FLAC files

**Hutch** · 11-08-2006, 05:25 PM

how do I get FLAC files to play in my itunes?

TIA

**dfinn** · 11-08-2006, 05:30 PM

I was playing with this last week as well. I didn't put in alot of time but I couldn't get it to work.

I installed this but couldn't get it working:
http://barelyfocused.net/blog/2006/1...unesquicktime/

I'll probably just end up converting them to mp3 but I'm curious if anyone else has this working.

**Hutch** · 11-08-2006, 05:33 PM

Native FLAC in iTunes/QuickTime

I feel a bit guilty about not publishing this before. But, you know, it was kind-of working, I had some time so I thought I’d re-write it in a way similar to OggImporter. Then I stopped having time. Thus, I accept those e-mails asking about native FLAC support as a deserved punishment.
The FLACImporter.component I’m writing about is actually a slightly modified importer component from Damien Drix’s QuickTime FLAC Plugin. Basically I removed the decoder part (which stopped working properly in QuickTime 7), changed codec IDs to match those found in XiphQT and made a Universal build. As it is, it parses and imports native FLAC files and then the decoding part is done by CAFLAC component, part of XiphQT.
You can find the binary files and source patch here. But read on, because it’s not all that rosy…
The component used to work when I first played with it, and it still does - in QuickTime Player (and a number of other QuickTime-based apps) that is. It doesn’t have all the functionality of the OggImporter, and performance could be better, too. But it works, it plays the FLAC files.
But… you guessed it right: iTunes. iTunes is something else. On my machine iTunes plays native FLAC files fine, yes, but they need to be in iTunes Library already. That is - it won’t (easily) accept new files with the .flac extension.
During my tests I discovered, however, that iTunes will accept .flac files if you set their FSTypeCode to something popular and openable with QuickTime, like ‘MooV’ (original FSType of .mov QuickTime Movie files) or… ‘OggS’! Which is the FSType used by OggImporter component to denote .ogg files. And that’s quite an intriguing discovery, since both components use nearly perfectly identical steps to register with the OS! How come?! To test, I created a copy of OggImporter that only uses different FSType and file extensions - and it doesn’t work. So, how’s that? Does iTunes have the ‘.ogg’ and ‘OggS’ hardcoded somewhere? Is my machine’s OS going slightly crazy? Am I missing something? I’ll try to investigate that…
But for now, the summary. The FLACImporter should work in QuickTime (you’ll need the XiphQT package, as well). It should work in iTunes, but there may be problems with adding .flac files to your library. If you can’t add them, and don’t mind a bit of cheating, you can set the FSType of you FLAC files to ‘OggS’ (or ‘MooV’, but ‘OggS’ should work). You can set it with SetFile tool from the developer packages (/Developer/Tools/SetFile). On the FLACImporter page you can also find a simple python script I wrote that should work on a machine without dev packages installed. Setting slightly-not-true FSType should be harmless and is reversible (set FSType to 0). In case I/someone finds a better solution…
Note on the Intel part of the binary: it’s untested. Let me know if doesn’t work. No Win32 binaries either, since I don’t have a machine to compile it at the moment.
So, is it working for you? How about the strange iTunes behaviour - anybody able to shed some light on the puzzle?

Yeah. Homey no speak that language. I like 'click[ing] here to install.'

**intro** · 11-08-2006, 05:34 PM

dont use itunes if you want to play flacs.

use foobar2000 or winamp

**dfinn** · 11-08-2006, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by Pope Benedict XVI

Yeah. Homey no speak that language. I like 'click[ing] here to install.'

I don't think you are going to find a solution that easy. If you do please let us know.

**Hutch** · 11-08-2006, 06:03 PM

Well, I just rubbed some dirt on the back of my monitor and rebooted, and that didn't work.

**dfinn** · 11-08-2006, 06:15 PM

I'm trying to figure out how that might help. You thought that bringing out the inner hippie in your monitor might get your computer to play the phish songs that you downloaded?