Play flac media

[chinni]

Re: Play flac media

p.s. good summary of the SONOS for the OP. I only differ on the library size discussion. It really depends on the user. I know lots of users that have libraries too large for SONOS. I personally have about 75,000 tracks and I'm only about 1/2 way through ripping my ~10,000 CD collection. So I'm already way beyond the limits of a SONOS's basic capacity. I do realize that I'm an outlier and for 99% of users, the SONOS track number limit is irrelevant.

If I rip 75000 tracks, is it possible to add/remove folders to limit target to 60k? Basically, I don't need all at the same time, but should be flexible to hide/show some of them to sonos indexing process. Does it slows down indexing process or if it causes any other problems?

Also, if I connect sonos connect to receiver and set as bit stream, it should only send digital data right? What will I see on receiver display? PCM data? I am assuming this data is shifted with replay gain before sending to receiver. Please confrim.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Play flac media

If you use the digital out connections from a Sonos Connect, it outputs a digital signal. What you see on the receiver probably depends on the receiver, but yes, it's PCM digital input. The RG tags are just part of the metadata stream sent to the receiver.

In Settings, you tell your Sonos system what folders to include in your music library, and you could add or remove those as desired. Only the listed folders are indexed. (It does take a little while to completely re-index a large library.)



If you actually think the 65K track limit will be an issue, another workaround is to use the Windows Music Player streaming option. You can place some of your music...say a whole "category" like Soundtracks, Classical, or whatever.....into a separate library for WMP. Set it to allow streaming, and that library becomes one of the many streaming options available to you in your Music Sources (on the Sonos). This essentially nullifies the track limit.

[garym]

Re: Play flac media

If you actually think the 65K track limit will be an issue, another workaround is to use the Windows Music Player streaming option. You can place some of your music...say a whole "category" like Soundtracks, Classical, or whatever.....into a separate library for WMP. Set it to allow streaming, and that library becomes one of the many streaming options available to you in your Music Sources (on the Sonos). This essentially nullifies the track limit.

I've read about this workaround. quick questions: 1. I assume this would mean one would have to leave both their NAS (containing their music files) and a computer running WMP, assuming that one would otherwise only need the NAS with files for SONOS. Correct? 2. Will this WMP workaround work with FLAC files. I wasn't aware that WMP could play FLAC, but I'm probably wrong (not a WMP user or a SONOS user obviously). Thanks for any info on this.

[BrodyBoy]

Re: Play flac media

I've read about this workaround. quick questions: 1. I assume this would mean one would have to leave both their NAS (containing their music files) and a computer running WMP, assuming that one would otherwise only need the NAS with files for SONOS. Correct? 2. Will this WMP workaround work with FLAC files. I wasn't aware that WMP could play FLAC, but I'm probably wrong (not a WMP user or a SONOS user obviously). Thanks for any info on this.

Second question first: There are plug-ins that allow WMP to play most file types these days. It's not as streamlined as our dedicated SB and Sonos systems with their native support, but if you simply install a couple free plug-ins, FLAC, ALAC, etc are included in the library just like wma. Last I looked, the codec plug-in and the "tag-reading" plug-in were separate....you had to install both for full functionality. (This is on Windows 7....I don't know about any changes to WMP that may have come with Windows 8. Perhaps MS has finally realized that they failed to will the world into using only their formats ....but I kinda doubt it. )

As for always having to run a 2nd PC as the "WMP server," that's a good question and I don't know for sure. (I personally have only occasionally played with WMP...I don't actually use it either.) I didn't consider this an issue for the OP, who seems to be using a PC to store his music database anyway. But for those of us who store our music on a NAS or home server, I suspect the answer may vary (depending on the particular type of NAS/server setup one uses)....there may well be plug-ins that can be installed there. If so, I don't see why it couldn't run side-by-side on the same hardware that stores the Sonos library. In any event, they can most certainly side-by-side on a Windows PC.

I've never had to address this issue myself, but now you have me curious. I use a Windows Server, which includes native media server capabilities. But whether it can actually replicate a standalone WMP client is something I'll have to investigate. (I've read compelling arguments for using Win 8 as server software....it's cheap, includes the Storage Spaces technology, etc. This could be another benefit, I suppose- it could seamlessly run WMP streaming right alongside other media server functions.)

Oh...the other question. Sonos will read music from anywhere you tell it to on your network, including just a NAS if that's where all the music is stored.

[garym]

Re: Play flac media

Second question first: There are plug-ins that allow WMP to play most file types these days

[body removed]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Makes sense.