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Topic: AAC Compatibility with iPod (Read 30309 times) previous topic - next topic
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AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #50 –
Yeah, I got Menno a copy of a file that constantly crashes at ~20 seconds a week ago.  He said it was the first example with which he could repeat the problem, but observed that there was nothing strange about the mp4 file itself.  He sent it on to apple to let them mull over it.
-CTB

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #51 –
^^ Shoot.  Off hand I can think of a half dozen files that do that.  I was hopeing there would be an easy fix.  If we're stuck waiting for apple, it could takes months for a fix (assuming they even release one).

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #52 –
I am probably very naive to these problems being on a mac, but having seen the most recent listening tests conducted by Roberto it would seem that it is kind of retarded to encode AAC with something other than iTunes (as it has the best perceptual quality), even if you rip the .wavs with EAC or something. This method would seem to give the best quality and also--obviously--the best compatibility with the iPod.



[clarification]

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #53 –
Quote
And the manufacturing price for an iPod is about 50-60 dollars, according to an article I read recently. I don't know if the figures are trustworthy.


I've heard from iPodLounge (I think) that it costs $150 to make an iPod.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #54 –
Quote
I am probably very naive to these problems being on a mac, but having seen the most recent listening tests conducted by Roberto it would seem that it is kind of retarded to encode AAC with something other than iTunes (as it has the best perceptual quality), even if you rip the .wavs with EAC or something. This method would seem to give the best quality and also--obviously--the best compatibility with the iPod.

You are right: if you are encoding from CD directly to AAC, then iTunes works wonderfully. But its not a perfect solution for ripping from CD because:

1.) its slower than ripping first to HD w/ Plextools (24x and batch) and then encoding the WAVs to AAC w/ iTunes (20x and batch) v. 8x (per CD);

2.) its error correction is less accurate than Plextools.

More importantly, I already have large FLAC collection and wish to convert my existing FLAC files to AAC. iTunes doesn't recognize FLAC files at all--which requires me to first decode to WAV. That is problematic because:

1.) either an enormous amount of disk space is required (for FLAC + WAV + AAC) or you have to break your batch into small chunks.

2.) all my tags are lost upon conversion from FLAC to WAV (and thus all my AAC files are untagged).

3.) file names are truncated to something like 33 characters (an HFS hold over)

So, the only practical solution is to use foobar and Nero to batch encode but that has been issue prone.

Ideally, iTunes would recognize and convert FLAC files (no need to playback the FLAC files on iPod since this would require constantly powering up the HD because most FLAC files exceed the on-board memory of the iPod).

And, ideally, someone would create a BeyondCompare like program that would compare an AAC and FLAC file, know that they are the same (probably because of a unique serial number in the metatags) and synchronize any differences in the metatags (i.e. volume control from iTunes and Ratings would be on the AAC and need to go back to the FLAC files; and MusicBrainz data may have update on the FLAC file and need to be updated on the corresponding AAC file).

Of course, that also requires that iTunes update its Music Library handling to automatically recognize when changes are made to files indexed in the library.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #55 –
Quote
So, the only practical solution is to use foobar and Nero to batch encode but that has been issue prone.

What issues are you referring to? I've been transcoding FLAC to Nero AAC on my PC then moving them to my Mac and iPod with no problems.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #56 –
Quote
What issues are you referring to? I've been transcoding FLAC to Nero AAC on my PC then moving them to my Mac and iPod with no problems.

The issues of this thread, namely the problem with tracks crashing the ipod at about 20 second in, and with the ipod skipping over some entirely.  If you are curious, I could send you a link to a track that causes 3rd gen ipods to crash (created by nero, and apparently a valid aac file).

As for the reasons to encode with Nero... though I haven't seen a test comparing VBR Nero presets to CBR itunes yet, I would speculate that the VBR file would win (inherent advantage of VBR, even if apple has created a superior CBR implementation), hence my personal reluctance to encode with itunes or quicktime (and the convenience factor of foobar2k)
-CTB

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #57 –
Quote
I am probably very naive to these problems being on a mac, but having seen the most recent listening tests conducted by Roberto it would seem that it is kind of retarded to encode AAC with something other than iTunes (as it has the best perceptual quality), even if you rip the .wavs with EAC or something. This method would seem to give the best quality and also--obviously--the best compatibility with the iPod.



[clarification]

No commandline encoder with iTunes.  That means no replaygain, and no encoding from anything except wav/mp3.  Work arounds exist, but they all involve an order of magnitude more effort then Nero/foobar and would force me to use CBR audio which I find distasteful.

Quote
What issues are you referring to? I've been transcoding FLAC to Nero AAC on my PC then moving them to my Mac and iPod with no problems.


What version of the Ipod/aacenc.dll?  I've had literally dozens of Ipod crashes lately with countless AAC files.  Some I can duplicate, others work fine once the Ipod crashes, other are just plain strange (Ipod skips over 50% of the track #1s I've encoded).  I need to do some more testing though to make sure the former issues are due to Nero and not just a problem with my specific Ipod's database though.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #58 –
As I've never seen it, what, exactly, does an "iPod crash" look like?

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #59 –
Quote
What version of the Ipod/aacenc.dll?  I've had literally dozens of Ipod crashes lately with countless AAC files.  Some I can duplicate, others work fine once the Ipod crashes, other are just plain strange (Ipod skips over 50% of the track #1s I've encoded).  I need to do some more testing though to make sure the former issues are due to Nero and not just a problem with my specific Ipod's database though.

I have a 3rd generation 15 GB iPod with the version 2.1 of the firmware installed, and I'm using 2.6.1.1 of Nero's AAC encoder. I should clarify what when I say I have had no problems, it means that I haven't had my iPod crash or quit playing files 20 seconds into the song. I have had it skip over Nero created files, which I was able to rectify either by playing the file in iTunes or by opening the info dialog on the troublesome song. Modifying any of the info in the fields was not necessary to get it to play, although it didn't matter if I did. I just had to open the get info dialog and click ok.

Specifically this is my workflow.
1) Rip CD to FLAC using EAC using best quality and replay gain info.
2) Transcode FLAC files to Nero AAC using Foobar (foo_nero) and the extreme preset
3) Copy files to OS X, import them into iTunes
4) Add the following to the comment field using iTunes (This replaces the comment from the flac files): "Nero AAC 2.6.1.1 Extreme / EAC Secure Mode"
5) Upload to iPod.

Interestingly this is what I've found in regards to compatibility.
1) If I transfer them to the iPod before changing the comment in iTunes they play fine.
2) If I change the comment to above and then upload them, the iPod skips over them.
3) If I open the files that skip on the iPod in the Get Info dialogue box and click ok (without changing any of the fields) and then upload them to the iPod they play fine.

I have been able to reproduce this several times on different files. So, once I "edit" the tag info as described above I have no problems playing Nero AAC on the iPod, though I'm not sure if this is a header issue as mentioned previously or a tagging problem.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #60 –
Quote
As I've never seen it, what, exactly, does an "iPod crash" look like?

Quote
I have a 3rd generation 15 GB iPod with the version 2.1 of the firmware installed, and I'm using 2.6.1.1 of Nero's AAC encoder. I should clarify what when I say I have had no problems, it means that I haven't had my iPod crash or quit playing files 20 seconds into the song. I have had it skip over Nero created files, which I was able to rectify either by playing the file in iTunes or by opening the info dialog on the troublesome song. Modifying any of the info in the fields was not necessary to get it to play, although it didn't matter if I did. I just had to open the get info dialog and click ok.


Thanks I'll try the latest Nero and see if that helps any.

Buttons still click when you hit them, but the screen remains frozen.  Then theres a loud 'fingernails on chalkboard' type sound and the Ipod then resets itself and gives you the Apple logo as it boots up.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #61 –
All songs remain playable in iTunes but unplayable on iPod even though I have upgraded to:

aacenc32.dll 2.6.1.9
foo_nero 0.3.7

Adding a comment field using mass Get Info to all imported songs in iTunes and resyncing w/ iPod makes songs playable on iPod.

SoundCheck is disabled on my iTunes but, because of a bug in iTunes, is still performed on imported songs. (Anyone know how to fix that?) SoundCheck is disabled on my iPod.

It would appear that some functions in iTunes "presume" that there is enough padding to write a tag. SoundCheck is one of those functions. G-Force's comments seem to suggest that mass replacing existing comments is another. But mass Get Info adding new tags must rewrite the tag. And Get Info for an individual song may correct the file size.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #62 –
 

Guys.

Okay I might be the odd one out here but I am trying to encode my AAC files with the new WINAMP 5 however I am having no joy at getting them on my IPOD. Can anyone please help me out with this?

I am encoding @ 160Kbps 44Khz .... I am technical but not really musical and am completely stuffed on this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated from all you music types 


Regards

Russler

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #63 –
I rip my cd's to my external hard drive, with Monkey's Audio. Then to rip to AAC with Itunes, and keep tags, I use Nero (with Monkey's Audio plugin installed) to write an (audio) image file of the files, then mount the file using Alcohol 120% as a cd. Itunes detects the info via Gracenote, and rips nice and quickly to aac. Haven't had any problems yet (apart from 3 week iPod having a dead hard drive).

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #64 –
Quote


Guys.

Okay I might be the odd one out here but I am trying to encode my AAC files with the new WINAMP 5 however I am having no joy at getting them on my IPOD. Can anyone please help me out with this?

I am encoding @ 160Kbps 44Khz .... I am technical but not really musical and am completely stuffed on this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated from all you music types  


Regards

Russler

You need to put the AAC file into a mp4 container, does the latest Winamp do that for new files?

Anyhow:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-mp4.htm

at the bottom of the page is a AAC to Mp4 codec, not sure about the tags from Winamp, they are using ID3v2 with AAC...

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #65 –
WinAmp 5.02 does put files in a MPEG 4 container file when encoding/ripping. It saves them with a .m4a extension also. I have had no problem with WinAmp 5.02 generated .m4a files playing back in iTunes.

Russler, there exists a new iPod Support Plug-in on Winamp.com that allows you to manage your iPod directly from within Winamp 5... It is supposed to allow your iPod to show up under the WinAmp ML (Media Library) allowing you direct access to your iPod.

Here is the link to that Apple iPod Support plug-in on Winamp.com:
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888

Let me know if this helps you out or not.

AAC Compatibility with iPod

Reply #66 –
I transcode all of my AACs from FLACs using the transparent preset. Most of my Nero AAC's play fine in my 15 GB iPod, but like many others, I've recently come across some songs that cause the iPod to skip over the song or skip after playing ~40 seconds or so. Reencoding the song did not fix the problem. I even sent a file to my sister and she confirms they skip on her 40 GB iPod as well.

Interestingly all the Nero AACs 2.6.1.9 that skipped my iPod (I've found 7 total) play fine if I transcode them with 2.6.2.0 (Transparent preset). I haven't been able to find a 2.6.2.0 file that skips the iPod and I've encoded 10 additional albums beyond the files that I reencoded that skipped previously. Is this just a coincidence, or has Ahead fixed the iPod problems? I'd sure like to hear what others have found.