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Spoon
08-03-2003, 05:03 PM
Mp4 Codec for dBpowerAMP: encodes and decodes mp4 files. These files are 100% compatible with iPods and iTunes (correctly tagged).

This new beta adds the ability to decode AAC-HE (think like mp3pro), low bitrate mp4 files. Currently only Nero can create such files.
A genre tagging fix has been made, and that bug where the bitrate couldn't be selected on the Audio CD Input compression page has also been fixed.

Download:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/beta/dBpowerAMP-codec-mp4b5.exe

1.2MB

after installing the above (it uses fastenc AAC encoder) if you want a slightly higher quality encoder, but slower encoder then install this mp4-aacenc codec over the top:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/beta/dBpowerAMP-codec-mp4-aacenc-alter.exe

327KB

Unregistered
09-17-2003, 02:17 PM
So does it works on ipod?

Is there a way to make it work on a Nomad Jukebox?

Brazil

Razgo
09-18-2003, 01:35 AM
i must say i am very impressed so far with this mp4 codec. does it do lossless as well?

Spoon
09-18-2003, 04:37 PM
No, although I think lossless is part of the mp4 spec, so it might be implemented one day.

Spoon
09-18-2003, 04:45 PM
>So does it works on ipod?

Yes

>Is there a way to make it work on a Nomad Jukebox?

No

Unregistered
09-24-2003, 01:42 PM
_______________________________________
Is there a way to make it work on a Nomad Jukebox?

No
_______________________________________

That was not the answer that I wanted to hear :(

Unregistered
09-25-2003, 03:05 AM
I can't get it to play songs I download from the apple music store... any ideas?

I'm running win xp

Spoon
09-25-2003, 06:35 PM
These songs are protected by Apple. Only apples programs can read them :(

Unregistered
10-07-2003, 09:47 PM
Where can I find info about the bitrates? For example, Normal/Tape/Radio/etc. are listed but I can't find what this corresponds to.
Is it possible to use very low bitrates (the lowest listed is 48kbit) - I have a lot of spoken word and radio shows that I wanted to cut down. 20-24 k mp3 usually sounds fine, so I would think I could go 16 or so mp4 if I re-rip them.
Thanks

Unregistered
10-07-2003, 11:53 PM
Couple of problems with the beta (and the alternate encoder). I'm using this with dbMC and converting 128 kbps mp3 to 96 kbps mp4.

First, the conversion didn't convert the entire file, cutting off the song quite abruptly.

Second, quite possibly a dumb question, but shouldn't dbMC preserve ID tags when it converts from mp3 to mp4? At least in my case, it isn't. The resulting title is the name of the file and all other tags are unknown. Is this perhaps a known feature of the beta to be fixed later?

These issues aside, the quality is excellent. Now that I've switched from Creative to an iPod, I'd like to convert to AAC 96 kbps to get my library to fit. dbMC is an attractive alternative to re-ripping my entire (10000 song) CD collection.

Stephen

Spoon
10-08-2003, 07:00 PM
>First, the conversion didn't convert the entire file, cutting off the song quite abruptly.

Try coverting to wave, is all the audio there? is this all mp3s or just one?

>The resulting title is the name of the file and all other tags are unknown.

Should do, just fixed a bug in dMC that could cause this, get the Sveta Beta4.1 from this beta section.

Spoon
10-08-2003, 07:28 PM
The presets with names are variable bit rate so the size is not set, just try them and see.

Johnny Law
10-09-2003, 03:16 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spoondude,
Thank you very much for this great software and all your time and effort.

I've installed the above beta software to my dbpoweramp directory. In convert view when I right click, I see where a track can be converted to an mp4 when I right-click an mp3. I'm trying to convert an existing mp4, but when I right-click on it, no converter.


Any help is appreciated,
Johnny Law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spoon
10-09-2003, 06:31 PM
Reading it again, you can convert Mp3 to mp4, but not mp4 to anything?

Johnny Law
10-09-2003, 06:51 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reading it again, you can convert Mp3 to mp4, but not mp4 to anything?

Spoonman,
Correct. mp4 is currently not associated with any player. When I right-click on the file (running Win2k), I basically get the open with... dialog.

When I open dbpoweramp converter and scroll to the directory where the mp4 track is located, converter does not display the mp4. Clicking on "converting" tab on top, the drop down does not display mp4 capabilities.


Thanks,
Johnny Law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Razgo
10-09-2003, 09:40 PM
have you checked: dbpoweramp-->configuration-->file association

and also:

dbpoweramp music converter-->configuration-->dmc configuration

there you will see an option for "convert to" on explorer right click.

Johnny Law
10-10-2003, 12:08 AM
have you checked: dbpoweramp-->configuration-->file association

and also:

dbpoweramp music converter-->configuration-->dmc configuration

there you will see an option for "convert to" on explorer right click.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks. The "Convert To.." is there all the other associated files.
Hmmm. Trying something now...

Ok, I associated mp4 with Winamp. Now the Convert To... displays.
When I try to convert the mp4 to an mp3, wav, flac or ape, I get this error:
"Unknown file type '.mp4'. Support for this file type might be downloaded - visit www.dbpoweramp.com >> Downloads >> Codec Central"

I'm sure Spoonman is working the bugs out, so I'll just keep an eye here for any updates. I do appreciate your time and input.


Johnny Law
"a paid registered dbpoweramp user"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Razgo
10-10-2003, 12:25 AM
ok no worries, just covering all bases.

also it is very odd theat the "convert to" will appear on right click after you associate the mp4 file to winamp. does the little dbpoweramp speaker symbol appear beside the convert to words?

and you have installed the mp4 codec into the dmc directory? (just checking)

Razgo
10-10-2003, 04:48 AM
i am willing to bet my left nut that it is a file association problem. not a bug in mp4 codec.

you need to not only check there is a tick in the mp4 box:

: dbpoweramp-->configuration-->file association

and also:

dbpoweramp music converter-->configuration-->dmc configuration

but you need to also click "OK" not cancel out of that window.

if there is a bug i think it is dbpoweramp not properly associating the codec automatically. even though you see a tick i don't think it is associated which is why i say make sure you click "OK" before exiting.

i will bet my other nut that if you double click your mp4 file even though it says dbpoweramp file it will not auto play that file.

and if i am wrong then i am bloody knackered then!! :D :D :D

Johnny Law
10-10-2003, 10:44 AM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Razgo,
Keep your nuts. Your spouse may want them intact. :-)

1. Speaker shows properly next to mp4 in right-click "Convert To".
2. Reinstalled dmc - release 9a, Power Pack - release 3, Reg - yes
3. Double-clicking mp4 autoplays in Wimp.
4. dmc configuration - installed codecs (write), mp4 is NOT ticked.

To enable Write then, the mp4.dll codec just needs to be in the root directory of the sub-directory Compression, correct? That is where it resides now. (size=517kb)


I do appreciate your assistance,
Johnny Law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Razgo
10-10-2003, 08:49 PM
ok this is what's in my dbpoweramp directory:

c:\dbpoweramp\compression\Mp4 (CLI)\

inside thatMp4 (CLI)\ directory is: aacenc.exe, encode.bat, fastenc.exe, ia32math.dll, license.htm, license.txt, mp4creator60.exe, Options.txt, readme.txt.

and yes my mp4 (CLI).dll file is in the "compression" directory.

Razgo
10-10-2003, 09:05 PM
oh number 4 there is no option to put a tick, just click the "OK" button.

but there is a tick for mp4 in dbpoweramp-->configuration-->file association
but even if ticked still go and click on the "OK" button.

the reason i am saying this is this exact same thing happend to me.

in my case the reason was because i uninstalled dmc and dap and reinstalled. "BUT" i did not uninstall the codecs. so what happens is all the codecs will still show in the configuration files as being there and even associated with dap/dmc. but not all will work.

which is why i had to do the ritual of either re associating the codec/s or re installing the codec/s and re associating them.

Johnny Law
10-10-2003, 09:37 PM
ok this is what's in my dbpoweramp directory:

c:\dbpoweramp\compression\Mp4 (CLI)\

inside thatMp4 (CLI)\ directory is: aacenc.exe, encode.bat, fastenc.exe, ia32math.dll, license.htm, license.txt, mp4creator60.exe, Options.txt, readme.txt.

and yes my mp4 (CLI).dll file is in the "compression" directory.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Razdude,
That WAS weird. I went ahead and reinstalled the original mp4 setup files. It then created the mp4 (cli) directory. I know it wasn't there because I did a search for ia32math.dll and it came up with that directory. But it wasn't visible on the left pane, but was on the right pane. Which means it just installed. Now, I KNOW for a fact I installed those to begin with yesterday.

Ok, right-clicked on mp4 and converted to mp3. Works like a champ.


Nicely done and thank you again Razgo,
Johnny Law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Razgo
10-10-2003, 10:03 PM
phew , i get to keep my nuts :D

yep sometimes just plain old weird unexplained things happen. which is why for me i just go back through the basics first.

well i'm glad it's all working now :thumbup:

Spoon
10-12-2003, 06:16 PM
Thing about Winamp is it associates all the files together, so if you have a mp3 file and a .xyz file associated with Winamp, then dMC will put a convert to on the mp3, which will also be the same for the .xyz, even though dMC cannot handle .xyz.

Unregistered
10-13-2003, 01:35 AM
well u can get a MP4 for winamp plugin so it can play MP4's like MP3's and i love it, go to audiogcoding.com for the plugini think it is, or Hydrogenaudio.org for the plugin????

but ive got it, and it is FANTASTIC, and now i use MP3's not mp3s anymore!!!!!

Razgo
10-13-2003, 01:48 AM
dbpoweramp plays mp4's no problem. why get a winamp pluggin?

Unregistered
10-13-2003, 06:37 AM
Also problems with the beta. Iīve to turn volume to max to hear anyrhing :-(
Is there any solution for getting the mp4s louder ?

Sytem: Win 2 K Pro

Razgo
10-13-2003, 07:27 AM
does this happen with any other format? and does it happen with all your mp4's?

also have you checked your multimedia properties for your system?

i know i need wav/direct sound volume turned up as well for sound in general.

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/forumpics/volume.png

Unregistered
10-14-2003, 09:52 AM
[Razgo]does this happen with any other format? and does it happen with all your mp4's?


It only happens with mp4īs!
No problems with any other files (eg.g. mp3, wav, ogg, ...).
And it doesnīt happen with nero mp4 encoding ! I donīt know why?
Do you have any idea?
Mixer settings are ok.

Spoon
10-14-2003, 06:30 PM
Make sure there are no 'Power Pack DSP effects' that are running.

puntloos
10-15-2003, 10:37 AM
Interesting.

I have here an mp3 that refuses to be converted to mp4! What happens is that the file seems to convert properly, but if I play the mp4, the ipod goes 'ZZZT (very loud noise for half a second) and then resumes playing the track.

Winamp on the other hand (with audiocoding's mp4 plugin 2.0) says "Negative Scalefactor found, should be impossible" and stops playing.

The source mp3 seems fine, though I have no tools to check if this mp3 is 'perfect', all I know is it plays and no skips/stutters or anything at the offending location.

Should I mail this mp3 somewhere for analysis, or can someone point me to an mp3 analyser program that can tell me if its just the mp3 that's bad?

Im using the 'slow' encoder, latest beta..

Spoon
10-15-2003, 07:01 PM
Email here please:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/email.htm

Unregistered
10-16-2003, 04:36 PM
Doesnt look like the tags when generated from wma to mp4 work with itunes 4.1 for windows.
Obviously this'd be nice to have

Unregistered
10-16-2003, 04:38 PM
Oh and anyway to convert to m4a rather than mp4?
Thanks again

Unregistered
10-16-2003, 06:27 PM
mp3 to mp4 doesnt produce tags understood by itunes 4.1 either :( Did work out how to produce m4a files though, so dont worry about that. (It's in the options file where the codec is installed for those who are interested). .mp4 change to .m4a
Dunno why I wanna do that, I guess so that itunes and the rest of my files match up.
Anyway, here's hoping for tagging support for itunes soon :)

Unregistered
10-18-2003, 04:27 AM
I have a Itunes file does this convert it to MP3? I know they are protected but so what.

Unregistered
10-18-2003, 04:37 AM
Crashes on me. WinXP SP1.
I installed just the first file first, crash. So installed the 2nd file, same thing, crash. Again this is trying to convert a .m4p files downloaded from Itunes.

Spoon
10-18-2003, 01:37 PM
m4p cannot be converted, only Apples programs have access to those.

bnlitin
10-20-2003, 02:03 PM
I've been trying to convert my .flac files to .mp4 files for use with iPod.
The mp4Beta5 release seems to work occasionally on converting one file to mp4 format (which I rename to m4a to get iTunes 4.1 for Windows) to recognize the tags.

When trying to convert multiple files at the same time (more than 10 files), all the files generated come out as 1KB long. Once this behavior starts happening, even single file conversion becomes problematic until I reboot the PC.

I have instaleld both the mp4-aacenc and mp4 Beta 5 codecs (as well as flac). I am running on Windows 2000 PC, Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM.

If you know of a work-around or have a bug fix, please let us know.

Boris

puntloos
10-20-2003, 02:14 PM
Better late than never - email sent with pointers to the (broken?) mp3 and the resulting mp4.

The 'bug' in the mp4 is at 1:53 or thereabouts, the ipod sometimes plays static for half a second, and one time it played it just fine (but it -might- be that I had it on there in mp3 format as well).

Itunes plays it OK too, a little stutter.

Spoon
10-20-2003, 06:18 PM
@Boris

Make sure you only have one conversion running at once.

Puntloos, I will look at the files ASAP.

Unregistered
10-21-2003, 10:42 AM
Make sure there are no 'Power Pack DSP effects' that are running.

Hi Spoon,
this is really funny. DSP effects were disabled. This time Iīve enabled !!! DSP effects (Iīve registered Power Pack), but only Normalize function and now it works everything fine ... but I donīt know why :-)

However thanks for the DSP tip.

Greetings from Germany

KirinPC
10-22-2003, 08:14 PM
Hello,

I really like dbpoweramp and I used it all the time but I'd like to report a problem with this beta of the mp4 codec.

This seems a little minor but I cannot include any Album Art, using iTunes, into the mp4 music files that are created using dbPowerAmp beta 10 rc 1.1 with the mp4 beta 5 codec. I tried the original version as well as the alternative version. I can add Album Art into the m4a files created by iTunes but not from m4a (renamed from mp4) files created by dbPowerAmp so I'm thinking it has something to do with the beta codec in dbPowerAmp.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Spoon
10-23-2003, 05:30 PM
iTunes have just been released, it will take a short while until the two are fully compatible.

BradP
10-26-2003, 01:04 PM
[/QUOTE]Download:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/beta/dBpowerAMP-codec-mp4b5.exe

1.2MB

after installing the above (it uses fastenc AAC encoder) if you want a slightly higher quality encoder, but slower encoder then install this mp4-aacenc codec over the top:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/beta/dBpowerAMP-codec-mp4-aacenc-alter.exe

327KB[/QUOTE]

So, if the second modified codec is installed over the first one, we have slower/better encoding? Is there any way to switch between the two?

Which type of encoding is used by iTunes? (I am using the Windows version of iTunes in addition to dBPowerAmp)

Thanks!
- Brad

Bernie_bolt_sa
10-26-2003, 02:40 PM
Thank you!!!!! I'm gonna tryit now!!!!! Yay!

Spoon
10-26-2003, 05:48 PM
iTunes has its own Codec, that they created themselves.

You could have them both, if you installed the fast codec, then look in dbpoweramp\compression

and rename mp4 (CLI).dll and the 'mp4 (CLI)' to something like mp4 Fast (CLI), so they both match, then install the fast codec + the slow codec and rename those two to 'mp4 Slow (CLI)'.

Make sure you 'Locate' encoder after to the correct folders.

Sylla2
10-31-2003, 12:46 PM
This post is about the tag-issue:

I've used dbpowerAMP to rip all my CDs to mp3. In this proccess ID tags were created for each track based on Freedb info.

Now, when I convert my mp3 tracks to mp4 using dbpowerAMP the ID tags are NOT preserved!

Am I the only one with this problem? If not I hope you'll look into this.

Thanks for all your work, by the way. I find your software to be superior to anything else I've tried!

Sylla.

Spoon
10-31-2003, 02:44 PM
If you hold the mouse over one of the mp4 files after conversion, does it show any tags?

Sylla2
10-31-2003, 04:40 PM
If you hold the mouse over one of the mp4 files after conversion, does it show any tags?

No Sir, it DID not. But after installing your "DCM File Selector" it now does! Actually, I'm not sure if the "DCM File Selector" has anything to do with this. But after the installation I restarted my machine and I think the restart probably did the trick.

I feel like a fool.. Sorry :-(

Again, thank you for providing this great software!

Unregistered
11-01-2003, 07:19 PM
you said there is an itunes/mp4 decoder? I'm not sure I understood your post though...what codec do i need to install? do i need to get a seperate codec from apple?

Spoon
11-02-2003, 08:10 AM
It will decode itunes files (either mp4 or m4a), but not the protected m4p files.

Ryouga
11-03-2003, 11:14 AM
Alright, I've been using both the fastenc version and the aacenc version with my iPod. Here are my notes.

First, to make the tags work with iTunes and iPod - go into Options.txt in the codec install directory and change .mp4 to .m4a - it seems to change the way the tags are written to the file.

Now, I started with using aacenc and modified the options a bit. I like -vbrhi -qvbr 100 -ultra - it gives a Lame-like -q 0 effect where it will allocate however many bits to any given frame as required. Usually they come out around 150-170kbps average. But, I noticed something unusual - I ripped a few rock CDs and they had a higher bitrate than the others I had previously ripped with these settings (170k average as opposed to 160k) and even though iTunes would play these files perfectly well, iPod would have problems and either skip the song about 10-20sec into it, or crash the iPod entirely and it would have to reboot.

I did a bit of testing and eliminated all the variables but the encoder; fastenc works fine (but no -qvbr 100!) and then I found the problem.

It seems either a problem with aacenc's encoding or iPod's decoding, but on frames that go higher than a certain bitrate, using aacenc, iPod will either skip the file at that point or crash. I'm assuming the skip is because it thinks it can't decode fast enough? Or maybe it just thinks "invalid data" and jumps. Either way if you manage to fastforward past the offending frames it will continue to play the file as if nothing had happened until the next "shitframe".

I discovered this by encoding a file with -vbrhi -ultra; the file comes out around 300k; and within two seconds of running it will skip to the next one or crash and burn. My settings of choice, it seems, will work fine on a file that encodes to lower than 160k all around, but screw up when it gets larger than that.

fastenc is acceptable to me right now, however, at -vbrhi -normal. But this is something I've noticed: fastenc encodes to MPEG-2 standards (as shown when you invoke with no arguments) and aacenc encodes to MPEG-4. Unless this is just a programming oversight, it would also explain the higher-quality claims and such.

In any case, -qvbr would be a nice option in fastenc, or fixing aacenc... :) Thanks for reading up till here...

Spoon
11-04-2003, 05:42 PM
I think it is most likely a bug in Ipod, are you able to find any players on the PC that have this bug?

Ryouga
11-05-2003, 06:20 PM
I think it is most likely a bug in Ipod, are you able to find any players on the PC that have this bug?

My thought is that the iPod is much more strict about what it can accept (which is the case with all hardware players) so when it reaches a badly encoded frame, it has much less error-handling than a PC player. But, as I said, iTunes and dB play it fine...

I'm going to run the new 2.1 firmware and see if that changes anything. Didn't know there was an update. :P

Ryouga
11-06-2003, 05:39 AM
Nope, new firmware didn't fix it. (But it started to play...)

I've also noticed something about the tagging support in dMC: If you're encoding a CD to m4a, it tags correctly (iTunes is case-sensitive for the tag names, so they have to be all-caps) but if you encode to ape and then later transcode to m4a, it copies the tags as an APE tag. Loading it into dBA will recognize the tags okay, and if you rewrite the tags to file from dBA it works in iTunes - EXCEPT the genre tag. (foobar2000 will rewrite all but the track tag.)

But then, if you go into iTunes and try to fix the genre tag, it results in a file unplayable by anything! If you look at the tags (like in the tooltip) after dBA rewrites it, the GENRE tag is identical to a genre tag from something else; I don't understand why it's not working. I learned the rewrite tag trick when I was earlier trying to rename .mp4 to .m4a and it wasn't working well.

In any case, maybe there should be some code in the options.txt file that determines tag format? For full compatibility you should force all-caps tag names for things such as m4a...

Spoon
11-06-2003, 05:36 PM
It is a case of Apple coming onto the scene without looking at what is out there. I believe Apple are looking at updating iTunes, I talk to the other mp4 developers to see if this can be accomodated. Thanks for your investigating.

Anyhow now released from Beta.

Ryouga
11-08-2003, 07:04 AM
All right then, thanks for your help too :)

Spoon
11-08-2003, 08:55 PM
Looked into it a little, I cannot see how capital letters, or non-capital letters should affect it (when it goes into mp4 the ARTIST is changed into something like @ART), I think iTunes is struggling with the order of these tags - ie dAP will rewrite them as ARTIST TRACK etc in that order, converting from Monkeys can put them in any order - I think it is one for Apple to fix.

Nothingface5384
11-08-2003, 10:21 PM
ok..question..besides testing the tag conversions why would u want to convert a lossy codec to another lossy codec lol

i didnt know itunes used their own codec....thought they just used .wma (lossy) with DRM...

Spoon
11-09-2003, 07:52 AM
You would not really unless you were forced to.

Ryouga
11-22-2003, 07:19 AM
You would not really unless you were forced to.
Of course, I wasn't talking about converting lossy->lossy; Monkeys is lossless, so it's not a big deal.

As an aside, when I *was* converting lossy to lossy (.ogg to .m4a, couldn't help it as I *ahem* lost the original CDs) the tag information was preserved, and iTunes could read it perfectly.

You may be right about the order - but then why does giving the m4a a GENRE tag after it's been lost, result in a completely unplayable file?

Spoon
11-23-2003, 09:47 AM
This is known problem, as it is iTunes that is rendering the file unplayable - they will have to fix it.