I thought that FLAC:
1. Was simply a container (compressible like .zip) not a format
2. Is free of any patents/licensing
From
Wikipedia's FLAC page:
Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is an audio compression codec that employs a lossless data compression algorithm. A digital audio recording compressed by FLAC can be decompressed into an identical copy of the original audio data. Audio sources encoded to FLAC are typically reduced to 50–60% of their original size.
FLAC is an open and royalty-free format with a free software implementation made available. FLAC has support for tagging, cover art, and fast seeking. Though FLAC playback support in portable audio devices and dedicated audio systems is limited compared to formats like MP3 or uncompressed PCM, FLAC is supported by more hardware devices than competing lossless compressed formats like WavPack.
If you want to get into semantics yes it's technically a container. What matters is that it's the
non-proprietary defacto industry standard that supports both full CD quality and better than CD quality. FLAC albums are commercially available in both CD quality and better than CD quality. If you have a mind to - you can even convert your high bit-rate multichannel DVD-As to high bit-rate multichannel FLACs. Multichannel and high bit-rate FLAC support is even being rolled out in the latest generation of receivers. I'm spending way to much money at HDTracks.
I do wish MS supported FLAC natively. Something else I have to rig Win7 MCE to be able to play.
Unfortunately both Apple and Micro$oft have chosen to push proprietary formats in a perfectly understandable attempt to make money on music and player sales and to avoid possible royalties from other formats. It's been a success for Apple but not so much for M$ who finally gave up and killed off the Zune - but may try again with the latest Windows phones. So yes if you're going to use MCE you'll need a plug-in but I suspect that M$ will eventually realize that their stubbornness is not paying off and add native support.
If you're happy with WAV then stick with it but there is no technical reason for choosing WAV over FLAC while there are technical reasons for choosing FLAC over WAV. Fortunately dbPoweramp makes it easy to convert an entire lossless library between formats.
I'm not up on the latest Atoms but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
What I do is rip on my main PC and keep a copy there and a copy on my home server. I run server 24/7 access it across my home network for playback but you could do the do the same and in your case copy/sync it to your HTPC - giving you a primary and a backup. I did that for a while using a Western Digital TV Live with an external drive instead of a HTPC. Unfortunately the WDTV Live design is just getting long in the tooth and can't support the very latest formats. I really want to get a
Netgear Neo 550 for my bedroom system (maybe for Christmas)
but I haven't tried one and can't vouch for how well it works. It's pretty new and I'll wait until Christmas to see if they get all the remaining bugs out.
