[weitrhino]

Apple uses the .m4a container for both lossless ALAC files and lossy music files.  I'd like to sort the lossless from the lossy so I can batch convert all the lossless ALAC flies to FLAC so my Oppo BDP-93 can read them.  The problem is identifying which .m4a files are which.  Is there a way to sort all my .m4a files into lossy and lossless catagories?  I simply cannot pick my way through 18,000 files one at a time.

[JRace]

Not sure with apple, but with a pc you can search for files at are under a certain sze.

[srb]

If you have the hard drive space for file copies, you could sort them in iTunes one of two ways:

a. In Song view, sort by header field "Kind" and select the files that are "Apple Lossless audio file"

   OR

b. Create a Smart Playlist with rule "Kind contains Lossless" and select all

With either method you can then Copy and Paste them into another folder for conversion.

Steve

[dB Cooper]

This issue is one reason I started ripping to FLAC as a general practice even though this means losing iTunes compatibility (as Apple stubbornly refuses to support this very popular format) and most of the lossless files are on an external HD. Most of what I have on my laptop is AAC, 256-320K depending on source, quality to begin with, and how much I like the music in question. If you want to stick with itunes and ALAC, srb has the fix. srb- what do you think of the following idea:

If you have 'Copy music to iTunes library when importing' unchecked in iTunes prefs, you could simply keep the lossless files in heir own folder, and iTunes would still be able to play them. You could then access them the same way you'd access any other file. I don't see much point to having both files on the same drive though.

[srb]

srb- what do you think of the following idea:

If you have 'Copy music to iTunes library when importing' unchecked in iTunes prefs, you could simply keep the lossless files in heir own folder, and iTunes would still be able to play them. You could then access them the same way you'd access any other file. I don't see much point to having both files on the same drive though.

That would isolate them for newly imported files; for existing files you could copy them to a Lossless folder as described in my previous post, delete the files from the iTunes Library and re-import them with "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" unchecked.

If the album artwork was added automatically during ripping or with the manual command "Get Album Artwork", the artwork will be stored in the iTunes database and be missing when re-importing.  If the artwork is manually pasted into the Info Artwork field, it is stored as a file metadata tag.

Tip: After ripping an album where the artwork was obtained automatically or with the "Get Album Artwork" command, you can store it as metadata within the file with these steps:
(a)  File > Get Info on one of the album songs and copy the artwork from the Artwork tab
(b)  File > Get Info on the album (you will be prompted "Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items?") and paste the copied artwork into the Artwork field on the Info tab.

That still doesn't address having a FLAC version for playback on the Oppo player which would have to be an additional file.  Another alternative would be to covert all of the ALAC to FLAC and purchase the Pure Music software add-in for iTunes which can play FLAC files.  To play FLAC files in iTunes/Pure Music you must import them with both the "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" checkboxes unchecked.

Steve

[dB Cooper]

The Oppo deck doesn't support ALAC? Surprising since Apple released the source code. At any rate, I would convert the ALAC files and use one of the iTunes alternatives.

[weitrhino]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts on this thorny issue.  True, Apple has released the code for broader ALAC support and I wish Oppo would take it up, but they haven't.  They're pretty good about jumping on issues and correcting them so I suspect there might be a hardware concern for incorporating ALAC support.  Either that or there's some high-priced licensing fee.

I keep my iTunes library in the default location and also have it backed up on a Time Capsule.  But I also have a separate eSATA drive containing my music library, essentially it duplicates the iTunes library except for the ALAC files.  I keep FLAC versions of the ALACs here and mp3 for streaming through the Oppo which is connected to my tube-driven system. But not all of the ALACs have an associated FLAC on this drive.  I just cannot tell the ALAC from any other lossy format when the .m4a container is used.  I could turn them all to FLAC copies but there's no point doing that from a lossy m4a.

I'm thinking the best way to sort the ALAC m4a from the lossy m4a is to do it through the Finder rather than iTunes. In my mind this makes it easier to convert them directly on the eSATA drive.  Barring any Finder option I may attempt srb's solution.

Any further thoughts?

[WC]

You can sort all the .m4a files by sample rate in iTunes. All the higher ones will be ALAC files. Or as SRB said by Lossless.

[srb]

I'm thinking the best way to sort the ALAC m4a from the lossy m4a is to do it through the Finder rather than iTunes. In my mind this makes it easier to convert and copy them over to the eSATA drive.  Barring any Finder option I may attempt srb's solution.

Any further thoughts?

I don't know that it would be any easier than doing it in iTunes as you can simply copy and paste the files to another folder, but I think you may also be able to accomplish it in Finder with a Smart Folder.

In Finder, create a Smart Folder (File > New Smart Folder).  Set 'Kind' to Music > All, then add a field, choose Other, select Codecs from the dropdown list and define criteria as containing Lossless.

Steve

[weitrhino]

I haven't been clear enough with my situation partly because I didn't have my head around it completely.

Essentially, my iTunes library is duplicated on the eSATA, ALAC files and all.  If I can sort the ALAC from the other m4a files through the finder directly on the eSATA drive then I only need to convert the ALAC to FLAC then discard those ALAC versions.  No converting from within the iTunes library, no dragging copies out of the iTunes folder.  It's clean and neat and would all take place on a single drive.  I've been playing with Smart Folders but haven't yet found a combination of filters to achieve the desired effect.

[srb]

I've been playing with Smart Folders but haven't yet found a combination of filters to achieve the desired effect.

Won't the filtering described in my last post accomplish what you want?

Steve

[weitrhino]

Only up to a point.  It's the lossless criteria where smart filtering is falling down.  Still toying with it though....  Also haven't found a way to direct the search only on the eSATA drive because otherwise it looks through the iTunes library as well.  I'd just as soon leave that library alone.

[srb]

I'm not in front of a Mac right now, but if you open Finder, then open the external drive, you can go to Preferences > Advanced and then change the "When performing a search" dropdown from "Search this Mac" to the external drive.

When you setup a Smart Folder the search criteria would look like this:

 

I'll have to get in front of a Mac later to go through the procedure to verify.

Steve

[weitrhino]

I may have found a solution.

Instead of starting off creating a new Smart Folder, I just simply used CMD-F and designated my search for the eSATA drive only.  Then I was able to implement filtering to narrow down my choices and save into a new folder:

Kind / is / Music All  +

File Extension / is / m4a

File Size / is greater than / 20 / MB


This is an imperfect solution.  There just doesn't seem to be a way of differentiating an m4a file based on the encoding scheme.  The Finder would have to actually read into the file to uncover these attributes, i.e. lossless or lossy codec, but cannot because that information is held within the m4a container.  My only option was to assume a file larger than 20 MB had to be a lossless ALAC file, and while that's probably true it doesn't mean a file less than 20 MB is certain to be a lossy format.  At least I will have resolved the vast majority of the issue.  Now I can batch convert these files into FLAC format with the excellent XLD freeware file conversion app.  Anything that slipped through the cracks will eventually be found and handled on an individual basis.  154 files were corrected.

[weitrhino]

When you setup a Smart Folder the search criteria would look like this:

 

I'll have to get in front of a Mac later to go through the procedure to verify.

Steve

Typing in "Lossless" didn't work for me and neither did ALAC, Apple Lossless Audio Codec, or any other variation I could produce.  Whenever I attempted this at that point in the filter process all results would disappear.  The deepest filter I could find only took it down to .m4a.

[srb]

Well, you pretty much got to where you want to go, but I will still play with it and see if I can get something to work with the Smart Folder filter criteria just for the heck of it.

Steve

[weitrhino]

Your thoughts put me on the path, srb, so I really appreciate your input here.  Should you find a more elegant solution I'd sure like to read about it.

One more rub:  Because the saved Smart Folder doesn't actually contain the files I cannot do a batch convert.  So I've only achieved identifying the majority of files needing conversion.

[dB Cooper]

There''s an app called HoudahSpot that may help you not only find the files but sort them. Might want to see if that could help.

[weitrhino]

The nice thing is once I convert the identified files the disappear from the smart folder because they no longer meet the filter criteria.  This allows me to keep track of what has been converted vs what still needs to be done.

dB:  thanks for the tip on the app.