Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[enazarko]

With the incredible proliferation of devices and platforms, each with its own quirks, there's really a big need for configurable format conversion.  Or at least I feel it, since:  I have iPods, iPads that won't play FLAC, but if I convert a 24/192 FLAC to Apple Lossless, it won't play on the iPod or iPad. 

Then there's the Sansa device, and my Microsoft Zune (go ahead and laugh, but the Zune sounds so much better than the iPods...); I can play 14/44 FLAC but not the whole library of 24/XX or 24/XXX that I have.

Then there's the DAC that won't handle 88 or 176... now, I let JRiver convert on the fly for that, but really I'd like to do a one timer.

Until the world catches up, which it may NEVER do, I find the lack of built in configuration for format conversion to be a PITA problem, and strange given how much smart functionality is built into JRiver to deal with other of the insanities that the digital world is currently going through.

It appears that if I'm willing to figure out how to use an external converter with a command line interface, I may be able to pull this off... but command line interface? Really?  Even my mainframe tools aren't command line any more (ok, some are, but a decreasing number of them...)

I own licenses for both JRiver Windows and JRiver Mac... I only own JRiver Mac to deal with the FLAC on Mac problem.  But, even then, it'd be so nice to be able to spool out a bunch of 14/44 FLAC or Apple Lossless for my work laptop simply to save space on the hard disk that my cheap employer has specified for my computer.

Thanks.

[whatsup]

ya know what I did...I put all my flac to be for back up purposes only and have a double file of mp3 that are the play files and it is difficult to tell the difference playing either of the identical files...and I have no problems now when I need to add music to my sansa or my daughters ipad or my sons ipod or my wifes zune. Just a thought!

Thanks.

[Neco]

That's what I did too.

I just use  MP3 with VBR set to Extreme (-V 0 --vbr-new).   For the most part, everything is pretty much transparent.    MP3 may be an old format, but people really don't give it enough credit.    The main reason people choose another lossy format over MP3 seems to be  file size.    But I have a 120gb classic so its not really an issue for me at this point.

So I just tell JRiver to convert everything to  MP3 with my VBR settings.   The great part is,  MP3 is so well established that most any device people own will also support stuff like  Gapless playback for MP3.

As for command line apps.   If you actually look at the tools most programs use, that aren't proprietary,  they are almost always  command line tools.   Even those proprietary ones, for all we know may simply be hiding the command-line window.   But it's really a non-issue  if you just take a given command-line encoder  (LAME, Nero aacenc,  etc) and use one of the plethora of GUI's available for it to  quickly build a custom command line,  then just copy & paste into your JRiver config.   You could argue that the ability to use command-line encoders already gives us  "configurable conversion".

But  MP3 really is enough imho.    I store my main library in flac when possible, and maintain a  Conversion Cache in MP3  which is only a fraction of the size.   Sync is quick and painless after the initial conversion for newly added files.

[enazarko]

What you both mention is what I've been doing, mass conversion to high quality MP3 (extreme setting) and then I sync to whichever device is traveling with me that week. 

But with a Dragonfly, and USB3 memory sticks, I now have quality listening options beyond my pocket player. Today on a cross country flight I've been A/B between the Dragonfly and my Macbook Pro's headphone port, playing from JRiver on Mac with Westone 5 custom earphones, and it's astonishing how much difference there is between the Dragonfly and the Macbook's output with 24/96 files, and with 14/44 CD rips. There's another very noticeable quality downgrade to the MP3 files, and at least with the handful of mp3 that I have with me today.  The downgrade is enough that there's no real audible difference between the Dragonfly and the Macbook's headphone jack. 

On most portable players, the difference between 14/44 and mp4 is generally small, but it's there, and with a couple of them (Zune, one of my Sansa) the difference is much bigger than on others.

Then there's the new category of high def portable audio players (finally), most of which limit out at 24/96, and I've got a fair amount of 24/192 and 176.  I travel every week, away from home for four or five days, so my portable devices are my primary audio enjoyment.

Until we get through this transitional period of devices finally improving beyond where they were 10 years ago, I think there's a role for sampling down conversion instead of compression.  The request shows up fairly frequently here and on other music player boards.