Roku not making real effort toward FLAC, other AudioFormats?

[jlsoaz]

I spoke with a friend who has gone the lossless route, using FLAC. I am locked into my purchases of the lossy MP3 format, in part because Roku does not offer support for FLAC (that I recall).

I decided to check in on this issue and found this post from 2-3 months ago in the feature request forum:

http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=165

KlaasV
Joined: 09 Dec 2007
Posts: 59

PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:04 pm Post subject: Reply with quote
@ willmacdonald and the other people who have posted feature requests:

You all have been wasting time and effort! This thread is now more than three years old. Since it was started, Roku has neither complied to any of the countless requests nor were there any posts by Roku staff members.

[...]

So, is this true? Can we say for certain that Roku is just blowing off this whole area? I think this would affect my next purchase.

[stretch]

I think it's safe to say that Roku has abandoned any further development of the SoundBridge.

While FLAC cannot be used natively, Firefly can convert FLAC's into WAV's for the SB. The end result is the same.
It's worth noting that the SB can't play WMAL's either, WMP has to convert them for the SB.

[S80_UK]

It is also worth noting that Apple Lossless is supported natively. Note that some users have had problems with Apple Lossless files from iTunes. I use dBpoweramp to convert to Apple Lossless and also to optimise for streaming (uses Nero's encoder) and I find this works very well.

[jlsoaz]

I think it's safe to say that Roku has abandoned any further development of the SoundBridge.

While FLAC cannot be used natively, Firefly can convert FLAC's into WAV's for the SB. The end result is the same.
It's worth noting that the SB can't play WMAL's either, WMP has to convert them for the SB.

Thanks for the responses. Is Roku working on any sort of audio device to replace the soundbridge or are they abandoning the space altogether. I am wary of trying to implement firefly and other solutions. The main reason I got a Soundbridge, three or four years ago, was that I wouldn't have to involve my computer(s) in the playback process for radio. At this point I am playing back individual files (instead of burning them to CD) only because I have them housed on a Windows Home Server and I feel somewhat more comfortable thrashing the home server to play the music files. Is there a way to get this firefly or other format-oriented way of dealing things to work on a Windows Home Server?

[stretch]

Firefly is preinstalled on most NAS devices these days. WHS is an exception
You can get it running. Try googling it

[grommet]

Yes, Firefly can run on Windows Home Server. In fact, HP's Media Smart Server comes with it pre-installed. That's what it uses for it's embeded iTunes server. It works fine with SoundBridge. And yes, it can transcode FLAC to LPCM/WAV.

[alanmc]

Just for info: On my SQA-5H Tranquil PC (Windows Home Server) Firefly comes with it pre-installed, however, I decided to additionally purchase/instal Twonky for which I have a personal preference.