Hi, it would be great if PMS had the option to change the way it transcodes FLAC files.
Being stuck with mp3 256 CBR is kind of LAME. I'd like to be able to bump that up to 320 CBR or better yet transcode to ALAC to stream lossless files in iOS.
Yes. By going flac to alac no transcoding is actually required since both formats contain the same data. So this would actually be more efficient, despite being better quality.
Please yes direct play/sync of lossless formats is my most desired addition Plex. Now that Windows 10 natively supports FLAC on all platforms & Android supports FLAC that means that all Plex would really need to do is add the ability to transcode FLAC-to-ALAC & vice versa for iOS & it would be a real option for music playback on HiFi systems.
I’d love to see more transcoding options for lossless media on the server, i.e.
Music transcoding options:
Transcode music (if direct play not possible) - ALAC (lossless), MP3 320, MP3 256, MP3 160, MP3 128
In the mobile apps, you would want to add an override for lossless transcoding when on a data connection so that you could, for example, stream ALAC (lossless) over wifi and MP3 320 over data.
ALAC would work for iOS, but there may also/alternatively need to be a WAV option for wider client compatibility.
It would also go without saying that the lossless transcoding would not downsample, upsample, or dither the source material. If you feed it 24bit 96kHz FLAC, you should get lossless 24bit 96kHz ALAC playback. Note that 16bit 48kHz playback is all that is possible via the onboard DAC of an iPhone, but up to 24bit 192kHz is possible via an external DAC.