How to add music in FLAC to WMP 12 library?

Thanks for the reply. Well Window Media Player plays flac files now, but the files still do not show up in my Windows 7 music library. It's really no different than if I wanted files with a .txt extension to show in the music library. Somewhere there are settings that tell Windows which file extensions to include in the library called "Music". But where, and how to change them to include the .flac extension? Arrrg!

Chappy said:

Hi SHUTRcz, Welcome to the Forum!

You need CODECS that allow WMP to recognize the FLAC files since FLAC is not natively supported by WMP.
The lightest and best codec pack is Win7 Codecs. Also if you have 64bit Win7, there is a 64bit tools pack you need to be able to switch to the 32bit WMP so all files will work. Codec writers have been slow to develop 64bit codecs so we need to use the 32bit player that also comes with 64bit Windows.

Anyway, install the Codecs and the x64 tools if needed, only the codec pack if you have 32bit W7. If you have 64bit W7, after you install the tools go to Start - All Programs - Win7 Codecs - 64bit tools - default media player, and click the "set 32bit WMP as default" and then the "set 32bit registry item" to make 32bit WMP the default player. There is NO performance difference between the two players but 64bit is NOT supported by many codecs.

For Flac tag support, get WmpTagExtender and install it. Make sure it's enabled in WMP, go to Options in WMP, plug-in tab, click Background and it should show in there with a checkmark, check it if it's unchecked.

Now you need to re-scan your library so Flac will show, WMP should do this automatically but make sure.

Hope this helps.

I took these steps and now my FLACs show up and they do play, I can hear it.

But there are a couple problems:
- Length does not show on FLAC music
- Cannot seek FLAC music

I'd really like to be able to skip ahead in tracks and stuff and see the length of my albums. Here is a screen shot:



Does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks!

Specs:
Win 7
AMD 3700 64 bit
2GB RAM
Pretty sure WMP is 32bit (shortcut points to x86 folder)

This site has a nice search feature....it's available to all...this info has been posted repeatedly.

Chappy said:

But there are a couple problems:
- Length does not show on FLAC music
- Cannot seek FLAC music

WMP Tag Plus is a new tag support plug-in that will fix these problems:

http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/wmptagplus

To prevent conflicts, it is recommended to uninstall or disable all other WMP tag support plug-ins before installing WMP Tag Plus.

Thanks for this Tim! .. just what I've been looking for!

One thing though .. I found the seek bar and time display wouldn't work right away .. I had to delete my library , shut down WMP , then start it again to re-populate .. then everything was fine!

It might be worth pointing that out to folks if anyone's having problems.

In case anyone is wondering .. navigate to C:\Users\*yourname*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player .. and delete the file currentdatabase_xxx is what I did.

Gaps between tracks are still a problem though .. any ideas??

Yes, it's true that after installing WMP Tag Plus, existing FLAC files need to be re-added to the library for the length and other tags to be filled in. However, this can be done much easier than having to delete the database file: select the FLAC files, right-click, select Delete, Delete from library only, and click OK. Re-add the files through Tools - Advanced - Restore deleted library items.

I'm not sure what you mean with gaps between tracks. Do you mean that crossfade doesn't work for FLAC files? This is a known limitation in WMP; crossfading only works for the default supported formats such as MP3 and WMA.

Tim De Baets said:

Yes, it's true that after installing WMP Tag Plus, existing FLAC files need to be re-added to the library for the length and other tags to be filled in. However, this can be done much easier than having to delete the database file: select the FLAC files, right-click, select Delete, Delete from library only, and click OK. Re-add the files through Tools - Advanced - Restore deleted library items.

I'm not sure what you mean with gaps between tracks. Do you mean that crossfade doesn't work for FLAC files? This is a known limitation in WMP; crossfading only works for the default supported formats such as MP3 and WMA.

Yes, I noticed that the crossfade wasn't working .. thanks for the info Tim.

I think I'll experiment a bit more with EAC to see if there is something else in there I've missed with regard to FLAC output.