AAC Files? ( MP3/WMA )

[smiff 0]

I've just read loads of CD/MP3 player reviews, and agree the Pioneer (Model: PIO-DEHP77MP) has plenty of features, looks understated and is reasonably priced. Does anybody know if MP3 players can play AAC files? The Pioneer is compatitble with both WMA/MP3, but Im not sure about AAC?

 

What do you think?

 

You can read a quick overview on AAC files here..........

http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview.html

[chrishill 0]

I wouldnt have thought so, but I would think it'd be fairly easy to convert from AAC to standard mp3, though obviously you'll loose some quality.

 

just got a pioneer mp3 player myself, go for it mate, you wont regret it even if it wont play your AAC's!

[Jim 2]

Hm.. well AAC is the Apple format.

 

Not a lot is licensed to use it to be honest.. have you got AAC files you'd like to be able to play?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

No the Pioneers don't playback AAC. As Jim says, that's Apple's proprietary compression (better than both MP3 and WMA btw). I just wish these companies would stop p#ssing about and come up with a platform independant standard we can all use.

 

I find WMA sounds better than MP3 on the Pioneer, but again, that's windoze proprietary so will have compatibilty issues with other non-WMA supporting devices. Thankfully Pioneer offer support for both!

 

Kev

[Musicman 0]

Ummm... just to set the record straight.

 

some people think that AAC stands for Apple Audio Codec. Wrong! :)

 

AAC = Advanced Audio Codec

 

Originally developed by Dolby Laboratories, it's part of the MPEG4 standard, not a proprietary Apple format.

 

http://www.dolby.com/DolbyAAC/FAQ/

http://www.vialicensing.com/products/mp ... ndard.html

 

AAC is supposed to encode smaller/better sounding files than MP3. In my experience that's true. This is largely down to it using a better psycoacoustic model (allowing it to cut out more data that's not going to be heard) than the designers of MP3 employed.

 

As it happens, it's used by Apple for delivery of downloadable music from the iTunes Music Store and it's playable on their iPod. One of the reasons they use it is because, like WMA, but unlike MP3, it does incorporate some Digital Rights Management (i.e. copy protection) capability. Like all of the above, it's subject to licensing costs by manucacturers who want to use it in their devices.

 

If you're burning discs for use from iTunes, you can still burn MP3 discs for use in any device that supports them, such as a car player, regardless of which format you ripped them from CD. The only restriction that you might encounter is that if you downloaded songs from the iTunes Music Store (which is only available in the US at the moment) you won't be able to burn them to an MP3 disc.

 

If you're after a truly Open format, then you need a player that supports Ogg Vorbis.

[chrishill 0]

IIRC, isnt mpeg4 a broadcast format? if thats the case it seems unlikely there will be support for it in home user products for a while!

[Musicman 0]

I wouldn't say it's (limited to) a broadcast format. It covers a much wider range of applications than purely broadcast.

 

Without getting too technical, MPEG-4 is an ISO standard for the storage and distribution of audio and visual data, that covers broadcast (e.g. digital TV), interactive network (video streaming and conferencing over the internet to you and me) and mass storage (e.g. playback from CD, DVD and hard drives). There's some other stuff, like speech-synthesis, wrapped up in the standard(s) that would allow some innovative uses of multimedia in the real world.

 

If you're comparing it with Digital Beta or DAT as 'broadcast formats' versus VHS for 'home use', then it's a bit of a false analogy. MPEG-4 covers all the bases.

 

If the iPod isn't a home user product, I don't know what is. :) Panasonic, Philips and other manufacturers have also released a number of handheld devices that play AAC alongside mp3/WMA.

 

BTW, it seems that Panasonic do make an in car unit that supports AAC playback (but only via an SD card).

 

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/car-sd-md-tu ... /index.htm

[Campaign 0]

One format NOT supported by Pioneer or any other player I can actually find is either WMA Lossless format or Monkey Audio (APE). These would suit me down to the ground, as I record a lot onto my discs straight from the CD at these lossless formats (in other words unlike most compression formats, they don't LOSE the data, they just compress it). So What You Put In is EXACTLY What You Get Out. Much nicer sounding.

 

Anybody know of any that do?

[Musicman 0]

Close, but no cigar reply... :)

 

Phatnoise make a hard disk cartridge based car player that supports FLAC (Free Lossless Audo Codec) which is a BSD/GPL Open Source project.

 

http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digit ... /index.php

 

Kenwood licensed their technology for their Music Keg, which also supports it.

 

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/produ ... uctId=2373

 

While, the encoder is reputedly faster and better than FLAC, I suspect you're not going to see Monkey Audio support in a car player by a major manufacturer real soon now - the project is maintained and written by a single author and the license terms are somewhat restrictive in comparison. FLAC's BSD license is going to be much more attractive to hardware developers.

 

That said, while I understand that archiving to a lossless format makes sense for audiophile use at home, where background noise can be much more easily controlled, how much difference are you really going to notice between an original or lossless compressed track and a high bitrate MP3, for example, while driving around in your car?

[smiff 0]

Thank you everyone for your input! (Musicman you really do need to get out more!- thanks for your help)

I've just ordered the Pioneer unit (£229 from caraudiodirect)

Any AAC files I now download will be converted to the Mp3 format in iTunes4 when I burn my discs. iTunes has a burn Mp3 disc option (as do most disc burning software).

I've also found some software to retrieve/burn tracks from your ipod!!!!..."Alan and Rick, lock up your pods!"

 

Thanks

[Campaign 0]

Thanks for the input MusicMan (not the same Musicman on No-Rice are yous?) Anyroad I reallllly need a unit that will play FLAC, APE or Lossless WMA files from DVDs. I think I might end up building a PC unit to stick in the boot with a small screen in the dash.

[Musicman 0]

Yes, that's me from No Rice - no Corrado, but I like to lurk here :)

[Campaign 0]

Yes, that's me from No Rice - no Corrado, but I like to lurk here :)

 

Just keep them Rocco's Pumpin :-P