Need specific flac to vorbis converter, + Must preserve tags by converting them into ID3v2 for mass files Options

[rsilverblood]

OK. (first post here... I'm a complete newbie) I use RealPlayer (only because of the interface style - non GUI, the support towards file renaming, the databasing with backups, and the GUI). Sure, it sucks in some aspects (well, mostly in the codec department), due to Real Networks stupidity in allowing their product to become number 1, but instead focus on profit, even against the best interest of their product users.

In any case, I feel I need to keep using RealPlayer, because of the dependency on some features I use which I have not found in other software. Other software, at the moment, to not interest me.

My Situation:

- I have a great collection of files in .flac ...

Objective:

- Need to play them on RealPlayer somehow - the content and data are the important things here.

(this means, as long as I get the highest quality possible for playing in RealPlayer supported audio codec, and I can keep the tags and put them in ID3v2 format or Real tag format, it's OK)

My ideas for solutions so far:

- Get a way (probably a plug-in, hack, dll, work around, whatever) to play .flac in RealPlayer. (Problem: I still need to mass convert the files from .FLAC tags to ID3v2 tags, without doing it manually... too many files)

- Convert the .flac files into another format (voorbis .oog would be my guess), and in the process, preserve their folder location (and the original files), and convert the FLAC tags into ID3v2 tags. (Problem: must do so in massive file amounts... too many...)

My questions: (choose to answer one or more... preferably more)

- Are there any other ways to solve this (without giving up RealPlayer as the player itself) ?

- Are there ways to get RealPlayer to play .flac files? AND Are there ways to convert the .flac tags into ID3v2 tags?

- Are there any converters I should be looking at, that are FREE (open source, freeware, abandonware, etc.) that can do what I need? AND What file type should I convert the .FLAC files into (for the purpose of preserving quality AND being able to use ID3v2 tags AND is also compatible with RealPlayers supported formats) ? (voorbis ogg? mp3? wma? something else? lossless is preferred many times over than lossy formats, but compatibility is more important)

Things not to be concerned about:

- File size

- Time necessary for conversion

- Processing power or RAM thread size necessary for conversion process

Nice ideas:

- Specify an input AND output folder

- Keep original file name


_____________________________________


Can anybody help me? (I also need a guide on how to do all of this. I am an absolute newbie to audio/codec/player stuff - all I know is higher bitrate and better format = better sound, better player and codec = better sound and less lag, and that tags really help to sort things out.)

Many thanks in advance. (Couldn't find a specific topic that had all I needed. Always some little detail off, or some piece of information not present to guarantee that I didn't install something I would later regret.)

This post has been edited by rsilverblood: Jan 22 2011, 17:52

[lvqcl]

1. Why ID3v2 for FLAC and Vorbis?
2. According to Wikipedia, RealPlayer supports ALAC (aka Apple Lossless). If it's true, convert FLAC to ALAC and voilà.

[rsilverblood]

Thanks. Will try, and reply again (sorry if I double post) about success or failure.

[rsilverblood]

OK, problems... I can play the first 2 seconds of .m4a ALAC format. I am using dBpoweramp to change formats, and they work perfectly in quiucktime, but horrendously in RealPlayer, as I can only hear the first 2 seconds of play. Can anybody advise on this? (yes, I do have Quicktime installed)

[lvqcl]

dBpoweramp can also encode to Real Audio Lossless: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-realaudio.htm

[UNHchabo]

If I might suggest an option, there's an open-source program I wrote that may suit your needs: FlacSquisher.

It will encode from Flac to Ogg, or Flac to MP3. In either case, it will leave the Flac files alone, and keep the directory structure intact for the output directory.

However, there's no good way I know of to put ID3 tags on Ogg Vorbis files; both Vorbis and Flac use Vorbis tags by default.

But at least this way if you wanted to keep your FLAC copy as an archive, and listen to your lossy copy "live", you can do so easily.

[rsilverblood]

Thanks guys. I'll just use Real Audio Lossless. n.n