Just To Be Sure...

[OrangePurety]

Hi All !

I have a PhatBox in my VW Golf. I would not hack it, but just add the AAC plug in. Is this possible by just checking "Install AAC Plugin" and "Install non-hacked firmware" in the PhatHack DMS Tools ? Should I remove the music on the DMS to do this ? It's not like a firmware update, but that's just update the DMS isnt'it ? So I can do this and immediatly adding new AAC music files to the DMS ?

Thanks !!

[OrangePurety]

Anyone could help me ? 

[VorTechS]

I haven't added an option in (yet) to just instal the AAC plugin.  So perform a firmware update, selecting the same version of firmware that you currently have, and check the options as you suggest, but also uncheck the option 'Reflash box'.

[OrangePurety]

I haven't added an option in (yet) to just instal the AAC plugin.  So perform a firmware update, selecting the same version of firmware that you currently have, and check the options as you suggest, but also uncheck the option 'Reflash box'.

Well, I've done that, but that don't work. When it comes to the AAC files, that say "Corrupt Track", or nothing sometimes.

I've perform a firmware upgrade, check the "Install AAC plugin" box, and unchecked the "Reflash Box" one.

The other songs works but not without some little problems (.flac). Randomly (but mostly), when I rewind or forward when listening to a track, there is 4/5 seconds of silence, and the box switch to the next song.

Well I'm searching the best solution to make tranfer to the DMS easy, and have high quality sound files. The best way would be to have my box reading the AAC (.m4a) files, then, I could easly convert my AIFF direct from iTunes into high quality AAC (and conserve the tags!).

Thanks for your help, I hope we'll find a solution to make my box AAC ready

[OrangePurety]

Can someone help me ? 

Should I try again to install the AAC plugin but with reflashing the box ?

I have all my music files on the DMS when I use the DMS Tool, should I wipe the DMS before use the hack tool ?

To clearly understand, the AAC plugin is install on the DMS and after on the PhatBox or just on the DMS ? Maybe should I try to check the "Reflash box" option ?

This AAC plugin should work with all AAC encoded files (.aac, .m4a,...) ?

Thanks a lot for your answer. Could be great to have an Phatbox AAC ready It's the best solution for me to adding my iTunes library !

Thanks !! 

[OrangePurety]

Am I alone ? 

If someone could just tell me how to correctly install the AAC plugin on a VW Phatbox ? Are you agree that the AAC plugin decode .aac and .m4a ?

Thanks !

[Terry_Kennedy]

Am I alone ? 

If someone could just tell me how to correctly install the AAC plugin on a VW Phatbox ? Are you agree that the AAC plugin decode .aac and .m4a ?

Sorry, I can't help you with your AAC question. But I just wanted to let you know you haven't been abandoned in this forum

[OrangePurety]

Sorry, I can't help you with your AAC question. But I just wanted to let you know you haven't been abandoned in this forum

Thanks

I think I will try something simple. Convert just one album in AAC, use the DMS hack tool to install AAC plugin with a firmware upgrade (but this time with reflashing the box) and try !

Has someone already successful try to play AAC on PhatBox ?

[S80_UK]

Yes - AAC works fine, once you have it enabled.  Actually, it is the best non-lossless codec on the Phatbox in my view.

[VorTechS]

I've had no reports of failures with the Hack Tools implementation of the AAC plugin, so I see no obvious reason as to why it doesn't work.
As I don't use it I have no solutions for you

However, could you please post a copy of EXEC.INI from PHTSYS...?

[OrangePurety]

Well, in fact, I have rename the files with .aac extension (iTunes named .m4a).

Now, my phatbox reads aac

I just get some trouble on some playlists. That's seems to come from files with special letters.

A thing I don't understand too,  is that the PhatHack MediaManager rename the number of files in "00". For example, a file named "01 - Track.aac", will appears like "00- Track.aac". That's cause trouble when you have 2 songs with same name ("The Wall" from Pink Floyd, the two "In The Flesh" songs aren't recognize from the PhatBox"

There is some options on the PHMM I don't understand. What's "Do NOT Transcode to Device" ?

Thanks !

[Terry_Kennedy]

I just get some trouble on some playlists. That's seems to come from files with special letters.

I'm glad you got it working. Regarding the filenames, this is because the Phatbox operating system is Linux and it mounts the partition with an MS-DOS compatibility tool. So you need to stick with the ASCII character set.

[MDGColorado]

Orange, I'm new on this forum and this is my first post. I will tell you what I know.

I have not hacked my DMS (yet) and have been using AAC files (90% of my music is AAC) for 4 years now. I bought the AAC plugin from PhatNoise after getting my PhatBox, it was about a $10 upgrade. It always worked perfectly. Then about a year ago I put a new hard drive in my laptop and had to reinstall PMM, and there was a problem with the AAC plugin; as I recall it wouldn't take the activation code. I sent an email to to Phatnoise support and here is the response I got:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We sincerely apologize for the problem you encountered. We are experiencing technical difficulties that are causing problems with the PMM Plus Activation server.

Please go to ftp://phatnoise.harman.com/

Login with this information:
Username: pncustomer
Password: #downloads (note that the # sign is part of the password)

Download the file named PMM_3.92_FULL.exe and install it OVER your current installation. (You can right click the file, click Copy, then go to your desktop, right-click and click Paste.) Double click the file to install the full latest version. You should no longer need an activation code. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

For Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), in the tool bar, click "Page" then "Open ftp.phatnoise.harman.com". You will be prompted to enter your username and password again. You should then be able to view and download the files.

Best regards,

PhatNoise Customer Support
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

That worked for me. I have had no problems with AAC since, although I do have 1 or 2 songs that the PhatBox calls "Corrupt file" for some reason. But it's really only 1 or 2 out of 4000 songes.

All my files are m4a extension. I'm checking and I don't see ANY with aac extension. I have used several encoders (PhatNoise, ITunes, and NeroAAC) and the PhatBox has played them all with no problem. (IPod can play them all too, but my Creative Zen player had problems with Nero and PhatNoise encoded files. I found a hack online to fix them. It had something to do with file length, and NeroAAC has a recent release that fixes their problem. This is probably not relevant to the Phatbox but I'm just throwing out everything I know.)

So I'm not sure it was the file extension that fixed your problem.

Enjoy good music in your car!
Mark

2001 Jetta w/ Monsoon, PhatBox 20G

[OrangePurety]

Hey !

I saw your reply just today. Thanks for the link ! I will try to download and install that. Then, that will be great to allow my PhatNoise MediaManager to work with .aac (or .m4a) !

I have some problems with aac files who seems to be not entire on the dms. Maybe a problem during file transfer ? They work perfectly on my computer.

But many thanks for the link, I will try to install it and put AAC on DMS directly with PN MM

I get some voice problems with PhatHack MediaManager. Even if I choose Mike's voice, that emulate an horrible robot voice !

Anyway, thanks at all for your tips 

[VorTechS]

There is some options on the PHMM I don't understand. What's "Do NOT Transcode to Device" ?

Thanks !

This stops PhatHack Media Manager from re-encoding the source file, and simply forces it to copy the original file from the source to the DMS without any form of modification.