Easiest way to play FLACs / SHNs on an iPod?

[paulhoffman]

Greetings. I mostly convert the FLACs / SHNs I get here to CDs for listening in my car. I now have an old iPod for the office and want to listen to this material on it. However, converting to MP3s, coming up with a consistent naming system, and so on, is pretty damn tedious.

Is there some software that takes a folder of FLACs / SHNs and puts it in a format that is easy to import into iTunes in a sensible way? I gotta be missing something here...

[jdawson]

There's rockbox which allows you to play flac files. My son knows more about rockbox than I do. There may be some limitations as to what generation or type of ipod (video, nano, etc) may use the crack.

Have you thought of just using the ipod as something like a flash drive and using something like foobar or winamp to play the files on the work pc?

[SilverVishnu]

Yeah, my friend uses Rockbox on his iPod. Apparently it's a lot more functional and generally better than the standard iPod OS.

[U2Lynne]

Rockbox - http://www.rockbox.org/


I've been thinking about installing it on my iPod, but I haven't yet. Five has done so and he said to just download the software and read the installation instructions that come with it and follow them and you should be fine. He did emphasize the read the instructions and make sure you follow them part!

[scratchie]

Greetings. I mostly convert the FLACs / SHNs I get here to CDs for listening in my car. I now have an old iPod for the office and want to listen to this material on it. However, converting to MP3s, coming up with a consistent naming system, and so on, is pretty damn tedious.You know you can rename the files from within Itunes, right?

If you're handy with Perl, I once wrote a script for updating MP3 files' ID3 tags based on an "info.txt" type of file. I could upload that if there's any interest.

[Five]

I installed rockbox on my 80GB Video iPod and have never looked back. You can just take a show of a folder downloaded from here, drag and drop it to your iPod as an external drive, then plug in and listen. 16 and 24bit FLAC is supported, you can also read the txt file and view jpegs. I think ape and shn are also supported but haven't tried that yet. Also, I am playing Doom on my goddam iPod. Sure beats the piss out of that 'guys parachuting' game the apple os comes with. ps when you install rockbox its dual boot so you can still use the apple os anytime you want.

go to rockbox.org and look up your model, follow the manual to the letter for installation (its a breeze).

[scratchie]

Wow, that sounds pretty cool. I just recently got a DVD-Audio capable player, and have been thinking about checking out some 24-bit recordings, but this sounds even easier (and more flexible) than learning how to burn a DVD-A.

[Five]

great link about that posted by danlynch over here:
http://24bit.turtleside.com/

this especially looks promising:
http://audioplex.sourceforge.net/

I have to make some time to test if lplex is bit-accurate when it transcodes. Meanwhile, 24bit FLAC files are preferred imo.

[paulhoffman]

Rockbox looks like the way to go. I'll plow through the doc tonight. Thanks!

[Tubular]

DVD-Audiofile is excellent (and free @ the turtleside link) for creating DVD-Audio discs at several different resolutions from 16/44.1 up to 24/192 from FLAC or WAV files. It is a GUI, not command line. There are 9 possible groups, so you can put a 24/48 show in one group, and a few 16/44.1 shows in other groups. Blank screen, no menus with this prog. You burn the .iso it creates.

Lplex is excellent too (and free), but it creates audio only DVD-Video discs with a blank screen. It is command line, but you can just drop a folder of WAVs or FLACs into Lplex.exe and it will author a disc, but it will be one long track. For separate tracks, drop the folder into Lplex_discrete.bat. DVD-Video is limited to 16/48, 24/48, or 24/96. It does transcode to .VOB bit accurately, I have played with it and the log file lists input audio checksums and output audio checksums (they match).

Audio DVD creator makes audio only DVD-Video discs ($40) also, but with a menu. It's great and is a GUI.

All of these programs are very easy to use, similar to burning a CD. :cool:

[scratchie]

great link about that posted by danlynch over here:
http://24bit.turtleside.com/Ha. That's actually the page that first got me thinking about it. What I really need are some recommendations for "essential" 24-bit recordings to check out (although that's probably getting a little far afield for this particular forum thread). (Not that I would refuse any, though, if you just wanted to throw a couple out.)

Rockbox sounds like the way to go, at least at first. Thanks to everyone for additional suggestions on DVD software, though.

this especially looks promising:
http://audioplex.sourceforge.net/I don't understand why it would author as a DVD-video rather than DVD-audio. Is that to make it compatible with more machines?

[U2Lynne]

Ha. That's actually the page that first got me thinking about it. What I really need are some recommendations for "essential" 24-bit recordings to check out (although that's probably getting a little far afield for this particular forum thread). (Not that I would refuse any, though, if you just wanted to throw a couple out.)
If you go to Advanced Search and put "24-bit" (no quotes) in the search field and select Select Titles Only and then select Audio Torrents on the right, you will get a list of all the 24-bit shows we currently have on our tracker. I've always enjoyed gewwang's recordings, but there are several other very good tapers listed there also. You might want to pick one from a band you like and try it out.

[Tubular]

Ha. That's actually the page that first got me thinking about it. What I really need are some recommendations for "essential" 24-bit recordings to check out (although that's probably getting a little far afield for this particular forum thread). (Not that I would refuse any, though, if you just wanted to throw a couple out.)

I don't understand why it would author as a DVD-video rather than DVD-audio. Is that to make it compatible with more machines?

This one is really good:
Radiohead Bonnaroo 2006 FOB KM140 24/96
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=26458
The presence and ambiance is incredible.

Dave Matthews Band concert for Virginia Tech FOB Schoeps MK4 24/48 9-6-2007
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=509521

The last regular (non festival) Phish show: :D
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=510117

Les Claypool 8-11-2007 24/48 better than the 24 bit Schoeps version IMO, cause this is closer and uses omni mics
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=508973

There's some Ryan Adams, moe., Black Crowes, and others in 24 bit also on http://bt.etree.org

www.archive.org has a lot of 24 bit shows in the Live Music Archive

Most 24 bit shows are 24/48 or 24/96, so authoring as video works fine. I would guess that only 10% of people with a DVD player are DVD-A compatible.

[scratchie]

Thanks for the recs. I'll definitely check out that Radiohead show when I get a chance.

[possessed]

What are you using for headphones? Unless it's some nice phones then I don't see the purpose of filling an iPod with large files. If you have good cans, then I digress.

Personally, I've found that 320k is perfect for size and quality and I'm pumping my tunes via some Klipsch speakers. As far as renaming and tagging, I use AudioShell which works nicely. Of course everyone has their own idea what works best for them so with that.... :wave:

[jdawson]

Yea my son does stuff over here ipodwizard.net that has linux, rockbox, and themes for them its very nice

[possessed]

Yea my son does stuff over here ipodwizard.net that has linux, rockbox, and themes for them its very nice
Doesn't it make you feel old that your kids are surpassing your technology know how? :wave:

[jdawson]

Doesn't it make you feel old that your kids are surpassing your technology know how? :wave:

I was nice and showed him this thread. Then he uses my account (he has his own) to reply. :rolleyes:


and who do you think told him about rockbox in the first place? I don't have an ipod, so I have no need to learn about all that. ;) But he is a smart bugger. He spent last Saturday getting our router to work. Had to reset it, lost the password. Did it all on his own. :thumbsup

[possessed]

I was nice and showed him this thread. Then he uses my account (he has his own) to reply. :rolleyes:


and who do you think told him about rockbox in the first place? I don't have an ipod, so I have no need to learn about all that. ;) But he is a smart bugger. He spent last Saturday getting our router to work. Had to reset it, lost the password. Did it all on his own. :thumbsup
:lol

I still have a picture of you from the STG days with your boys. Funny how they grow up. Funnier yet that he is using your account to post.

Hopefully he uses his skills to further his education and score a good job. :thumbsup

And before we get yelled at....
http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/images/smilies/hijacked.gif...PM me if you want to carry on this conversation.

[irishcrazy2005]

So I haven't looked into Rockbox in awhile. Is the battery life on iPods still really bad like it used to be?

[jdawson]

yeah. the battery life still stinks. Games kill the battery fast, movies and flac files.

and eric (?possessed) he wasn't in that pic. Those are my two youngest, now 11 and 10. The oldest will turn 15 in about 10 days.

[paulhoffman]

Back on topic. :-)

Rockbox completely failed on my iPod 3G. When booting, it would get memory errors or just freeze. I tried installing twice with the two different methods: same results. I suspect that it is not well tested on the iPod 3G.

This is not knocking Rockbox: I used it a few years ago on an old Archos system. I just suspect that it is more stable (that is, usable) on newer iPods.

[jdawson]

don't they have different versions for different Generations? I do know some are not supported. What you installed, did it say it would work with a 3gen ipod?

[witkotatanka]

well, I don't have an ipod so I never needed to learned much about them. I don't know what rockbox or anything else would do with respect to names of files. But if renaming files on your pc will help, I found a program called The rename. It will rename a batch of files with a numeric counter. It only takes me 30 secs or less to rename all those track 01, 02, 03... sets to an etree naming scheme, ie artistDate_Tracknum

http://www.herve-thouzard.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=3

There's only one setting for the program I set and that's autosave. This just saves the last naming configuration and saves a few steps. It's pretty easy to use and I wrote a tutorial on how to use it to rename show files. It's a simple app and the tut just removes the learning curve. If someone has a website and would like to post the tut, send a pm.

[Salva Veritate]

Will Rockbox force me to wipe the iPod's HD clean? I assume it would, which leaves me no choice but to leave it with the standard OS. I have 70 GB+ of stuff that I can't back up due to disk space.

[Five]

What are you using for headphones? Unless it's some nice phones then I don't see the purpose of filling an iPod with large files. If you have good cans, then I digress.
well for one thing waiting for everything to convert to compressed audio takes a lot of extra time, especially when all you want to do is listen to some lossless files you downloaded.

I used to go to school with a walkman and a couple cassettes in my pocket... usuing lossless on an 80GB iPod I've got over 100 albums worth right in my pocket. I don't feel the need to squash everything to death to create a playlist with 1,000,000 albums to put on random... maybe its generational? (altho I think I'm about the same age as you :lol: )

[Five]

rockbox will not wipe your drive... you can also use it to find any songs hidden on the drive with strange names like iTunes likes to do then you can play it all in rockbox. and you can still boot into the apple os with rockbox installed, and if you don't like rockbox you can uninstall it safely.

paulhoffman that's strange that rockbox didn't work on your 3G, that version should be much more stable than the 5.5G version I'm running (which is still beta). maybe you could ask over at the rockbox forums about that. :hmm:

[brimstone]

The ipod 3G port is much more recent than the 4/5/5.5G port and thus not as stable and useable.

[bryceb]

Rockbox completely failed on my iPod 3G. When booting, it would get memory errors or just freeze.

I had a similar experience. Did you ever resurrect your 3G iPod? Mine got fried... but I also dropped it on the pavement around the same time, so I'm not sure if it'll ever come back to life. :(

I was using Rockbox on my old Archos before iPods were so ubiquitous, and I liked it back then, but since my last go-round with the 3G I've been hesitant to install Rockbox on my 80Gb iPod.

From what I've read on this thread, it looks like maybe it's time to revisit the Rockbox.

[Five]

my iPod died the other week, no error message, light or signs of startup and I did this trick where you open it and stick a folded business card in there and it works perfectly again (!).

check over here:
http://crunchgear.com/2007/03/05/crunchgear-how-to-fix-an-ipod-that-wont-boot/

for mine I used 'step 3' to get it working. good luck with that

[paddington]

I'm bookmarking that.. if my 5.5Gen ever dies I'd be lost...

[maracat]

I found an easy solution (on my Macintosh). There is a .shn to .flac converter that allows me to convert these .shn files (to .flac). I then put these files into Toast Titanium 8, burn the CD and upload into iTunes without a problem.

Xact 1.62 Audio Compression Toolkit
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14246

Hope this is helpful!

Cheers.

[Five]

^that's a very roundabout way to do it.

I just drag and drop the FLAC files (or SHN files) on my rockbox'ed pod, done. :D

[thearrow3456]

I second the Rockbox'ed iPod approach.

I've had rockbox on my 5.5g for a while now, and I absolutely love it.

The nice features about rockbox:

-Lossless format support
-Drag and Drop audio in a folder and play using the file browser.
-Customizable EQ
-Noise reduction in quiet parts of the song over the apple firmware (at least in my case)
-Crossfeed for headphone listening!
-Customizable While Playing Screen
-Crossfade between skipped tracks
-Remaining battery life estimation
-Full backlight/brightness/fading control
-Other games/apps/jpeg viewer/txt viewer/mpeg viewer
-Etc, Etc. the list goes on and on. If you thought the apple firmware was great, Rockbox somehow still manages to improve upon it.

If you have a ton of music already on the iPod like I did, you can convert the iTunes/iPod database into the rockbox database format. Then you can use whichever firmware you want to play your music.

[lachy_legend]

i have an 80gb ipod classic and i would love to use rockbox but i dont think it supports the new ipods. so i think im stuck.

[Five]

I've got 80GB iPod video 5.5G rockbox works great with it :thumbsup

[lachy_legend]

would it work with a 6th gen 80gb ipod classic?

[Five]

oh drat... you've got the latest gen, where apple changed everything around. they are still working on it (6th Gen) as well as Nano 2nd Gen.

not certain when they released the 6th gen classic/2nd gen nano but my 5.5 was released in late 2006 so everything from early 2007 and back is compatable (probably every model, at minimum all major models).

It was the same for me, when my iPod was new it was not supported yet and the thing sat and collected dust for about a year until there was a rockbox release ready for it. Now I take it everywhere. Anyhow it fuckin rules I just dump FLAC shows straight on it no transcoding.

I'll keep an eye out for the rockbox build for 6th Gen when I'm over there and start a thread whenever that and/or the build for Nano 2nd shows up. As soon as there is a halfway stable build for it I am buying a used 8GB Black 2nd Gen Nano, I really like the size, its bulletproof metal case & you can also record concerts at 16bit/44.1kHz LPCM WAV using it.

my 80GB is nicer for playing doom but I would prefer to use something smaller. I could suffer with the small drive to lose all that weight.

[daddaj]

can rockbox be installed on the ipod touch?

[Five]

hmm... doesn't seem that way :(
http://build.rockbox.org/