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Author Topic: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod  (Read 3986 times)

Rob1954

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MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« on: April 11, 2015, 07:00:11 am »

I am having problems with syncing/transferring high definition/high bit rate FLAC music files to my iPod Classic.  No matter which of the conversion options I select, the files on the iPod sound wierd - slow, like a record playing at 10 rpm rather than 33!!  Am I missing something?
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wibblefish

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Re: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2015, 05:02:52 pm »

just came here looking for a solution to the same problem.
High bit rate flacs (I think it is limited to these) converted to m4a playback super slow on the ipod.
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f.ammollo

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Re: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2015, 03:06:11 pm »

Hello,

the solution is to apply the DSP upon file conversion is order to limit the bit rate... the maximum supported by the iPods is 48KHz,
so I generally convert them this way:

96KHz -> 48KHz
and so on with the others (I try to divide by 2, I don't know if it's better and/or faster)

etc...

just came here looking for a solution to the same problem.
High bit rate flacs (I think it is limited to these) converted to m4a playback super slow on the ipod.
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Rob1954

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Re: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2015, 08:40:16 am »

Hello,

the solution is to apply the DSP upon file conversion is order to limit the bit rate... the maximum supported by the iPods is 48KHz,
so I generally convert them this way:

96KHz -> 48KHz
and so on with the others (I try to divide by 2, I don't know if it's better and/or faster)

etc...


Thanks for replying - was wondering if anyone was out there!! ;)

I realise that iPods can't handle bit rates above 48kHz and have software that can resample high bit rates to the lower rate - this, however, means creating a second version of the music file for use with the iPod.  I understood that MC20 provides the facility to do the conversion "on the fly" while transferring the file to an iPod:

when an iPod is connected, accessing the "Options" tag from the menu, there is a "Conversion" drop-down with a number of sub-options. Under this section is an "Audio" sub-tag having a "Mode" setting including the option "Specified output format only when necessary (including high bit rates)"; also and "Encoder" option which I set to ALAC (the associated "Encoder settings" returns a comment that ALAC has no settings)
 - these were the options selected to do the transfer of a 96 kHz file with the result referred to in my mail.

Normal res (i.e. 44 kHz) FLAC files are transferred okay to ALAC equivalents on the iPod but not hi res ones.

Am I mistaken about MC20's ability to process hi res music files, and can actually only convert 44 kHz formats to ALAC??

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f.ammollo

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Re: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2015, 05:07:22 pm »

Thanks for replying - was wondering if anyone was out there!! ;)

I realise that iPods can't handle bit rates above 48kHz and have software that can resample high bit rates to the lower rate - this, however, means creating a second version of the music file for use with the iPod.  I understood that MC20 provides the facility to do the conversion "on the fly" while transferring the file to an iPod:

when an iPod is connected, accessing the "Options" tag from the menu, there is a "Conversion" drop-down with a number of sub-options. Under this section is an "Audio" sub-tag having a "Mode" setting including the option "Specified output format only when necessary (including high bit rates)"; also and "Encoder" option which I set to ALAC (the associated "Encoder settings" returns a comment that ALAC has no settings)
 - these were the options selected to do the transfer of a 96 kHz file with the result referred to in my mail.

Normal res (i.e. 44 kHz) FLAC files are transferred okay to ALAC equivalents on the iPod but not hi res ones.

Am I mistaken about MC20's ability to process hi res music files, and can actually only convert 44 kHz formats to ALAC??



Hello,

I have the idea that iPods are not so commonly used with MC because later models are even more within their "walled garden" and interfacing wih them is even more difficult (that's one of the reasons, along with the available disk space, I'm keeping my iPod classic !).

About your file transfer problem with hi res music files, e.g. 96Khz FLACs, MC transparently converts them to the ALAC format applying the required downsampling. The resulting files are stored within MC conversion cache (a directory usually within your Music folder, but it can be reconfigured), so there is no way to avoid having another copy of each file, but I think it has the benefit that each synchronization is made easier.

What you need to do, within Conversion -> Audio, is to additionally check "Apply DSP" and then using "... DSP settings..." set the wanted downsampling (or other settings too, there are many interesting ones but I don't think that in the case of a file transfer to the iPod would make sense), see the attached image.

Best regards,
Fabrizio
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beats_works

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Re: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2015, 07:56:49 pm »

Something is definitely not right with ALAC conversion from high res Flac. I've played around with the conversion settings and cannot convert any 24 bit files or even certain 16 bit files without them playing at wrong speed on Ipod classic. Has to be something with the encoding that Ipod is misinterpreting or perhaps doesn't have enough processing power to play back at correct speed?
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Warning: May contain trace amounts of sarcasm known to the State of California to cause irritation.

Chronic

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Re: MC20 problem transferring high bitrate FLAC to iPod
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2015, 06:16:32 am »

I used to convert to aiff and had no problems, now i can't convert to any format and playback on my iPod  :(
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