To play Apple Lossless (ALAC) or FLAC files with Windows Media Player in Vista, you need to download and install several programs. One of them is DirectShow source filter. On this website you can download the latest version of DC-BASS Source. I tested the installer version and it ran under Vista 64-bit. This only lets WMP recognize the format, not play it – for that, you need the decoder. I believe if you have a recent version of libavcodec library, you will have decoders for FLAC and ALAC; installing something like CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) will give you those decoders.
Unfortunately, one part is still missing. While you will at least be capable of playing back these files in WMP now upon manual request, they will not be automatically recognized (through folder monitoring) nor will their tags (e.g. track, artist, composer, album) be presented. While there is a plugin for that purpose – WMP tag support extender – it does not work under Vista 64-bit. It will install, but will then hang (freeze) the WMP and will be auto-disabled next time you start the WMP. I have no solution for this yet and it appears that project is no longer active (last updated in Feb 2007).
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2 responses so far ↓
1 rob // Jul 14, 2008 at 22:44
regardless of this not working for 64 bit, (like so many other things) this worked great 4 me since i prefer wmp over itunes and all my music is alac and sync’d to my ipod,
thanks a bunch
2 JFS // May 15, 2009 at 16:52
I used the programs you referenced to play ALAC files in WMP 11. However, when I incorporate a WMP 11 object in a VB 2005 project, the project cannot play ALAC files.
Is there a way to include the ALAC codec in the VB 2005 project?
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