How many of you can play MC flac files directly?

[vinylguy4]

I cannot play MC flac. My Oppo BDP-83 cannot play flac and the squeezebox can play flac but not multichannel.
So physical MC discs for me.

vinylguy4

I am going to change my answer to yes since I now have an Oppo BDP-103.

vinylguy4

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Thanks once again for the inputs! 94% can play mc flac in here (33 out of 35)
View attachment 31253
But I wonder why only 4 has got Brad Hebert's FREE EP from Suroundmusic.one. (after 4 days)
Does any have an explanation of that?

Is only the good old classic releases interesting or?

Old and new Jan. But I have not had a chance to check it out.

 

[OdysseyMusik]

Now the score is: 35 out of 37 who have answered CAN play flac files directly! 95%!
Hope that can be another argument for more artists releasing their surround mixes ad digital downloads (if they don't have produced lots of Blu-rays or DVDs ready to be sold)
Such a shame there is lot of sold out or hard to get releases out there!!! They should sell it from their own homepages or Surroundmusic.one can help with that...

 

[Perpendicular]

Anyone in here who have an idea how many who can
1) play multichannel flac files directly
2) turn mc flac into discs
3) only listen to surround sound from DVD/BD/SACD/Q8 etc.?

(1) Yes (currently via the OPPO UDP-205 using attached drives)
(2) No (I play mostly DSD, Flac and WAV files directly)
(3) No (both files and discs)

 

[Bob Romano]

I can play FLAC files (stereo or multi) in my Oppo player or from my computer.

 

[The Bright Side]

I play all my surround music from my computer, though I still buy all the actual discs to put into my collection. Most of it is in FLAC, but I also have .iso (VLC plays them), .mka, .mkv, .ac3, .dts, .wav (DTS-encoded).

Playback software is SMPlayer or VLC in Linux (used to be Ubuntu, but just switched to Linux Mint). Sometimes, Parole or Kodi.

Hoping that some day, I will be able to play back AURO 3D and Atmos mixes! Castles in the sky at this moment, though. Don't have a sound system for it, and I don't think Linux will recognize and correctly play these formats for a long time.

 

[leefarber]

I have recently joined the ranks of those able to play 5.1 FLAC files, and it has been REALLY exciting for me. All my music files had been stereo ALAC files stored on an OWC 6TB HD connected to my Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was then connected to the Oppo 105 via USB, which acted as my stereo DAC, and files were played back using JRiver MC. But from what I understood, the only way to use the 105's excellent multichannel DACs was through physical media. Finally someone on AVSForum told me that if multichannel files came into the 105 via ethernet through a DLNA, they would be output by the Multichannel DACs! While I understood very little about DLNA (still do), I found that JRiver MC automatically generates my library as a DLNA server. Now I am in heaven being able to store 5.1 FLACs in my server alongside the stereo ALAC files.

I never realized how much the act of retrieving physical media from my shelf and loading a disc into my system was keeping me from enjoying the music (especially those enormous King Crimson sets). But now that I'm able to play any of the Yes or XTC surround releases at the touch of a button, I've really been diving in. The only issue is that the Oppo cannot do gapless via DLNA, so there is a significant pause between tracks (which is murder for live releases). Hopefully that will be rectified in the near future. But this has totally changed my musical life, and made me really excited to build my library by ripping all my 5.1 discs.

 

[drphibes]

Hi folks!

Anyone in here who have an idea how many who can
1) play multichannel flac files directly
2) turn mc flac into discs
3) only listen to surround sound from DVD/BD/SACD/Q8 etc.?

Question is can we tell bands to sell they mc music as digital download from their own website or eg. Bandcamp or too few with surround gear CAN play mc flac.

Maybe this could be a poll? (if I knew how)

I thought I replied to this thread. Looks like I didn't.

1. yes - via Mac Mini with HDMI out to the receiver.
2. yes - DVD Audio Extractor
3. almost never, generally MCH FLAC now.

 

[sjcorne]

I thought I replied to this thread. Looks like I didn't.

1. yes - via Mac Mini with HDMI out to the receiver.
2. yes - DVD Audio Extractor
3. almost never, generally MCH FLAC now.

DVD Audio Extractor turns discs into MC FLAC, not the other way around.

For MC FLAC ~> disc I would use Minnetonka Discwelder to make a DVD-A, or convert my MC FLACs into some DVD compatible codec (AC-3, DTS) and compile them in a VIDEO_TS file with AudioMuxer.

DTS encoders are usually pricey. AC-3 encode is free but the loss in sound quality cannot be understated.

 

[jimfisheye]

Hi folks!

Anyone in here who have an idea how many who can
1) play multichannel flac files directly
2) turn mc flac into discs
3) only listen to surround sound from DVD/BD/SACD/Q8 etc.?

Question is can we tell bands to sell they mc music as digital download from their own website or eg. Bandcamp or too few with surround gear CAN play mc flac.

Maybe this could be a poll? (if I knew how)

On the one hand, playing MC FLAC files has been old hat for over a decade. You still need to install your favorite 3rd party media player app though and some people refuse to even learn computer 101. Apple is still trying to get everyone to switch to ALAC (their identical version of FLAC) and disables FLAC playback in iTunes by default. I believe the Windows stock player will play wav and mp3 but no lossless formats. iTunes doesn't even recognize surround files in its native ALAC format!

This is all surely part of the problem!

Turning surround program into the disc formats? Ha! They can't even install a 3rd party player app! There SHOULD be easy hand holding ripping/burning apps available by now... but there sure aren't. It looks for all the world like the intention is to disable this stuff as a way to push people into constantly buying more hardware or repeatedly buying content as they keep losing it or corrupting it. Whatever the reason, authoring disc formats (especially with surround and/or HD content) is locked out of many free or affordable apps. It's either expensive or complex or both.

Downloadable FLAC files is really the easy way out for everyone involved. And they don't mysteriously stop working a few years later like some of the bluray discs I see complaints about.

I'll play something from a disc in a pinch if I'm impatient to rip it into the library. I prefer to rip it to FLAC (MKV for video + audio content) first for the warm fuzzy that I'm not inadvertently listening to a stepped on version (eg. a lossy decode).

Hosting your surround files for your album on your own website or a cloud account and including the share link with Bandcamp downloads is really the thing to do right now. I expect to see them adding support for multiple masters very soon but in the meantime they enthusiastically support this.

Hardware media player makers see the writing on the wall too. Companies like Sony intentionally lock out competing formats and literally don't want the hardware to function for some content. Not talking about the like of them. More honest products like Oppo are including USB ports and/or ethernet ports on their machines to play FLAC and other formats from file systems and networks. I don't know how to get through to the folks that refuse to use a computer for this but maybe some of these hardware players will bridge the gap?

 

[drphibes]

DVD Audio Extractor turns discs into MC FLAC, not the other way around.

You are completely correct, and I completely misread the question.

Corrected answers are:

1. Yes
2. No, but I've never bothered to look into it
3. Almost never.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

I have recently joined the ranks of those able to play 5.1 FLAC files, and it has been REALLY exciting for me. All my music files had been stereo ALAC files stored on an OWC 6TB HD connected to my Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was then connected to the Oppo 105 via USB, which acted as my stereo DAC, and files were played back using JRiver MC. But from what I understood, the only way to use the 105's excellent multichannel DACs was through physical media. Finally someone on AVSForum told me that if multichannel files came into the 105 via ethernet through a DLNA, they would be output by the Multichannel DACs! While I understood very little about DLNA (still do), I found that JRiver MC automatically generates my library as a DLNA server. Now I am in heaven being able to store 5.1 FLACs in my server alongside the stereo ALAC files.

I never realized how much the act of retrieving physical media from my shelf and loading a disc into my system was keeping me from enjoying the music (especially those enormous King Crimson sets). But now that I'm able to play any of the Yes or XTC surround releases at the touch of a button, I've really been diving in. The only issue is that the Oppo cannot do gapless via DLNA, so there is a significant pause between tracks (which is murder for live releases). Hopefully that will be rectified in the near future. But this has totally changed my musical life, and made me really excited to build my library by ripping all my 5.1 discs.

About DLNA and gapless? Do you use the Oppo Media Control app? When I still had my Oppo 105 I was able to play gapless over ethernet using the MC app. Files were stored on a pc with Vortexbox on it.

Using the MC app you browse to the album you want to losten too, hold the first track slightly longer than usual and a pop up will show asking normal or gapless playback.

Check this out, when I had a lightbulb moment https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?20071-Playing-Multichannel-DSD-Downloads-on-Oppo-103-and-105-Players&p=276328&viewfull=1#post276328

 

[georgeshannon]

Another way to play MC FLAC from a disc is to copy the MC FLAC files to a re-writable DVD. Then insert the RW DVD into your blu-ray player. The blu-ray player will play the files as MC music. Works with the Oppo 103 anyway.

For MC FLAC ~> disc I would use Minnetonka Discwelder to make a DVD-A, or convert my MC FLACs into some DVD compatible codec (AC-3, DTS) and compile them in a VIDEO_TS file with AudioMuxer.

 

[n8nagel]

1) yes, although only on one system, unless a Sony BDP will do it in which case two (I don't think it will)
2) never tried
3) I have shockingly little MC media for someone with a valid login here :/

 

[OdysseyMusik]

42 out of 44 who answered can play mc flac until now! NOT BAD!

 

[zimmy]

1) Yes through my Cambridge Audio Azur 752BD
2) No need,
3) Listen to both files and all types of discs

 

[antoine555]

1) Yes, using Audirvana Plus (mac) and output either HDMI to my amp for surround, or with a iFi DAC for 2.0
2) never, 100% digital
3) sometimes, but generally it's audio only

 

[Ninecats]

1) play multichannel flac files directly

Yes, via Nvidia Shield to receiver.

2) turn mc flac into discs

Never, last time I created a burned disc was... well early 2000? 100% digital it is.

3) only listen to surround sound from DVD/BD/SACD/Q8 etc.?

Well, despite ripping all my discs I do occasionaly play my dvd-a, sacds and blurays through my physical players. Some of the discs do have interactive visuals for example. But largely I play through my stored rips.

 

[barfle]

42 out of 44 who answered can play mc flac until now! NOT BAD!

I can play them through my Oppo DDP105, and most of them sound great. I have a NAS source and I also can use either of the USB ports.

I've never tried to burn them to disc, although I suspect that my Oppo would play them fine if the files were simply burned to that medium.

I'd love to have more artists use multichannel releases. Next up - Atmos!

 

[ar surround]

1) Play MC flac files directly: Yes, thru Oppo 205
2) Turn MC flac files into discs: Never investigated this as I don't need to do so.
3) I rip everything, stereo and MC: DVD-V, DVD-A, BR-A, and SACD to hard drives. The only discs I spin are movies.