Codec problem

Bobonov · 2004-06-09 16:42:35

I know this is not exactly the best place but there is no multimedia section in the forum

Anyway, I am trying to play an mkv file with mpeg-4 AAC audio codec and xine claim that there is no such codec.
I tried to look over internet (very quickly I admit) but I did not found any site referring to the AAC codec for Linux in order to make a package eventually.
Suggestion?

mig · 2004-06-09 18:15:12

Have you tried installing the package codecs? I've got that installed, and I can play mkv files through totem fine. I would assume that you could play them through xine as well.

dp · 2004-06-09 18:55:37

... and also try mplayer instad of xine, as xine-lib in arch is a little bit outdated (this has the reason that the newest xine-lib do not compile against gcc 3.4.0 :-( )

Bobonov · 2004-06-10 00:36:16

mkv is the matrioska file format, it is more a container rather than a format.
Pratically it can contain the video, several audio track (like different language for the video) subtitle in different laguage.
What I am missing is the audio codec for AAC.
Yes I have installed the coded package.
Yes I tried also with mplayer and it complain about missing audio codec

robot5x · 2004-06-10 06:58:42

There is an arch package for faad, the aac decoder. More info is available at
www.audiocoding.com
There is info on it in the mplayer docs - mplayer actually provide libfaad with their source package, but I can't tell if it supports aac audio natively as I don't have any such file. If it doesn't then you can compile libfaad yourself then recompile mplayer with the --enable-external-faad option. At any rate, it seems that mplayer is the best choice.
Hope this helps, and I haven't gotten the wrong end of the stick.

hans-jürgen · 2004-08-24 10:00:04

The "problem" with all Linux multimedia players that theoretically can play MP4 or MKV files with AAC audio is that most of them rely on the ffmpeg library. The new ffmpeg pre-beta also includes libfaac from Audiocoding.com now, so compiling other applications with ffmpeg and AAC encoding/decoding support should have become a bit easier.

I'm not sure what Xine supports until now, but recently I read something about kaffeine (a frontend for Xine) being able to play AAC/MP4 audio. So if your version doesn't decode AAC in MKV files, you should probably contact the Xine developers. Mplayer and VLC should be able to do this in the meantime, too, e.g. the latest Mac OS X binary of VLC provided on their website even includes FAAC (the encoder) now, so you don't have to compile it yourself with appropriate switches.

Here are some updated Wiki links concerning FAAC and available Linux players, because the homepage Audiocoding.com has been redesigned, so older links will no longer work:

http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/?page=FAAC
http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki … inux%2FBSD
http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki … -4+Players

Because of this website update the link given in the Arch info pages is also outdated:

http://www.archlinux.org/packages.php?id=1906 for FAAC and
http://www.archlinux.org/packages.php?id=1907 for FAAD2, the decoder

The current version of FAAD2 is v2.1 beta and FAAC is v1.24+ now, and weekly CVS snapshots are also provided in the download section of Audiocoding.com:

http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/mydownloads/

longhornxtreme · 2004-09-30 02:51:39

The stock Arch mplayer package will play your mpeg4 files... if only xmms would do this too....

hans-jürgen · 2004-09-30 10:04:17

longhornxtreme wrote:

The stock Arch mplayer package will play your mpeg4 files... if only xmms would do this too....

Some hints are given in these threads on LinuxQuestions.org and Audiocoding.com:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … id=1206092

http://faac.sourceforge.net/oldsite/pho … 922&t=4922

It seems that the common error is the location of libfaad.so that gets compiled in /usr/local/lib with the default FAAD2 package while the applications search it in /usr/lib. Copying all files to that directory is one solution to this problem and should work with XMMS, Mplayer and Xine, too.

At the moment the usual Audiocoding.com URL doesn't work, so you can't download the latest snapshots of FAAC or FAAD2 with the new XMMS plugin from the homepage. The SourceForge CVS and file server links do work though, and the new project summary on Freshmeat.net is also available:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/faac/

http://freshmeat.net/projects/faac/

dp · 2004-09-30 11:55:37

xine-lib is compiled without faad2 support (because xine-lib is in CURRENT and faad2 is in EXTRA and you then have a cross-dependency)

related bug: http://bugs.archlinux.org/index.php?do=details&id=1400

mplayer is also not linked to faad2, but mplayer has an internal faad-encoder, so it can play m4a without problems

i was also successfull to play m4a with gstreamer-backend of amarok (but as amarok is destabilizing at the moment and has some bugs, you will see that playing m4a in amarok is yet a little bit buggy)

for now, the best option is to use mplayer or recompile xine to support it

hans-jürgen · 2004-09-30 13:54:01

dp wrote:

for now, the best option is to use mplayer or recompile xine to support it

OK, if that's the best solution for the ArchLinux distribution, then you're probably right. Concerning the gstreamer plugin based on FAAD2 I think it's also used in the current Rhythmbox version and works stable there, but don't count on that info...

And for the poster having issues with XMMS: the Audiocoding.com site is up again, so you could compile the new MP4 plugin playing *.aac, *.m4a and *.mp4 files from the latest FAAD2 snapshot.

dp · 2004-09-30 14:03:30

hans-jürgen wrote:

dp wrote:
for now, the best option is to use mplayer or recompile xine to support it
OK, if that's the best solution for the ArchLinux distribution, then you're probably right. Concerning the gstreamer plugin based on FAAD2 I think it's also used in the current Rhythmbox version and works stable there, but don't count on that info...

it's the best solution at least for _me_ - i don't know for others

rhythmbox is not working for me to import all music that is available to me: if i mount (NFS) the resource of one of my colleagues cd-collection, i can access 13GB of m4a audio, but if you then try to import this folder in rhythmbox, it will first use all my RAM, then all my swapspace and then halting the machine because of not being able to use it any more (however, it's a good mem+kernel test ;-) ) --- i cannot find a way rhythmbox to enqueue all songs without filling my RAM and crashing my computer (that's one of the reasons against rythmbox)

amarok has a gst-engine backend, but it does not (yet) work good for m4a files and also tagging m4a files is not included

the mp4plugin i didn't manage to compile, but will have a look at the site you provided --- i made a pkg some time ago, but never was able to compile it under arch (too new things, too obsolete code)

sarah31 · 2004-09-30 14:16:37

why not move mplayer, xine and whatever else to Extra then compile AAC support into all three?

it seem that more people may want or need AAC support and moving those packages to Extra would help in adding features that cannot be supported right now because of the cross-dependency issues. this was one of the reasons KDE and GNOME were moved ... no?

i don't use linux to play my AACs but i recompile mplayer with external faad support since their native support is not as good.

dp · 2004-09-30 14:29:08

sarah31 wrote:

why not move mplayer, xine and whatever else to Extra then compile AAC support into all three?
it seem that more people may want or need AAC support and moving those packages to Extra would help in adding features that cannot be supported right now because of the cross-dependency issues. this was one of the reasons KDE and GNOME were moved ... no?
i don't use linux to play my AACs but i recompile mplayer with external faad support since their native support is not as good.

because, then they are not on the installer-cd ...

... but i like this idea and will forward the suggestion to the responsible people (mplayer and xine-lib maintainers)

sarah31 · 2004-09-30 17:40:56

dp wrote:

because, then they are not on the installer-cd ...
... but i like this idea and will forward the suggestion to the responsible people (mplayer and xine-lib maintainers)

this is true but desktops environments also are beneficial to have on installer cds but arch phased this out. I was think more that as features are added to things like xmms or xine or mplayer they usually first depend upon external libs or apps that will more commonly be in extra.

of course another option is adding faac and faad to current. either is not desirable but is logical.

hans-jürgen · 2004-10-02 09:13:07

dp wrote:

i cannot find a way rhythmbox to enqueue all songs without filling my RAM and crashing my computer (that's one of the reasons against rythmbox)

I read on the Rhythmbox developer mailing list that they changed the handling of *.m4a files recently moving it from the older Xine lib to the newer gstreamer plugin. So maybe you run into these troubles because your Rhythmbox compile somehow tries to use both methods for decoding these files?

And I've not heard of amarok yet, I'll have a look at their site soon.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-06-09 16:42:35

Codec problem

#2 2004-06-09 18:15:12

Re: Codec problem

#3 2004-06-09 18:55:37

Re: Codec problem

#4 2004-06-10 00:36:16

Re: Codec problem

#5 2004-06-10 06:58:42

Re: Codec problem

#6 2004-08-24 10:00:04

Re: Codec problem

#7 2004-09-30 02:51:39

Re: Codec problem

#8 2004-09-30 10:04:17

Re: Codec problem

#9 2004-09-30 11:55:37

Re: Codec problem

#10 2004-09-30 13:54:01

Re: Codec problem

#11 2004-09-30 14:03:30

Re: Codec problem

#12 2004-09-30 14:16:37

Re: Codec problem

#13 2004-09-30 14:29:08

Re: Codec problem

#14 2004-09-30 17:40:56

Re: Codec problem

#15 2004-10-02 09:13:07

Re: Codec problem

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