Looking for a FLAC web player Options

[Siegmar]

I'm looking for a web player (flash ?) I can embbed in my html pages in order to allow site visitors to play FLAC audio file.
(juste need a start/stop/pause button and a progression bar).

I've found several tool on the web. Either as Java or as Flash but only for mp3 files ..... nothing for FLAC files

This post has been edited by Siegmar: Dec 16 2009, 15:45

[smok3]

how about "Please install quicktime" and use ALAC? (i did not actually test, just a thought)
p.s. there is ALAC decoder/encoder also in ffmpeg.

edit: and add an alternative js web decoder, something to test:
http://badassjs.com/post/14463682242/intro...udio-decoder-in
Maybe somebody is up to the task to port flac decoder to js?

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scenarios:
- user has ie and quicktime (everything ok)
- user has ie - offer download link + suggest a software that can decode alac and/or suggest "Please install quicktime"
- user has chrome/firefox (if there is no quicktime then offer js decoder)

(this is all progressive download, not streaming)

This post has been edited by smok3: Feb 2 2012, 13:14

[yourlord]

Time for me to jump in.

I'm not here to say someone can't stream FLAC across the net, but I'll at least give my reasons why it shouldn't be done.

It's been proven, beyond any reasonable argument, that any modern lossy codec at a moderate bitrate (~200Kbps), and even mp3 at somewhat higher rates, is completely transparent to all of humanity in all but the most marginal cases.

Many people have touched on the fact that while your server may have unimaginable gobs of bandwidth at it's disposal, it's not a guarantee your user will.
FLAC files can range in bitrate from roughly 500Kbps to well over 1Mbps. For web based audio, that represents upwards of a potential 500% increase in bandwidth usage for demonstrably no benefit.

Now, try to remember that this isn't YOUR internet.. It's OUR internet.. That excess bandwidth needed to stream FLAC is essentially total waste, and it's wasting not just your bandwidth and the bandwidth of your user, but the bandwidth and capacity of every router, every fiber link, etc, that ferry's your data across the network.

Having said that, I LOVE FLAC.. Virtually every album I own is stored in FLAC format on my network. When I play them on my local workstations I play the FLAC directly over my network. But that's on MY network, using equipment that I wholly own. I'm not piping that through anyone else's network, essentially wasting their and everyone else's bandwidth.

FLAC is meant for storage and local area playback; not streaming over a shared resource like the internet.

I use subsonic (www.subsonic.org) to access and stream my library over the net. I have it configured to transcode FLAC files to 160Kbps mp3 for use in the flash player, or to quality 2 vorbis to stream to a local media player such as VLC.

To date nobody that uses it has complained about the sound quality.