We are about to change our computer topology to a joint Apple/PC network. Unfortunately MC isn't available on OS X (yet?) so I have to run both iTunes and MC. Currently APE is the format in our system which iTunes can't read. So I was wondering to which lossless format I should convert the data base of music files so that both worlds can access the music. Any thoughts?
In my family we also use mixed environment of PCs, Macs, iPods, Linuxes and more. Here is how we do it.
The master library is managed by MC and stores audio files in FLAC format. This format was selected because it is lossless, quite efficient both in terms of space and processing power, not bound to or controlled by any particular vendor, free, open source, and supported by a number of software applications, hardware devices, and music services. Some artists actually publish their work using FLAC as their primary media. In my judgment (I’m the technology boss in my family) FLAC has the greatest chance to survive in the long term (one or two generations) of all non-proprietary lossless formats.
Regrettably and to my huge disappointment FLAC is not supported in Windows Media Player (PC), nor in iTunes (Mac and PC), and not on iPod. Why these guys cannot just take something that is good and free, and put it in is beyond my comprehension.
Anyhow, the FLAC files are on a read-only server network share accessible by all other computers in my home. Therefore the other PC’s also running MC can access them directly but cannot modify the files. However each user can maintain own subset of music, own ratings, own views and playlists because these things are stored in local MC library on each PC.
For the iTunes and iPods we convert all the FLAC files into MP3 format. We use 320 kbit/s CBR encodings which is the best you can do using commonly supported MP3 variant. The converted files are stored on another read-only server share. The conversion is done by a special application that compares the existence and modification times and then converts only new or modified files. It removes also no longer existing files and maintains a mirror of the master directory tree. It also appends cover images to converted MP3 files which, in FLAC version, are stored in separate files. This is so that these images are also shown in iTunes and on iPods.
iTunes running on Macs or PCs synchronize their libraries against this common MP3 library. This is done by simply using “add folder” command in iTunes and then selecting the read-only MP3 network share. The files that have been moved or removed in the master library appear with exclamation mark in iTunes and have to be deleted manually from iTunes. Some users prefer to copy the entire MP3 tree to their Mac (notebook) and then synchronize.
At last, iPods synchronize their content against their corresponding iTunes.
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Topic: Which lossless audio format for joint use of MC and iTunes? (Read 3858 times)