Problem with AAC from original CDs

[fraggleoc]

Hi - I need help. I have just registered by paying 14 euro and thought this would sort out my problem. I am trying to convert my music cd collection into aac files using this program for use on a Nokia 6230. I have installed the codec for aac and I have actually uninstalled and reinstalled the whole lot just to make sure. But everytime I try and run the conversion (for any cd or for single songs) I get the following message:

Codec Error '
******* PsyTEL(R) FAST MPEG-2 AAC LC Encoder V2.0 (build Mar 4 2002) *******
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 PsyTEL Research
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Ivan Dimkovic

This program is protected by copyright law and internationa

As I said I have registered the product. What is the problem???

[LtData]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

What are your source files, the actual CD or files?

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

I am using the Audio CD Input - it reads the CD from the drive and then finds the names for the 14 songs. If I just select one song I get that error message once and if I select them all I get the message 14 times. SOrry I'm kinda new to this!

[LtData]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

What encoder settings did you pick? Does it do it on just one CD or many CDs?

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

I tried converting an MP3 to an aac as well and got the following message

[COLOR=Red]Unable to run encoder 'C:\Program Files\Illustrate\dBpowerAMP\Compression\Advanced Audio Coding (CLI)\faac.exe'[/COLOR]

I went back and did it again but this time clicked [COLOR=Red]"Locate Encoder".[/COLOR] The only file in the Advanced Audio Coding (CLI) folder was [COLOR=Red]fastenc.exe.[/COLOR]

I then downloaded a different AAC Codec from Codec Central. I installed it and then tried once more to convert the MP3 into AAC. I hit Locate Encoder again and this time the [COLOR=Red]faac.exe[/COLOR] file was in the right folder and the conversion process started.

However once again it crashed around 10% but this time gave this new message:
[COLOR=Red]
Errors while converting:

Codec Error 'Freeware Advanced Audio Coder
FAAC 1.24.1 (Feb 1 2005) UNSTABLE

Average bitrate: 64 kbps
Quantization quality: 100
Bandwidth: 5604 Hz
Object type: Low Complexity(MPEG-2) + M/S
Container format: Transport Stream (ADTS)
Encoding - to E:\~[/COLOR]

Please please help me - this is completely doing my head in. Is there a better way to convert my CD collection into AAC format?????

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

I have downloaded the software on to a different PC to test it and I got the same error message (see below) as I originally got. On this new PC I then tried to convert an MP3 to a WAV and this was successful. So it seems to only be a problem when converting files into AAC.
Here is the error message again:

Codec Error '
******* PsyTEL(R) FAST MPEG-2 AAC LC Encoder V2.0 (build Mar 4 2002) *******
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 PsyTEL Research
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Ivan Dimkovic

[xoas]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

Have you tried downloading and installing the M4A/MP4 codec (the first listed on the download page at Codec Central) and the AAC to MP4/MP4 to AAC codec?
With that you could try converting your file to m4a/mp4 format and then using the MP4 to AAC codec to convert the file from mp4(m4a) to aac.

Another thing you can try is to see whether you can convert from your wav file to AAC.

Did you get this AAC codec from Codec Central? If not, where did it come from? (I ask because I was unaware that the current AAC codec is from Psytel and because I have not seen, nor seen reports of, error messages such as you describe).

Best wishes,
Bill

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

Ok I tried that - converting to MP4 and then to AAC and there has been some progress. It works and there are no error messages at any stage but it seems to truncate about half of the songs. For example a song that is 4 minutes long ends up being no more than 30 seconds. This seems to happen at the second stage when it is converting from MP4 to AAC - converting into MP4 is no problem. Any idea why it might be truncating the songs?
thanks a lot for your help

[xoas]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

Are you using any DSP effects, such as volume normalization?
Have you tried setting the conversion priority? (This is set in the window that displays the progress for an individual conversion) to Below Normal (this should not slow down your conversion but it avoids placing too much stress on your system due to conflicting demands of other programs).
Do the same tracks repeatedly get truncated? Do they always get truncated in the same spot? Or do some truncate sometimes and not at other times?

Best wishes,
Bill

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

I am not using any DSP effects that I am aware of.
I just redid the same batch of nine songs and again 5 of them appear to be badly truncated - reduced from say 4000 bytes to 200 bytes - with only a part of the track playing obviously. There seems to be no pattern - different songs were truncated to different sizes. I have tried converting one song at a time and again this is hit or miss - sometimes it works and sometimes it truncates the file.
I tried to set the conversion priorioty to Below Normal and it made no difference - the conversion is so fast that it is hard to actually change the setting before it finishes the process.

[Spoon]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

>E:\~

Is drive E your CD drive?

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

No it's not Drive E. On this machine it is Drive F. On the other machine I tried it on I am not sure because it is in work so I will have to check tomorrow.

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

In case it's beneficial I will talk you through exactly what happens when I try to convert one single track from a standard audio CD into an MP4 and then into an AAC (as recommended above)

The track has the extension .cda is 2 minutes 24 sec long and is 24864KB (the CD drive is drive F

Using DBPowerAmp Music Converter I rip it to M4A (FAAC CLI). I got this codec from COdec Central. It creates a new .M4A file that is also 2 minutes 24 sec long and is 2258KB.

I right click on this new file and click "convert to". I select "MP4 to AAC" (again this codec was downloaded from Codec Central). This creates two new files. The first has the extension .aac but is only 1 minute and 4 sec long and is 1019KB. The second has the extension [COLOR=Red].m4a.T1 [/COLOR] and is 2.2MB.

The .aac file plays perfectly using the Nokia Audio Manager software on my PC but it cuts after 1 minute and 6 seconds.

I hope this is helpful and I hope you are not as confused as I am! Thanks again for your help - I really like the look of this software and it looks perfect for what I want to do, that is fill my 2GB memory card on my Nokia 6230 full of aac files ripped from my CD collection. I just hope I can overcome this problem before I get fired for devoting valuable company time and resources to it!!!!!

[xoas]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

What Quality level settings are you using for mp4 and aac? (I've been assuming 100, but I really don't know).
Have you tried converting the mp4 file to AAC using the AAC codec (rather than the MP4 to AAC codec)? I don't really expect this to work any better but it might be worth trying.

An interesting trivial experiment would be to see if you can play the second m4a file (you might need to remove the .T1 after the .m4a). It rather looks like the second half of the track you were trying to convert to AAC. (This is unlikely to actually help solve your problem, which is why I say it's trivial-but I do find it interesting).

Is it correct to assume that E: (in your error message) is one of your hard drives?
Can you tell us what Windows version are you using, and a bit about your computer system (processor type, processor speed and ram)?

[fraggleoc]

Re: Problem with AAC from original CDs

First off I tried using the AAC codec (rather than the MP4 to AAC codec) but this just brings me back to the original problem and this error message:
[COLOR=Red]Codec Error '
******* PsyTEL(R) FAST MPEG-2 AAC LC Encoder V2.0 (build Mar 4 2002) *******
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 PsyTEL Research
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Ivan Dimkovic

This program is protected by copyright law and internationa
[/COLOR]
By the way, that is the entire error message - just like some of my aac files it appears to be truncated!

As for quality level settings: when using the m4a (FAAC CLI) codec I set the quality to 100 (VBR) when then converting with the Mp4 to AAC codec I cannot see anyway of changing quality level settings or even what the quality level is.

I have been trying to do this on two different machines - one in work and one at home. The one at home is an old IBM Thinkpad 770E with Windows 2000. I am not sure what memory etc is on it (because I am currently in work) but it is not huge. Despite this it rarely gives any problems and runs any program it has ever been asked to.

To be certain it was not a conflict with my old laptop I loaded the software on to my computer in work. It is a relatively new Dell running WIndows XP, Pentium 4 2.8GHZ and 256 RAM.

The main difference between the two is that it is only on the IBM that it seems to create the extra file with the .T1 extension.

The error message that mentions E: I only got once and that was on the old IBM. E: is the hard drive which contains the folder that I was trying to rip the songs to.

I have not received that same error message on the newer Dell. Since I took the advise above and started ripping to m4a first and then aac I have not had any error messages on either machine. The only problem now is the tendency to chop some of the tracks (and it also seems to leave out all tags on the aac tracks by the time they get on to my Nokia 6230 but that is an entirely different issue that I will try and figure out if I get the conversions working properly all of the time)

With regard to the trivial experiment, I tried playing those strange t1 files using both Windows Media Player and my Nokia software and neither would recognise it.

Sorry for the length of this message but I am trying to include everything I can think of!