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Topic: How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport? (Read 10168 times) previous topic - next topic
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How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

So I have a Sansa Clip Sport that supposedly can play AAC files but when I put M4A's onto it, they just play for about 2 seconds and then skip or, they don't play at all. 
I have done some reading that says that the internal formate of those MP4's might not be standard.  Is there a way I can fix them so that they will play?  They play fine on my
computer in Foobar2000 and Audacious and DeadBeef. 

Thanks in advance. 

I did update the firmware recently too.
Be a false negative of yourself!

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #1
How long are they?  Many simple devices cannot play AAC files more than 5-10 minutes long.

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #2
How long are they?  Many simple devices cannot play AAC files more than 5-10 minutes long.


thanks for the reply
the tunes are a variety of lengths from 3 minutes to 6 minutes, pretty much average lengths for pop tunes.
Be a false negative of yourself!

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #3
Do you see this problem with all AAC files or only some of them?

Not sure if this helps and it’s a long time since I looked into this (or heard of this being a problem) but this may help if you only see this with some AAC/m4a files.

I remember that years ago there were some issues with some decoders reading the metadata of m4a files. While writing the metadata by non-Apple encoders was (I believe) compliant with the spec some manufacturers had been a bit lazy and only complied with that part of the spec that made Apple encoded m4a files play. At the time 99% of all AAC files were created by Apple encoders so few people would run into this problem but it was sloppy development by the manufacturers nonetheless. IIRC it was specifically the order of the ‘atoms’ in de m4a metadata that could throw off some players.

The first thing you could try is see what happens if you edit the metadata of these files with typical player such as Foobar. Overwrite the existing data and save it. Try editing it with a number of different players. If that doesn’t help, copy the metadata item by item to a text file and see if you can remove the tags all together. Then recreate them from scratch using your items in that text file.

If that doesn’t help you may need to look into tools such as AtomicParsley which can do further editing of the file metadata. You might be looking for the option to move the ‘moov’ atom to its right location. That requires a fair bit more technical skill though so save this for last.
Every night with my star friends / We eat caviar and drink champagne
Sniffing in the VIP area / We talk about Frank Sinatra
Do you know Frank Sinatra? / He's dead

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #4
Do you see this problem with all AAC files or only some of them?

Not sure if this helps and it’s a long time since I looked into this (or heard of this being a problem) but this may help if you only see this with some AAC/m4a files.

I remember that years ago there were some issues with some decoders reading the metadata of m4a files. While writing the metadata by non-Apple encoders was (I believe) compliant with the spec some manufacturers had been a bit lazy and only complied with that part of the spec that made Apple encoded m4a files play. At the time 99% of all AAC files were created by Apple encoders so few people would run into this problem but it was sloppy development by the manufacturers nonetheless. IIRC it was specifically the order of the ‘atoms’ in de m4a metadata that could throw off some players.

The first thing you could try is see what happens if you edit the metadata of these files with typical player such as Foobar. Overwrite the existing data and save it. Try editing it with a number of different players. If that doesn’t help, copy the metadata item by item to a text file and see if you can remove the tags all together. Then recreate them from scratch using your items in that text file.

If that doesn’t help you may need to look into tools such as AtomicParsley which can do further editing of the file metadata. You might be looking for the option to move the ‘moov’ atom to its right location. That requires a fair bit more technical skill though so save this for last.


Thanks very much Maurits.  I get this problem so far with all AAC files, but all of the ones that I have are from the same source.  I will follow your advice and experiment with this.  What you say seems to resonate with/match with what some folks said on the Sansa support website.  I did try editing the tags in foobar2000 but I didn't yet try just deleting the tags.  Thanks again.
Be a false negative of yourself!

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #5
So I have a Sansa Clip Sport that supposedly can play AAC files but when I put M4A's onto it, they just play for about 2 seconds and then skip or, they don't play at all. 
I have done some reading that says that the internal formate of those MP4's might not be standard.  Is there a way I can fix them so that they will play?

Hi
I'm having m4a troubles with my Sansa Clip Jam.
I found they will play if I re-mux them with mp4creator Version 1.6.1d (It's inside the mp4muxer-0.9.3 package).

First de-mux with FFmpeg or whatever...
Code: [Select]
ffmpeg -i filename.m4a -c copy filename.aac


Then re-mux with mp4creator
Code: [Select]
mp4creator -create=filename.aac output.m4a

or
Code: [Select]
wine ./mp4creator -create=filename.aac output.m4a

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #6
P.S.
Keep the original m4a files safe somewhere.
The m4a files remuxed with mp4creator will have their metadata stripped.

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #7
Is the issue there with ffmpeg-created m4a files? If not:

ffmpeg -i filename.m4a -c copy filename.m4a_REMUXED.m4a


Make sure first that none of the originals have "_REMUXED" in the file name. Put it in a FOR loop.

Then I would do as follows:
- open everything in a tagging application
- separate out the ones that do not contain "_REMUXED"
- copy tags en bloc
- select the ones with "_REMUXED"
- paste tags
- open everything in fb2k, sort the originals and the remuxed separately by some tag, and run a bit-compare to be sure the right tags ended up in the right files.

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #8
- open everything in a tagging application


Since you're using foobar anyway, why not use it for copying the tags?

http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title..._sets_of_tracks

You also might want to mention that foo_bitcompare does not come as standard.

https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_bitcompare


How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #10
Is the issue there with ffmpeg-created m4a files?

Yes.
Look here ---> Trac ticket



Thanks!


Since you're using foobar anyway, why not use it for copying the tags?


How do I copy tags that are not already in the list of tag fields fb2k displays for an untagged file?


You also might want to mention that foo_bitcompare does not come as standard.


Oh ... who can live without? ;-)



How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #11
How do I copy tags that are not already in the list of tag fields fb2k displays for an untagged file?


Eh? You copy tags from the tagged source and they will be created in the untagged destination when you Paste Fields.

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #12
How do I copy tags that are not already in the list of tag fields fb2k displays for an untagged file?


Eh? You copy tags from the tagged source and they will be created in the untagged destination when you Paste Fields.


How do you get it to paste other tags than the following?

Artist Name :
Track Title :
Album Title :
Date :
Genre :
Composer :
Performer :
Album Artist :
Track Number :
Total Tracks :
Disc Number :
Total Discs :
Comment :

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #13
Someone else with more patience can answer because I give up.

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #14
You select all files - properties - select all fields fields - right click - copy. Then open properties of the untagged files (should be in same order) and right click in the empty area below comment - paste fields.
"I hear it when I see it."

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #15
Btw, have you tried ffmpeg -i ... -vn -acodec copy out.mp4, and then just renaming that file to out.m4a?
"I hear it when I see it."

How do I fix M4A's (AAC's) for Sansa Clip Sport?

Reply #16
You select all fields - copy. Then open properties of the untagged files (should be in same order) and right click in the empty area below comment - paste fields.


Oh. Thank you. I've been using Ctrl-v for years ...