[sejarzo]

I pre-ordered a CD from an artist who offered a free download of one tune a couple of months before the release of the CD.

The download turned out to be an m4a file, and the only player I have that's been able to play it is QuickTime. I refuse to put iTunes on my XP machine, no way, no how.

I have WMP11 with the latest CCCP pack installed, Media Player Classic, and Zoom Player....none will play it.

I normally use Foobar 0.8.3 with FLAC files (0.9.x keeps losing ASIO config data, so I reverted) and I see that at one time there was a Foobar plug-in available for ALAC files.....but while Google turns up a number of pages that refer to that plug-in, all the various links on those pages to download it are dead.

Anybody out there have the appropriate plug-in for Foobar 0.8.3?

Also, I downloaded several converters that were supposed to be m4a to mp3, plus another that claimed to be able to convert m4a to FLAC. They either gave an error message and wouldn't start the conversion process, or if they produced an mp3, it was unplayable in any app I have installed.

 

[Jaska]

Installing the special version of foobar2000 0.8.3 ought to work just fine. That's what I was using years ago, and never needed any additional plugins for AAC playback.

 

[sejarzo]

That's what I have installed...the special version, but I get this error message when attempting to play the file in Foobar 0.8.3:

"MP4: unable to find correct sound track in the MP4 file."

I just recalled that I installed 0.9.4.4 to test something for another member, and it gives this error:

"Unable to open item for playback (Unsupported format or corrupted file)."

Any further suggestions? I mean, other than using QuickTime until I can rip the CD to FLAC!

 

[Jaska]

Hopefully with your switching between foobar2000 versions you've been running the application uninstaller(s) properly. Besides that, if you use CCleaner, that program has fixed all sorts of bologna like that for me in the past (using the registry cleaner).

I'd sooner recommend another software player, but it doesn't sound like you want to go that route. I think it's safe to say that if you've tested multiple unprotected AAC files with an old as well as a recent version of foobar2000, something is messed up with your foobar2000 installation.

 

[sejarzo]

Each Foobar installation on my PC resides in its own folder/subfolders--they run fine together, no need to uninstall. Or at least that was the story when I asked about doing that, and until now, no issues had arisen to make me think there was a problem.

I have no other AAC files. No need for them, I don't share files, 99.99% of my music is ripped from CD's to FLAC. I download 256kbps mp3's of some oldies when I want to hear them, knowing that the original quality is so poor that I'm not missing much with the mp3, but that's pretty rare.

What I have just found in the past 15 minutes is that "OJOSoft M4A Converter" worked quite well to convert the download to a .wav, which I could then convert to FLAC--but the trial version will only convert the first 20% of a file. Xilisoft's m4a converter rejects the m4a file, saying it's an unrecognized format.

Seems to me that means there is something a bit funky about that m4a.

Guess I will just use QuickTime until the CD arrives, unless someone knows of another good m4a to wav or FLAC converter that will let me convert one file for free!

 

[Jaska]

There's always dBpoweramp Music Converter. You can use that and install the necessary components (MP4/M4A and FLAC). It should work with any M4A files as long as they're unprotected.

Just so you know, I wasn't suggesting you were a file sharer. I thought you had mentioned that you had troubles with these particular M4A files, and had also done some separate testing (of other?) M4A files for another member.

Oh well, it's late here and I'm sure my reading skills are suffering.

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I see that at one time there was a Foobar plug-in available for ALAC files.....but while Google turns up a number of pages that refer to that plug-in, all the various links on those pages to download it are dead.

You wouldn't need that unless the files are actually Apple Lossless. The old AAC decoders for foobar2000 didn't have support for Apple Lossless, as it's not the same as lossy AAC.

 

[sejarzo]

What I meant was that I had installed Foobar 0.9.4.4 to try and see what another 0404 USB user was seeing when he was trying to get his up and running with Foobar.....not that I had any experience with AAC.

And indeed, the artist replied that it is an m4a that contains lossless ALAC format.

 

[Jaska]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sejarzo /img/forum/go_quote.gif the artist replied that it is an m4a that contains lossless ALAC format.

Definitely stick with QuickTime or use dBpoweramp Music Converter to transcode the files to FLAC and play them with your preferred version of foobar2000.

Outside of Apple's world, it's still pretty cumbersome to deal with Apple Lossless content in a reliable way. dBpoweramp has certainly been a leader in solving this problem for Windows users.

You'll need this, this, and this.

 

[sejarzo]

Thanks, for some reason, m4a support disappeared from my dBpoweramp installation (????) and I forgot that way would work....listening to the resulting FLAC now in Foobar 0.8.3 and it sounds great!

 

[jiiteepee]

Never tried to play any m4a files but, the NI TRAKTOR BeatPort SYNC I'm using lists the m4a format being supported ...

jiitee