MediaMonkey forum

Can someone enlighten me on the compression level. A higher level would mean a smaller file, correct? If so, does that take away quality?

FLAC is a Lossless format, so compression levels in FLAC has nothing to do with quality, only file size. The only trade-off between the compression levels is the time to encode the file. There is no additioanl decoding time with higher compression levels. Having said that, you do start to get diminishing returns in the trade off between increased compression and time to encode at higher compressions levels. IMO, a setting of 5 or 6 is going to get you 90+% of the compression benefit with virtually no impact on encoding time.

So a compression level of 5 or 6 would be ideal?

letsgoaz wrote:So a compression level of 5 or 6 would be ideal?

It depends. If you don't care how long the files take to encode, you could use a higher compression level to create smaller file sizes. The debate is what is the best trade-off point between small file size and not waiting ridiculously long for the files to encode.

The best balance between speed and size is probably level 5 or 6 compression.

Ok, thanks!
Now I just need MM to be able to sync ALAC to my ipod and i'll be set.

letsgoaz wrote:Ok, thanks!
Now I just need MM to be able to sync ALAC to my ipod and i'll be set.

As far as I know, MM can already sync alac to iPods.

Really?
Is there an add on I need to download to do that? I don't see it as an option.

letsgoaz wrote:Really?
Is there an add on I need to download to do that? I don't see it as an option.

What do you mean, that you don't see it as an option? Where is there any options at all for syncing specific file types?

When confuguring auto conversion for a device, you can select the format you would like it to be on the device. All I can choose is mp3, wma, wav, ogg, and flac.

letsgoaz wrote:When confuguring auto conversion for a device, you can select the format you would like it to be on the device. All I can choose is mp3, wma, wav, ogg, and flac.

Ah, you didn't mention you wanted to auto-convert . You can't encode files to apple lossless, only copy existing apple lossless files to portable devices.

Oh!
That opens up things a bit.
So I can rip a Apple Lossless file, add it to my MM library, playback the file and send it to my ipod?
How sync it to the ipod with out conversion? (I thought that was the only way).

letsgoaz wrote:Oh!
That opens up things a bit.
So I can rip a Apple Lossless file, add it to my MM library, playback the file and send it to my ipod?
How sync it to the ipod with out conversion? (I thought that was the only way).

Yes. Just sync it as you would any other file.

Ok, let me make sure I am doing things correctly.
I have a ALAC file in my MM library, I send it to the ipod while having non of the auto conversion options checked (or applying)?

letsgoaz wrote:Ok, let me make sure I am doing things correctly.
I have a ALAC file in my MM library, I send it to the ipod while having non of the auto conversion options checked (or applying)?

I don't think it should matter if auto-conversion is enabled or not, since iPods support that format.