AAC refuses to Playback

[wmjordan]

I have used dbPowerAmp, a great file converter, to convert my APE files into AAC ones. The converted files are playing well with Foobar2000, but in Winamp they are just not playing. The files are played at about 1 second, and then stopped.

I am using the FAAC.exe file (with latest codec plugin in dbPowerAmp Codec Center) to convert AAC files.
The Winamp output is a DirectX Output Plugin that comes along with the latest version of Winamp.
And I found that in the File Info... dialog of an AAC file, the codec property is correct (AAC), but the encoded bitrate is not right, my encoding bitrate is quality 250, however, it displays 192bps CBR, and the tags are not there (but are there in Foobar2000).

I have another latest Winamp in another box, which does not use the DirectX Output Plugin, but uses the Waveout plugin. The files are played, but the file info box still displaying tags incorrectly.

I guess that the support of AAC in Winamp is not so well, since Foobar2000 can play the encoded AAC files without a single problem. Please have this problem fixed so that I don't need to use Foobar2000 to play my AAC files.

[DJ Egg]

What is the file extension? (.AAC or .M4A)

[wmjordan]

The file extension is AAC. If I turned of "Remove silence at the end of file" of the directx output plugin, the files can be played, however, winamp never read tags done by dbPoweramp's music converter.

If I encode the music into m4a files, winamp can play it with the latest version's mp4 input support. However, there's a bug in that plugin too, the mp4 plugin can not correctly display Chinese characters in tags of my m4a files. It seems that it treats the tags as Unicode or UTF-8 character sets, however, my Chinese tags are using GB2312 character set (the default character set on my Windows system).

Foobar 2000 treats my tags correctly in my AAC and m4a files.

[saivert]

only M4A supports tags. AAC is a RAW audio stream file format. You must save the encoded stream in the MPEG-4 container format for it to have tags and other info.

[wmjordan]

Well then.

I am now encoding my music into m4a, no more aac :).

[saivert]

Happy to help out. :-)

[wmjordan]

Originally posted by saivert
Happy to help out. :-)

However, the in_mp4.dll that comes with the latest Winamp does not support Chinese tags X-(. I am now using the in_mp4.dll from http://www.audiocoding.com/

That one supports Chinese tags a little better.

[saivert]

If it is Unicode aware you should be able to display Chinese text. The Unicode layer in Window uses the Chinese fonts when it encounters Chinese language.

The MP4(AAC or MPEG-4 Audio) from AudioCoding is much better than the one Nullsoft made. It supports the HE-AAC (AACplus v1). The latest version of in_mp3.dll (which actually provides the decoding for Nullsoft's in_mp4.dll which is only a demuxer) supports AACPlus v2 but not v1 (or HE-AAC).

Why did not Nullsoft just use AudioCoding's implementation?? ANd make a real in_mp4 instead of putting the code inside in_mp3.dll. I hate Nullsoft for that lame decision. They suck since Justin left. I think he left becuase he couldn't implement whatever he wished (because of f****** stupid A hole EL).

[DrO]

Originally posted by saivert
Why did not Nullsoft just use AudioCoding's implementation?? ANd make a real in_mp4 instead of putting the code inside in_mp3.dll. I hate Nullsoft for that lame decision. They suck since Justin left. I think he left becuase he couldn't implement whatever he wished (because of f****** stupid A hole EL). that is the dumbiest load of crap i've read in ages

[saivert]

Sorry. But a rant once in a while is excusable. I use AudioCodings in_mp4.dll myself, but becuase of lack of documentation they haven't included full Media Library support in that plug-in, which of course Nullsoft's own has. I managed to get hand on the FLAC input plug-in and to my surprise the source code was made available and it has support for the media library (that is: It exports winampGetExtendedMetadata function). I wonder how he pulled that data from Nullsofts servers. Maybe he knows someone. Anyhow, DrO. If you think it's a load of crap why don't you fix it yourself to end everybodys troubles and maybe get some real glory instead of the umbrella Nullsoft is giving you (meaning JTFE bundled with Winamp).

[gaekwad2]

Well, the way AAC is handled by Winamp is a bit... weird.

As for library support, a couple of 3rd party input plugins work perfectly with the library (ape, mpc, mpg123, wv, afaik all are open source).

[toqer]

Originally posted by saivert
I hate Nullsoft for that lame decision. They suck since Justin left. I think he left becuase he couldn't implement whatever he wished (because of f****** stupid A hole EL).

I like Justin having met him a few times IRL. Really good guy that cares about his friends, but like I tell my singers that screw up on a song, the show must go on. Sometimes you got to carry on my wayward son.

[wmjordan]

Originally posted by saivert
If it is Unicode aware you should be able to display Chinese text. The Unicode layer in Window uses the Chinese fonts when it encounters Chinese language.

Why did not Nullsoft just use AudioCoding's implementation?? ANd make a real in_mp4 instead of putting the code inside in_mp3.dll.

I don't know why. But sometimes, a thing that is Unicode-aware does not mean that it knows other double-byte charsets as well. An example is that a beta of dbPowerAmp 11 sucked at dealing with Chinese characters but it knew Unicode at that moment. After a few updates, dbPowerAmp finally succeeded in deal with them both.

Thus I guess that Nullsoft's in_mp4.dll has something to do to support my language :(

AudioCoding's supports Chinese, that is the reason why I am using it at this moment.

[saivert]

Originally posted by DrO
that is the dumbiest load of crap i've read in ages

I'm puzzled about that comment. It is not just at all. Does this mean that I am stupid and that I have no right to comment on anything here? Should I terminate my forum account and stop being interested in Winamp?

[wmjordan]

Originally posted by saivert
I'm puzzled about that comment. It is not just at all. Does this mean that I am stupid and that I have no right to comment on anything here? Should I terminate my forum account and stop being interested in Winamp?

Me no think you stupidly stupid or no right right to speak.

Please keep Winamp and talk around here.

[Logy]

yearhh.... may be DrO are joking...
cool down saivert... you may now if you working with nullsoft... so much stressss!!!!

[siebe83]

saivert, I don't know about the dev-side of things, but I think his comment was mainly aimed at your last remark:

"I hate Nullsoft for that lame decision. They suck since Justin left. I think he left becuase he couldn't implement whatever he wished (because of f****** stupid A hole EL)."

That's bullshit, and you know it. You wouldn't have used Winamp now if it wasn't for AOL to buy Winamp back then. Winamp probably wouldn't even exist anymore, and would certainly not have the ongoing development and large user-base as it haves now. Etc. etc.

You tend to take every opportunity to start rants towards Nullsoft and it doesn't make sense. All of a sudden you write in the DL discussion thread that 'the core of Winamp isn't good enough'. There was no discussion in that thread on that topic AT ALL, you just start complaining about Winamp and Nullsoft (ref (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?postid=1733589#post1733589)).
I chose to ignore you there, since I thought it was completely off-topic anyway.
And then I remember the rant towards DrO concerning JTFE (in DL readme/website thread).

Maybe you should try to just stay on topic, instead of starting to complain about API functionality and about Nullsoft in general (esp. the latter) as soon as you get the chance. If you want things to change, this isn't the way.
You could also suggest new things, instead of complaining about the absence of things you want.


And after that last comment towards DrO in your second last post in this thread I can understand why he doesn't want to reply. Why would DrO need to fix things? And then there's that spiteful undertone... Dunno, but I think it basically shows frustration on your side.

[Logy]

yeaah your right man... i can't understand why some people hate so much on AOL and AOL not worst at all... and Microsoft too...

I guest Nullsoft so many to add new features to Winamp but bugs comes to priority first to fixed and then add new features... Maybe Winamp 5.1 a lot of features if this you wanted...
Bye...

[saivert]

I have written this (so to not bug up this topic any more):
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?postid=1740113#post1740113