[Flac-dev] Indexed FLAC file?

[David Richards]

Probably what you want is a media player software that turns your file
structure into a database, you won't have to spend so much time
dealing with the tedium aspects of navigating the structure that
way...

However, I believe you could create such a file with MKV which can
hold multiple tracks of flac AFAIK. I'd be curious to hear back if you
try that specifically.

Probably no normal music player will deal with mkv, but if your this
into it you could develop your own..

( if you wanted to look into a custom media player for option number
one, take a look at xmms2 )

-David

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 5:53 PM, George Barton <crashputer at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>    I have a very large music collection that I keep on a portable hard
> drive (to plug in to car USB, carry with when I'm at my office, etc).
> All but a few dozen files are part of an album, and not a single audio
> file. This translates to an insane amount of files stored on my hard
> drive. I am very strict about how I label and file my media (I loathe
> unlabeled audio tracks), but even so it is very tedious at times to
> navigate this file structure, and takes a long time to load in my car. I
> have seen other file formats (specifically one proprietary audio book
> format) that supported indexing, and think it would be a great feature
> to add to FLAC. Example...
>
> Instead of having:
>     \Dark Side of the Moon
>         01 - Speak to Me.FLAC
>         02 - Breathe.FLAC
>         03 - On the Run.FLAC
>         ...
>
> Like a CD, you would have:
>     Dark Side of the Moon.FLAC
>         -01 - Speak to Me
>         -02 - Breathe
>         -03 - On the Run
>         ...
>
> It seems to me that a .cue (or something similar) file could be appended
> to the FLAC file, and the ID tags modified and merged to reflect the
> indexes. Any newer program/hardware could take full advantage of the
> indexes, and any older program/hardware would simply see the FLAC file.
>
> I can see one major disadvantage. It would be more difficult to place a
> full playlist in shuffle mode without the program/hardware creating a
> master index detailing the contents of each file. However, many
> computer-based media players already do this.
>
> I'm not very (any) good (at all) at coding, or I would have a go at
> creating this.
>
> Just a thought...
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