FLAC Player for Linux

FLAC stands out as the fastest and most widely supported lossless audio codec. Here, we have tested and marked a lot of FLAC players which work well on Linux , and got a fairly conclusion on these programs. Who are the top three?

• Top Winner: MPlayer for Linux
• Runner Up: VLC Media Player for Linux
• The Third: AlsaPlayer for Linux

* The ranking might change from time to time since new software programs are bursting into the market and existing ones are getting updated. You can bookmark this page:

MPlayer is quite a powerful FLAC player for Linux. It is a movie player for Linux (runs on many other Unices, and non-x86 CPUs, see the documentation).

MPlayer plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLI, RM, NuppelVideo, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5 and even WMV movies, too (without the avifile library).

Another great feature of MPlayer is the wide range of supported output drivers. It works with X11, Xv, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, fbdev, AAlib, DirectFB, but you can use GGI, SDL (and this way all their drivers), VESA (on every VESA compatible card, even without X11!) and some low level card-specific drivers (for Matrox, 3Dfx and ATI), too!

So, if you're looking for FLAC player for Linux , just choose MPlayer, which could save you both time and energy!

MPlayer is editors' top choice!
	(7.80 MB MB)

What is a FLAC file?

FLAC files are lossless audio files that preserve the full quality of the original audio source. FLAC files can be made from live concerts, CDs and other recorded music, or just about any kind of audio you can imagine. The beauty of FLAC is that the format itself is free, without any underlying patents, plus the audio is compressed but maintains all the full quality of the source audio. FLAC is currently quite popular, and is used by many people to archive their entire music collection in digital format. FLAC is an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec and its file extension is .flac

Another benefit in using FLAC files, is that you can easily transcode to another audio format (i.e. MP3 or M4A/AAC) at any time. Since FLAC is an open, free format, this ensures your hard work in digitizing your audio collection from records and CDs will be accessible for years to come.

The FLAC file format and specifications have been released to the Public and may be freely used without payment of any licensing royalties. To better help FLAC's acceptance, FLAC is under the Xiph.org banner of audio codecs, which includes the popular Ogg Vorbis lossy audio file format.