Author Topic: MB won't play .m4a files  (Read 3998 times)

cplloyd42

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I have just updated my MB to the lastest 3.1 (3.1.6512) because my older v2.5 had stopped playing my .m4a files. Unfortunately, this has not resolved my problem. My v2.5 used to play these files some months ago. These files play without a problem in VLC Player, and GOM Player (but this has an occasional glitch and I'd like to replace it with MB).

I'm running Win10 Home, fully updated. My .m4a files are large (~300MB) as they are audiobooks. I was wondering whether I needed to install a codex. The error message I get reads:

"Unable to play this file - it has an unsupported format or is corrupted."

I would welcome any suggestions.

Paul.

sveakul

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cplloyd42,

You might want to try demuxing the file to AAC with a tool like Mp4Box, then remuxing to m4a using ffmpeg (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=23193.0  as a suggested method).  I got that same error once from an m4a I had edited a piece out of in its original format using LosslessCut--it would play in other players though.  After demuxing the pre-edit original and doing the cut using mp3DirectCut with libfaad2.dll present, and adding the m4a wrapper again via the method above, MB played it just fine.  So maybe the m4a wrapper on yours is "shaky", worth a try anyway.  Never had any other problems besides that one playing lots of m4a files with MB.

cplloyd42

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Thanks for your input, sveakul. You might have a point there as I have often tweaked these files in AVS4YOU Audio Editor (mainly increased the volume). I'll try a non-tweaked file to check out your suggestion.

Your re-muxing suggestion might be a bit of an issue for me as I have rather a lot of audiobooks treated in this way. If there is another way to get around this issue, that doesn't need a lot of file reformatting, I'd like to try that first.

I'll keep you posted.

Paul.

redwing

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cplloyd42

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redwing, thank you very much for that bit of advice. I've just installed the BASS AAC decoder dll, restarted MB and it worked straight off.


While I need to check other files, I believe this issue is now resolved.


Kind regards to you both for helping me,


Paul.