Plans for ACC/.m4p support? [Archive]

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goombah

10-31-2003, 20:50

eXity

10-31-2003, 23:32

Has anyone heard or does anyone know if there are plans to support the
AAC/.m4p format in future firmware for the 200 model, or if it will be
supported in iAUDIO 4? I know Jet Audio was able to add .wma support via a firmware upgrade. I just got iTunes for Windows and love it, but it's a hassle (and a waste of hard drive space) to download m4p's, burn a CD, and rip the CD as mp3's just to get it on the iAUDIO.

Well, the CW 200 and 300 will never ever support the AAC format. The problem is that these "old models" have a hardware mp3 decoder built in that can only decode mp3s and nothing else.
The iAudio4 *might* support AAC and OGG, because it already supports ASF and WMA. Perhaps Cowon/JetAudio will add support for these files in a firmware upgrade! :)

Oh, and burning and re-ripping the tracks you get a big quality loss ...

trinix

11-03-2003, 06:39

Hi,
Has anyone heard or does anyone know if there are plans to support the
AAC/.m4p format in future firmware for the 200 model, or if it will be
supported in iAUDIO 4?...
Don't be so bent on AAC! Check out the great possibilities of the Ogg Vorbis :fish: (http://www.vorbis.com/).
...I just got iTunes for Windows and love it, but it's a hassle (and a waste of hard drive space) to download m4p's, burn a CD, and rip the CD as mp3's just to get it on the iAUDIO.
You download the files with a good? quality and after that you transcode that files. That's a really big wasting of quality.
In what for quality do you get the *.mp4 files from iTunes?

eXity

11-03-2003, 06:45

Hi,

Don't be so bent on AAC! Check out the great possibilities of the Ogg Vorbis :fish: (http://www.vorbis.com/).

You download the files with a good? quality and after that you transcode that files. That's a really big wasting of quality.
In what for quality do you get the *.mp4 files from iTunes?

I think the AAC encoding is @ 128 Kbit for files from iTunes. I dunnow how good they really are, but some people say that they are just as good as 320 kbit mp3s ...

trinix

11-03-2003, 07:34

Hi,

Of course the Apple QuickTime encoder is one of the best. But what I said have a look on the results of Ogg Vorbis.
http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html

From this chart (below) you can see the ranking of the encoder.

If you consider just the amount of scores you have the following order:
Musepack 1.14 Apple QuickTime 6.3 Windows Media Audio v9 OggVorbis post - 1.0 LAME MP3 3.90.3 --alt preset 128But if you consider the support for the portable player then it is obvious that Musepack isn't on the right place here. For that reason, the following order:
Apple QuickTime 6.3 OggVorbis post - 1.0 and LAME MP3 3.90.3 --alt preset 128and than Musepack and WMA v9

source (http://audio.ciara.us/test/128extension/results.html)

eXity

11-03-2003, 07:47

Sorry, but what is mpc? I have never ever heard of it ... All the others I know!

trinix

11-03-2003, 08:11

Hi,
Sorry, but what is mpc? I have never ever heard of it ... All the others I know!
Sorry if used abbreviation which didn't know you.
MPC...MusePack (http://www.musepack-source.de)

goombah

11-08-2003, 21:30

Thanks for the education! :)

I'm not much of an audiophile, although of course I'll take good quality over poor quality any day of the week. The one exception is portability - I bought my CW-200 so I could carry my music working out and around town, and by gum, I'm going to use it! Since my CW-200 only plays mp3's and wma's, I guess I'm stuck burning and ripping for anything I buy from iTunes. So long, sound quality...

Since you guys seem to be pretty knowledgable about the different formats, maybe you can answer a question: MusicMatch has an online music store (only in US right now) like iTunes that sells music in 160 bit secure WMA format. I got a bad taste of WMA a few years back and have avoided them since, but what do you think of WMA at that bitrate?

Who knows if it will work anyway; the 'secure' format is less supported. MusicMatch's list of players it works on doesn't include iAudio, but I've noticed iAudio is often overlooked, so maybe it will work.

trinix

11-09-2003, 09:07

Hi,...Since my CW-200 only plays mp3's and wma's...Your CW200 doesn't play any *.wma files. ;)...160 bit secure WMA format...Personally, I dont use any *.wma files. Mainly it depends on the Digital Rights Management (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/drm.aspx) what is using by M$. But the chart of the results above is a 128 kbit test and there the WMA format isn't that bad.
By the way...Which lossy format are you using? (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=2404)Who knows if it will work anyway; the 'secure' format is less supported. MusicMatch's list of players it works on doesn't include iAudio, but I've noticed iAudio is often overlooked, so maybe it will work.The next generation of iAUDIO, the iAUDIO4 (http://www.iaudio.com/zeroboard/zboard.php?id=A02&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&bmenu=a&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&bmenu=a&desc=asc&no=164&bmenu=a), will support the WMA file ant I think it will be the secure one.

By the way, please post a link to the site with the portable player for MusicMatch.

goombah

11-10-2003, 22:11

Hi,

Your CW200 doesn't play any *.wma files. ;)

You're right, of course - I was thinking of JetShell 3.0, when they added wma support and added the wma>mp3 conversion feature. My mistake.

So perhaps that's what I should hope for - a jetshell/jetaudio conversion tool between ACC and mp3 (where this whole thread started!)

As for the musicmatch info, here you go:

The full list of Q&A's for Musicmatch downloads is here:
http://www.musicmatch.com/info/user_guide/music_downloads.htm

The list of supported players is this popup:
http://www.musicmatch.com/info/features/supported_portables.htm

Thanks!

trinix

11-11-2003, 04:03

Hi,...So perhaps that's what I should hope for - a jetshell/jetaudio conversion tool between ACC and mp3 (where this whole thread started!)...I don't think that JetAudio will add feature to the next JetShell version which allows to convert from one lossy format to another lossy one, bacause they swear of the excellent sound quality of the iAUDIO player and with a transcoding feature in JetShell they would betray the main issue. But maybe they offer us a possibility to integrate external encoder software, such as PsyTEL's AAC encoder, in JetShell.
By the way, for the next iAUDIO, the iAUDIO4, you don't need a utility. It works like a hard drive under Windows.

hans-jürgen

03-06-2004, 02:28

So perhaps that's what I should hope for - a jetshell/jetaudio conversion tool between ACC and mp3 (where this whole thread started!)

Well, the downloaded files from Apple's Music Store are protected, that's why they have the file extension *.m4p instead of *.m4a (unprotected MP4 files ripped with iTunes) or *.mp4, the standard extension for MP4 files used in QuickTime. So you can't convert them legally within an application, the only way is burn them to CD and rip again to MP3 or any other format (which you already do). This transcoding procedure also causes quality loss of course, so maybe the best mobile solution for you would be to buy an iPod (can play *.m4p directly)? I don't know how much the lastest mini models differ from iAudio in price and HDD capacity, but perhaps it's not much anymore in the U.S.?

By the way, I think Hewlett Packard announced plans for an iPod-based model recently, so hardware support for *.m4p files would be extended soon.

Not to forget that there are already some hardware portables that can play unprotected AAC files (but not MP4, the container format for AAC), e.g. a few Philips Expanium CD player and the newer Nokia mobile phones.

hans-jürgen

03-06-2004, 22:37

Not to forget that there are already some hardware portables that can play unprotected AAC files (but not MP4, the container format for AAC), e.g. a few Philips Expanium CD player and the newer Nokia mobile phones.

By the way, there's a brand-new MP3/AAC player called Diva Gem, the first one based on built-in memory and SD/MMC cards:

http://www.daisymm.com/l/en/mpz/divagem_det.html

shehanaaz

03-23-2009, 10:01

I was wondering does the fuse support the AAC format? I ask this because recently purchased DRM free music tracks from itunes music store, so after the download I transferred the tracks to the fuse. I unplugged the player from the transfer cable and let the player do its thing and to my dissappointment the player did not see my purchased tracks.
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shehanaaz

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