XMPlay AAC & MP4 plugin

[Rowan]

Strangely they are now all streaming OK.  Not sure what the difference is from before other than a reboot. 

Looks like it works perfectly then    If it finds any it won't stream again I will look into it and let you know.

Thanks for all your help.

[Auren]

Ian, please add support for episodes in m4a-files (iTunes supports them natively). I uploaded a test .m4a-file with episodes to your FTP under the name Chill Out GenreCast - Episode 000.m4a

I need at least song name detection (like in .cue-files now). And it would be much better if covers of the songs are displayed too. But I think that it would be better to address the second request to Barna ;-)

[Ian @ un4seen]

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for in that file; please describe it

[Auren]

I'd better post a screenshot:



And read this, too: http://www.un4seen.com/forum/?topic=8808.msg60609#msg60609

And this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1597 (about "Enhanced Podcasts")

[r]

Hey Ian,

This article might help you:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2005/07/how_to_make_enh.html (scroll down to "Making the XML File")

Basically, Ian it's an XML file merged into the M4A that you're looking for...

Not sure how to find that! I'm not a coder!

----

AFAIK, there's only one piece of Windows software that creates enhanced podcasts (chapter points for M4As):
http://jrlearnsmedia.com/blog/archive/2007/07/29/enhanced-podcasting-on-windows.aspx

You might want to test that app out and see how the enhanced M4A is compiled.

Hope that helps!

[Barna]

These advanced information are stored in their own MP4 track, so it isn't part of the meta mp4 header as simple text tags are.
The data aren't stored as XML in the MP4 file anymore, they are joined into the whole MP4 stream to actually stream all the informations (cover images, titles, links) during playing.
One can dump these tracks with mp4box. The titles and the timing they apply to are stored in a text track with fourcc text (track 2 in the one podcast I got from beatport). The dumped rawdata alone isn't much, as it needs the track header which contains the actual offsets and timing information (timescale and durations).

You can get all the informations on how to find what at http://www.geocities.com/xhelmboyx/quicktime/formats/mp4-layout.txt
Yes it's big :-) First I thought I'd look at some libraries others have done... Then I found some huge uber complex libraries and decided to take the dirty route and just write a parser which gets me what I want (cover image data).

[Ian @ un4seen]

Thanks for the info, I see them now. Here's an update to try...

   www.un4seen.com/stuff/xmp-aac.dll

[Auren]

Hey, that's damn fast, Ian! It works just flawlessly.

[samplah!]

niiiiiiiiiiice!!! finally i can listen to di.fm with aac 

Thanks! 

[Lesmo16]

Thanks for the info, I see them now. Here's an update to try...

   www.un4seen.com/stuff/xmp-aac.dll

Unfortunately this link doesn't work ---> 404 - Not Found.
Where can I download the plugin?

Thanks in advance.

[Dotpitch]

Unfortunately this link doesn't work ---> 404 - Not Found. Where can I download the plugin?

You can get in from the first post in this thread.

[saga]

How about trying the download link in the first post?

[Lesmo16]

How about trying the download link in the first post?

Well, in principle ...

I've downloaded and tried that one first.
It didn't work as it should work (looped the first samples of each track).
So I was looking for a fixed version in the growing thread.

BTW: @Dotpitch: Thanks for the friendly hint.

[saga]

Well duh, didn't see that there was already a new page.

[Dotpitch]

I've downloaded and tried that one first.

Looking at the dates, that is the latest version.

It didn't work as it should work (looped the first samples of each track).

Could you explain that a bit more? Does it keep looping the first second indefinitely, or doesn't it clear its buffers properly? Does it happen with all tracks, or just with some? With what encoder were those files made, and do they contain album art?

[Chark]

Hi, I have a question regarding this plugin. Does it support AAC HE and AAC HEv2 (SBR + Parametric Stereo)?

If so could it be possible to notify this in the info window? Right now it only says Advanced Audio Coding (MP4)... which is nothing really because you can tell that by the extension of the file.

[Dotpitch]

Hi, I have a question regarding this plugin. Does it support AAC HE and AAC HEv2 (SBR + Parametric Stereo)?

Yes, it does.

If so could it be possible to notify this in the info window? Right now it only says Advanced Audio Coding (MP4)... which is nothing really because you can tell that by the extension of the file.

Actually, that is not something you can see from the extension, since MP4 can contain different audio formats as well. I'll put it on the suggestions list.

[Chark]

Hi, I have a question regarding this plugin. Does it support AAC HE and AAC HEv2 (SBR + Parametric Stereo)?

Yes, it does.

Thank you very much. I'm listening so some Internet radios which use AAC at about 40-50Kbps (so AAC HE is presumed) and would like to do it with XMPlay.

If so could it be possible to notify this in the info window? Right now it only says Advanced Audio Coding (MP4)... which is nothing really because you can tell that by the extension of the file.

Actually, that is not something you can see from the extension, since MP4 can contain different audio formats as well. I'll put it on the suggestions list.

Thank you for the explanation, I've read more about it and you're right; MP4 is a container which can have several things inside (and M4A is only a extension rename).

Adding the info about which AAC version it is in the info window would be interesting, like VBR and so for mp3 files.

[Ian @ un4seen]

Here's an update to try...

   www.un4seen.com/stuff/xmp-aac.dll

[Chark]

Thank you very much Ian, it shows now the type of AAC. I've tried several streams and identified all of the kinds. The only thing is that HEv2 uses SBR too, to be accurate it would be (SBR + PS) and the (LC) notation for the simple AAC may be droped as all of them use LC (they are kind of encapsulated from what I've seen today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Efficiency_Advanced_Audio_Coding). but as it is right now you can tell which kind of AAC you have there anyway.

By the way, I'm Chark, glad to be here .

[Chinese Sausage]

Hello Ian,

Speaking on the AAC & MP4 topic, I sent to you an m4a file, which I've had problems playing (it skips) for some time. Do you you know why is this happening? It plays fine on other audio players. Please let me know if you received the file correctly.

Thank you in advance!
Ed

[SmartOne]

With DirectSound, if I play, stop, and then play a file again, I hear a bit of unflushed buffer before the new playback begins.

[Dotpitch]

With DirectSound, if I play, stop, and then play a file again, I hear a bit of unflushed buffer before the new playback begins.

Does that happen with all files, or specifically with AAC files?

[Ian @ un4seen]

Speaking on the AAC & MP4 topic, I sent to you an m4a file, which I've had problems playing (it skips) for some time. Do you you know why is this happening? It plays fine on other audio players. Please let me know if you received the file correctly.

The file was received, but it is actually an ALAC file. I couldn't hear any skipping from it, so perhaps you are currently using an older version of the ALAC plugin? Let me know if it still skips with the latest version, and if it does, is there a particular point where it skips or is it throughout?

[Chinese Sausage]

Speaking on the AAC & MP4 topic, I sent to you an m4a file, which I've had problems playing (it skips) for some time. Do you you know why is this happening? It plays fine on other audio players. Please let me know if you received the file correctly.

The file was received, but it is actually an ALAC file. I couldn't hear any skipping from it, so perhaps you are currently using an older version of the ALAC plugin? Let me know if it still skips with the latest version, and if it does, is there a particular point where it skips or is it throughout?

It skipped throughout. I was not aware that I needed the ALAC plugin, that was the reason why it wouldn't play at all. I updated it in the custom exe and now I can play it flawlessly with ALAC rev. 3. Again thank you very much for the help!