How to play FLAC file with Windows Media Player 12

Anonymous
2009-12-30T20:15:31+00:00

Is there any way to play Flac files with Windows Media Player 12?  A hefty percentage of my music library is FLAC. 

Thanks!

Lloyd

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-01-05T15:56:49+00:00

Hello L Goldfine,

Thank you for your inquiry.

The Flac extension is not a supported file type of Windows Media Player. You may however user your favorite search engine to search for a solution that may convert the file to a Windows Media Player supported file type.

For more information on Windows Media Player supported file types you may also view the following link: 

Information about the Multimedia file types that Windows Media Player supports

I hope this information is helpful.

Thank you,

Mary

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-19T20:33:45+00:00

    I would just add that if you go with iTunes you are sort of cornered into ALAC.  FLAC vs ALAC is highly contested in many forums and you'll find everyone has their own opinion about it, so do a little of your own research to make the best choice for your situation.

    ALAC and FLAC are both lossless, so identical in terms of audio quality capabilities, but I do not believe iTunes supports FLAC; it only supports converting your FLAC files into ALAC files and then will allow you to manage your ALAC files within iTunes.

    ALAC has been open source for a little while now, meaning other platforms can support it's playback, but FLAC has been open source for much longer and as a result does appear to have the advantage of support across many more devices and platforms.

    If you're already entrenched in the Apple and iProduct ecosystem these may be a moot points, but as someone who is not, it's a significant factor as to why I choose FLAC over ALAC.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-08-22T18:27:55+00:00

    Agreed, that is extremely lame.  Get it, LAME?  C'mon, include support for formats that exist, don't tell us to convert to a crappy WMP format, or MP3, or even WAV!

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-05-10T13:56:44+00:00

    No workie for me.... tried them all and nothing seems to work.  Win 7 X64 Enterprise and MP 12

    Try http://sourceforge.net/projects/wmptagext/

    After installation you may need to associate "flac" with Windows Media Player.  Works for me.

    That suggestion did not work with Win 7 64-bit & Media Player 12. :(

     

    But this one works fine after rebooting: http://xiph.org/dshow/downloads/

     

    And now Media Player 12 even indexes the .flac files thanks to the how-to here: http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/01/playing-flac-files-in-media-center.html

     

    I did not need to rebuilt the Library as suggested in the post. :)

     

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-01-23T21:28:27+00:00

    Try http://sourceforge.net/projects/wmptagext/

    After installation you may need to associate "flac" with Windows Media Player.  Works for me.

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