Flac and windows media player (i used search) please help

Unrealmaster287 · 27 Jul 2011

Hey Guys please note that i have searched (This is why i posted)

Ok so the reason i m posting this is to confirm what i think may be (in theory) the proper setup for flac integration into windows

After reading all the previous 100+ posts on the matter for 3 hours straight

and sifting through the outdated software and the software that breaks your PC i have came up with the following setup

Please note that this is a theoretical setup and im posting it here for advice and help, i have not attempted it as i am running a new system

My specs are:

Windows 7 Ultimate N x64
Running windows media features pack

Ok

1. First i will install 007 shark codec pack, Honestly i have only been in the codec scene for less than a year but i can safely say that 007 shark by far has the fewest bugs (if non) and goes for the set iit and forget it way

(for 64-bit install 64 bit component as well)

2. (optional) if WMP does not add the files by default.
Re build media library
I say this because on some of the threads there has been some confusion as to why the music was not added to the library

Ok here is were the confusion starts

3. Install Install WMP Tag Plus

Ok this is the most up to date tag support tool i could find and often referred to plus it fixes progress bar issue.
Bear in mind that it was last updated February 12, 2010
But it is better than others which were designed for xp but people still use them on 7

I may be wrong

So if you have a more up to date or better tag tool then please don't hesitate to post it bellow

Ok so now you should have Theoretically a working WMP that plays flac and reads thier tags along with a working progress bar

But step 4 Remanes

Something that i was unable to for the life of me find out

4. How to get explorer to recognize flac tags (this is a big issue for me)

I posted this on the 007 shark forum but no hope there

Shark suggested that i Use Windows media foundation flac codec

This is the only codec that advertises explorer tag support for flac but it did not work for me

It alone did allow flac playback but did not introduce flac support to windows nor wmp

Please leave any comments or suggestions about this configuration bellow,

should i attempt it?
Is there anything better than WMP tag plus available
How to introduce flac tags in windows 7 explorer
Does WMP tag plus work as advertised

Please note that this is all theoretical and some of it is based on actual knowledge and trying (i.e 007codecs) but the other is theory as is the above configuration

What do you think?

Thanks in advance

Roderunner · 27 Jul 2011

Read this please How to Play FLAC Files in Windows 7 Media Center & Player - How-To Geek

Unrealmaster287 · 27 Jul 2011

I looked at that a billion times

it also uses an outdated tag plugin

So:
a. the plugin for tags is outdated
b. shark is better than madflac

Or is it????

Tim De Baets · 30 Jul 2011

Hi Unrealmaster287, I'm the author of WMP Tag Plus. Agreed, the last update was on February 12, 2010, but that definitely doesn't mean that it doesn't work well anymore. It's quite the contrary: there simply weren't any bugs to fix since then, so a new release wasn't necessary. The plug-in has been thoroughly tested on Windows 7.

To find out if WMP Tag Plus works, why not just give it a try yourself?

It should work fine, but if you would have any problems you can always ask for help in this thread and I will gladly reply. Note that after installing WMP Tag Plus, existing FLAC files in your library need to be re-added for their tags/lengths to appear.

Unrealmaster287 · 05 Aug 2011

Ok i know the following "bug" will sound insignificant but it truly does affect me

The album art does not show on the bottom left corner of the screen
Is there nay way to fix that
By the way your plug in is amazing 0 problems so far except this one :P

Tim De Baets · 05 Aug 2011

That's probably because WMP Tag Plus doesn't really support album art yet, at least not embedded album art. Such support is planned for the next major release, WMP Tag Plus 2.0.

Good to hear that the plug-in is working fine otherwise :)

lowie1 · 24 Jan 2012

I too could not get flac audio on my 7 x64. Then I saw that K-lite had a new one for 7, but still i could not hear flac.
Then I took my old K-lite from 2009 and installed it on 7. Now I can hear flac and see mkv. K-lite: klmcodec462. Maybey you can still find it with google.
gr. Lowie

Shark007 · 24 Jan 2012

The Shark007 codecs already support flac playback on both 32 and 64bit systems from WMP and Media Center including adding the flac files to the library.

In an upcoming release (no ETA at this time, but soon),
the Shark007 codecs will also support flac tags and album art.

dsperber · 25 Jan 2012

As highly recommended alternatives to WMP...

(1) Winamp supports FLAC "native", and also supports imbedded album art in tags (or external "cover.jpg" album art in the folder which holds music files that do not have imbedded album art in their tags).

No anything extra required, i.e. no "codec pack" or anything. Just use Winamp, and you can play FLAC files as well as every other music file format.

(2) Jaangle (music file organizer) also plays FLAC "native" in the program itself, with no outside "codec pack" required. This is a wonderful program on many levels, including as a music player (of all types of music files) integrated with music collection organizing.

Again, Jaangle supports both imbedded album art in tags, as well as "cover.jpg" external album art in the album folder holding music files that don't have imbedded album art in their tags.

Shark007 · 25 Jan 2012

dsperber said:

As highly recommended alternatives to WMP...

I can only assume you failed to read the TOPIC TITLE...

Flac and windows media player (i used search) please help

Flac and windows media player (i used search) please help

Flac and windows media player (i used search) please help

potential update for WMP tag plus