DMS Tools and AAC

[phareous]

So I ran DMS Tools and told it to include AAC support. However, when the music keg goes to play an AAC file, it just announces "Corrupt Track". Have I missed something? Do I need to own the original AAC plugin (which isn't for sale anywhere)?

[VorTechS]

No, you shouldn't need to have anything.  When you ran the DMS tools, it generates a number of logs in My Documents\PhatHack Media Manager\Logs.

Can you attach a copy of these, or mail them to me and I'll check the AAC installation bit ran through.

[phareous]

So it appears the issues are my files are in .m4a instead of .aac and also they are at an unsupported sample rate. I just converted them to MP3 for now since I only have a handful of AAC files

[S80_UK]

So it appears the issues are my files are in .m4a instead of .aac and also they are at an unsupported sample rate. I just converted them to MP3 for now since I only have a handful of AAC files

I have a bunch of .m4a files - all play fine with the AAC plugin installed - and the box is quite tolerant of a good range of sample rates.  How were the files encoded?  Are you sure that they are not Apple Lossless (also sometimes known as ALAC- not strictly correctly) since they also would have .m4a as the extension but would definitely not play.

[phareous]

When I look at the file in itunes, it says:

AAC media file
bitrate 64k
sample 44.3 KHz
Encoded with SSA (Slideshow Assembler) 1.0.5a

[S80_UK]

I don't know the encoder - so it may be a suspect, maybe not.  The sample rate should be 44.1kHz normally (44.3 may just be miss-reporting or a typo?).

Can you post a sample file somewhere briefly for folks to test for you?  (I will be on vacation for the next week or so, however.)

[mike47]

Hi,

I am having a similar problem with m4a audio.

Using PhatHack DMS Tools v2.14 I have applied Audi Native (v7.02) and installed the AAC Plugin.
Using PhatNoise Media Manager 3.92 I have re-loaded the m4a files

Winamp shows Audio Properties:
   MPEG-4 AAC LC
   256 kbps.

When trying to play any of these tracks in the car, the tracks are skipped past until hitting the first actual mp3 track in the playlist (Before the Hack, when I was on the original Phatnoise software, I would be informed that an AAC decoder was needed, now with the hack, no audible notification is made).

I did read somewhere on the forum that a solution is to just rename the file attribute to aac – is this still the case?

Regards,
Mike.

[VorTechS]

It might be worth getting a log for this. 

I'm pretty sure M4a is added to the relevant support extensions so that the box should play the files (assuming that flacplay does actually support this), although I will check this.

[chico]

When I look at the file in itunes, it says:

AAC media file
bitrate 64k
sample 44.3 KHz
Encoded with SSA (Slideshow Assembler) 1.0.5a

I had problems with with files with sample rates over 44.1 kHz not playing. Lowering the sample rates down to 441. kHz fixed it. That would be my guess as to what's causing your problem.

[mike47]

I normally just use Winamp, but it doesn’t appear to show the precise sample rate the track is recorded at (it just shows 44KHZ), but my Winamp rip settings are currently set to:-
 
Encoding Format   MP4/LC-AAC Encoder v1.3
Bitrate:         256 kpps
Channel Mode:       Stereo

Although, using VLC Media player on the same track shows the following information:-

Stream 0
   Type: Audio
   Codec: mp4a
   Language: English
Channels: Stereo
Sample rate 44100 Hz

This would appear to be ok and at the 44.1Khz that chico (thanks chico and VorTechS for the replies) mentions.

It isn’t a great shakes as I have only just started using the m4a format and can revert back to mp3, but curiosity has taken over now 

[VorTechS]

Mail me a copy of one of the files.  Let me have a look and see what I can find out about it.  (Email address is on my profile)
I too am intrigued.  

I'm hoping in the next couple of days to have a Kenwood Stereo/Keg setup for bench testing, so I can certainly have a play around with these files to see what's what.

[VorTechS]

As I hadn't yet done so, I've now checked the source code for how it handles the installation of the ACC 'plugin'.

Essentially, it modifies exec.ini and adds 3 entries:

Code:

        Call ExecINI.WriteString("Phatbox", "player.m4a", "/dos/aacplay")
        Call ExecINI.WriteString("Phatbox", "player.aac", "/dos/aacplay")
        Call ExecINI.WriteString("Phatbox", "player.mp4", "/dos/aacplay")

Out of interest.... what is the exact casing of the extension on your files?  Could it be the extensions are upper case, and it's not matching a player because of that?