Author Topic: m4a or aac support  (Read 25295 times)

Maleko12

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Hello Steven. For the next version of MB, will there be support to play .m4a or.aac files, or is that impossible due to the Apple license? If that's the case, then the involved converter will work fine for me.

Steven

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you can either tick Quicktime in the Player Preferences or the the better solution is to download the codec yourself - it's just that i cant distribute the AAC codec with MB because of licensing restrictions (I know some other freeware players do, but its my understanding patent fees would apply)
Just check out http://www.getmusicbee.com/help/codec/
Did MB not display any message with this information when you tried to play the m4a track?
Last Edit: March 01, 2009, 08:00:05 AM by Steven

Maleko12

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ummmm....  ;D ;D it helps to read everything doesn't it!. I swear I've never seen that message until 0.2.3344 lol. Well it did display, and I did download bass_aac.dlll directly to the MusicBee folder. It still displays this error, unfortunately, for any aac or m4a (Apple Lossless) files, even though there are codecs now for both. I even checked the Quicktime suggestion like you mentioned, no dice  >:( A few pictures...














Steven

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even though you have bass_alac.dll i wasnt loading it!  :D
this should work
http://www.mediafire.com/?3mm4yqmitdy

Maleko12

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most of the problem has gone away... but some still refuse to play. One example I have is that I have is Nine Inch Nails' The Slip in m4a lossless... although I can't remember if I encoded it from FLAC to m4a (although I assume this shouldn't make a difference). In fact, it seems if I didn't rip a CD to m4a, then MB doesn't recognize it. I do see however that you have started the initial 0.3 version of MB, so I'll update and see if that'll make a difference.

Steven

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this might sound a stupid thing to say but is there any possibility they are actually still flac files, but with a .m4a extension. I make an optimisation that it doesnt load the player dlls needed to play flac files (or other formats) until it detects an attempt to play the .flac extension. If you think this is a possibility i can give you a version that has flac loaded so it would play even when it has a .m4a extension. Otherwise I dont know what to suggest - it might well be the case that MB just cant play those files. I take it other players work OK with the same files?

Maleko12

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well... iTunes and VLC. At least for The Slip anyways. It won't work in WinAMP or realplayer. I also have some AAC files that won't play in Musicbee, but play fine everywhere else (iTunes, WinAMP, VLC, realplayer). It might be a possibility that the .m4a files are in fact truly FLAC files, and I'd be quite interested to see this version of MusicBee would work this problem. If not, then convert will have to do!

EDIT: Well, I had two Kelis songs in AAC that wouldn't start in MB, but everywhere else. So I played it, but both would cut off well before the song was over, even if I advanced to the end. So for those two, at least, it's the file, not MB.
Last Edit: March 02, 2009, 08:04:44 PM by Maleko12

Steven

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just as a quick test, could you copy one as .flac file and then go to that folder in MB and try to play and see if it works. I've am sending you a PM about the aac files

Maleko12

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I converted via dBpowerAMP, and the .flac version works. Interesting.

Kerryling

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How to convert iTunes M4A to AAC?Does someone give a professional tool or useful tutorial to do this? As far as I know, iTunes M4A files are protected by DRM technology, we need to use some DRM removal tools to break DRM technology, such as audible audio converter.
Am I right? If not, who can give the right answer for me. Thanks in advance!

edit:
unrelated link removed
Last Edit: April 18, 2018, 10:13:07 PM by Steven

sveakul

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Hi Kerryling and welcome to the forum!

Actually, M4A files ARE already AAC format audio files, just with an Apple "wrapper."  You can extract the raw AAC file, but that leaves you with identical audio quality and a format that has no native tagging standard.  Better to leave them as M4A where at least they can properly receive MP4 format tags.

As far as DRM, my understanding is that Apple dropped DRM from ITunes M4A purchases in 2009.  If you have files that pre-date that, and still have an ITunes account, I think you could re-download the purchased files at no additional cost via ITunes and receive the non-DRM versions but the action word there is "think."
Last Edit: April 19, 2018, 02:36:16 AM by sveakul