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I have seen a few discussions on this but none of them give the answer I was hoping for. I am trying to convert flac to alac while preserving all of the tags and the embedded cover image. I know we can manually set a cover image by passing a separate image file to ffmpeg.... but how do I use the one embedded in the flac file? dbpoweramp does this automatically, but I would rather use ffmpeg so that I can automate my workflow with a bash script.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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ffmpeg -i input.flac -c:v copy -c:a alac output.m4a
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  • Thanks for the reply but that doesn't work for me ` [ipod @ 0x55a0bbcecde0] Could not find tag for codec mjpeg in stream #0, codec not currently supported in container Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid argument Error initializing output stream 0:1 -- Conversion failed! `
    – Chris
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 21:10
  • @Chris I'll need to see your command and the complete console output. You can use a pastebin site and provide a link in a comment.
    – llogan
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 23:26
  • Thats a good idea. Here is the link pastebin.com/x41mvWee
    – Chris
    Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 1:35
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    @Chris Your ffmpeg is too old. Download a new one here. Put it in /usr/local/bin (or ~/bin but you'll have to log out/log in or run source ~/.profile for it to get recognized in ~/bin).
    – llogan
    Commented Jun 25, 2020 at 18:05
  • I cant believe it was that simple. I would have thought the Ubuntu version would have been kept up to date. Never thought to even check. Lesson learned, thanks!
    – Chris
    Commented Jun 26, 2020 at 1:53
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Fixed by adding a source that has a newer version... sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/ffmpeg-4 ...And using @logan command... ffmpeg -i input.flac -c:v copy -c:a alac output.m4a

Thanks

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I was unable to get the jonathon ppa to work on my rig so you can use "-vcodec copy " "$FILE" -vcodec copy -acodec alac "$NEW_FILE" to copy the image over to the new file.

However, I do see that file names with "()" sometimes don't convert. I don't get an error in my script it just moves on. without the copy. Would be nice if anyone know how to fix that.

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