Help Does the EVO support Apple Lossless (.m4a)?

[gweempose]

My entire CD collection is ripped in the Apple Lossless format (.m4a). I tried dragging some of the tracks to my EVO, but it does not recognize the tags, and it won't even play them. I had no problem doing this on my Pre. Therefore, I can only assume that the format, shocking as it may be, is not supported by either the EVO or perhaps by Android in general. Is this correct?

 

[sitlet]

I'm assuming they were ripped with itunes, therefore have DRM built in, and can only be played on itunes.

 

[TheTerrorBeyond]

I'm assuming they were ripped with itunes, therefore have DRM built in, and can only be played on itunes.

I just put an album I ripped in iTunes on my Evo and it works perfectly.

EDIT: I have now ripped and file in Apple lossless and tried it on the Evo and it definitely does not work.

 

[gweempose]

I'm assuming they were ripped with itunes, therefore have DRM built in, and can only be played on itunes ...

They were ripped with iTunes, but they don't have any "DRM built in". It's not as if I purchased the songs from iTunes. They came from my own CDs.

 

[TheTerrorBeyond]

They were ripped with iTunes, but they don't have any "DRM built in". It's not as if I purchased the songs from iTunes. They came from my own CDs.

I just moved an album that I purchased on the iTunes store (David Bowie: Live in Santa Monica '72) onto the EVO and it is playing just fine. Perhaps it is one of the albums that was put up without DRM, but it is working just fine. I don't see any reason that you won't be able to use M4A tracks.


EDIT: I have now ripped and file in Apple lossless and tried it on the Evo and it definitely does not work.

 

[sagedil]

Apple proprietary format working on Android?? Don't see it happening.

 

[gweempose]

I just moved an album that I purchased on the iTunes store (David Bowie: Live in Santa Monica '72) onto the EVO and it is playing just fine. Perhaps it is one of the albums that was put up without DRM, but it is working just fine ...

I'm pretty sure most of the iTunes catalog is DRM free these days.

 

[TheTerrorBeyond]

Apple proprietary format working on Android?? Don't see it happening.

It works and it works perfectly. I just put things that were ripped in iTunes in AAC (M4A) format and they work without question. Just plug your phone into your computer and drop some AAC (M4A) files on it and you will see. It works without a hitch.

EDIT: AAC is not a proprietary Apple format... it is MP4/M4A.

M4A | MPEG 4 Audio Site

EDIT 2: I must note that I have not tried an "apple lossless" track, but I don't believe it uses anything proprietary there either. I believe it still uses M4A. I am checking now.

 

[TheTerrorBeyond]

I just tested an Apple Lossless file and it will not play on the EVO. The file is still an M4A file, but it will not work on the EVO.

 

[pwnst*r]

Not sure if you can do it (I haven't looked) but see if you can convert your apple loss less to FLAC.

Actually, my favorite program for conversion (outside of EAC) is DBPoweramp. Try that.

 

[EarlyMon]

Jeez, all ye of so little Android faith - no Apple codec support, convert.

Sheesh.

Meridian - available on the Market, my fave media player.

Meridian Player Pioneer for Android – Android and Me

BTW -

Listening to Apple Lossless, 2 channel automatic, 44.1 kHz, Todd Rundgren, right now.

 

[EarlyMon]

Let's remember - file names indicate container types - they don't specifically mean anything about what codec the media it contains is in.

.m4a - could be AAC (as already mentioned, non-proprietary (unlike MP3, how 'bout that?)), or could be ALAC/ALE (that is proprietary).

Apple Lossless - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Comparison of container formats - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By the way - when Apple first got attention for the iPod, and did the whole arm-twisting thing to the record labels, and stuck everyone with FairPlay DRM, they thought the least they could do was offer a superior codec for all of that, AAC, rather than the proprietary and by then outdated MP3.

It is a tribute to FUD that to this day, people believe that AAC is the proprietary one, and that there's anything to argue over.

The ONLY thing MP3 has going for it is its ubiquitousness - and that, was all because of FUD.

Advanced Audio Coding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vorbis is arguably better than either.

The best is lossless - and that means either a direct image in .wav or .aiff - or FLAC or ALAC. They're all functionally equivalent because they're lossless - FLAC and ALAC can just save on the storage (a little). Of the last two, it's safe to just pick one by whatever conveniences you most.

My tip of the topper to the OP, gweempose, for having the fortitude to take no prisoners and rip his entire library in lossless.

PS - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_codecs

Wrongipedia is usually dead right on their codec write-ups, by the way.

So far, I like WikiMobile Encyclopedia (Market) on my Evo (left/right sweep for pages), but there are many others, too.

 

[EarlyMon]

EDIT: I have now ripped and file in Apple lossless and tried it on the Evo and it definitely does not work.

Not with the stock player, no - it definitely works with the Meridian player.

 

[pwnst*r]

I'd rather convert than switch media players (unless the media player was the king of all, like foobar)

 

[EarlyMon]

I'd rather convert than switch media players (unless the media player was the king of all, like foobar)

Boooookay...

In this case, the OP's whole library is ALAC, and none of it is playing - so I kinda doubt that switching from the crappy stock player to something decent like Meridian is that big a sacrifice to him.

In his shoes - you'd REALLY convert your whole library just to conform to what came stock with a phone?

Nah - unpossible - you're having a bad day - gotta be.

And, ok, if you REALLY like foobar....

foobar2000: Components Repository - ALAC Decoder

 

[gweempose]

OP here. I installed the Meridian player to see if it would work. It does play the tracks, but it will not read the tags or recognize the cover art properly. For the record, all of my cover art is embedded into each track, so I'm surprised the player doesn't recognize it.

Next, I converted some albums to high quality mp3s using MediaMonkey. As I suspected, they work perfectly even with the standard music player. I guess I have no choice but to re-encode any tracks I want to put on the EVO. This kind of sucks, but at least I won't be taking a big hit in quality since the original files are lossless.

 

[Jensen]

Yep, no ALAC support. There are rumors FLAC will be supported in gingerbread though.

It is also supported in cyanogen mod.

 

[pwnst*r]

Boooookay...

In this case, the OP's whole library is ALAC, and none of it is playing - so I kinda doubt that switching from the crappy stock player to something decent like Meridian is that big a sacrifice to him.

In his shoes - you'd REALLY convert your whole library just to conform to what came stock with a phone?

Nah - unpossible - you're having a bad day - gotta be.

And, ok, if you REALLY like foobar....

foobar2000: Components Repository - ALAC Decoder

If I were the OP: Yes, I WOULD rather convert out of ALAC since the rest of the CD's I get in the future will be ripped and archived via EAC to FLAC and I'm picky about my music collection.

 

[EarlyMon]

OP here. I installed the Meridian player to see if it would work. It does play the tracks, but it will not read the tags or recognize the cover art properly. For the record, all of my cover art is embedded into each track, so I'm surprised the player doesn't recognize it.

That's because it's trying to read ID3 tags - AAC and ALAC use MPEG4 tags. Welcome to the codec FUD wars.

Truth is that .m4a files are designed to store the supported audio layers available in MPEG4 - hence - MPEG4 tags. That's actually correct for the intended container uses.

Meridian supports artwork as an external file in a related subdir. While more efficient, that's a pain when you just want to put a few songs speedy quick on your portable player, yes?

Next, I converted some albums to high quality mp3s using MediaMonkey. As I suspected, they work perfectly even with the standard music player. I guess I have no choice but to re-encode any tracks I want to put on the EVO. This kind of sucks, but at least I won't be taking a big hit in quality since the original files are lossless.

And this is a portable music player with the compromises you'd expect, so a high-bitrate MP3 won't be too bad.

I'd thought you were looking for convenient ALAC playback, but if the convenience of embedded art and ID3 files are important to you then yes, you'll have to transcode.

You can still consider trying for the best of both worlds and transcode to FLAC with embedded artwork and ID3 tags. I understand dBpoweramp is good for that, but you'll have to watch, as I also read that it converts the tag type from 3 to 0 when you go that route.

That takes you back to pwnst*r's original suggestion. I don't use that, he does, so I'd suggest you take his advice on that one.

Meridian does support FLAC - you'll have to try one with embedded art to see if it works right.

Bottom line - you can get there from here.

 

[EarlyMon]

Yep, no ALAC support. There are rumors FLAC will be supported in gingerbread though.

It is also supported in cyanogen mod.

Android Supported Media Formats | Android Developers

I don't expect my desktop OS to support every codec out there, I install them separately or get an app that has them embedded.

So, while Android does not have embedded support for ALAC and FLAC, you can get apps for that.

All I really want to see expanded in future Android is H.264 encoding support - but that's just me.

 

[J03]

I had no problem doing this on my Pre.

I'm assuming they were ripped with itunes, therefore have DRM built in, and can only be played on itunes.

Really? That lazy eh?

 

[dmac250]

Sync Android, PSP, BlackBerry, Pre: doubleTwist with Amazon MP3

 

[pwnst*r]

Sync Android, PSP, BlackBerry, Pre: doubleTwist with Amazon MP3

Cool random link bro

 

[Jay Mann]

You might want to rethink this, or at least make a back up of your music library on another hard drive before you convert to a "lossy" format. Since you went to the effort of ripping only in lossless format (as did I), you surely don't want to lose all the data that gets dumped to make the file so much smaller. Since you can hear the (big) difference between mp3's and CD's (why else would your rip lossless?), why would you think your mp3 conversions will sound any different? Almost all commercial music starts with a good quality master. That doesn't prevent it being ruined when it's squashed. At least if you back up your lossless library, and put the HD on a shelf, you'll be able to change your mind - if not now, then perhaps when you next listen on a better audio rig than your laptop or Android mp3 player.
For me, if there's no lossless player that works on Android with album art and playlists, I'll have to reverse course on my planned move from iTunes. Hope one of you guys has the answer.

 

[Schanz]

Searching these forums for an answer to this question. I ripped a loy of cds to apple lossless in m4a and they will not play in meridian even though I can see the artwork. Guess I need to convert them to something else?