New user - help with directory structure?

[simbun]

(18-05-2022 20:49)lyapounov Wrote:  

(16-05-2022 09:27)simbun Wrote:  I don't think FLAC is natively supported on any apple system - I assume because they didn't create it - so you may be making life more difficult for yourself.

I don't understand what you mean by "on a Mac, Flac is not supported".

Firstly, you'll notice I began that statement with "I don't think ..." so I'm admitting that I'm not 100% sure of what is about to follow.

Then you seem to have misquoted/made up what I said. If you look at what I wrote, I said:

(16-05-2022 09:27)simbun Wrote:  I don't think FLAC is natively supported on any apple system

Which I believe is true, is it not?

I think FLAC is the superior format and I would recommend everyone to use it, but at the end of the day you have to be pragmatic about it, most people on their platform stick with the defaults., and the defaults won't play FLAC, will they?

[lyapounov]

(18-05-2022 22:47)simbun Wrote:  

(18-05-2022 20:49)lyapounov Wrote:  

(16-05-2022 09:27)simbun Wrote:  I don't think FLAC is natively supported on any apple system - I assume because they didn't create it - so you may be making life more difficult for yourself.

I don't understand what you mean by "on a Mac, Flac is not supported".

Firstly, you'll notice I began that statement with "I don't think ..." so I'm admitting that I'm not 100% sure of what is about to follow.

Then you seem to have misquoted/made up what I said. If you look at what I wrote, I said:

(16-05-2022 09:27)simbun Wrote:  I don't think FLAC is natively supported on any apple system

Which I believe is true, is it not?

I think FLAC is the superior format and I would recommend everyone to use it, but at the end of the day you have to be pragmatic about it, most people on their platform stick with the defaults., and the defaults won't play FLAC, will they?

As quicktime player can play a flac file, I think you can tell that it is natively supported...

[simbun]

(19-05-2022 14:32)lyapounov Wrote:  As quicktime player can play a flac file, I think you can tell that it is natively supported...

That's not what it tells you at all. It's like saying because VLC can play MKV files on a mac then MKV's are also natively supported! Just because a default application (if that's what quicktime is) plays something, that doesn't mean the OS natively supports it.

I tried to find some documentation about native format support and the best I could find was this. It hasn't been updated since 2017, but that's about the pace apple move at so I assume it's probably accurate.

Not quite sure what you've taken offence to, my intention was just to make sure the OP was aware that there may be implications about using FLAC if they were entrenched in the apple walled garden, even if it just meant they'd need to download apps that did have FLAC support.

[simoncn]

The linked page describes audio support in OS X 10.5 (see the first line). This is a very old version of macOS that was released in 2007 (not 2017). I suggest you update your post to clarify this. From some web searching (for example, this post), it appears that FLAC support was added to QuickTime in 2018.

[simbun]

(19-05-2022 19:42)simoncn Wrote:  The linked page describes audio support in OS X 10.5 (see the first line). This is a very old version of macOS that was released in 2007 (not 2017). I suggest you update your post to clarify this. From some web searching (for example, this post), it appears that FLAC support was added to QuickTime in 2018.

Hi @simoncn,
I said the page "hasn't been updated since 2017" (see Revision History section), and seeing as though 10.5 was EOL'd in 2011 (from what I can see) my assumption was that it was being updated to reflect the latest changes given I couldn't find any newer documentation.

I'm not quite sure why we're still discussing this really as my throw away remark was simply about apple's lack of native support for FLAC in its OS's. I appreciate that they have a few apps that can handle FLAC e.g. QuickTime, Finder and Files e.t.c., but that's far from native OS FLAC support.

[simoncn]

The update in 2017 was to a different page in the document, not the page you linked.

Does any other platform (Windows, Linux, various NASs) have native FLAC support in the way you are defining it? I think the answer is No, but this doesn't mean FLAC is not a good choice on these platforms.

[lyapounov]

cf. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250512648

It shows that starting iPhone 7, FLAC is natively supported by Apple. It is a screenshot of iPhone's technical specification.

[simoncn]

(19-05-2022 22:57)lyapounov Wrote:  cf. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250512648

It shows that starting iPhone 7, FLAC is natively supported by Apple. It is a screenshot of iPhone's technical specification.

My reading of this post is that the OP does not think these published specs are correct.

I have seen elsewhere (for example, this page) that this support is only via the Files app, not "native".

[simbun]

(19-05-2022 22:28)simoncn Wrote:  The update in 2017 was to a different page in the document, not the page you linked.

Or you could look at the fact that the resource (Core Audio Overview) has been updated as an indicator that it's being kept up to date, and that the 'Supported Audio File and Data Formats in OS X' hasn't changed, hence it hasn't needed to be updated.
As I said it was "the best I could find", which still seems to hold true.

(19-05-2022 22:28)simoncn Wrote:  Does any other platform (Windows, Linux, various NASs) have native FLAC support in the way you are defining it? I think the answer is No, but this doesn't mean FLAC is not a good choice on these platforms.

Windows 10 added FLAC support to the default media player (Windows Media Player?).
Stock Androids default media player is Youtube Music (this week) that has FLAC support. Other hardware vendors may choose different defaults but they'll all have FLAC support.
Ubuntu has Rhythmbox as the default media player, which has FLAC support. Other distributions may choose different defaults but they'll all support FLAC.
The default media player in iOS is Apple Music, the only way to play FLAC files natively in iOS is through the File management app.
The default media player in macOS is Apple Music, the only way to play FLAC files natively in macOS is via the QuickTime app or through the File management app.

If you couple this with the fact that a much bigger percentage of apple OS users will stick to the defaults, it becomes a much bigger task for someone in the apple ecosystem to use FLAC, hence I think I was right to warn the OP of potential issues.

Whether you still want to classify macOS/iOS as having native FLAC support is up to you, but what is there is certainly of no use in the content of a discussion around music libraries.

If nothing else, I suppose I now have more knowledge about FLAC support in apple systems, so instead of previously saying:
"but I don't think FLAC is natively supported on any apple system"

I can now say with confidence:
"there's no meaningful native FLAC support on any apple system"

Maybe it's best to just agree to disagree on this :-)

[stefano_mbp]

from my point of view it should be explained in these terms:
Apple Music cannot use flac files (nor dsf)
but a lot of players, macOS installed, do, like
Amarra, Audirvana, JRiver, HQPLayer (to mention few among others)
and library manager like Minimserver and Asset do too.
You can edit flac tags (and dsf) on macOS too, using Yate or DBPoweramp (and others)
Be aware that HQPlayer, even if it runs on macOS, doesn’t give support for alac files, even if Alac is “natively supported” by macOS …
I think that speaking about “native support” is quite pointless, as it mainly depends on which app/player you’ll use.
The same is on iOS where you can play flac files (and dsf too) using Onkyo HF Player.