MP4 Encoding Codec

[Corgi]

I've been converting some of my FLAC files to MP4s (.m4a) files. This codec seems to be a bit unstable. It crashes quite a bit and usually I can get it to start going again by closing all db windows, but once I had to reboot to get it to come back. Are there plans to upgrade this codec? Is the new AAC codec what I really want to use? (I want to listen to these with an iPod.)

Also, if you hover over the file it says: "Tool: FAAC 1.24.1 (Feb 1 2005) UNSTABLE" which seems to be a problem to me.

[LtData]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

The tooltip indicates what the file was encoded with. Also, which m4a encoder did you install? The FAAC codec or one of the others?

[gameplaya15143]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

faac sucks for quality.. I've never had problems with it crashing on me though.. faac is pretty much an abandoned encoder, hasn't been an update in years.
LAME mp3 is much better than anything faac can encode.

I would recomend you get the new commandline aac encoder from nero (its free :D ) and rig it up to work with dbpoweramp (I've already done this, so I know it works very nicely with dmc, with piping too)

[LtData]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

Didn't all of the FAAC guys go to work for Nero or something?

[Corgi]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

The tooltip indicates what the file was encoded with. Also, which m4a encoder did you install? The FAAC codec or one of the others?

It's the FAAC from the download page.

[Tomb]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

FAAC is dead full stop especially as Nero have released their mp4 encoder free of charge. You can get this working with the generic CLI codec if you want to use it. However it cannot tag at present unless you use a third party tool such as Atomic Parsley or tag.

And yes all the FAAC developers went to work for Nero as did those on psytel before it.

[yourhumblepuppy]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

I would recomend you get the new commandline aac encoder from nero (its free :D ) and rig it up to work with dbpoweramp (I've already done this, so I know it works very nicely with dmc, with piping too)

Can you get this new free encoder to work on files that have not first been explicitly converted to WAV?

I tried to queue up a bunch of FLAC files, as I always do, in File Selector, and feed them to the new free encoder, using the generic CLI encoder. (I usually use the Nero encoder as I have a licensed copy of Nero 6 installed).

But I get an error message on each input about the file not being legit/recognized. Which makes sense, but I had hoped/assumed that by using the "-" option to take stdin, the dbPowerAmp FLAC decoding in dbPoweramp would produce the necessary intermediate temp file, but I guess that it doesn't?

(I'm not trying to bait, but this works smoothly in foobar2k).

So I'm just curious if you (or anybody) got this new encoder to directly work on FLAC input in dbPoweramp, 'cause I'd loooove to switch to it....

[yourhumblepuppy]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

Can you get this new free encoder to work on files that have not first been explicitly converted to WAV?

Duh. Never mind. I just found the joys of the [InFile] and [OutFile] substitutions in the online instructions. I got it goin' on (as the kids like to say....)

[Corgi]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

FAAC is dead full stop especially as Nero have released their mp4 encoder free of charge. You can get this working with the generic CLI codec if you want to use it. However it cannot tag at present unless you use a third party tool such as Atomic Parsley or tag.

And yes all the FAAC developers went to work for Nero as did those on psytel before it.

Can you give us some instruction on how to do this?

Also, if you use a third party tagging tool, does that mean you have to put the tags in after the conversion?

[yourhumblepuppy]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

Can you give us some instruction on how to do this?

It requires downloading and installing the generic CLI (command-line interface) encoder from dbPoweramp (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-cent...neric-cli.htm), and downloading and installing the new free Nero encoder from http://www.nero.com/nerodigital/eng/...tal_Audio.html

There are two .EXEs in the Nero download and they do NOT work on Win9x/WinME systems. Win2000/Xp required. If your CPU can execute SSE2 instructions, (i.e., it is not an AMD Athlon XP system), pick that encoder instead of the generic one, which can be run on basically any CPU.

1st, unpack the Nero download, read the readme file, and place the appropriate single .EXE someplace on your HD. Note the full directory and file name because you will need to specify it to run the dbPoweramp CLI.

Then, configure and use the dbpoweramp CLI. You need to specify two things:
1) location of the EXE file which does the encoding, and
2) the "command line" - the actualy list of arguments and text configuration flags which get used on the EXE.

This was my first experience with the dbPoweramp CLI codec, and it was surprisingly easy. The only real "gotcha" I encountered was that in dBPoweramp, when specifying the "command line", you should remember to preface the entire thing with at least one blank space. If you don't, this Nero encoder will fail with very very unhelpful short messages. I kinda had to figure out that "extra space" thing for myself.

Here's my string:

-lc -cbr 188000 -ignorelength -if [InFile] -of [OutFile]

(don't forget the leading space!)

Some comments:

* The "-ignorelength" flag is probably unnecessary in dbpoweramp. It is included by Nero developers largely for use when you are taking WAV input from stdin, such as is done by foobar2000. I just left it in, and it seems to do no harm.

* "-lc" flag forces election of the "Low complexity" AAC profile, suitable for higher bitrates. There is also a "he" (or high efficiency) profile used for very small bitrates.

* "-cbr 188000" forces the resulting encoding to come in at about 192 kbps, and it uses a constant bit rate (cbr), not a variable bitrate (vbr). This is not a popular option these days (high constant bit rates), but for a while there, iPods were having trouble with VBR files encoded by Nero. I understand that current Nero encoders no longer produce this problem, but it's just the way I roll.


As for tagging, I personally don't bother, but I understand that the fully registered dBPoweramp power pack offers the ability to tag based on filename. I personally accomplish that in a roundabout way by using Winamp to populate my iPod. Winamp allows one to "fake tag" files added to its Media library purely based on the files being organized in an Artist\Album\Track hierarchy first (you'll need to poke around with Winamp to figure that bit out).

When the tracks are offloaded to my iPod via the Winamp media library, these "fake tags" persist. If I just take some care upfront to organize my live show downloads (usually FLAC) as

Artist\"Album"\01 Title.mp4
Artist\"Album"\02 Title.mp4

etc. I have no trouble at all.

HTH.

[Deano]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

It seems pointless to use the Nero encoder for Constant Bit Rates when it is optimised and at its best (like most encoders) at Variable Bit Rates. Nero recommend preset -q 0.5 for an average bitrate around 170kbps.

[Spoon]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

We will be swapping to the Nero offering (will hope to get a codec out in the next few days, watch the beta area).

Tagging is done from the source file, you just need the mp4 codec from codec central.

[Tomb]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

It seems pointless to use the Nero encoder for Constant Bit Rates when it is optimised and at its best (like most encoders) at Variable Bit Rates. Nero recommend preset -q 0.5 for an average bitrate around 170kbps.

Totally agree. I have been using -q 0.5 -if [InFile] -of [OutFile]

[Tomb]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

Can you give us some instruction on how to do this?

Also, if you use a third party tagging tool, does that mean you have to put the tags in after the conversion?

Well this is strange. Works perfectly with tags using Audiograbber but no success when using the generic CLI codec with dbpoweramp. Seems pointless to worry about this now given Spoon's comments above.

[Corgi]

Re: MP4 Encoding Codec

We will be swapping to the Nero offering (will hope to get a codec out in the next few days, watch the beta area).

Tagging is done from the source file, you just need the mp4 codec from codec central.

Awesome. Thanks spoon.