Hello. I have been digging around the forms, but can’t come up with a definitive answer, but apologies if I have missed the answer somewhere.
So the PMS handles FLAC without an issue, pulls all tags and embedded artwork perfectly, love it. But my question is, when I’m playing them back via iOS, Android, AppleTV are playing/ streaming the FLAC Lossless version or is the PMS transcoding them first?
I hope that makes sense. Cheers.
Most of the time you will get transcoded to OPUS or MP3, AFAIK.
There is a request to transcode from Flac to ALAC on the Apple devices, if the bandwidth is available.
With other clients, you will get Direct Playback of FLAC though, like
Plex Media Player, OpenPHT and even in the Web app.
It depends on the client.
For example, an Apple TV does not support FLAC (see tech specs), so the audio will definitely be transcoded (same for iPhone & iPad).
When playing a song, launch Plex Web, then look at Status -> Now Playing (next to Settings in top right of window). It will show if the music is being Direct Played or transcoded to another format.
Thanks guys… that clears that up for me.
Does this mean it does not transcode? It’s a flac file playing.
Direct play.
@ottovonkopp said:
Does this mean it does not transcode? It’s a flac file playing.
Direct play.
Exactly this. No transcoding.
I’m new to PMS and this issue has been confusing me also. However, based on the screenshots in previous posts, I now realise that I am able to stream both FLAC and ALAC to my Apple TV 4 via DirectPlay. That seems to confirm recent reports that Apple have added FLAC support to both the ATV4 and ATV4K.
So I’m still new to PMS but I definitely love it. In the past I’ve always had to convert FLAC files to ALAC in order to stream to AppleTV or play on iphone 7. But according to this I’m “Direct Playing” .flac tracks to my iphone? Is that right?
@tatersandeggs said:
So I’m still new to PMS but I definitely love it. In the past I’ve always had to convert FLAC files to ALAC in order to stream to AppleTV or play on iphone 7. But according to this I’m “Direct Playing” .flac tracks to my iphone? Is that right?!
I don’t have an iOS device, but according to this release note, yes:
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1539435/#Comment_1539435
Wow, you’re absolutely right. After some more research, it seems that since iOS and tvOS v.11, Apple devices can now play FLAC files. Cool!
