kit either. Its not about investing in extra storage memory, its also about the output.

My point was that FLAC is NOT a pain in the arse just because someone cannot afford to meet the requirements to store them and play them back. It is like saying a Ferrari is a pain in the arse because I cannot afford one. Total rubbish.

Not really, your analogy is actually pretty apt; there are probably a lot of people who could afford to buy a Ferrari, but the cost to them would be their house. And food. Which would be a pain the arse don't you think?

People that care about the quality of their music will spend the right amount on the right equipment to achieve that.

Fair enough. I don't. So I won't. Frankly I can barely tell the difference between CDs and MP3s anyway as I have tin ears.

FLAC cannot improve on the quality of the source, it is merely a lossless format.

And there's the rub; loads of people have massive music collections acquired by...sharing (LOL), they don't have the original CDs. There's literally no point in re-encoding the MP3s, and going back to...sharing, to get FLACs will take forever, or in other words, a right pain in the arse (see above).

 

[DaGaffer]

For video I use XBMC on a Mac Mini connected to the TV. Works like a charm

Does that support MKVs? I usually use my PS3 to watch files on the telly but I find streaming really flaky and I can't watch MKVs off an SD card or the hard disk. I was thinking about getting a Mac Mini (staff discount) or a Boxee box instead.

 

[Zenith.UK]

FLAC cannot improve on the quality of the source, it is merely a lossless format.

Yes, and since CD is considered by most people to be the definitive source material then that is the bar to compare against. The L in FLAC is lossless (as you said) which I always took to be no loss of any sound frequencies.
MP3 on the other hand ditches certain frequencies above 16Khz and uses psychoacoustics to lose sounds masked by other louder sounds. The end result is a small, but noticeable, difference from the source material.

I'm not disagreeing with you about FLAC vs MP3. I was agreeing with Waz that I can't spend money on personal IT infrastructure without planning the expense in advance.

 

[MYstIC G]

Songbird

Really? I've always found Songbird to be awful. Slow, buggy, badly laid out, etc.

Has it had a refresh recently?

 

[MYstIC G]

WMP since ever? k-lite codec pack.

Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) > K-Lite.

 

[Deebs]

Does that support MKVs? I usually use my PS3 to watch files on the telly but I find streaming really flaky and I can't watch MKVs off an SD card or the hard disk. I was thinking about getting a Mac Mini (staff discount) or a Boxee box instead.

It supports everything. They have a live CD version as well. You will not regret it.

No need to transcode

 

[Deebs]

Yes, and since CD is considered by most people to be the definitive source material then that is the bar to compare against. The L in FLAC is lossless (as you said) which I always took to be no loss of any sound frequencies.
MP3 on the other hand ditches certain frequencies above 16Khz and uses psychoacoustics to lose sounds masked by other louder sounds. The end result is a small, but noticeable, difference from the source material.

I'm not disagreeing with you about FLAC vs MP3. I was agreeing with Waz that I can't spend money on personal IT infrastructure without planning the expense in advance.

Don't assume that most FLACs are rips from CDs. Some studios sell FLACs containing the original source material which is of a much higher quality than CDs which are always downmastered (most of the time).

 

[Deebs]

Really? I've always found Songbird to be awful. Slow, buggy, badly laid out, etc.

Has it had a refresh recently?

It's ok but it's not the best. Try it out again.