Topic: XMPlay AAC & MP4 plugin

[Brian]

Please drop it - I've already declined the suggestion. I'm just a user, not the public relations manager for this or any other piece of software.

[Pike84]

Of course, it's your call. But who's going to tell them if not the community? The idea of some kind of a public relations manager for a freeware player is pretty absurd anyway .

[Brian]

We're talking about several dozen broadcasters currently streaming in AAC+, with the number growing all the time. Then there's the work involved in finding out exactly whom to contact, preparing e-mails and following them up as necessary. And as I observed, this is only the tip of a large iceberg because most broadcasters have hardly even heard of XMPlay in the first place. I certainly have neither the time nor the inclination to undertake that kind of campaign. I'm not sure what being freeware has to do with it - both Winamp and, more interestingly, VLC are getting mentions on these websites.

[Pike84]

We're talking about several dozen broadcasters currently streaming in AAC+, with the number growing all the time. Then there's the work involved in finding out exactly whom to contact, preparing e-mails and following them up as necessary. And as I observed, this is only the tip of a large iceberg because most broadcasters have hardly even heard of XMPlay in the first place. I certainly have neither the time nor the inclination to undertake that kind of campaign.

I wasn't talking about a campaign; I was talking a bout a line . I understand that there might be too much for one guy to be done, if all broadcasters should be considered. I just think it would be a great way to increase XMPlay's popularity, when people would see the player among Winamp and others. Well, it's not such a big deal anyway, I was just thinking.

[Sebastian_Mares]

Why can't people accept a simple no? If he doesn't have the time or doesn't want to, leave him alone. Also, please stop hijacking other's threads.

[Pike84]

Hey, don't take it so seriously. And I dropped the case already in my last post .

[Ian @ un4seen]

Although not AAC specific, there are at least a couple of stations that do suggest XMPlay

   http://www.swissgroove.ch/
   http://www.kysfm.com/

[Brian]

A further encouraging report. One of the developers on the dBPowerAMP forums has come up with an Enhanced AACPlus codec for standalone files. I'm pleased to find that playing of the encoded files is supported by Sebastian's plugin. With the encoding options set at 64kbps stereo (the maximum available), the resultant files are to my ears a match for 192kbps ogg files in sound quality while being one-third the size.

Here's a link to the dBPowerAMP forum thread:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=7107

[HavaR]

Hey! I haven't come across any aac or m4a files before, but I recently got an albums worth of m4a files. I then remembered seeing something about this plugin so I installed it , but the files still won't play!

Now the default player for m4a files before I got the plugin was realplayer and they work if I play them there, but I would very much prefer to play them in xmplay as that's the player I normally use. I tried opening the files via xmplay in any way possible, but nothing happens. I use version 3.2, so I'm thinking that is a possible problem, but I don't know what could be wrong.. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Sebastian_Mares]

Protected files maybe?

[HavaR]

I don't think they are. I didn't get them via Itunes or any online music shops, but I suppose they could be protected anyway. I haven't really got any experience with drm, but I checked the properties of the files and didn't see anything there.

[HavaR]

Ok, now I know that it's that particular set of files that doesn't work. I got some other m4a files and they work without any problems at all! Hmm..

[Alexsource]

Hello, just wanted to ask, when can we espect support for aac 2 plus streams? Is it possible?
I don't really like to have to use vlc for nectarine, as i keep getting ICY errors with xmplay
I'm aware there still are mp3 streams, but hey, less bandwith usage, sounds as good

[raina]

@Alexsource, you have an old version of the plugin. An up-to-date xmp-aac handles the Nectarine streams beautifully. Check the support site. I think it has the newer version since it's a zip packet. Or, if that doesn't work, check the xmp-aac thread and download the plug that's zipped, not the installer exe.

[Rah'Dick]

I recently updated xmp-aac from the latest zip that I found on the forum, so it should be up to date.

[Alexsource]

Ups... silly me Everything wprks fine now!

[rend]

hi Sebastian,

Thank you for this awesome plugin. I have a couple of suggestions though:

1. Could you please provide some more info about AAC file in the info box? Like used profile (LC or HE), presence or absence of PS and so on? I have to use winamp for this which shows a bit more info about AAC files and this is very inconvient... 

2. I discovered some issues with streaming. I had to write a small AAC+ source program for icecast which reads AAC+ files from disk and, after some calculations (determining bitrate) sends them to icecast, because I didn't find AAC aware source for Linux. Everything works fine, but until the song changes: XMplay buffering status reaches 133% and then the playback locks up until I restart it. But Winamp seems to play my stream OK without any issues. There is no TAGS in my AAC files and they all are the same bitrate. I read them sequentially and send to icecast. Any ideas on how to fix this?

thanks.

[Tsorovan]

I seem to have come across a few .M4A files that do not want to play, either with XMP-AAC, or IN_MP4, but the horrible Nokia Music Manager (I, by happenstance, installed the Nokia PC Suite earlier today for testing my irDA device) plays them fine.

It's the file 05 Symphony No. 8 - The Journey(1999.m4a in /incoming/ on the FTP.

MPC with K-Lite Mega Codec Pack doesn't play them either. Both XMPlay and MPC play all my other M4A files just fine.

TrID says the file is most certainly an MP4 container.

[Tsorovan]

OK, nevermind. It seems they were ALAC files. According to the guy, it was encoded with iTunes. Why they have the exact same file extension on the audio containers for lossy and lossless is beyond me... that's one of the reasons they forwent MP4 and chose M4A anyway...

I'll just blame Apple, because it's usually the right thing to do! : D

[Ian @ un4seen]

Yep, you need the ALAC plugin to play that file.

[Ian @ un4seen]

The AAC plugin was found to crash when checking some non-AAC files, so an updated plugin is now in the download (see first post).

[sergeymen]

Anyone having problems with the latest revision of xmp-aac (rev. 1)? It won't play m4a files, but the older version I happened to keep works fine.

[Ian @ un4seen]

I just tried a few M4A files, and they were ok, so please upload an example troublesome file to have a look at here...

   ftp.un4seen.com/incoming/

[sergeymen]

Hi, thank you for your reply!

I just uploaded error_rev_1.m4a . Please give it a try. I wonder if maybe the cyrillic characters are the source of the problem? I tried changing the tags in iTunes, but it did not help.

Just as a side note, I don't listen to this type of music on a regular basis. It came in an email from a friend. Really.

[Ian @ un4seen]

I just uploaded error_rev_1.m4a . Please give it a try. I wonder if maybe the cyrillic characters are the source of the problem? I tried changing the tags in iTunes, but it did not help.

It plays fine here. Can you at least add it to the list (with "Verify new files" enabled), and if so, is the title and length detected correctly?

You could try removing all other plugins, to see if maybe one of them is grabbing the file. And if that does sort it, please narrow it down (by putting them back one-by-one) to which plugin is causing the trouble.

Just as a side note, I don't listen to this type of music on a regular basis. It came in an email from a friend. Really.

Your secret is safe with me