How to play FLAC files on Xbox 360

Introduction & Requirements
Xbox 360 | Obviously you will need an Xbox 360 console for this article |
ImgBurn (Optional) | If you want to play media from a disc, you can use ImgBurn to create it for the console. |
TVersity (Optional) | TVersity is a media sharing application that supports the Xbox 360. |
What are FLAC files?

FLAC is free and open source, and it's royalty free nature means that it enjoys wide support in software across all operating systems.While an MP3 may be just 4MB or under in size, FLAC files are generally much larger, with 30MB - 40MB not being uncommon for a single track. During lossy compression, much of the original uncompressed audio is scraped in preference to a smaller file size. The audio kept is what the encoder determines to be most vital for human hearing, therefore the idea behind lossy compression is to cut out mostly what you won't miss anyway.
However, at lower bitrates the difference from the source becomes obvious. With lossless compression methods, it's basically like putting a file in a ZIP archive, only with much better compression ratio as it is designed for audio. What is compressed can be completely retrieved in full when it is decompressed for playback.
Does Xbox 360 Support FLAC audio?

Alternatively, you can skip ahead to the TVersity part of this guide as you can stream your FLAC audio to the Xbox 360 console over a home network without having to re-encode it yourself.
Convert FLAC to MP3, or stream with TVeristy
If you want to play your audio directly from CD or through a portable USB device, then you need to convert the FLAC audio to MP3 first. In order to do this, read the guide linked below and return to this article for instructions on how to play yours MP3 files. If you don't want to encode to MP3 first and would like to stream over a network, then click here to read our instructions for streaming with TVersity.
Recommended: Convert FLAC to MP3 |
Written by: James Delahunty