FLAC support in iOS 11 - FINALLY

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by MrRom92, Jun 6, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio

    I say if Apple sells hi rez, it will be Apple lossless format. I think the flac thing is just to make the player more versatile.
     
  2. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    Very true, it would yes. As of now, there the public beta of HS does not have a new iTunes. I don't think Apple mentioned a new version of it at the WWDC in May. Although there most likely will be a new version with the new OS.

    Fingers crossed that a new iTunes will yield what we all want.
     
    MrRom92 likes this.
  3. Ricardo Cosinaro

    Ricardo Cosinaro Forum Resident

    I use the Onkyo app on my iPhone and iPad when traveling. FLAC files play just fine...
     
  4. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    I rely too much on iTunes smart playlists, ratings, last played, play counts, etc. to use a 3rd party app. FLAC integration to iTunes/Music app would be a welcome addition if just to avoid having to convert things to ALAC. The biggest win for me would be if multichannel flac gets supported by the AppleTV. I can listen to lossless (although downconverted to 16/48) music through the AppleTV with some contortions (using xACT to convert to multichannel ALAC and changing the extension to mp4), native multichannel flac support would be great.
     
    jasn, Jason Manley and wbhendrix like this.
  5. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Having your files sandboxed into one particular 3rd party app rather than natively integrated into the phone's music library is not an attractive option. This is why native support is such a big deal.
     
  6. uofmtiger

    uofmtiger Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Yep, several apps will play FLAC. The only thing new is the Files app that now supports it, but I still find it to be a strange thing to add this late in the game. Maybe they want the HomePod to support FLAC since it is being touted for SQ ?
     
  7. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
    Well, for one thing, FLAC uses a different tagging system than MP3 and AAC. Will Apple go to the trouble of writing a FLAC tag conversion routine for iTunes?
     
  8. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    Probably something an intern could do over a weekend. Why do you think that would be difficult for Apple?
     
  9. Madness

    Madness "Hate is much too great a burden to bear."

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    Why in the wide wide world of sports would you rip to hi-res content and then settle for listening to it in 256?
     
  10. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    It is called "casual listening" (although I do it at 320kbps AAC). Plenty for the car, etc.
     
    SBurke and sallymae_hogsby like this.
  11. Madness

    Madness "Hate is much too great a burden to bear."

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    I'd call it settling for an inferior product, but that's just me.
     
  12. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    Well, I could use my Pono in the car, but I have my iPhone there anyway for Navigation. I can't hear the difference with road noise, etc. anyway and like that it tracks play counts, etc. Plus at my age my hearing is getting pretty bad (almost gone in one ear) so telling the difference is really a moot point). Convenience wins.
     
    SBurke, Madness and Ricardo Cosinaro like this.
  13. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    I don't know how much truth there is to is but I hear that FLAC support is now REMOVED in ios 11 beta 3 and up - can anyone confirm this? Sad if true.
     
  14. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    I just opened a FLAC in the Files app on my iPad that is running iOS 11b3 and it did not have any option to play it. I never tried with earlier versions, but I'm pretty sure that is where the ability was, right?
     
    MrRom92 likes this.
  15. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    Maybe they moved it to iTunes!?!?
     
  16. Bathory

    Bathory 30 yr Single Malt, not just for breakfast anymore

    Location:
    usa
    lossless - flac......same????? no???

    larger better sounding lossless formats.

    why the fuss?
     
  17. Veni Vidi Vici

    Veni Vidi Vici Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    To save space?
     
    SBurke likes this.
  18. Veni Vidi Vici

    Veni Vidi Vici Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    FLAC has been computationally more intensive to decode than ALAC - this is the primary reason Apple haven't previously supported it and went with their own format. But CPUs for recent mobile devices are considerably more powerful, battery management has improved, and I wouldn't be surprised if people have improved implementations of the FLAC decoding algorithm.
     
  19. Madness

    Madness "Hate is much too great a burden to bear."

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    Storage space shouldn't be a consideration these days, but space on a DAP might be. Still, if one is going to pay for a decent DAP that supports hi-res content, stick with hi-res content...your ears will thank you :)
     
    Rolltide likes this.
  20. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    For me personally, there aren't many times I'm using a DAP where I'm in much of a position to critically listen for differences between lossless and say 320K. But I still agree there really isn't any reason to bother with lossy compression. It creates a sort of tedious process by which you have your "main library" and your lossy files. I know lossy might still be attractive for people who are looking to put their entire music library on a DAP and can't do this with lossless, but IMO streaming services check that particular box these days.
     
  21. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    I think so. It was definitely in the Files app but haven't tried any of the betas this time around so I can't say for sure what the exact procedure was. This is a worrying turn of events though :sigh:
     
  22. Eyewire

    Eyewire Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    If you use an iPhone or iPod, there's no need to keep separate lossless and lossy versions of the same songs in your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically create lossy files on-the-fly when syncing to an iDevice. The lossless files in your computer's iTunes library will be untouched throughout this whole process.
     
    Rolltide likes this.
  23. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    My music library on my MacBook Pro (@320kbps) is about 1 Tb. Space is a consideration on laptops. I have a lossless version of the library on a server with a 10Tb hard drive.
     
  24. Steve Martin

    Steve Martin Wild & Crazy Guy

    Location:
    Plano, TX
    Probably some intern working on the Files app put it in there and when management found out, they nixed it since Apple doesn't support flac on any of their devices.

    Not worrisome, just status quo. The rumors that iTunes was going to support flac, etc. were unfounded.
     
    MrRom92 and Rolltide like this.
  25. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    Yeah, that is a nice feature I've taken advantage of over the years. Probably the most compelling reason to use software to sync a DAP vs. copying at the file system.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine