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Topic: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A (Read 1984 times) previous topic - next topic
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AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Hi, i am using the latest foobar2000 1.4, i downloaded an AAC file from youtube using savefrom.net extension but it can't be played by foobar until it is renamed to M4A or MP4. An average user will not have the knowledge to do this, please fix it (Groove Music, VLC and Media Player Classic - all can play the downloaded file with .aac extension)

AAC file that won't play: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tv9mQeUMFWVJ5_fmrxdixX4tVrEEriIk

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #1 –
Renaming works because your so-called "AAC file" is not an AAC file, but an MP4 file. Who gave it the wrong ".aac" suffix, was it you or that downloader?

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #2 –
That downloader gave it the .aac extension, but i think foobar should play files even if i rename them to "music file.xyz" and open them manually using foobar. If other players can do this, why foobar can't?
https://prnt.sc/km4335

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Stalingrad on
That downloader gave it the .aac extension

File a bug report at them, then. It is an MP4 file, and the application should not misrepresent it as an AAC file. An average user will not have the knowledge to do this, as you pointed out yourself.

Quote from: Stalingrad on
i think foobar should play files even if i rename them to "music file.xyz"

Faking suffixes is unlikely to help your of the non-knowledgeable "average user", methinks.

VLC has decided to allow it. I bet Peter has at some stage considered it for foobar2000. Some checks are in fact done (experiment: force an mp2 stream into an mp3 file and give it an .mp2 suffix).

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #4 –
Quote
I bet Peter has at some stage considered it for foobar2000
What's the problem to consider it now again?
I expect that if i open an audio file that is not corrupted it should be playable, doesn't matter what extension it has. Just add some code that will detect somehow (with Mediainfo for example) what the format is and play it

Quote
VLC has decided to allow it
My file i posted here is playable with Groove Music, VLC and Media Player Classic without renaming to .m4a or .mp4

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #5 –
That will be up to the developer. Have some music while you wait. Hopefully you see a good reason not to encourage what I just did.

I don't think you should rename with arbitrary deceptive suffixes - you proved that point in your first posting.  And I bet you have clicked .txt files and trusted  Windows to refrain from doing the "hm, this is really a misnamed .exe, so let us run it!"?

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #6 –
An average user knows the difference between .txt file icon and an audio file icon. Now i have 2 same files just with different extensions, i see "audio icons" and expect both of them to be played if they are not corrupted, it's not my job to know it's an MP3, AAC, M4A, MATROSKA or any other format.

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Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #7 –
Probably not going to happen without a major overhaul of all components which implement the input API, since a major part of the input API is controlling which files to accept by matching file name extensions. There's MIME types as well, but that's only for streamable formats, and most inputs don't implement that. You're basically talking about every single input gaining a magic bytes checking routine, or every single input being tasked with opening every single given file until something just accepts the file.

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #8 –
Quote
until something just accepts the file.
Yes, if i open an AAC file and foobar can't open it, it should try to open it as M4A/MP4 file

Don't make the average users suffer!!!  :))

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #9 –
Users shouldn't need to care or know about extensions but software and service providers should. Your initial screenshot shows the tool claims to be saving ADTS AAC (which means raw AAC outside any container) but it didn't save it as such. foobar2000 isn't the only program rejecting the file and you'd serve more users by getting the program that makes the error to be fixed.
 

Re: AAC file won't play until renamed to M4A

Reply #10 –
There is one point to make:
fb2k omits such files from its library, but includes them in a playlist when dumping the directory into it. I would like to have a functionality that scans in order to warn me about such bugfiles in my library-indexed folders. Including mp2s in .mp3.
Not play them and pretend everything is in order, but tell me what the OP refuses to learn.

Apart from that, I certainly do not doubt that the "average user" will every now and then obtain a file through a *cough* potentially questionable channel *cough* by an application unmaintained after N ncease-and-desist letters - but it is up to the foobar2000 dev to decide whether to encourage that practice.

I don't even think that the "average user" would try to "upgrade" their audio by renaming ".mp3" to ".AIFF", but for the sake of enlightenment, do not encourage it.

(And IMHO, the "average user" should be taught not to use .aac.)