Topic: MC9 AAC Support (Read 4008 times)

iCamp · « **on:** May 05, 2003, 11:30:21 am »

Who should I bug to write an AAC plug-in for MC9?

With Apple's adoption of the format it's clear AAC is going to become a big player in audio formats. It only makes sense that an elite media player like MC would support it ASAP.

I tried playing an iTunes ripped AAC track in MC9...it didn't like it. I found that changing the extension to .mp4 allowed MC9 to recognize the file but it wouldn't play. Anyone out there have any success doing this?

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2003, 01:09:06 pm »

Would you pay $10 more for AAC?

The licensing is expensive and complicated.

rocketsauce · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2003, 01:25:15 pm »

Yes!

Rob

xen-uno · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2003, 01:40:00 pm »

There you go Jim...another market.

Handle it like Nero does where they charge for the encoders, then lock the AAC encoder to the user like MC itself does. Everyone's happy (esp. 'sauce). Your FLAC plug-in would remain free, right?

10^-27

paulj · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2003, 03:15:33 pm »

I'd pay up to $29.99 for a plugin that included the fhg 'professional' codec.

It should also allow iPod uploads

Kurt Young · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2003, 03:16:27 pm »

Or is it possible to make the plugin a paid plugin? Would $10 be the minimum or do you have wiggle room?

MidPack · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2003, 05:34:50 pm »

I'd sure pay $10 for AAC. You would think anyone who would drop $299-$499 for an iPod (and who knows how much for their PC's) wouldn't even blink at another $10, but I know people can be funny that way...

Listening to Joan Jett on MC9 as I type "I love rock & roll, put another dime in the jukebox baby..."

iCamp · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2003, 06:39:52 pm »

Jim,

I'd gladly pay an additional $10 for an AAC plug-in.

The MC press release mentions iPod compatibility in the very first paragraph. You can bet MusicMatch will add AAC quickly (and iTunes for Windows will be available eventually). I wonder how MC can afford not to add AAC?

daven · « **Reply #8 on:** May 05, 2003, 08:47:53 pm »

i hate to keep bugging you about this, but before you go charging ten more dollars to support AAC, please implement shn! the source code is freely available and looking at the membership rolls of etree.org and archive.org should demonstrate that it is worth your time (20,000+ members at last count).

please give me a definitive answer as to whether you plan to support shn so i know if i need to look elsewhere.

MachineHead · « **Reply #9 on:** May 06, 2003, 01:11:28 am »

Quote

i hate to keep bugging you about this, but before you go charging ten more dollars to support AAC, please implement shn! the source code is freely available and looking at the membership rolls of etree.org and archive.org should demonstrate that it is worth your time (20,000+ members at last count).

please give me a definitive answer as to whether you plan to support shn so i know if i need to look elsewhere.

If it's free and open, why doesn't anyone just write a plugin for MC? SDK is available. With 20,000 (just at these sites) people using it, someone must be able to write one for MC. Just a thought....

Yes, I'd pay for an AAC plugin. If it means that MC could properly handle the tagging of these files then. But.....I think this is still an up in the air thing. Apple might doing it a little differently then say, Nero. And I think they are.

Are standards (tagging) set so this format is going to work across all devices (portables in particular) no matter what is used to initially encode them? I think I'd like to see this ironed out first.

And something else, there is an open source available similar to LAME. This could prove to be a feather in someones hat if it could be tweaked like LAME has been.

zevele10 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 06, 2003, 01:49:27 am »

I do not need AAC, but

In my view MC NEEDS to play all formats ,others lossless formats as well.

I do not know how it works ,if read and encode are the same concerning price ,but i do thing that MC has to play Mp3Pro , AAC.

And to offer paying encoding plugins.

On the same level ,MC needs to be able to show art sleeves in any Windows format.

If not ,MC cannot be see as THE PLAYER PLAYING ALL.

No flame here from me ,far far from it.

congratulations for the new born

DocLotus · « **Reply #11 on:** May 06, 2003, 03:02:22 am »

Dumb question... What is AAC ?

Are we talking about AC3 ?

fex · « **Reply #12 on:** May 06, 2003, 03:27:16 am »

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding):

"AAC Advanced audio coding is high-quality audio coding technology with broadcast and electronic music distribution applications. Independent tests have proven the coding efficiency of AAC to be superior to MP3 and other perceptual audio coders, providing superior audio reproduction at lower bit rates.

MPEG-4 is the future of both video and audio. MPEG-4/AAC is the new audio coding standard. Developed by leading companies in the audio compression field, it is standardised by the MPEG committee (ISO/IEC standard, developed by Moving Picture Experts Group - the same committee that also developed standards such as MP3, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2).

MPEG-4/AAC is the result of intensive research and development, and contains many improvements over older coding methods including MP3. With sampling frequencies ranging from 8 to 96 kHz, and up to 48 channel support, there is a much better stereo coding and filter bank. "

LisaRCT · « **Reply #13 on:** May 06, 2003, 04:06:05 am »

Quote

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding):

"AAC Advanced audio coding is high-quality audio coding technology . . . .

Oh Darn! I was looking forward to Media Center with Available Air Conditioning (A-A/C)

zevele10 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 06, 2003, 04:29:52 am »

Available Air Conditioning

-=-=-=-=

This is -- since long-- a free pluging that JRiver gives you if you live in a hot part of the earth.
It is credit card adress based.

I must say that it is the plugin i like the most in MJ and MC.

PS: the plugin is not on the plugins page ,they send it by Email

JimH · « **Reply #15 on:** May 06, 2003, 06:32:17 am »

Quote

... there is an open source available similar to LAME. This could prove to be a feather in someones hat if it could be tweaked like LAME has been.

AAC is definitely not open source. The patent is owned and licensed by Dolby Laboratories. There may be reference source available but it can't be used legally without the license.

bspachman · « **Reply #16 on:** May 06, 2003, 06:41:25 am »

If the issue is simply playing back tracks purchased from Apple's Music Store, it gets more complicated because Apple's implementation of AAC has some DRM hung off of it. I don't know if they'll allow 3rd party players access to their DRM keys.

I suspect that the AMS tracks will be off-limits to MC9.... The only hope I have is that a new version of QuickTime will play the DRM-encoded tracks and that MC9 will be able to hook into QuickTime to play and manage them.

Otherwise, regular AAC support would be nice, but only in a "completist" way to make MC9 the "One that Plays them All". I'd much rather see effort go into AC3 playback (even just digital pass-through) or implementing DPLII or CircleSurround II.

Best,
Brad

rocketsauce · « **Reply #17 on:** May 06, 2003, 09:17:50 am »

There are certainly other formats (.shn, .flac, etc) that would be nice to have in MC. I think, though, that since all the new IPODs are .aac capable and MMJB and iTunes for Windows will be able to playback .aac, MC is going to need to eventually, at the very least, support .aac tagging and playback if it is going to continue supporting the IPOD.

However, as Machinehead mentioned, I think there are still a lot of compatibility and tagging issues between the different .aac/.mp4 implementations (iTunes, Nero, Psytel, Quicktime, etc).

Rob

iCamp · « **Reply #18 on:** May 06, 2003, 09:23:24 am »

Lots of good points.

Does anyone know how AAC playback works in Foobar 2000? I can't see the Foobar developer paying the AAC license so he must have some creative way of getting it to work.

rocketsauce · « **Reply #19 on:** May 06, 2003, 09:38:39 am »

I believe there is an open source decoder, but it may not be able to playback all the different .aac/.mp4 implementations. Also, there are still the tagging issues. I would imagine that the specs used by Apple are different than the ones being proposed by the dev of the Nero .aac encoder.

Rob

phelt · « **Reply #20 on:** May 06, 2003, 10:02:12 am »

"AudioCoding.com's goal is to provide the community with free MPEG-4 audio codecs. Currently implemented are MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AAC."

They have forums too. No harm in asking about the licensing issues. One post mentions GPL and LGPL.

DocLotus · « **Reply #21 on:** May 06, 2003, 10:13:00 am »

Hi Fex;

Thanks for the answer.

I'll add it to my "How Things Work" Excel database.

All too often someone starts talking about something like we all know what it is. I have been looking at Interact several times a day for over 8 months now & still something that I have never heard of like ACC comes out of the blue.

I have been full-time in PC's since '81 & in computers in general since '76. It constantly amazes me just how many terms there are out there. I currently have 1536 separate terms in my database.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #22 on:** May 06, 2003, 11:19:43 am »

Bear in mind that the iTunes Music store is currently mac-only. Nobody should mind that MC can't play songs downloaded through this service... only folks with a mac can, really.

However, there is an AAC decoder (of some sort) on the new 2.0 iPods and will very likely be one on the legacy 1.x iPods as well (If Apple releases 1.3 or better for these legacy iPods). Incorporating AAC upload abilities into MC9 may be important for iPod users for this reason.

I mean, if I could essentially double my iPod's capacity just by re-ripping my music... well... I'm ready to break out the CDs.

iCamp · « **Reply #23 on:** May 06, 2003, 01:20:23 pm »

Quote

Nobody should mind that MC can't play songs downloaded through this service... only folks with a mac can, really.

Nobody should mind?
I use both Mac's & PCs. I'd like MC (my chosen uber-media player) to play back files stored in each place. Personally, I don't care too much if MC can't play AAC files downloaded from the iTunes store (for DRM reasons) but MC should have the ability to playback CDs I rip to AAC.
Furthermore, it's a viable audio format with a solid future. MC should be leading the charge.

Quote

I mean, if I could essentially double my iPod's capacity just by re-ripping my music... well... I'm ready to break out the CDs.

Yea, I agree. It sounds good too. Haven't done any really critical listening yet, but so far, I'm impressed.

willrmc · « **Reply #24 on:** May 06, 2003, 04:56:40 pm »

i would pay for it as well. im so jealous of kurt and his new ipod

MachineHead · « **Reply #25 on:** May 06, 2003, 05:05:05 pm »

Quote

"AudioCoding.com's goal is to provide the community with free MPEG-4 audio codecs. Currently implemented are MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AAC."

They have forums too. No harm in asking about the licensing issues. One post mentions GPL and LGPL.

Quote

AAC is definitely not open source. The patent is owned and licensed by Dolby Laboratories. There may be reference source available but it can't be used legally without the license.

Get in touch with Roberto at HA. He'd probably know whether there is, in fact, an open source.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #26 on:** May 07, 2003, 11:37:23 am »

Quote

i would pay for it as well. im so jealous of kurt and his new ipod

It's soooo pretty... soooooo smooth and shiny... sooooo thin and light... *mmmmmmmm* *kissy kissy sounds*

fex · « **Reply #27 on:** May 07, 2003, 12:18:39 pm »

Quote

It's soooo pretty... soooooo smooth and shiny... sooooo thin and light... *mmmmmmmm* *kissy kissy sounds

Hate you!

And would pay a few Dollars more for a plugin.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: MC9 AAC Support (Read 4008 times)

daven

MachineHead

zevele10

fex

LisaRCT

zevele10

phelt

MachineHead

fex