I had an opportunity this weekend to install the RealPlayer 10, try out their online music store, and evalute its purported support for the iPod.
Background: I own a Dual G4 Mac as well as an Asus nforce Win Xp systems. So I am comfortable working with software on both platforms. My wife and I also own ipods and use them every day.
Installation: As with Real, you have to go through a series of web pages on their website where they push you to buy their paid version of the software. They make the link to the Free download rather obscure.
Once I got it installed on my PC, I launched it and had to go through registration. By default they turn on all sorts of email subscriptions that I don't want. By default they want to add their own custom toolbar permanently to InternetExplorer. So after 'unchecking' all the defaults I get to the point where I can use the software.
Application: Overall, the interface is not bad. It's actually possible to use it as an audio player without any of the RealVideo specific features stealing precious screen space. It's clear they have put some work into the interface especially between your music library, the online store, and any external MP3 devices.
Formats: I will just focus on the two, which is their .RA and their .RAX. Real has gone over to AAC format which IMHO is great because I have a huge library of AAC files. They have two lossy formats and one lossless. The non-drm'd format is AAC with a Real Audio container. This is extremely disappointing. I would have preferred if they had gone with an MP4 container like Apple for their non-DRM'd music, but no such case. The actual AAC stream data is portable if you have the right extraction tools. Their DRM'd lossy AAC container uses their new Helix DRM encryption. When ripping and encoding a CD Real Player 10 defaults to their AAC ( .RA ) @ 192 bitrate. Here are some of my assumptions and my findings:
Given: Real Player 10 defaults to:
AAC w/ .RA container for non-DRM'd
I assumed that they would strip their container and extract the raw AAC when syncing with an iPod.
However, they just resample the data as an MP3 with a maximum bitrate of 96 before storing the songs on the iPod. Unless of course you purchase higher MP3 bitrate support.
That's just unacceptable to me. I know *why* they went with the .RA container. If they had gone with an MP4 container ( i.e., .M4a ) they would have had to pay a licensing fee on every download of their pay and free player. However, the fact that I can't use AAC encoded music generated by their software in my iPod is disappointing.
Why go to the trouble of having an AAC encoder and touting their industry standard support if they prevent even non-DRM'd music from playing on the only AAC portable player; namely the iPod?
If you don't care about AAC, it's still worthless because you have to pay for the upgrade to encode MP3s at higher bitrates. I suppose if you only intend to listen to your encoded music on your PC you might like it.
DRM'd Lossy AAC: Their online store gives you Helix DRM'd AAC @ 192 bitrate. This is much improved over the 128 bitrate that iTMS gives you. However, after my unsatisfactory experience of trying to get their non-DRM'd AAC onto my iPod, I assumed they would likewise convert the purchased music to MP3. No such luck, Real Player 10 won't even convert the .RAX to MP3 if you try to transfer those files to your iPod. What gives? I have to burn a CD with a .RAX playlist and then re-rip them as MP3 in order to put them on a portable player. If RealPlayer 10 will automatically convert their non-DRM'd .RA files to MP3s when you try to put them on a portable player, why make me go through the hassle with the .RAX? I suppose their philosophy may be that this is their kindler, gentler RIAA approach to DRM. Don't make it too easy to convert to crappy 96 bitrate MP3s.
Well, in summary, I wasn't very pleased with their handling of their non-DRM'd and DRM'd lossy AAC formats in particular with regards to portable players.
Thanks,
Sean
That's just unacceptable to me. I know *why* they went with the .RA container. If they had gone with an MP4 container ( i.e., .M4a ) they would have had to pay a licensing fee on every download of their pay and free player.
For the n+1'th time:
[span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%']The use of MP4-container is free![/span]
Sorry for "screaming", but this missunderstanding has to end.. I don't know where is it coming from.
No such luck, Real Player 10 won't even convert the .RAX to MP3 if you try to transfer those files to your iPod. What gives? I have to burn a CD with a .RAX playlist and then re-rip them as MP3 in order to put them on a portable player.
Neither can you on iTunes.
iTunes will not transcode DRM'd (m4p) AAC files. You'll have to burn them to CD too. Then rip. But m4p are designed to work with the iPod, so you don't need to transcode.
There has always been a free 320Kbps MP3 encoder for RealOne Player. There was a link to it, once you visited the music home page. I imagine RP10 has the same thing.
file format
The choice of RM as the default ripping format, was a decision post-poned until the last minute. I am not familiar with the details, but I think mainly technical difficulties in our system, so used to RM, prevented it from being .aac, and even though the codec team still wanted .aac, our vote was not enough. The main concern was just your feedback, "why lock the format to RealPlayer"?
I have been told the format may change for Gold, I certainly hope so, preferably to M4A or MP4, and whenever I have a chance, I will be sure to mention the feedback from this forum. Thanks!
In the meantime, it is, however, possible to trans-mux the RM (.ra) files into other file formats.
iPod
With regards to getting the files over to the iPod without transcoding (urgh) -- I wish I had one myself so I could try it out, but I will see what I can find out about the plans in this respect.
There has always been a free 320Kbps MP3 encoder for RealOne Player. There was a link to it, once you visited the music home page. I imagine RP10 has the same thing.
The 320 Kbps MP3 (presumedly Xing) encoder now appears to be available only through Real's Rhapsody music service subscription. Whether one can game this by taking the Rhapsody free trial and then canceling is unclear.
The 320 Kbps MP3 (presumedly Xing) encoder now appears to be available only through Real's Rhapsody music service subscription.
The Basic player unfortunately only supports up to 96 kbps MP3 encoding. AAC encoding includes all bitrates though.
P.S. I have been told the Xing encoder is much improved since its first incarnation, which is usually not well spoken of
The 320 Kbps MP3 (presumedly Xing) encoder now appears to be available only through Real's Rhapsody music service subscription.
The Basic player unfortunately only supports up to 96 kbps MP3 encoding. AAC encoding includes all bitrates though.
P.S. I have been told the Xing encoder is much improved since its first incarnation, which is usually not well spoken of
They must have left out the high bitrate MP3 encoding to favor their own RealAudio 10 format. Anyway, it is included in the $19.95 plus version.
RealPlayer 10 Plus (http://www.real.com/realplayer.html?src=020619realhome_2)
They must have left out the high bitrate MP3 encoding to favor their own RealAudio 10 format. Anyway, it is included in the $19.95 plus version.
Yes, sorry, MP3 encoding turned out too expensive to include for free, due to licensing fees. However, as you mention, AAC encoding, the next generation audio standard, is available for free at all bitrates. It is called RealAudio 10 in the player, and it is not "our" format. The container format is temporarily RealMedia, but can losslessly be converted to AAC or M4A. RealPlayer 10 Gold will rip to a standard container format.
This is great news! So Real Player 10 Gold will rip to either .aac files or .M4A or .MP4 files, is that correct?
The only options I have when ripping a CD are RealAudio 10, RealAudio Lossless, MP3, WAV and WMA. If I rip a disc as RA10 AAC, then the extension is .ra. RealAudio Lossless files have the same extension.
I don't know where is it coming from.
Take a guess...
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=153141 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=15166&view=findpost&p=153141)
The only options I have when ripping a CD are RealAudio 10, RealAudio Lossless, MP3, WAV and WMA. If I rip a disc as RA10 AAC, then the extension is .ra. RealAudio Lossless files have the same extension.
Hi, Please see this post:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=186125 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18863&view=findpost&p=186125)
RealPlayer 10 Gold is now available for download. http://www.real.com (http://www.real.com).
As we expected, there were some complaints about wrapping AAC in RM in the beta version discussed in this thread. By default RealPlayer 10 now rips music CDs to AAC M4A (MP4) at 192 kbps, using the Coding Technologies AAC encoder. The M4A format is iPod compatible. Thanks to the feedback from hydrogenaudio and doom9! It was part of the reason M4A was chosen.
This is mainly a bug fix release. For instance the HE-AAC playback bug is now fixed and the DLL update from Helix Binary Downloads is no longer needed.
Here is a list of some changes:
* Support for AAC (M4A) files, which includes library import,
playback, CD ripping, CD burning, and transfer to portable devices.
* Users can now simultaneously burn a CD and playback a media clip.
* Users can initiate playback of a file that's being download using
another application ("progressive download").
* Installation speed has been improved and the number of icons
installed on the user's machine has been reduced.
* RP10 detects changes in network settings and prompts the user to
set bandwidth, which improves playback if the bandwidth has changed
(such as a laptop that is disconnected from a LAN).
* Improved user interface to make Transfer and Synchronization easier
with portable devices.
* Support for third-party store content including nodes in the Library
to catalog a variety of purchased content types (movies,
audio books, etc.).
* A variety of improvements to Help, How To, Tell Me More, and More Info.
Cheeeers!
Great news, Karl. Thanks for pushing for MP4 adoption
And thanks for letting us now here
Just installed it. It crashes upon startup. I guess there is no hope of running Real Player in my machine
(and I ran .r1pclean.exe before installing)
Edit: Neverthless, something stays resident in memory trying to connect to some IP address
rjamorim: no, I am afraid your system is beyond hope for RealPlayer. it's like nothing I have heard of before, or any other known reported problems, and we do get a lot of feedback. I filed a bug report for the problem related to those who had RealAlternative installed, but .r1pclean should take care of that. I don't know what's going on with your system, I am very sorry. (mikerowesoft must have installed a secret agent)
There is nothing memory resident in RealPlayer 10 if all the auto services are disabled (like another popular media player which leaves 3 memory resident services in excess of 10 MB total). Please see my post on doom9 (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68399) for the details. Something may be left after a crash, that's true.
Just installed it. It crashes upon startup. I guess there is no hope of running Real Player in my machine
(and I ran .r1pclean.exe before installing)
Edit: Neverthless, something stays resident in memory trying to connect to some IP address
The Real Alternative codec pack caused my machine to do the same thing a while back - uninstalled completely and now it's fine.
It's good to hear that MP4 is available in RP10 Gold now - keep up the good work Karl!
I would be curious to know all of the browser toolbars / dlls in system folder / memory resident programs/dlls that RealPlayer 10 installs. Is there a complete listing somewhere??
[rant] Why is it that programs can't be installed to one folder, loaded when executed by the user, then just die when you quit? I don't want my programs loaded into memory for "faster startup," I don't want 100 dlls installed to my system directory, and I don't want them phoning home to "update" themselves or messing with IE. Sadly, I fould iTunes to be a horrible offender in this arena, and RealPlayer 10 seems to be the same way. [/rant]
There is nothing memory resident in RealPlayer 10 if all the auto services are disabled
I think it was realsched.exe
I will try loading RealPlayer again tomorrow after a system restart (although I reckon that won't make much of a difference)
If you guys at Real are interested, I would like to help fixing this issue in any way I can.
ViPER1313 and rjamorim: realsched.exe (160 KB) is the only memory resident program in RealPlayer, but it can easily be disabled. It stays in memory after exiting RealPlayer when auto services or sync to devices are enabled. Otherwise, everything is completely gone after exiting, and there are no update calls "home", just like it should. It refused to go for a long time, I have filed many bugs on this issue because I feel strongly about it, and it has finally been fixed! (at least on all of my computers) nothing stays in memory if you follow the instructions in the post I referred to.
RealPlayer installs itself to C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer and a list of DLLs in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real, one folder in your Application Data (and four DLLs, rmoc3260.dll, pndx5032.dll, pndx5016.dll, pncrt.dll to windows\system32). Apparantly there is also a plugin called RichFX player installed in Internet Explorer's plugin folder, so it does spread out a little. Personally I agree that this is not very nice (most notably the RichFX plugin). I too would have liked one single folder (like Thunderbird or Firefox).
rjamorim: I will ask about what kind of information can be obtained from your system, so don't worry about trying again until you hear from me again. No promises, I would like to fix this too, but I personally do not work on any player specific details. I remember though that there are error and crash logs saved in
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Real\RealPlayer\ErrorLogs. Please check there and e-mail me the .log files that are there, if any. Thanks!
Karl, is there any chance RealPlayer 10 Gold also allows for encoding ACELP.net to an *.mp4/*.m4a or *.aa container? (You do still license that codec, correct?) The reason I ask is that it would be nice - and convenient - for listening to audiobooks on the iPod, but so far I've failed to discover any way to author an iPod/iTunes-compliant ACELP.net stream.
- M.
Edit: Small fix.
Karl,
Thanks to both you and all the folks at Real who added M4A (MP4 Audio) encoding by default in the new Real Player 10 Gold. I just tried it (using the free Real Player) and was quite impressed by both the encoding and decoding of M4A files at 192 kbps.
Nice to hear that a company (and a developer) listens to input from a forum like Hydrogen Audio and implements the suggestions on occasion. Keep up the good work.
Weee! it works now.
There was a rogue dll (probably left from some old installation) that kept RealPlayer from starting (if you are curious, it's chiw3260.dll, and was located at Program Files\Common Files\Real\RCAPlugins\)
Thanks for helping me out, Karl
I tested it some. The ripper works well, and the AAC encoder quality is indeed quite good, for me, at the bitrate I tested (160kbps).
I am really glad rjamorim finally got RealPlayer working on his system.
M: We still use ACELP.net codec as our voice codec, with 4cc SIPR, but I have not heard any plans to enable it to be packaged in M4A. With dtdrive and/or realmediasplitter + 3ivx MP4 Muxer, maybe it is possible to convert. Perhaps I will give those two possibilities a try when I have a spare moment.
rjamorim and guest0101: thank you for trying it out, and the positive feedback.
M: We still use ACELP.net codec as our voice codec, with 4cc SIPR, but I have not heard any plans to enable it to be packaged in M4A.
AFAIK, Sipro Lab's ACELP.net is not compatible with MPEG4's CELP.
installed the beta in my crashbox and even decided to upgrade it to the final release just now. Looks very decent for realplayer and the intended audience <which is admittedly not me>. Looks confusing next to the simple clean interface I am used to. Trying to just convert a wav file and it seems to be escaping me after looking through all the menus (edit: as in greyed out) - oh well.
the preview of the online music files do sound quite sharp though.
The_Cisco_Kid: I am afraid the Convert Media option is available only in the Plus player (or when subscribed to "SuperPass").
Via the helix community (https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/) one can however obtain a free command line Producer that encodes to our AAC format, as well as a cmd line tool to convert losslessly from AAC to M4A, M4A to AAC, RM to M4A, AAC to RM, RM to AAC, RM to M4A.
AFAIK, Sipro Lab's ACELP.net is not compatible with MPEG4's CELP.
Roberto: Really? Drat. This post (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=13&t=10050&hl=&view=findpost&p=195064) by menno indicated that Sipro's codec was the one supported by iTunes and the iPod, and Sipro's website confirms it (although I have not been able to find
any documentation on the *.aa container - if *.aa is even a container, and not just a raw stream!), so trying *.mp4/*.m4a seemed a logical approach.
karl_lillevold: I revived an old Helix account and downloaded helixproducer_10_beta_windows.zip, rmto3260.zip and dtdrive_032404.zip. It appears (if I understand what I've read so far) that dtdrive not only has the capability of transmuxing, but directly encoding to any specified container from a *.wav source. But so far I've had little luck in figuring out the exact usage of the switches, since the internal "help" is a little on the minimalistic side. From rough guesswork, the following seemed a logical approach to transcoding WAV>ACELP:
dtdrive -EAIF SIPR -EAR 16000 audio-input.wav
... although since that only produces the following message, I know it is either incomplete or flat-out wrong:
*******************************************************************************
****** Begin File=audio-input.wav Protocol=Unspec. ShortName=Unspec. **********
*******************************************************************************
Drive time: 0.012000 seconds.
Failed.
Any assistance with a working WAV>ACELP.net example would be appreciated. (And if dtdrive is not yet able to create files in the *.aa format - however that may be structured - could this be added to the list of desirable features?)
- M.
Edit: Added a small bit....
I have not used dtdrive much for other than conversions. I think the problem you have is that it can not find its DLLs. Set HELIX_LIBS or use option -L. However, even with this set, and using -EA instead of -EAIF, it fails. I will ask, but in the meantime, producer works:
producer.exe -i file.wav -o file.rm -ad ap.rpad -lc e,d
ap.rpad:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<audience>
<avgBitrate type="uint">16000</avgBitrate>
<maxBitrate type="uint">16000</maxBitrate>
<streams>
<audioStream>
<pluginName type="string">rn-audiocodec-realaudio</pluginName>
<codecName type="string">sipr</codecName>
<codecFlavor type="uint">3</codecFlavor>
<streamContext type="bag">
<presentationType type="string">audio-only</presentationType>
<audioMode type="string">music</audioMode>
</streamContext>
</audioStream>
</streams>
</audience>
Converting this .rm to .m4a also fails, because I think the m4a writer only supports AAC for now. It is however open source
Thank you for such a quick response! I've just tested the method outlined above, and it works just fine.
Additionally, for anyone who might be interested in using this method with Speek's Batchenc (http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/batchenc.htm) frontend, simply copy the entire contents (all files and subfolders, as they are shown) from the extracted "producer" directory to wherever your the Batchenc frontend is located. Copy "ap.rpad" (as Karl described it, above) to the "audiences" sub-directory. Conversion can then be invoked through Batchenc with this line:
producer.exe -i <infile> -o <outfile.rm> -ad ap.rpad -lc e,d
Still no luck in getting this to a format iTunes/iPod will accept... but it's a start!
dtdrive seems to be finding the DLLs, since I can successfully transmux an AAC-RM to M4A using
dtdrive file.rm -W file.m4a. But when an ACELP-RM is used as input with the same line, the following is displayed:
*******************************************************************************
****** Begin File=file.rm Protocol=Unspec. ShortName=Unspec. ******************
*******************************************************************************
====== Begin File Header ======================================================
Flags = 9
IsRealDataType = 1
StreamCount = 1
AllAudioCodecs = sipr
Audiences = ap;
audioMode = music
Creation Date = 3/26/2004 16:59:17
Generated By = Helix DNA(TM) Producer 10.0 for Windows, Build 10.0.
0.195
Modification Date = 3/26/2004 16:59:17
videoMode = normal
====== End File Header ========================================================
------ Begin Stream Header = 0 ------------------------------------------------
ActualPreroll = 960
AvgBitRate = 16000
AvgPacketSize = 320
Duration = 30720
EndOneRuleEndAll = 1
EndTime = 30000
MaxBitRate = 16000
MaxPacketSize = 320
Preroll = 1920
StreamNumber = 0
ASMRuleBook = priority=5,averagebandwidth=16000,PNMKeyFrameRule=T;
priority=5,averagebandwidth=0,PNMNonKeyFrameRule=T,O
nDepend="0",OffDepend="0";
intrinsicDurationType = intrinsicDurationContinuous
MimeType = audio/x-pn-realaudio
StreamName = Audio Stream
OpaqueData = <Buffer>
RMFF 1.0 Flags = <Buffer>
------ End Stream Header = 0 --------------------------------------------------
Drive time: 0.016000 seconds.
Failed.
- M.
ap.rpad:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<audience>
<avgBitrate type="uint">16000</avgBitrate>
<maxBitrate type="uint">16000</maxBitrate>
<streams>
<audioStream>
<pluginName type="string">rn-audiocodec-realaudio</pluginName>
<codecName type="string">sipr</codecName>
<codecFlavor type="uint">3</codecFlavor>
<streamContext type="bag">
<presentationType type="string">audio-only</presentationType>
<audioMode type="string">music</audioMode>
</streamContext>
</audioStream>
</streams>
</audience>
Another quick question: For spoken-word material (such as audiobooks), shouldn't the audioMode type in ap.rpad be set to "voice"?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<audience>
<avgBitrate type="uint">16000</avgBitrate>
<maxBitrate type="uint">16000</maxBitrate>
<streams>
<audioStream>
<pluginName type="string">rn-audiocodec-realaudio</pluginName>
<codecName type="string">sipr</codecName>
<codecFlavor type="uint">3</codecFlavor>
<streamContext type="bag">
<presentationType type="string">audio-only</presentationType>
<audioMode type="string">voice</audioMode>
</streamContext>
</audioStream>
</streams>
</audience>
... or will this have any effect on the way the audio is processed/stored?
- M.
Edit: Well, after testing the above (which I should have done before posting the question!) it appears that setting the audioMode to "voice" produces the following error lines:
Diagnostic: Input has audio and Audience does not contain audioStream stream
Error: Job failed to start encoding
Error: Encoding failed!
So why does it work with "music" and not "voice," and what is the purpose of the "voice" mode?
It turns out _encoding_ in dtdrive is work in progress, and works only for AAC at the moment, and then you need a few extra DLLs from the Producer SDK as well as RealPlayer 10 Gold, so Producer is the recommended tool to encode RealMedia.
The only effect audioMode has is that it maps the cmd line audio mode to a specific audience. You can have multiple audiences in a job file, one for each audio mode (music, voice), and then there is audio-only, or audio-video, so a total of 4 audiences.
You choose audio mode with command line switch '-am <voice|music>. And since music is default, my suggested audience works. If you exchange music with voice in the audience, you need to use -am voice. It has no effect on the actual encoding.
Karl,
I just tested Real Player 10 GOLD (free version) and found that it played my Nero created HE AAC (48k) files flawlessly (unlike WinAmp 5.03 without Menno's plugin). Besides Nero, I believe RealPlayer 10 is the first commercially available program to playback both AAC LC and HE AAC files properly within a M4A container file format. Well done! No where did RealPlayer 10 say it was a HE AAC file (it just called it AAC) but the sound quality of the playback was definately HE AAC and not just the AAC LC (22khz portion) like many other players do.
I believe I read on HA before that both the RealPlayer Free and Plus versions do not encode to HE AAC. Is that correct? They just do playback of HE AAC/AAC LC and only encoding to AAC LC. Thanks for the clarification and keep up the good work.
Thank you for the clarification on the use of
-am voice. Now let's see how far my understanding carries....
If I'm not mistaken (although that's certainly a possibility) it looks like this should be the *.rpad variation most closely approximating iTunes' "128kbps high quality" setting:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<audience>
<avgBitrate type="uint">128000</avgBitrate>
<streams>
<audioStream>
<pluginName type="string">rn-audiocodec-realaudio</pluginName>
<codecName type="string">raac</codecName>
<codecFlavor type="uint">2</codecFlavor>
<encodingComplexity type="string">high</encodingComplexity>
<encodingType type="string">cbr</encodingType>
<streamContext type="bag">
<presentationType type="string">audio-only</presentationType>
<audioMode type="string">music</audioMode>
</streamContext>
</audioStream>
</streams>
</audience>
Now, at the time Roberto's
AAC at 128kbps v2 public listening test (http://www.rjamorim.com/test/aac128v2/presentation.html) was conducted, Real Producer 10 beta was used. But the current available Helix beta (10.0.0.195) was released two days before that last test concluded. Has the AAC-RM encoding engine improved since then in terms of subjective quality, or is it safe for one to assume the results (http://www.rjamorim.com/test/aac128v2/results.html) of the
AAC at 128kbps v2 public listening test are still a valid reference point?
- M.
Edit: Oops... I listed the wrong codecFlavor at first: 7 seems to be for "128 Kbps Stereo Surround," while 2 is the appropriate selection for "128 Kbps Stereo Music."
Via the helix community (https://helixcommunity.org/beula/download/) one can however obtain a free command line Producer that encodes to our AAC format, as well as a cmd line tool to convert losslessly from AAC to M4A, M4A to AAC, RM to M4A, AAC to RM, RM to AAC, RM to M4A.
i already asked this on doom9, but you didnt answer
does this tool handle to convert he-aac (aac+sbr) correctly from .rm to .m4a? afaik there is some sort of flag in the mp4 container, which indicates that the aac stream contains sbr
Originally posted by guest0101
I believe I read on HA before that both the RealPlayer Free and Plus versions do not encode to HE AAC. Is that correct? They just do playback of HE AAC/AAC LC and only encoding to AAC LC. Thanks for the clarification and keep up the good work.
Thanks for your feedback, and yes, it is correct that RealPlayer 10 Gold and the normal Producer does not encode to HE-AAC as they are released. In the SDK section of the Binary Download section on helix community, there is a separate plugin available for Producer, along with a readme.txt that explains how to use it ("please refer to the Helix DNA Producer SDK license for information about AAC and HE-AAC licensing terms.")
Originally posted by M
Has the AAC-RM encoding engine improved since then in terms of subjective quality, or is it safe for one to assume the results of the AAC at 128kbps v2 public listening test are still a valid reference point?
As far as I know there were no significant changes to the Coding Technologies core encoder.
Originally posted by bond
already asked this on doom9, but you didnt answer does this tool handle to convert he-aac (aac+sbr) correctly from .rm to .m4a? afaik there is some sort of flag in the mp4 container, which indicates that the aac stream contains sbr
Sorry, there are a lot of questions. Sometimes I miss one or two. You could have also tried yourself, but in this case, the result would have not been great, since it seems dtdrive does not handle all flavors of HE-AAC very gracefully. It does in fact crash on a test file of mine, so I need to file a bug report. dtdrive is work in constant progress, since it pretty much handles every filetype in our system, and used for a lot of purposes. Since our tools do not normally encode to HE-AAC, testing of this conversion to M4A has been limited.
Originally posted by M
Oops... I listed the wrong codecFlavor at first: 7 seems to be for "128 Kbps Stereo Surround," while 2 is the appropriate selection for "128 Kbps Stereo Music."
Some of the Surround and Stereo flavors are not really needed. It is only the RealAudio 8 Surround flavors that have been tuned to better preserve Dolby Surround info. For AAC, the Stereo and Surround flavors are indeed the same, but it's always better to use Stereo for music to avoid any confusion or errors.
afaik there is some sort of flag in the mp4 container, which indicates that the aac stream contains sbr
No, there isn't.
There CAN be a flag in the audio specific config, but there doesn't have to be.
Menno
RealPlayer installs itself to C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer and a list of DLLs in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Real (and one DLL, I think, pncrt.dll (272 KB) to windows\system32). Compared to the rest of the program that use "Common Files" and system32 I don't think this is too bad, but I too would have liked one single folder (like Thunderbird or Firefox).
What is the function of the file nprfxins.dll installed to C:\Program Files\RichFX\Player upon install?
Edit: It's also installed to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\PLUGINS\RichFX\Player on my Win2000 system....
Edit2 - There is also a folder installed to C:\Documents and Settings\James Bond\Application Data\Real\ and 4 dlls installed to System32 (rmoc3260.dll, pndx5032.dll, pndx5016.dll, pncrt.dll)
What is the function of the file nprfxins.dll installed to C:\Program Files\RichFX\Player upon install?
I don't have this on my system, but it sounds like something left over from a previous version, or installed via an upgrade. It is not installed by RealPlayer's normal installation, afaik. I think there was once plugin called RichFX for 3D effects. Maybe you previously tried to play RichFX content.
edit2: I too have it in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\PLUGINS\RichFX\Player. It may have been installed by RealPlayer. I will ask.
edit3: Yes, many apps use Application Data, even Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird. And thanks for the update on which DLLs are placed in Windows\System32.
What is the function of the file nprfxins.dll installed to C:\Program Files\RichFX\Player upon install?
I don't have this on my system, but it sounds like something left over from a previous version, or installed via an upgrade. It is not installed by RealPlayer's normal installation, afaik. I think there was once plugin called RichFX for 3D effects. Maybe you previously tried to play RichFX content.
edit2: I too have it in C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\PLUGINS\RichFX\Player
Yes, this was done via an upgrade install (RealPlayer 10 beta to 10 Final) - I have no idea what RichFX content is nor do I remember trying to play it.
ViPER1313: thanks for providing the details about these additional DLLs that RealPlayer installs, which I did not know about I have updated my post on the first page.
Besides Nero, I believe RealPlayer 10 is the first commercially available program to playback both AAC LC and HE AAC files properly within a M4A container file format.
Well, 3ivx has been playing back AAC/HE-AAC files in MP4/M4A files in all DirectShow players for quite a while now