Transferring Downloaded MP3s to Ipod.

[Guest]

I'm a bit of a novice at downloading, but recently purchased some items that are not available in physical form......yet I can't seem to transfer them to my ipod, or even play them (even Windows Media Player won't co-operate). They are Flac files, if that helps...

Anyone any ideas?

[amateur51]

I found this page on Pristine Audio to be very helpful ( I could almost see Andrew Rose's lips moving very slowly for people like me as I read it ).

http://www.pristineclassical.com/More/Downloading.html

Go to section 7 for problems with opening FLACs and to section 8 for a solution

I hope that this helps

[MrGongGong]

Flac files are not mp3s
and (though I dont use an ipod) its unlikely that the iPod will play them
so you will need some file conversion software
you should be able to find something free that does the trick

[Don Petter]

I use FLAC Frontend (free to download) to decompress FLACs to WAVs, and can recommend it:

http://flac-frontend.software.informer.com/

Just drag your FLAC files from Explorer into the the window and click 'Decode'. (I've always left all parameters, which I don't understand, at the given settings.) Unless you alter it, the WAV files will be put in the same subdirectory as the FLAC files.

WAV files, being the full sound files, should be usable for whatever you want, and can of course be played by Media player, though you can always compress them again to mp3s if you want to, using EAC or something similar (e.g. Real Audio converter). Hope this helps. Don.

[Mandryka]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.

The problem I'm now having is that when I download an application, I keep being told that i 'cannot be opened' and then being required to 'search the web' for something to open it with...

Any ideas on what I might need to enable/disable in order to progress....?

Thanks! :)

[Bryn]

One of the admittedly many things that keeps me from buying an iPod is its inability to handle such useful codecs as .flac (free lossless audio codec), .ape (Monkey's Audio) and .mp2 (as used by DAB, Freeview, etc.). It should be possible to convert .flac files to Apple lossless, but how to do it I do not know.

[amateur51]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.

The problem I'm now having is that when I download an application, I keep being told that i 'cannot be opened' and then being required to 'search the web' for something to open it with...

Any ideas on what I might need to enable/disable in order to progress....?

Thanks! :)

Far be it from me to lure you into the ways of seven-year olds, Mandryka but I think that's what you need

[Don Petter]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks.

The problem I'm now having is that when I download an application, I keep being told that i 'cannot be opened' and then being required to 'search the web' for something to open it with...

Any ideas on what I might need to enable/disable in order to progress....?

Thanks! :)

What you need to open a file, rather than run it, depends on the file type. If you tell use this (i.e. in the name, the three letter suffix after the dot) we may be able to suggest what is needed.

[MrGongGong]

Far be it from me to lure you into the ways of seven-year olds, Mandryka but I think that's what you need

I would avoid the whole "file cannot be opened and search the web to find something" because in my experience it never came up with anything that i would want to use

FLAC frontend sounds useful

You have to be careful about "free" software as many things listed as such (and at the top of a google search ) are not
but reading a few reviews of open sources stuff should find something that works

Like Bryn I wouldn't use an iPod (even though for most things I use a mac these days) as I hate iTunes and am not that impressed with the iPods sound quality despite the hype its a bit of an awkward bit of kit in terms of its flexibility

[johnb]

Just a few suggestions for Mandryka: [Edited]

An excellent PC music player that can handle FLAC (as well as most other popular formats) is Foobar. I've been using it for years and it is free. It also has very useful 'tagging' facilities (right click on the file displayed in Foobar and click on properties).

http://www.foobar2000.org/download

I agree with others that FLAC Frontend is a very useful application to code wave files to FLAC and to decode FLAC files to wave. I seem to remember that it is bundled in with the FLAC download from: http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html . (Choose the 'FLAC for Windows with installer' option.)

Once you have the files in wave format you can easily convert them to mp3s, if that is what you want, using Lame. Lame uses the command line but there is an easy to use windows interface called WinLame, which should make the conversion to mp3s quite painless: http://winlame.sourceforge.net/

I don't know anything about conversion to Apple Lossless from wave files but dbpoweramp does include that conversion (together with many others). Dbpoweramp is one of the two most highly regarded and most accurate pieces of software for ripping CDs to your hard drive (the other being EAC) but the Muisc Converter is available as a 21 day free trial (the free trial also seems to bundle in the full dbpoweramp): http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

If you install the dbpoweramp music converter the first programme that comes up is the 'Configuration' programme (not the actual converter) which is a little confusing, but once you just accept the defaults you can then access the actual conversion programme.

[johnb]

NB

I've just been trying out the dbpoweramp Music Converter and it can convert directly from FLAC to Apple Lossless (or to mp3, wave, etc) absolutely effortlessly! It will almost certainly do an interim conversion to wave during the process, but, as a user, you would be unaware of that.

If you want a single tool to convert your FLAC files this seems as good as any. Mind you, you will have to purchase the thing after 12 days if you like it!

[MrGongGong]

John
can you specify bitrates ?

[johnb]

MrG

When converting to mp3 it uses the Lame encoder and there is a sliding bar to select bitrates up to 320 kbps for Constant Bit Rate encoding or up to 240 kbps for VBR. It seems quite a nice interface!

Of course there is no bitrate selection for Apple Lossless.

[MrGongGong]

I'm not a great fan of the Lame encoder as when i've used it on projects (with Audacity) it is a bit unstable
so i tend to use more "high end" audio editors for encoding
but I might give it a go again

[johnb]

It looks as though the "Helix" and "Fraunhofer IIS" mp3 codecs are also available for dbpoweramp, downloadable from their "Codec Central" page, though I have no idea about their relative merits. I mainly stick to FLAC myself.