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Topic: Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion (Read 6055 times) previous topic - next topic
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Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

I have been building my library mostly by ripping my own CDs into a lossless format (originally wma). I used WMP and synced to my Windows Phone (back then it was Windows Mobile) and during the sync process, WMP downconverted lossless wma into lossy format to take up less space on the device.

That worked fine until I bought a media player which could not use wma lossless. So I converted everything to flac. Then I found WMP did not read flac and found this site and downloaded codecs and stuff and lo and behold, WMP could play back flac. Hooray.

BUT it would not sync it to my Windows Phone or the USB stick I use to play stuff on my car head unit. Damn.

I then bought JRiver and it had issues with detecting the Windows Phone as a device to which it could be synced (I don't entirely blame JRiver as connecting Windows Phone to Windows PC has always been flaky at best).

So very pleased to find out that Win 10 is supposed to support FLAC natively. My PC got the upgrade last week. And WMP 12 under Windows 10 does indeed play FLAC - so far so good.

BUT WMP won't sync FLAC with Windows Phone. I was expecting the same behaviour as with other formats which is WMP transcodes and downconverts to the right format for the phone but it doesn't. (With WMA, yes, but FLAC, no).

So my question is, has anyone else noticed this: that WMP/Win 10 reads FLAC natively but won't sync to Windows Phone by transcoding/downconverting into a format which Windows Phone can use.

At the moment, I am facing the task of converting all the FLACs and WMAs I have back to WAV just to get one, basic lossless format which WMP can use, can be served by my UPNP NAS to my media devices and can be synced to USB for the car and synced to Windows Phone. Thus doubling (nearly) the disk space taken up on my laptop.

Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

Reply #1 –
Quote from: gio300zx on
I have been building my library mostly by ripping my own CDs into a lossless format (originally wma). I used WMP and synced to my Windows Phone (back then it was Windows Mobile) and during the sync process, WMP downconverted lossless wma into lossy format to take up less space on the device.

That worked fine until I bought a media player which could not use wma lossless. So I converted everything to flac. Then I found WMP did not read flac and found this site and downloaded codecs and stuff and lo and behold, WMP could play back flac. Hooray.

BUT it would not sync it to my Windows Phone or the USB stick I use to play stuff on my car head unit. Damn.

I then bought JRiver and it had issues with detecting the Windows Phone as a device to which it could be synced (I don't entirely blame JRiver as connecting Windows Phone to Windows PC has always been flaky at best).

So very pleased to find out that Win 10 is supposed to support FLAC natively. My PC got the upgrade last week. And WMP 12 under Windows 10 does indeed play FLAC - so far so good.

BUT WMP won't sync FLAC with Windows Phone. I was expecting the same behaviour as with other formats which is WMP transcodes and downconverts to the right format for the phone but it doesn't. (With WMA, yes, but FLAC, no).

So my question is, has anyone else noticed this: that WMP/Win 10 reads FLAC natively but won't sync to Windows Phone by transcoding/downconverting into a format which Windows Phone can use.

At the moment, I am facing the task of converting all the FLACs and WMAs I have back to WAV just to get one, basic lossless format which WMP can use, can be served by my UPNP NAS to my media devices and can be synced to USB for the car and synced to Windows Phone. Thus doubling (nearly) the disk space taken up on my laptop.



Why Sync to your phone?  Stream to your phone.  Put a copy of your music into Google Music and let it stream.  You can pin music, so it's available offline.

Or you can roll your own solution with an Ampache or Subsonic server and a client on your phone.  They'll also let you pin music, so it's cached on your phone.

That way, you can keep the FLACs and don't have to worry about syncing.

Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

Reply #2 –
Quote from: apastuszak on
Why Sync to your phone?  Stream to your phone.  Put a copy of your music into Google Music and let it stream.  You can pin music, so it's available offline.


This is not a response to you in particular, but a comment on the many times that I've read/heard the terms mobile connection (3G, 4G, etc, not Wifi), and unconstrained streaming in the same sentence.


I don't know how much different it is in other countries, but overall, I don't think there are gigantic differences.

As a case of study I'll put my case, which is Spain.

In Spain, there is no company that offers unlimited data transfers. There was at much some misguided advertising where they didn't say it was limited, but they reduced the speed to nearly old telephone modem standards.

Nowadays, there is a small company that offers 20GBytes per month, and they are retiring that offer.
Aside of this, the big companies are offering packs of 8GB (and seem they are now toying with 16GB/month), and 50€/month and more. (of course, they pack them with other useless features like watching the TV on the mobile, or minutes of international calls and all that).

It has been the norm the last years to reduce speeds to 64kbps when reaching the limit, but now they are even more greedy. The new speed limit is now 16kbps.  In other words, don't even think of using data for more than texting if you reach it.

And don't ever try to go to another european country and use the data connection in roaming! They have put limits of 60€ or so now, but back just three or four years ago, uninformed people turned to pay 1000€ and more for the consumption of data!


And if this wasn't enough, the two big companies (and probably the third one is going to follow suit), are going to include additional paid Gb per month when the user reaches the limit.

Concretely, let's say one reaches a 2GB limit. They automatically carry you 2€ for 200Mb more.  Of course, they also put a max limit of 40€/month (hey thanks... but no thanks)
This "service" can be deactivated, but they now force the user to ask for deactivation, when it actually was the norm until now.


And that is, of course, if the connection works well (at least this has improved over the years), and if you don't mind a bigger drain of battery due to the trasmission of data.


I do have an SD card in my mobile with most of my music, and sometimes I listen to an internet radio station (for relaxing mostly, since it's not the type of music that i have on the SD card).

If I were to listen to that half of the time that I'm at work during the month, and counting 5 days a week of work, and a 64kbps HE-AAC stream:

----->      64kbps * 3600seconds/hour * 4hours/day * 5days/week * 4weeks/month / 1000000Gbits/Kbit = 18,432Gbits/month

So.... welcome to "mobile connectivity".

Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

Reply #3 –
And to give an answer to gio300zx, i don't have experience with Windows Phone ( but I had experience with Windows CE on a pda and a GPS, so I think I know what you mean).

Nowadays, what I do with my Android phone, and thanks to the usage of the SD card (and the fact that my laptop has an SD card reader), I use a filesync program, concretely DirSyncPro (it is free/opensource, even though that name).

Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

Reply #4 –
@ apastuszak, why sync as opposed to stream? I have about 100GB more than would fit into my OneDrive Music. I use the tube. What JAZ said. Roaming charges when abroad. Playing music on a plane. Windows Phone does not natively support flac so even if it was on my OneDrive, wouldn't work without installing a 2nd player.
@ JAZ, exactly.

I would like to know if anyone has tried Win10/WMP syncing flac to WinPhone 8.1 and found it will or won't transcode for them? In other words do they get the same as me?

I know WMP is not everyone's media player of choice but all I am after is a nice seamless and uncomplicated way to keep my library in a Windows environment that can cope with playback on my laptop, phone, USB drive and media player.

Thanks

Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

Reply #5 –
Your main problem is the dependence on the Microsoft ecosystem. You're pretty much forced to use whatever Microsoft lets you.
Win10 does support FLAC natively, and since Microsoft is aiming for same experience on every platform, I think you will have to wait for win10 mobile to come around to get stuff working via WMP.

Personally, I would just transcode stuff manualy in the meantime.

Windows 10 (ten) FLAC and Windows Media Player device conversion

Reply #6 –
I admit I don't fully understand this topic, but why not use Foobar2000 freeware or something like that and just copy the files over to your portable device using the file copy function?  Or does the device not use USB Mass Storage?  I guess I'm wondering why the "sync" function has to be used instead of just copying the music.  And also, why the dependence upon WMP when there are freeware alternatives? 

http://foobar2000.org

I apologize if I'm off topic or not fully understanding this situation.
Be a false negative of yourself!