jonnyb wrote:

I believe the Encore plays AAC but not Apple Lossless

That's right, Apple does not license Apple Lossless. While AAC is an open standard.

Other brands that implement Apple Lossless, have hacked it.

P.

I thought AAC also had to be licensed from Dolby Labs who are the main original inventor?

jonnyb wrote:

I thought AAC also had to be licensed from Dolby Labs who are the main original inventor?

Not a problem at all if they openly license it!

Dolby B and C both needed to be licensed (and HX Pro actually brought money from other manufacturers to B&O). VHS recorders usually carried a number of licenses from JVC and Faroudja. None of this stopped or even hindered mass production of cheap decks.

tournedos wrote:

Not a problem at all if they openly license it!

No indeed, but my point was that Phil seemed to be saying that B&O haven't licensed Apple Lossless because they'd need to pay for it whereas AAC was an 'open standard', ie i was questioning whether Phil thought that AAC was free. Since both aren't free I wonder why B&O have paid for AAC but not Apple Lossless.

edit: On further investigation, it looks like Airplay allows the playing of an already decoded Lossless stream but Apple do not grant licences to decode Apple Lossless on their devices. So, B&O could create a product, let's say the Beosound 8 MkII, that would play Airplay but all it would be doing is playing the already decoded stream. It's the implementation of Airplay that's key to future B&O/Apple interoperability, rather than the granting of an Apple Lossless license.

jonnyb wrote:

No indeed, but my point was that Phil seemed to be saying that B&O haven't licensed Apple Lossless because they'd need to pay for it whereas AAC was an 'open standard', ie i was questioning whether Phil thought that AAC was free. Since both aren't free I wonder why B&O have paid for AAC but not Apple Lossless.

Because, as Philippe said, Apple doesn't license Apple Lossless. A trade needs both a buyer and a seller!

I hate it how every other thread on BW nowadays degenerates into this 🙁

Which is what I already wrote above.

Not sure why you're getting so upset. How does this constitute a 'degneration' of the discussion?

jonnyb wrote:

Which is what I already wrote above.

No it's not. You were wondering why B&O hasn't paid to have Apple Lossless. There reason is that it is not for sale.

EDIT: Your edit above seems to be a more accurate interpretation, all good now 🙂

tournedos wrote:

No it's not.

Yes it is. Here's what I wrote:

"but Apple do not grant licences to decode Apple Lossless on their devices"

I wrote what I wrote in the edit at the same time as the bit you originally quoted so I'm not sure why you saw one and not the other. Love and kisses 😕

jonnyb wrote:

Not sure why you're getting so upset. How does this constitute a 'degneration' of the discussion?

Because this whole Apple Lossless has been discussed countless times before. With some people blaming B&O for not buying it, and other blaming Apple for not selling it, and some saying B&O should buy it, People blaming Apple for being a closed system, etc... It always end up changing the original subject of the thread to a "B&O should license Apple Lossless" thread.

My last words on the subject: Yes, it would be good if Apple could license Apple Lossless. Yes it would be good if B&O could support it in their digital solutions, as it is one more feature and doesn't prevent anyone from using other codecs if they wish. Yes B&O should license AirPlay, for the same reasons; it will add capabilities, but will not prevent usage of U-PnP or DLNA servers (Which are technologies that belong to Microsoft and Sony). The more the better. The good thing about this is that both Apple-Lossless and Airplay could be added by simple software update. In the meantime, workaround solutions are: Convert you Apple Lossless to AIFF or another Lossless format. Apple lossless files are DRM free (Closed system??). For Airplay, buy an Airport express and plug it at the back of the BM5, BS5 encore or BS8. Add a good DAC for enhanced quality.

P.

Well, as you may have seen in other threads - it's about five years since I posted here, having been a founding member back in 18-whatever-it-was. Looks like it will be another five years before I post again. Jeeez...

Thanks for welcoming me back into the fold Beoworld. It's really been a pleasure!