Finding a lossless format for itunes and windows media player Options

[vetinry]

Good morning

I am having a very frustrating time trying to find a suitable audio format that I can use in my home network and hope that someone may have a solution.

As an ipod user, I ripped my entire CD collection (500 ish) to the apple lossless (ALAC) format using EAC and itunes encode. I use my ipod in the car as a CD changer, and I purchased a couple of Slim Devices Squeezebox 2's to stream music in the house.

SQ is more important than file size and this is why I chose a lossless format.

I have now recently built myself a Home Theatre PC running Windows Media Center - its main purpose is to house all of my media files (TV, audio and pictures) in one place. It is connected to the screen in the kitchen, and I am going to buy an Xbox 360 to act as media center extender in the lounge. Since the Xbox will only be able to retrieve media files through Windows Media Center, I would like to find a format that will allow me to do this, and therefore not need a separate squeezebox.

I have read a little about the incompatability between itunes and WMP, but it seems that both can play WAV flies, which although disc space hungry, would be acceptable.

This is where the problem starts - I've tried ripping WAV files in iTunes, in WMP, and in EAC but there doesn't appear to be consistency between the folder types.

The ability to capture Album artwork etc through WMP is appealing, particularly when using media center, but although using these different methods is recognised by the different programmes, the file structures which are so important for searching disappear.

Is there a method of ripping WAV files so that they can be viewed in correct folder structures by both itunes and windows media player?

Any help as always would be gratefully received.

Best wishes

Steve

[DCoder]

Anyone have any info on why it may be having trouble with iTunes 5 ALAC files? I never envisioned compatibility problems arising with older files, only newer ones.

http://www.maresweb.de/projects/bass/alac.php

BASS_ALAC is an extension based on David Hammerton's reverse engineered ALAC decoder which enables the playback of ALAC files through BASS.

Please notice that the current version of the add-on does not support MOV demuxing. Only unprotected MP4 files are supported.

Maybe your older Files are "just" in an old (mov) Container. However, i have no idea if there's a mov2mp4 converter.