How do I get gapless playback?

[markphgr]

I am a new user, please forgive me if this is not an original thread.
I *have* had a quick search.

I particularly want gapless playback of lossy file format albums.

I know the latest iPods and iTunes do this (is that correct ?)

Is there any other combo of software and hardware which does this?
I have heard LAME mentioned but I can't find anything definitive in the forums.

Thank you.

[garym]

Re: How do I get gapless playback?

mp3's encoded with all recent versions of LAME mp3 encoder will play back gaplessly if the player supports gapless playback. You are correct Itunes does, so does foobar2000, and recent versions of squeezecenter if you use squeezeboxes. I assume many other players do as well (winamp? media monkey? etc.). I have many live concerts in lame mp3 that are truly gapless in playback on my computer or on my IPOD so I can confirm this works well. MP3 files created with other than lame may or may not have gapless info included. However, I can tell you that ITUNES (since maybe version 6 or 7) has a special alogrithm that does its best to "guess" at gapless info. If a lame file is used in itunes, it just uses the actual info. But if the mp3 or AAC does not have the gapless info, itunes will guess. I have 1000s of old mp3's that are NOT lame (and have no gapless info), but I can confirm that ITUNES does a very, very good job of playing these back gapless anyhow. You'll note that when you import files into ITUNES, one of the steps it goes through is "determining gapless".

[markphgr]

Re: How do I get gapless playback?

Thanks ... do you (or anyone else) know of a portable player, other than the iPod, which will support gapless LAME mp3 playback?

[garym]

Re: How do I get gapless playback?

I suspect there are many, but I only use ipods or iphones for portable devices so don't have any specific knowledge.