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Audio Players that reads iTunes AAC Metadata
Does anybody know of an audio player that actually reads the iTunes AAC metadata?
Everything I have tried can ply the file, but cannot read the artist, album, etc. Ideas, anybody? EDIT to UPDATE: The solution is GSPlayer with the AAC plugin, reads AAC metadata perfectly: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA032810/ Last edited by blueandwhiteg3; 10-26-2007 at 03:40 AM. |
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AAC is not an "odd format." It is MPEG-4 Audio. MP3 was a previous generation of MPEG audio. AAC represents a very substantial increase in quality for a given bitrate. Apple is not attempting any lock-in anymore than a vendor who uses MPEG-4 video is attempting lock-in. They simply want to offer the best standard format available. AAC isn't exactly new, either.
That said, I completely agree when it comes to DRM. It is all about lock-in and reselling you the same content over and over. But that's why I have no DRM'd files. It is most frustrating that Windows Media Player and such can play the files, no problem, but cannot read the metadata. I could probably write a parser for it myself, it's pretty simple... if I knew how to actually implement it in a WM application. I don't think i've tried GSPlayer. I will see if it reads metadata. Pocket Music plays AAC but doesn't read the metadata. |
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The latest version of TCMP with the aac plugin will play them, right?
http://discussion.treocentral.com/sh...=148801&page=1 |
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It's not nearly as widely supported as MP3. Furthermore, your PPC is not going to deliver audio quality good enough that you'll notice the difference between AAC and MP3... so it's really the only reason to leave it in AAC on the PPC (currently) is because you don't feel like converting your files.
As to apple locking people into their device, I disagree. AAC might not be a good example but there are many other common itunes formats that are very very poorly supported elsewhere. As to AAC being new, it's not new but it's not standard either. Quote:
I listen to a lot of audio books on my PPC and I'm often dealing with the aforementioned m4b files... which are very poorly supported off of ipods. I personally use Mortplayer because it's very car friendly... and there's no place my media is more required then on long car drives. Sadly it's lacking on some of the more sophisticated features... but if you want a player that's stable, has great skins, and has bookmarking... it's the best. |
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Apple DRM-free music is in AAC. I encode my CDs in AAC. AAC sounds noticeably better than MP3 at the mid-range bitrates, even on my handheld. I already am going for higher bitrate (e.g. 192 kbit) AACs and to get acceptable sounding MP3s, I need at least as much bitrate, if not more. And I still know the quality has dropped.
Re-encoding my music is simply frustrating. I suppose if I had software that dynamically re-encoded the music files as they synced from the playlist, I would be less annoyed. But keeping two copies*of my whole library, or re-encoding everything every time I want to sync a new playlist, that just sucks. You guys are making a ton of excuses for something that should be a non-issue. AAC playback is trivial. There's solid open source libraries for both encoding and decoding it. The standard is open. It is even built into WM6 with WMP. The problem is not AAC as a format so much. The problem is that none of the software decodes the metadata. |
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The meta data is really only useful for sorting... a feature that can be easily emulated by making a few appropriately titled playlists. |
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I have more than 200 audiobooks on my iPod; all on m4b format. Any other format, and they wont appear as audiobooks, but as songs.
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I understand why he would want a player that cant read metadata; especially when playing that same playlist on different devices. Personally, I like my iPod. It does exactly what it was designed to do. Sure there's a little work on the users part to get your library the way YOU want it, but in the end, I think it's worth it. I dont/wont spend countless hours re-doing my library because my phone wants to screw it up. Karma, do you even own an ipod? |
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All you need is a player with a bookmarking function. I've mapped my camera key WHILE playing SOUND FILES to the bookmark function. So when I'm done and want to do something else, I press that button, bookmark, and I'm done. Quote:
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As to artists or genres that's what folders are for. Do you want to put everything in one giant folder? Or make sub folders for genre and artist? Metadata basically makes up for bad organization skills on computers. Which is understandable as many people have that problem. However, it's REALLY not that hard. Quote:
I personally didn't have to do ANYTHING to get my music and audio books working on my phone... I keep all my files in MP3 and have never bothered with metadata... finding just editing the file name to be easier. Quote:
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