In my last car I had a Kenwood GPS LCD touch screen unit, very nice, and it played everything and all formats from my USB drive. So, I converted my entire FLAC library using EAC/REACT2 into m4a using the Nero aac encoder. That was back in 2007. Everything was sweet. (This information so you know that the files were actually playable with an automotive head unit.)
The problem is that my new car (Nissan) using the factory USB port and head unit refuses to play anything Nero aac converted, but the manual says it will play .m4a files. Since I wanted to eliminate EAC/REACT2 from the problem variables, I converted using Foobar and the same Nero aac encoder that I used back in 2007. Then I used FreAC and it's in house aac encoder (I have no idea what it is):
(1) Convert to .m4a using Foobar (which uses the Nero encoder). Will not play.
(2) Converted using FreAC which has a built in aac converter (And I have no idea what it is using). Played both mpeg2/4 conversions.
FreAc ouputs .aac while the Nero encoder outputs .m4a
I'd simply buy another Kenwood head unit with the touch LCD and GPS and be over it, except these days I'm too poor to buy an 800.00US head unit (and oh! how I miss it too). So can anyone PLEASE shine some light on this for me. It's driving my F-ing crazy. I just can't grasp why the new head unit would balk at Nero m4a and have no problem with .aac, especially since the manual says it will play .m4a files too. I'm using the same USB drive also.
FreAC: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bonkenc/ (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bonkenc/)
Thanks in advanced.
Although this sounds weird to me, have you tried renaming the .m4a files to .aac? I don't think FreAC does write raw AAC data but puts it into an mp4 container. The .aac files and the .m4a files should then be very similar technically.
FreAC can write mp4/m4a files, too, as the homepage says. Have you tried that option?
I just tried the FreAc m4a conversion and it won't play either, nor will the m4a file extension changed to .aac.
Hmmm, .aac usually indicates AAC in ADTS bit-stream format, .m4a means AAC in MP4 file format. Maybe your Nissan unit only plays ADTS?
Have you tried the QuickTime/iTunes or Winamp AAC encoders? Winamp can also encode in ADTS format.
Chris
No, I didn't try those. It looks like the manual is wrong. I'll ask the dealer, but they aren't much help at all. However, if the manual says it will play m4a and it doesn't, I may be able to get some upgrade to the head unit. I mean that's false advertising.
I found a way to get my Nero encoded m4a files to play on my JVC head unit and LG cell phones. Some players support "iTunes encoded only". You can either change the major brand in the files to "M4A " or you can hack the encoder to put it in that way to begin with.
Here's how I did the hack:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....mp;#entry771391 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=91161&st=0&#entry771391)