Bro you are posting in a mac forum. We don't fanboy for the other side.Operating system market share
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Apple Releases iTunes 12.12.4 for Windows With Security Updates
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I understand but the fact is Windows has majority of market share and don't need to be a fanboy to know that, also this is not just a mac forum, it is for all Apple products, many people like myself mix Apple and Microsoft and post here
you mean it's FINALLY FIXED????? ARE YOU SURE?
This was driving me crazy............
What's inferior about it? It's lossless. I used ALAC starting around 15 years ago for my CD collection because that's what my JVC head unit in my 2004 WRX could play off USB sticks, not FLAC, which outside of Linux had very little support at the time. I've got a nice Mac utility that can easily convert between the two containers (and that's all they are...containers with lossless compression for PCM).
With KODI in my home theater on my Nvidia Shield Pro, it can play either/or while my Apple TV 4K still wants ALAC. The useful choice is clear. But you seem more interested in whining than getting things working (shrug).
Bro...like um, maybe we shouldn't "fanboy" period?
I use whatever works best these days, Apple, Nvidia, Sony, Marantz, etc. even Microsoft if I have a use (e.g. Xbox supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X for gaming. Sony does not). I owe allegiance to NO ONE.
It's 2022 - no one is getting emotional about any of it, but why stop the cheap shots on Windows?
Changing it to another compatible lossless format, eg ALAC or even full-fat WAV, wouldn't be a downgrade, it would sound just the same.
I've bought FLACs. I've successfully integrated them into iTunes / Apple Music by bulk-converting them to ALAC using a third-party app. It takes seconds. Less time in fact than the time it's taken you so far in this thread to whine about the fact that iTunes doesn't play FLACs.
I'm sure - for now.
I downloaded and installed 12.12.4. I attached my iPhone via USB, and did a CTRL-"Check for Update". I let it reinstall iOS 15.5, which went smoothly with no hiccups.
It is clear to me that you do not have an understanding of what FLAC or ALAC actually do. They are far from equivalent.
Unfortunately there are a number of reasons that make converting to ALAC an incredibly bad option. Yes, in terms of audio quality it is also a lossless compressor, so it is the same performance on that front. But it is not a true equivalent in other aspects such as:
• compression efficiency - FLAC files can be smaller, and though only a few MB does not seem like much within the scope of one album, when you have a LOT of albums in your digital library it adds up pretty quickly. Not an insignificant difference.
• software/hardware support outside of the apple ecosystem - maybe this was not the case in 2004, but pretty much everything else supports FLAC these days. It’s been adopted by audio enthusiasts as the format of choice for good reason. On the other hand, ALAC support is not so widespread outside of Cupertino.
• data integrity - FLAC natively features several failsafes and control measures that protect against data loss or corruption. Whereas it can’t even be detected in an ALAC encoded file. FLAC is an archival grade format which is a major consideration when investing in your personal media library.
These are not compromises I would make on every other front simply to have access to my music natively on my iOS devices. But it is still frustrating that these are compromises that we are even asked to make in the first place. Only Apple has this problem, and it’s completely backwards.
It’s rather silly to have FLAC support touted in the official hardware specs but have no meaningful way of actually using FLAC files due to software limitations. I also can’t imagine any reason anyone would ever suggest to use ALAC again if FLAC support were properly implemented. Whatever relevance that format currently has is only due to Apple’s refusal to support the format people actually want to use.
Is there any legitimate reason you feel Apple should not properly support FLAC? I feel that criticism of this anti-consumer behavior is well warranted, but some people like to put their energy into finding workarounds to problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place instead of fighting for change.
Respectfully, this sounds like your “go to the mat” issue. I don’t have a good reason as to why they don’t support it other than, they just don’t. They never natively supported Blu-Ray or HD-DVD on Mac, never supported Flash on iOS, and other things. iOS devices are heading towards a port-less future, and AirPlay re-encodes lossless to ALAC anyway.
If FLAC is your must have, and you can’t do without, I’d get a Sony Walkman player or something similar.
Personally, if I must have the best sounding quality, I’ll just buy music on vinyl and play on a hi-fi. But, to each their own, right? Cheers!
Well, even not considering any of the differences I mentioned upthread, re-encoding everything in my library to ALAC just to play nice with Apple is a time/labor intensive process. Not to mention the additional storage requirements - now I have to store my “real library” for every other use case and an “Apple friendly” copy of it too? How many hours and how many hundreds of dollars to store and manage both? Tack on a few more for a standalone portable media player all because Apple has a substandard product?
It’s all a bit silly IMO. All to support a file format they already officially claim to support. Maybe if iTunes had a way to simply convert files on-the-fly when syncing them, that would be fine. I don’t care if they’re in ALAC once they’re on my device. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to turn my whole library into ALAC for the sole purpose of doing that.
If this was the 2000’s and Apple refused to support MP3, and forced you into using AAC (which coincidentally was in fact a better format than MP3, but this is besides the point) there would be many people up in arms about it.
This is the lossless version of that same scenario, except the “Apple approved” alternative to the standard sucks. And it’s not just a hypothetical, it’s really happening.
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your setup look like? What do you play FLAC files on? If Apple is the odd man out, I’d cut it out completely.
I work in audio so I have regular access to a variety of systems, and hi-fi components at home are shuffled out regularly as well, but typically I have some form of network streamer paired up with my NAS, feeding A DAC (right now working on a DIY design around the AD1862) and usually going either straight into power amp (McIntosh MC2505, with Wharfedale Mach3) or headphone amp (also DIY, class A, sennheiser HD650s)
These files are also accessible over other devices or computers on the network. For the car, I have a 1TB selection simply dragged and dropped onto a small drive. It’s pretty easy to add or delete things. No conversion is necessary. It just works!
Now where have I heard that phrase before? Failing to support FLAC is the antithesis of “it just works” in every way. This is a trillion dollar company selling $2000 phones. This is a valid criticism and people should hold them accountable for anticonsumer behavior when they see it.
Ah, iTunes. That program that prompts me to update it every time I boot up my Windows PC...but never seems to fix any of the problems I encounter with it.
A better question is why do you feel the need to take cheap shots at Windows? Some undeserved groupie-like loyalty to Apple? Fanboyism is for children and I'm not a child. Sorry.
So in other words, you got absolutely NOTHING. Every single one of those things up there is grasping at straws. It's not megabytes per song. It's kilobytes at best. It's IRRELEVANT. Data integrity? Give me a break! That never EVER comes up. I've had my library dumped for more than 14 years. I've never lost a single song. It's called keeping backups. When I had a problem, it was the hard drive that went bad, not any particular files. I buy a new drive and restore from backup. Zero loss. Would you like some more straws?
Hardware software support is also nonsense on your part. Every vehicle I've owned supports ALAC including my current Subaru. KODI supports ALAC. So does the apps on my Android phone. What is it exactly that does NOT support ALAC when it's free and open to use??? You're just making things up and acting like a few kilobytes is a HUGE deal. It's a joke. You can easily convert back and forth between the two so whatever arguments you have are 100% IRRELEVANT. Use what you want. I use both and I couldn't care less which format it's in.
You don’t have to be a fanboy to think that windows is a sucky product (it is).
That’s a very 1990s understanding of the situation.
Show, don’t tell.
It’s very easy to dismiss everything as irrelevant when you stretch the facts to suit your story.
Again, the efficiency difference is not on the scale of kilobytes, it’s on the scale of megabytes. Test it out and try it. When you have thousands upon thousands of albums in your library, that adds up.
There is plenty of software out there that doesn’t support ALAC. You really don’t have to look very hard, particularly in the pro-audio world where ALAC is not even a consideration.
You say data corruption has never affected your library in 14 years. Quite frankly, without a CRC32 checksum on every file in your library, you have literally no way of knowing what has or hasn’t happened to your data. FLAC has one on every track by default (and files originated from properly done CD rips also have similar info stored in a .log file)
It’s not unheard of for bits to flip in storage, or for data to get corrupted on disk migrations, for RAM errors to corrupt files on write operations, or for any number of things that can affect the integrity of your data. And it isn’t lossless if the data has been altered or discarded in any way. I can pull up PCM audio literally generated over 40 years ago and verify that bit for bit, sample for sample (there are 44100 samples per second in “standard res” PCM, but you should know this) not so much as a single sample was altered from whatever left the studio.
It seems like the same fanboyism you’re accusing others of is leading you to defend Apple instead of rightfully criticizing them for their failure in this regard. Take the same energy you have for discrediting me and ask this trillion dollar company to do better.
There are a few reasons I still use this itunes library after 20 years of maintaining it. Loads of classical and live performances carefully organized with custom artwork, syncing with the ipod nano, home sharing everything from a single central point to various rooms, etc. Apples splintering of itunes into 3 different itunes apps TV, Pods & Music to sell their services isn’t really an improvement, it’s just more disconnected instances of the old database to sort out and they don’t work with ipods at all. In the spirit of Apples software & hardware breaking everything every year or two, I should just throw everything in the trash and buy all new stuff every 18 months, but short of that, the only thing that actually works here is using one of the high capacity (old) intel macs as an itunes server running windows and sharing out across the entire network of devices.
