and.. go. iTunes for Windows GET IT NOW http://www.itunes.com (transcript of Announcment. Firmware 2.1 out for 3g)

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Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,048
1,679
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Originally posted by: lnguyen
does anyone happen to know of AAC files encoded in itunes can be played by anything else other than itunes?
Yes, Winamp for instance.

In fact, the included encoder for Winamp 5 is for AAC.
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
Originally posted by: Eug
Originally posted by: lnguyen
does anyone happen to know of AAC files encoded in itunes can be played by anything else other than itunes?
Yes, Winamp for instance.

In fact, the included encoder for Winamp 5 is for AAC.

well, i only ask because i couldn't seem to play an AAC i made in iTunes under winamp 5... it supports playback natively right? the dll is listed as "+aac" so i kinda just assumed it would.... or did i just make a stupid assumption?
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,048
1,679
126
Originally posted by: lnguyen
well, i only ask because i couldn't seem to play an AAC i made in iTunes under winamp 5... it supports playback natively right? the dll is listed as "+aac" so i kinda just assumed it would.... or did i just make a stupid assumption?
Hmmm... You're right.

Winamp 5 produces .aac files
iTunes produces .m4a files

Neither understand each other. Furthermore even if you rename the files they don't understand each other.

Well I'm gonna stick with MP3. When does Winamp 5 get out of beta anyway?
 

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
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Originally posted by: lnguyen
Originally posted by: Eug
Originally posted by: lnguyen
does anyone happen to know of AAC files encoded in itunes can be played by anything else other than itunes?
Yes, Winamp for instance.

In fact, the included encoder for Winamp 5 is for AAC.

well, i only ask because i couldn't seem to play an AAC i made in iTunes under winamp 5... it supports playback natively right? the dll is listed as "+aac" so i kinda just assumed it would.... or did i just make a stupid assumption?

I looked this all up, and what's going on is wierd. There are 2 different versions of AAC, MPEG2/AAC, and MPEG4/AAC. AOL/Nullsoft has a licence to MPEG2/AAC, whereas Apple's licence is MPEG4/AAC. Technologically, the two codecs are almost the same(indeed, an MPEG4/AAC reader should be able to read MPEG2/AAC), but there are some minor differences that break things between iTunes and Winamp. First and foremost, unlike MP4, MP2 does not explicitly define a "container" for files(i.e. the mp4/m4a/m4p containers that iTunes stuff is in), so the audio is in a raw file. Because there is no container, and MP2 does not specify anything about information tags(ID3, etc), Nullsoft decided to add ID3 tags to their AAC files, so that tag support could be there. This can break playback in some cases, as programs that do not know about ID3 tags will not know what to do with the data.

Getting that out of the way, this brings us to why Winamp and iTunes aren't compatible. iTunes expects all AAC content in an MP4 container, and since the Winamp stuff isn't in a container, iTunes does not know what to do with it(it's not likely iTunes would be able to deal with the ID3 tags anyhow). Winamp, on the other hand, doesn't know how to make a container or read one, so it can't read iTunes's files(either protected or unprotected). iTunes may also be using MP4/AAC techniques in their audio data(hint tracks and what-not are MP4), so it's possible that Winamp couldn't read the data anyways since it only knows MP2/AAC techniques(this is dependant on if Winamp were to know how to disreguard the extras from MP4, and they weren't crucial to getting the file to play).

The solution to all of this of course lies in the container files. According to several sources. the MP4 container itself is not proprietary, and as such, anyone can use it without a licence. This has been the sticking point at Nullsoft, since AOL legal has believed that they couldn't use the MP4 container because of licencing issues. If Winamp were to use the MP4 container, it would generate files that were readable by iTunes, and they could use the MP4 "standard" for tag storage, ensuring that the data stream is "clean" and everything(both tags and data) are readable by other programs. Winamp, in turn, would be able to understand iTunes' unprotected files, although the ability to play them hinges on if the MP2/AAC decoder is enough to read iTunes' songs. We'll just have to see what Nullsoft's next move is.
 

thraxes

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2000
1,974
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Well I have to give IPod one thing: It made me organize my mp3 collection and fix the ID3 tags... almost every single one of them. Good job I am not a MP3 squirrel with 30GBs of music. Now that the ID3 tags are sorted out, I risked clicking on the "consolidate files" button. No ill effects to report and I am quite satisfied with the results.

Now that I have finished doing that, I am really enjoying it! It made me find music that I didn't even know I had, suprising what a little Ordnung can do. Ripping speeds are OK at 12x from my Yamaha CRW-F1 drive and Athlon 2200+. Did I mention that I was running a Tmpgenc encode at the same time ;) ?
Burning is not a problem either and works without any issues.

I will occasionally use Winamp for listening to things where I am unsure that I want them in the iTunes library but my daily Rip, Listen, Burn needs are more than covered by this one proggie where I used to need three.

Nags: It is not as stable as the mac versions that I have used until now and having OGG support would be nice. Perhaps also some other visualisations would be nice, or?

Aside from those points I like it.

Memory use: At the moment 12MB... all you folks complaining it eats memory, for what do you have 512MB or even 1GB of RAM? I don't mind it eating 12MB... that's small fry compared to Opera that is currently hogging 85MB. It's all just a matter of perspective :D
 

WinkOsmosis

Banned
Sep 18, 2002
13,990
1
0
Originally posted by: aves2k
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Woah woah woah; paid upgrade? Winamp is suppose to be free, who the hell is going to start paying for it?

It will be free.

There will be a regular free version and a Pro version that will allow you to encode MP3s. There are license fees for MP3 Encoders which someone has to pay.


More Info

I wonder how much it will cost. I want to encode mp3s, and that would be an easy way.
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
Originally posted by: thraxes
iTunes library but my daily Rip, Listen, Burn needs are more than covered by this one proggie where I used to need three.

Nags: It is not as stable as the mac versions that I have used until now and having OGG support would be nice. Perhaps also some other visualisations would be nice, or?


There is a plug-in for quicktime which will get iTunes to play Ogg files.



Goes in your quicktime enxtensions folder c:\Windows\system32\quicktime

<a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://
[L=http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/qtcomponents/Win32-oggvorbis.zip?download">here</a>]http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/qtcomponents/Win32-oggvorbis.zip?download[/L][/L]


I have no clue why I'm having such trouble posting this link. it looks fine in the preview, but when i post it, extra tags get thrown in for some reason.
 

Tanner

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2001
7,391
0
0
I keep getting this stinkin' message on muh iTunes :(

some of the songs in the iTunes music library, including the song "name of song", were not copied to the iPod "name of ipod" because they cannot be played on an iPod.

help! :(

nothing from google :(
 

Tanner

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2001
7,391
0
0
ohhhhhh, and that error is only on the songs I've purchased from iTunes...so FWIW... there's that info too :D
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
18
81
Originally posted by: Tanner
I keep getting this stinkin' message on muh iTunes :(

some of the songs in the iTunes music library, including the song "name of song", were not copied to the iPod "name of ipod" because they cannot be played on an iPod.

help! :(

nothing from google :(

Do you have an older iPod? Have you updated to the firmware to enable AAC support?
 

Tanner

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2001
7,391
0
0
I just started downloadin' iPod software updater 1.3

Thanks for the heads up... guess that shows how much I use my iPod! :D hehehhe

anyone wanna buy an iPod? :D heh
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
another quick question.. before on firmware 2.0.1, i could disconnect my ipod from the system ("eject it") and then play files on the ipod thru the dock..... w/ the new firmware, or maybe it was itunes... i can't do that anymore. when i eject from the system, i'm just stuck at "ok to disconnect"

not that it's a big deal, but just noticed that.

and itunes has been funny for me.. sometimes it's smooth and doesn't do that whole long pause thing when switching window focus.. sometiems it does... go figure.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,048
1,679
126
Has anyone tried iTunes on Windows 98/ME? Somebody over at one of the Mac forums claims that it worked on a Windows ME machine.

Originally posted by: lnguyen
another quick question.. before on firmware 2.0.1, i could disconnect my ipod from the system ("eject it") and then play files on the ipod thru the dock..... w/ the new firmware, or maybe it was itunes... i can't do that anymore. when i eject from the system, i'm just stuck at "ok to disconnect"
Weird. I don't have that problem. Windows 2000, and iTunes running in the background, ejecting from the taskbar "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon. Have you tried ejecting from within iTunes?
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
yeah, tried ejecting from both... dunno..... not a big issue, but curious if it was only me or not. that whole issue w/ the pausing itunes seems to be iffy too... no one else seems to really be having this problem
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,953
119
106
I just bought a song. I always wondered what the quality but I didn't see it posted anywhere so I bought one for the hell of it. Seems to be 128kbps. I do not know if 128kbps in this AAC format is better sounding than 128kbps is in mp3. Anyway, here are some shots of the info from the song. All the tags are in the right place. I guess I have to get some more, I have heard this song 3 times already and I need some variety here. The quality sounds good but I couldn't really tell how good it is compared to the real CD because I do not have this album.

Song Summary

Song Info
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,048
1,679
126
Originally posted by: Staples
I just bought a song. I always wondered what the quality but I didn't see it posted anywhere so I bought one for the hell of it. Seems to be 128kbps. I do not know if 128kbps in this AAC format is better sounding than 128kbps is in mp3. Anyway, here are some shots of the info from the song. All the tags are in the right place. I guess I have to get some more, I have heard this song 3 times already and I need some variety here. The quality sounds good but I couldn't really tell how good it is compared to the real CD because I do not have this album.

Song Summary

Song Info
Errr... You just posted your name and email ID for all this forum to see. :p

can any of you ipod owners recommend me a 3rd gen case?
iPod Lounge should probably be able to help you. I just use the one that came with my 15 GB iPod.
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,953
119
106
Errr... You just posted your name and email ID for all this forum to see. :p

I am not worried around here. We have mostly good people. Well, I do get worried sometimes that this might turn out like my other address which I check from the same Outlook mailbox. I must get 50 spam mails a day and everyone seems to know my first name. I think my webhost must have sold it to every spam list there is because I never even use that address and I only think I have given it out once or twice, to friends no less.