can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

[jafu]

i'm using dbpowerAMP R2 and music converter r12
i can convert m4a-files
but i cant play the m4a files
in my decode and in my encode folder are m4a-dlls

my OS is windows xp

whats my problem?

[LtData]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Do you have dAP and dMC r12 installed to different directories as stated here: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/legacy-compatibility.htm ?
If not, uninstall dAP and install it to a separate directory. Also, dAP needs codecs from Legacy Code Central, which is linked to from the main Codec Central.

[Muted]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Okay I am going crazy. Apparently I am a idiot because I can not get this to work.

Can someone please explain to me what I need to do, to make a .m4a file play? I do not understand why I need to /convert/ anything if their is a codec for it, I have software installed that can convert a m4a to a mp3, I do not really want to take the time to do that. I just want to play the other half of my music that is in mp4 format.

Please, I am really starting to get a bloody headache.

[Muted]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Okay I am going crazy. Apparently I am a idiot because I can not get this to work.

Can someone please explain to me what I need to do, to make a .m4a file play? I do not understand why I need to /convert/ anything if their is a codec for it, I have software installed that can convert a m4a to a mp3, I do not really want to take the time to do that. I just want to play the other half of my music that is in mp4 format.

Please, I am really starting to get a bloody headache.

Actually, you know what, I will just go back to winamp, love your program, but seriously, your codec support is a nightmare.

[xoas]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Did you try what LtData suggested?
What were your results?

First, you need to be aware that just because you have one program that can read and/or convert to .m4a than that should allow any program to play or convert .m4a files because you have the codec on your system. As a general rule of thumb, this is not true. Any codec tends to be specific both regarding the file format and in regard to the program it is designed to work with. So if you have WinAmp installed with an m4a codec, this will not enable dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) to do anything with m4a files and if you have dMC installed with the codec for .m4a this will not help WinAmp play such files unless it has its own codec.

However, your actual concern may be the expectation that you should only need to use a single .m4a codec for all dBpowerAMP programs. This is perfectly reasonable except that the dBpowerAMP line of programs is not, at this time, a single product line but is actually a double product line. The original product line consists of dBpowerAMP Music Converter r11.5 (and earlier versions), dB Audio Player (both versions r2 and r3 beta), Sveta, and dB CD Writer r2. The second, newer line, consists of dMC r12+ and dB CD Writer r3 (currently in beta). Eventually this line will include newer and re-written versions of Sveta and dB Audio Player as well. Within each family of programs, you only need a single version of a given codec. The .m4a codec in Codec Centrtal will work with any version of dMC r122 or the r13 beta and it will work for CD Writer r3 as long as it has been installed once. The Legacy .m4a codec in Legacy Codec Central will work for dMC r11.5 or earlier, Sveta, CD Writer r2, and/or dB Audio Player as long as it is installed a single time (and the installations of programs and codecs are done correctly according to the instructions that LtData alludes to).

This is, as you point out, a confusing state of affairs but this arose because dMC's developer and programmer (Spoon) saw a need to do a complete re-write of Music Converter (which you can conceptualize as kind of the basic engine underlying the other dBpowerAMP programs). Prior to that point, there was only a single line of products. Eventually, after all programs are updated, there will likely be only a single line of programs. But right now there are 2 sets of programs and they do not communicate with one another.

I hope this helps explain the need for separate codecs for dMC r12+ and for dB Audio Player. I still like to use dB Audio Player but I have no issue with anyone prefering to use a different audio player program.

Best wishes,
Bill

[Shwa]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Hi,

Late starter on this link but this is exactly my problem.

Firstly I've just converted all my music to .WMA so that I can stream my music to my 360. I would now like to convert all my music to m4a in a seperate folder for iTunes. As there is some 49 G of music, this will be much quicker if I batch convert the files. The problem being I can only batch convert files without changing the directory if the music files are also in the BDamp music collection. Hence I need to convert all these files to .wav or some similar file that DB player recognizes.
Sounds as frustrating as it is and incredibly long winded but the reason I can't convert everything to just one file type ie .wav, is because the 360 only recognizes .WMA file types when streaming. iTunes doesn't (funny enough) recognize the .WMA file type.
I'm thinking if I just convert the files into .wav iTunes will work with that, but I'll have to tell WMP not to associate with .wav file types. That's all good but,
"How can I make DBplayer recognize the .WMA file type? DB converter has the codecs but for some reason they haven't transfered to the player.
From the xaos post those codecs should work provided they're from the same family. I believe they are. I'm pretty sure I'm using r12+. Infact I just downloaded r13 so if that changes things I'll let you know but in the mean time can any one help? My OS is XP Pro.

[LtData]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

dAP and dMC require separate codecs, as dAP is still using the old Legacy codecs, not the new codecs dMC uses. See here on how to get dAP and dMC r13 to work together: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/legacy-compatibility.htm

[Shwa]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Ok, so just to make sure I have this right,
I need to re install DB converter in a named directory/folder, separate to the DB Amp? and make sure the Codecs are in the same folder.
Then install the codecs for Power Amp in the same directory as the Power Amp application is saved?

[Wayne]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Yes.

[PCPete]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Oh, this is downright confusing.

I tried to get both the player and converter working, but obviously I struck the same silly issue with m4a codecs.

The reference to the "see what you have to do here" doesn't actually help clarify the issue at all - it simply references the legacy codecs (which according to my understanding of the rest of this thread means that the legacy codecs are designed to work with -and only with- the previous version of the player) but when I try to install the legacy codecs, the install fails with "Can't execute Music Converter.exe".

And the "codec central" page doesn't mention anywhere any codecs for the player, only the converter.

So.

What are the steps we need to take to install BOTH the player AND the converter, AND what codecs must be installed in order to play and manage AAC (M4A) files, AND in what order?

(Hint: I expect :
1) Download and install the latest player (or converter if that has to be installed first)
2) Download the codecs from < insert link here> and install them/it.
3) Download and install the converter (or player if that has to be installed second)
4) Download the other codecs from <insert link here>
)

I know my codecs from my armpit, and I'm an audio engineer, and a computer specialist, and I'm confused by this talk of codecs and install order and install locations and legacies and product lines and r11.5 and r12s!

And talk about legacy codecs (which seems to be what's required for the player to play the files I want) is irrelevant, because the link to the legacy codecs for the player downloads a codec installer that seems to require the converter! How confusing is that?

And talking about product lines and releases is wonderful insider information, but it doesn't help me unless I want to learn all about the inside information. I don't (well, not yet, anyway :o), I just want to be able to install the converter so I can convert my music archive to M4A, and play the converted files using the player. If I can't do that (and this is day two, after a reboot, and I'm still not able to play M4A files in the music player), then I'm going somewhere else.

Which is bad, because this software was highly recommended by people I respect - none of whom were able to clarify how they actually got their players AND converter working on the same system. They can't remember how they got it running, and they're all unwilling to uninstall or upgrade, because of the issues with codecs. One of them suggested installing just the converter, then converting all my files (10k+ PCM files), then uninstalling the converter, then installing the player.

Maybe if I sacrifice a virgin? Would that help? :D

[PCPete]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Hmm. Well, there's a surprise.

After downloading the m4a codecs from the Codec Central, this time I got a "dbPower Amp" logo instead of the converter logo (which is strange, since the central page doesn't mention power amp at all, only music converter), and despite a "Can't execute C:\Program Files (x86)\Illustrate\dbPowerAmp\dbConfig.exe" error, I can now play m4a files in the player. So that's one step in the right direction, but I'm not sure why. The file I downloaded from the link there is the same name and filesize as the AAC exe file linked to from the legacy page, but at least it's a different error.

Now I'm off to install the converter into another directory and see what happens then. I'll try and keep this thread posted.

[PCPete]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

Ok, there's some good news and some bad news.

The good news is, if I install the same AAC codec package (dBpoweramp-Codec-m4a.exe) into the dbPoweramp subdir, it now seems I can play and manage the m4a files.

Installing the same codec into the dbPoweramp13 subdir, I can now convert to m4a.

The bad news is, when I try and convert 10 or 50 files in my source music subfolders (D:\My Music\Artist\Album, etc) to the temp destination (E:\dbMusic\My Music\Artist\Album, with no existing files or folders and with full write access), I get a lot of

"Error converting to Apple Lossless, 'D:\My Music\10CC\Bloody Tourists\10CC_Bloody Tourists_03_Take These Chains.wav' to 'E:\dbMusic\My Music\10CC\Bloody Tourists\10CC_Bloody Tourists_03_Take These Chains.m4a'
   Error overwriting file 'E:\dbMusic\My Music\10CC\Bloody Tourists\10CC_Bloody Tourists_03_Take These Chains.m4a'

type errors (but the files seem to have been created fine!).

And when I try and convert a few hundred files, the converter silently crashes and dies.

I'll try to figure out which files (if any) are causing the problems. All of my files are PCM (WAVE_FORMAT RIFF files), but some are CD (44.1k/16bit) and some are DVDA (192k/24bit). I'll post more details when I next get time to play with the converter.

[PCPete]

Re: can convert m4a but can'T play m4a

The problems seem to have been related to my accidental inclusion of previously converted source files to the same (source) folder.

And the crashes were all due to a previous attempt to use another conversion tool (NCH Swift) a few months ago, which converted 350-odd lossless WMA source files to WAV files - the files triggering the dMC crash were each about 1G. When I inspected the actual file data, the Swift codec had silently added another 0.98G (roughly) of "silence" at the end of each file, but had set the RIFF header for the actual music content length, not the file length, which is why a) I didn't realise there was additional useless data in each of the files, b) why dMC kept crashing, and c) why my RAID5 volume had 390G of 'extra' data that I couldn't find. That'll teach me for having lots of large PCM files in a single folder hierarchy! When I've got 1.3Tb of music, and 0.35Tb is garbage, it's not easy figuring out where my free space is going and why the conversion tool had so many problems.

So now I can convert AND play m4a with dMC and dPA. Woo hoo.