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Deezer's lossless audio finally comes to Android, iOS and the web
Deezer's lossless audio rollout has been slow, to put it mildly -- it first reached connected speakers in 2014, didn't come to desktop apps until 2017, and has been a no-show elsewhere. It's widely available now, though. The service has launched its HiFi tier on Android, iOS and the web, making FLAC-based tunes available on the move or in your browser. You'll need some high-quality audio gear to do the music justice, but you won't have to be too picky about song choices when over 52 million tracks are available in FLAC. You can still download songs for offline listening.
PS4 adds 360-degree videos and photos in time for PSVR
Now that the PSVR has finally been released to the public, Sony can now bring new PS4 features online that take advantage of the new peripheral. A few of these come in an update to the console's Media Player, which now lets users watch 360-degree video and photos when they don the headset. They've also added support for audio played in the high-definition FLAC format as well as boosting the quality of lossy music.
I tried to identify high-quality audio samples and failed miserably
High-resolution audio is getting a lot buzz as of late thanks to the efforts of Tidal, Neil Young and others. While Tidal had a test of its own, NPR set up another quiz to see if you can tell the difference between MP3s and uncompressed WAVs. I couldn't, and I listened to the samples through a pair of B&O H6s routed through an Apogee Groove DAC/headphone amp. In fact, the only track out of the six in which I was able to accurately identify the uncompressed audio was Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" (oddly enough, I'm a big KP fan). For reference, 320kbps MP3s, which are the mid-grade option here, are what streaming services like Spotify, Rdio and others use for their catalogs.
Windows 10 will play your .MKV and .FLAC files all on its own
High-end audio enthusiasts love FLAC since it promises to preserve everything just as it was heard in the studio. Unfortunately, it isn't the most widely-supported of formats, but it appears as if it's going to get a warm embrace in Windows 10. Gabriel Aul of Microsoft's Windows Insider program tweeted out a screenshot (above) showing FLAC support in Windows Media Player, later adding that the OS is offering platform-level support - so any compatible app will now be able to play the files without a plug-in. Given that Microsoft also recently let slip that it'll support the .MKV container in its next-gen OS, it's clear that Redmond is reaching out to the inner AV geek in all of us.
Super high-quality music streaming is coming to your Sonos speakers thanks to Deezer
As a rule, streaming internet music has meant settling for lower-quality compressed audio. That's a bit of a disservice to pricier audio setups like Sonos' speaker line, don't you think? Apparently, Deezer agrees. It just launched Deezer Elite, a new subscription option that pipes lossless, FLAC-encoded tunes solely to Sonos devices. Provided you have the right equipment, you'll hear truer-to-life songs without having to download full-fledged copies to your computer or mobile devices.
Cowon iAUDIO 9+ 2-inch PMP launching July 12th in Japan for $118 and up
Remember the days before portable media players sported touchscreens? You'll soon be able to relive that golden era with Cowon's iAUDIO 9+, a diminutive PMP that's launching July 12th in Japan. The device features a 2-inch QVGA (320 x 240-pixel) display mounted above a capacitive touchpad and comes in three capacities (and two colors) -- 8GB (white) for 11,800 Yen ($118), 16GB (black) for 13,800 Yen ($138) and 32GB (black) for 16,800 Yen ($168). It boasts a 30mW headphone amp, video connectivity (with an optional cable) and even a microphone and FM radio (to record voice and broadcasts). The unit measures 95 x 43 x 8.9mm (3.74 x 1.69 x 0.35 inches), and weighs just 40g (1.41oz). Battery life is rated at 29 hours for audio playback and seven hours for video content. Rounding things up are 48 (!) EQ presets and support for a plethora of formats (including such rarities as FLAC and OGG) along with USB mass storage.
Plex shows you how to make your TV shows look great with its new Local Media Agent
Out friends at Plex have shuttled out a new Local Media Agent that'll enable you to make your TV shows look great. The updated software lets you add show and season posters, banners, background art, theme music and individual episode thumbnails to your recorded shows to make each one really, really good-looking. It'll happily handle PNG and FLAC files for those lossless enthusiasts and it'll even overlook a messy file structure to get everything looking great. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to catalog our Community episodes with thumbnails of Dean Pelton's outfits.
PowerDVD 12 brings syncing and transcoding for mobile devices
It's been less than a year since CyberLink revealed PowerDVD 11 and now along comes PowerDVD 12. Among the new features in 12 is the ability to sync media -- we can only assume this excludes protected content -- to PowerDVD Mobile for Android as well as automatically transcode videos for most of the popular mobile devices. Said mobile clients are only free, though, if you opt of the $99 Ultra version of PowerDVD. PowerDVD Mobile is available for everyone else for $19.99, as well as PowerDVD Remote for $4.99. Overall it seems like an iterative update that might not hit the spot at $45 (for an upgrade), but there are other new features like OGG and FLAC support that might just push you over the edge.
Apple's ALAC codec is now open source
Apple Lossless, also known as ALAC, is a lossless audio codec Apple developed some time ago for digital music. The codec compresses music files anywhere from 40-60 percent of their original size with no discernible loss in audio quality or fidelity. "A decoded ALAC stream is bit-for-bit identical to the original uncompressed audio file," according to its description. iTunes on the Mac and virtually all of Apple's portable devices support the codec, and it's been my personal format of choice when ripping songs from a CD source. The big news today is that ALAC is now open source. "Apple Lossless Audio Codec sources are available under the Apache license," according to Mac OS Forge, and the project "contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder." The project also includes alacconvert, a command line utility that can read and write audio data to and from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. "A description of a 'magic cookie' for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well," Mac OS forge says. Open sourcing ALAC may or may not lead to more widespread adoption of the codec, but for purely selfish reasons I hope it does. While FLAC fulfills many of the same functions as Apple's in-house lossless codec, it has no support on iOS devices, and re-encoding FLAC files into something that iTunes won't choke on has always been a pet peeve of mine. If more people begin adopting ALAC instead of FLAC, it'll make life a lot easier for audiophiles. [via Vincent Gable/twitter]
LG and iriver unveil the LB4400: the Korean Zunephone without the Zune (video)
Little iriver has long been one of our favorite companies when it comes to innovative product design. Unfortunately, the Korean outfit responsible for about half of all digital audio players sold in its home country has all but disappeared from the international stage. Today it returns with the jointly developed LG-LB4400 musicphone. As the name indicates, LG is the muscle behind the cellphone internals (and apparently the industrial design) whereas iriver contributed the media player and UI elements. Specwise, we're looking at a 2.8-inch WQVGA LCD display, 3 megapixel camera, DMB TV, Dolby Surround Mobile, and support for a wide range of audio codecs including FLAC and APE. No word on price or availability but we've got a slow-loading video for you after the break.
Grace Digital Allegro review
Dedicated internet radios have always been niche products; when you can get all the same content on your desktop, laptop or even smartphone, it's hard to see the point of relying on WiFi. Without a traditional FM antenna, they're many are chained to your network -- if not your wall -- and the lack of keyboard input for setup and channel search furthers their plight. Even so, there must be something to it, as this gadget category refuses to die, so we thought we'd give one promising newcomer a good, thorough try. The Grace Digital Allegro caught our attention with a packed feature list (including Pandora) and a clean, mobile design. Did it enthrall or disappoint? Find out after the break.%Gallery-92306%
LG's XF2 media player does 1080p with subtitles, blows budgets, ships next month
When it comes to storage-based media players that you connect to your TV, it all boils down to performance, compatibility, and capacity. LG's XF2 player ships in April and, with its 1080p video and 5.1 audio output over HDMI, has the performance side covered. In terms of compatibility it hits all its marks (MPEG 1/2/4, h.264, Xvid, DivX, FLAC, WMA, AC3, etc. etc.), also supporting subtitles and captions in a number of formats. Capacity, well, 500GB is good, but more would have been better, especially given the lack of a network interface -- and the price. This one will retail for 270,000 won, or about $240. Yeah, ouch.
iToos M6HD PMP outputs 1080i without breaking anyone's bank
There's really only two things you need to know about the iToos M6HD PMP, and at the risk of repeating the headline: it can output 1080i via HDMI and its price is pretty hard to argue with. As for the fine print, we're looking at a 4.3-inch TFT screen with 480 x 272 resolution, 4GB internal memory upgradeable via memory card, and the usual variety of codecs you've come to expect from Asian PMPs, including FLAC audio and H.264 video. According to Akihabara News, it technically retails for only $58.50, but for the moment the best we've seen is online retailer Ownta for pocket change under $87.
ASUS ships $100 O!Play HDP-R1 HD media streamer
Hey, you -- yeah, you. Remember that O!Play HDP-R1 media player that ASUS teased us with back in June? Remember how you dedicated a calender to it so you could count down the days 'til its arrival? Time to stop all that madness, as said box is finally on sale and shipping right now within the US of A. For the surprisingly reasonable price of $99.99, users can utilize this very device to stream and play back an array of formats with 1080p resolution support. Heck, there's even an eSATA and Ethernet port there, just waiting for your love. So, will you show it? Or is life still worth living knowing what you've neglected?[Via Slashgear]
iriver E30 shows love for the lossless, long-winded
It ain't too much different than the E50 and E150, but considering that iriver felt it necessary to label it a score less than the former, it's new to us. Introduced today over in the Far East, this pocket-friendly PMP touts a 1.8-inch color display (220 x 176), a user-customizable equalizer and support for MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC and MJPEG files. Oh, and it can purportedly keep the tunes flowing for 52 frickin' hours without needing a recharge, so those with trouble locating AC outlets should certainly take notice. There's no mention of a price or release date, but both of those tidbits should become crystal clear soon. Very soon.[Via The MP3 Players]
ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 media player won't likely get an O-face
We knew it was coming, now the ASUS O!Play is official. The HDP-R1 HD Media Player supports HD video playback in a variety of codecs including MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, and RM/RMVB in a multitude of packages including .mp4, .mov, .avi, .divx, and .mkv just to name a few. FLAC and OGG audio? Yup, no problem. The box connects to your display over HDMI or composite A/V with an option for optical digital audio for multi-channel setups. Media can be slung off a single USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, second vanilla USB 2.0 jack, or streamed over fixed Ethernet if you prefer to keep your content on the other side of the house. Sorry, no 802.11n because, you know, everyone's home is wired with Cat 5 (riiiight). No price or release date given; but it would have to be cheap and soon for us to be even remotely interested.
Bowers & Wilkins and Peter Gabriel push audiophile B&W Music Club
Tired of buying those overly compressed MP3 files online are ya? If so, have a look at the new music service from Bowers & Wilkins. Said outfit, along with Peter Gabriel, is pushing the B&W Music Club, which is hailed as the subscription service for audiophiles. Essentially, those with incredibly discerning ears can pay an annual / monthly fee to have access to "one specially commissioned album each month, recorded in dedicated live sessions at Real World Studios near Bath in the UK." The albums are available in Apple Lossless or FLAC formats and provided without any DRM baked in. In an interesting twist, B&W is providing free studio time and mixing sessions for artists who'd like to have their tunes offered up, which could open up opportunities for little known musical geniuses to get exposure. Check the read link for all the fine print, but here's the tidbit you're really after: $39.95 for six months, or $59.95 for a year.
Sansa Fuze updated to support Ogg and FLAC
SanDisk just released a firmware update for the Sansa Fuze -- pretty minor, except it adds in support for FLAC and Ogg, which should make fans of jam bands and lossless music encoding extremely happy. Nothing much else of note here apart from some UI tweaks and bug fixes, but Fuze owners will be appreciative, we're sure.[Via DAPreview]
Play FLAC in iTunes with less mess
Since switching to the Mac full-time last year, my only remaining complaint has been the abysmal (and finicky) FLAC support in iTunes. FLAC, or Free Lossless Audio Codec, is an open source lossless compression format that offers a nice compromise betweeen storing the uncompressed music file -- which is very large -- and converting the file to a lossy format like MP3 or AAC. Apple has its own lossless format, Apple Lossless, and Apple Lossless is great -- but I have lots and lots of live performances archived in FLAC and haven't wanted to spend the time converting all those files so that I can play everything in iTunes. About 6 months ago, I pretty much gave up and started just ripping CDs in Apple Lossless and using Max to convert favorite albums or performances.Reader Mitchell wrote in and told us about Fluke, which aims to be an easier way to play FLAC files in iTunes. I've used other XiphQT based solutions, but none have worked as well as Fluke. Install Fluke and then open up a FLAC file with it (or drag your FLAC files to the icon) and it automatically runs a script that tricks iTunes into adding a FLAC file to the library. For the most part, tagging and even album art will be converted -- though I did have to add track numbers to some of the files I tested. It isn't as seamless as an actual FLAC player, like Cog, but it is certainly more hassle-free than some of the other script-based solutions I've used in the past.Fluke is free and available for download here.Thanks Mitchell!
Pioneer intros Elite X-Z9 audio system
Pioneer hasn't forgotten the audiophiles out there, and their new X-Z9 is for those who still listen to stereo music. The X-Z9 combines a SACD/CD deck and integrated digital amplifier (50W to each channel) in one chassis. All you have to do is connect the included speakers and you've got an audio listening station. In case you prefer music of the ripped variety, there are additional inputs available: Sirius/XM; interoperation with a PC via Home Media Gallery; iPod integration and USB drives. Supported digital formats include WMA, MPEG4-AAC, MP3 and FLAC. Available in October for $1799.