I'd been holding out for a public domain linux apple lossless decompression solution that would run compfortably on a squeezebox, but this might push me to dual libraries (one flac, one aac for ipod)...
There is a preliminary FOSS decoder for ALE out:
http://craz.net/programs/itunes/alac.html
You could have SlimServer transcode ALE --> FLAC without loss of quality.
That said, I'd much rather people didn't use closed formats.
Agreed!
I don't see much reason to ever use ALE, though it's certainly nice to now have the ability to decode it if necessary. Lossless formats are still too bulky for portable players, so even though an iPod supports it, it doesn't seem very practical.
That leaves AAC and MP3, since the iPod supports them but not Ogg Vorbis. Since AAC seems to give better quality than MP3 for the same data rate, then it makes the most sense to keep your primary archive in FLAC and convert to AAC for the iPod as necessary. Both AAC and MP3 are patent encumbered, so you're forced to choose between two evils.
But if you're lucky enough to have some other portable player that supports Ogg Vorbis, then you can produce Ogg Vorbis versions from your FLAC masters and not deal with proprietary formats at all. That's the route I've chosen by buying an iRiver 340.
--Phil _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
