My Soundbridge doesn't play AAC files

[Peter Gutbrod]

Got my Soundbridge 1000 on Friday and did some initial testing this weekend.

First, it looks really great and plays music well, as far as it knows how to
do that, see below.

So here my first comments:

Installation on my WLAN (Apple Airport) went smoothly. Only issue was, I had
restricted access to the base station only to dedicated MAC addresses and I
first forgot to add the MAC address of the Soundbridge. That gave me the
strange effect, that the Soundbridge was able to see my shared iTunes
library but wasn't able to access it. Probably something to add to the WLAN
troubleshooting guide.

The biggest complaint so far is, that Soundbrige cannot play any of my ACC
files from iTunes. They all have a X before their title and Soundbridge
tells me, the format is not supported. And they are not DRM protected, if
someone asks. They all play fine on the Soundbridge with Slim server. That
says nothing about Soundbridge's ability to decode AAC because Slimserver is
decoding AAC and sending uncompressed audio to the Soundbridge. Tried
everything including even a software update (well it didn't work as the
software is up to date). If I convert the files from AAC to MP3 within
iTunes, they play well. It is really strange, as I hardly believe, Roku is
shipping the final product without having ever tried, that it really can
decode AAC. I'm eager to here Roku's statement on that issue.

A second complaint I have is, that a lot of internet radio stations do not
play with Soundbridge (from iTunes). They play well directly in iTunes and
even through Slim server on the Soundbridge. It is the same error message
that I get with the AAC files saying, that the format is not supported. So
probably if the first is fixed, the second will be as well, hopefully.

So far for today.

Peter

[Patrick Ellis]

Peter,

//Installation on my WLAN (Apple Airport) went smoothly. Only
//issue was, I had restricted access to the base station only
//to dedicated MAC addresses and I first forgot to add the MAC
//address of the Soundbridge. That gave me the strange effect,
//that the Soundbridge was able to see my shared iTunes library
//but wasn't able to access it. Probably something to add to
//the WLAN troubleshooting guide.

That's strange. It sounds like your base station is allowing broadcasts from
unauthorized clients, which it shouldn't.

//The biggest complaint so far is, that Soundbrige cannot play
//any of my ACC files from iTunes. They all have a X before
//their title and Soundbridge tells me, the format is not
//supported. And they are not DRM protected, if someone asks.

I'm sure Mike will have something to say here, but it sounds like the
SoundBridge could be thinking that they are Apple Lossless files (which are .m4a
files just like normal aac files). For one of the unplayable files, we'd be
interested to see what the SoundBridge says when you "Get Song Info" for the
song. The fields we're especially interested in are "Kind:" and "Bitrate".

//A second complaint I have is, that a lot of internet radio
//stations do not play with Soundbridge (from iTunes). They
//play well directly in iTunes and even through Slim server on
//the Soundbridge. It is the same error message that I get with
//the AAC files saying, that the format is not supported. So
//probably if the first is fixed, the second will be as well, hopefully.

What stations in particular give the "unsupported format" error? We're aware of
some incompatibilites with some of the iTunes radio stations and are working
feverishly to improve this situation.

------
Patrick Ellis
Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Get more out of your high-def TV.
High-definition photos, art, music and more. http://www.rokulabs.com

[Peter Gutbrod]

Patrick,

Post by Patrick Ellis
That's strange. It sounds like your base station is allowing broadcasts from
unauthorized clients, which it shouldn't.

Strange only at first sight. Soundbridge was able to decode bradcasted data,
as I've already entered the WLAN password. iTunes broadcast was from an
authorized, ethernet connected Mac. So Soundbridge could see the iTunes
broadcast but couldn't connect back to the basestation. Soundbridge even
complaint (correctly), that it couldn't connect to the WLAN. Also no DHCP
data was set. It is just funny that on one hand it says, sorry not network
available and on the other hand it displays the name of my shared iTunes
library.

Post by Patrick Ellis
files just like normal aac files). For one of the unplayable files, we'd be
interested to see what the SoundBridge says when you "Get Song Info" for the
song. The fields we're especially interested in are "Kind:" and "Bitrate".

Kind: AAC-Audiodatei
Bit Rate: 128 kbps

or

Kind: AAC-Audiodatei
Bit Rate: 190 kbps

Could it be a localization problem with German iTunes, as everything else in
Soundbridge GUI is English?

Post by Patrick Ellis
What stations in particular give the "unsupported format" error? We're aware of
some incompatibilites with some of the iTunes radio stations and are working
feverishly to improve this situation.

F.e.:
LiveIrland
iTunes URL: http://69.57.152.94:8000
Kind (from Soundbridge): MPEG-Audio-Stream

Peter

[Mike Kobb]

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Kind: AAC-Audiodatei

Aha. That's the problem. As mentioned in my previous email, we resorted to
some subterfuge to tell the difference between AAC and Apple Lossless m4a
files. We are specifically checking for "AAC Audio File" as the kind.

Unfortunately, it turns out that that string is localized, depending upon
what your primary language was when iTunes ripped the song.

We have an alternate solution that should work reliably no matter which
language the string is in. I will escalate this issue in our bug database
so that we can hopefully fix it for the first dot release.

Sorry about that,
--Mike


------
Mike Kobb
Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Get more out of your high-def TV.
High-definition photos, art, music and more.
http://www.rokulabs.com
tel: [phone] x12 fax: [phone]

[Peter Gutbrod]

Hello Mike,

Post by Mike Kobb

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Kind: AAC-Audiodatei

Aha. That's the problem. As mentioned in my previous email, we resorted to
some subterfuge to tell the difference between AAC and Apple Lossless m4a
files. We are specifically checking for "AAC Audio File" as the kind.
Unfortunately, it turns out that that string is localized, depending upon
what your primary language was when iTunes ripped the song.

Yes, I already supposed it would be something with localization.

Post by Mike Kobb
We have an alternate solution that should work reliably no matter which
language the string is in. I will escalate this issue in our bug database
so that we can hopefully fix it for the first dot release.

Great to see this will be fixed and radio stations too. I hope I do not have
to wait too long for the first dot update. Will it be posted here or do I
have to try an update on my Soundbridge regularly?

I also would like to give a second review of my "playing with my new toy
weekend". That would be more orientated towards: Benefits and drawbacks in
using Soundbridge with iTunes vs, Slimserver. And my personal "what I like
to see implemented into Soundbridge".

I don't know, whether you (and the subsriber to the list) like this to be
posted on this tech-list, as it is more targeted at users and not at
developers.

Peter

[Mike Kobb]

Hi Peter,

We'll announce updates when they're available, so no need to check often.

I'm certainly interested in reading your review, so feel free to email it
to me directly if you decide not to post it here.

--Mike

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Hello Mike,

Post by Mike Kobb

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Kind: AAC-Audiodatei

Aha. That's the problem. As mentioned in my previous email, we resorted to
some subterfuge to tell the difference between AAC and Apple Lossless m4a
files. We are specifically checking for "AAC Audio File" as the kind.
Unfortunately, it turns out that that string is localized, depending upon
what your primary language was when iTunes ripped the song.

Yes, I already supposed it would be something with localization.

Post by Mike Kobb
We have an alternate solution that should work reliably no matter which
language the string is in. I will escalate this issue in our bug database
so that we can hopefully fix it for the first dot release.

Great to see this will be fixed and radio stations too. I hope I do not have
to wait too long for the first dot update. Will it be posted here or do I
have to try an update on my Soundbridge regularly?
I also would like to give a second review of my "playing with my new toy
weekend". That would be more orientated towards: Benefits and drawbacks in
using Soundbridge with iTunes vs, Slimserver. And my personal "what I like
to see implemented into Soundbridge".
I don't know, whether you (and the subsriber to the list) like this to be
posted on this tech-list, as it is more targeted at users and not at
developers.
Peter
_______________________________________________
Roku-tech mailing list
http://lists.rokulabs.com/mailman/listinfo/roku-tech

------
Mike Kobb
Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Get more out of your high-def TV.
High-definition photos, art, music and more.
http://www.rokulabs.com
tel: [phone] x12 fax: [phone]

[Anthony Wood]

the 1.1 release, which is a bug fix only release, will be a small number of
weeks. We are waiting to see if any more unexpected problems show up.

regards

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Kobb" <***@rokulabs.com>
To: "Roku Tech" <roku-***@lists.rokulabs.com>
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2004 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Roku-tech] My Soundbridge doesn't play AAC files

Post by Mike Kobb
Hi Peter,
We'll announce updates when they're available, so no need to check often.
I'm certainly interested in reading your review, so feel free to email it
to me directly if you decide not to post it here.
--Mike

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Hello Mike,

Post by Mike Kobb

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Kind: AAC-Audiodatei

Aha. That's the problem. As mentioned in my previous email, we resorted to
some subterfuge to tell the difference between AAC and Apple Lossless m4a
files. We are specifically checking for "AAC Audio File" as the kind.
Unfortunately, it turns out that that string is localized, depending upon
what your primary language was when iTunes ripped the song.

Yes, I already supposed it would be something with localization.

Post by Mike Kobb
We have an alternate solution that should work reliably no matter which
language the string is in. I will escalate this issue in our bug database
so that we can hopefully fix it for the first dot release.

Great to see this will be fixed and radio stations too. I hope I do not have
to wait too long for the first dot update. Will it be posted here or do I
have to try an update on my Soundbridge regularly?
I also would like to give a second review of my "playing with my new toy
weekend". That would be more orientated towards: Benefits and drawbacks in
using Soundbridge with iTunes vs, Slimserver. And my personal "what I like
to see implemented into Soundbridge".
I don't know, whether you (and the subsriber to the list) like this to be
posted on this tech-list, as it is more targeted at users and not at
developers.
Peter
_______________________________________________
Roku-tech mailing list
http://lists.rokulabs.com/mailman/listinfo/roku-tech

------
Mike Kobb
Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Get more out of your high-def TV.
High-definition photos, art, music and more.
http://www.rokulabs.com
tel: [phone] x12 fax: [phone]
_______________________________________________
Roku-tech mailing list
http://lists.rokulabs.com/mailman/listinfo/roku-tech

[Peter Gutbrod]

Post by Anthony Wood
the 1.1 release, which is a bug fix only release, will be a small number of
weeks. We are waiting to see if any more unexpected problems show up.

For customers (on Mac) using their Soundbridge with localized versions of
iTunes, there are the following 3 workarounds to play your AAC files and
listen to radio stations with your Soundbridge , until Roku releases the
1.1 update:

To play your AAC files you can:

use Slimserver instead of iTunes. Slimserver decodes AAC on the server and
sends uncompressed or MP3 reencoded audio to the Soundbridge. You should
choose the second, if your Soundbridge is WiFi connected. Installation on
OSX is really easy (disk image with installer). Slimserver syncs with your
iTunes library, so you still can use iTunes for organizing your music
library. You may have Slimserver silently running in the background together
with iTunes and can easily switch in the Soundbridge GUI between iTunes
serving and Slimserver serving. This also allows you to listen to radio
stations. You may use the Shoutcast radio station library directly
integrated into Slimserver (would love to have this as well when using
iTunes as server) or create play lists with your favorite radio stations. Be
aware that the navigation and display is significantly different when you
switch to Slimserver. I'll go into more detail about this in another
posting.

you can temporally convert your AAC files into MP3. To do this, first make a
copy of your iTunes folder (in your Music folder). so you can revert back
after the 1.1 update. Set iTunes import preferences to MP3 (Bitrate see
below). Then select all your titles (if you only have AAC) or make an
intelligent playlist (no live updating; name it AAC) searching for kind =
AAC and select it. Highlight all tracks and choose convert to MP3. This
creates duplicates in MP3 format and takes a while depending of the number
of tracks. Then again select your AAC playlist, highlight all tracks and
press cmd-alt-delete. Should delete all AAC duplicates from your library.

you can temporarily switch your iTunes to English version. To do this choose
in Finder "Get Info" for the iTunes application. Uncheck your language (or
all except English). Now iTunes should start with English GUI. Your tracks
still read "AAC Audio-Datei" instead of the required format "AAC audio
file". But iTunes updates that information, when you play the file or
display the "Get Info" window (for a single track). Afterwards Soundbridge
recognizes the AAC. That works as well for radio stations.

If you go the second route, temporarily converting to MP3, I'm not quite
sure to say, what the best Bitrate woud be. Keeping the same as the AAC
sound natural, but AAC is mentioned to give better results than MP3 on same
Bitrate. Or with other words a 128 kbps AAC might be equal to a 160 kbps
MP3. Can't proof this. Probably the thread "AAC or MP3" brings some light
into this area.

Peter

[Mike Kobb]

Hi Peter,

If you go into iTunes and view the "Kind" column on your AAC files, what
does it say?

Here's the issue. Apple Lossless files are also .m4a files, so we had to
do a little subterfuge to tell the difference between Apple Lossless and
AAC. It's possible that we're being tripped up by your files. We certainly
DID test AAC playback quite extensively.

Let us know what your Kind column says.

--Mike

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Got my Soundbridge 1000 on Friday and did some initial testing this weekend.
First, it looks really great and plays music well, as far as it knows how to
do that, see below.
Installation on my WLAN (Apple Airport) went smoothly. Only issue was, I had
restricted access to the base station only to dedicated MAC addresses and I
first forgot to add the MAC address of the Soundbridge. That gave me the
strange effect, that the Soundbridge was able to see my shared iTunes
library but wasn't able to access it. Probably something to add to the WLAN
troubleshooting guide.
The biggest complaint so far is, that Soundbrige cannot play any of my ACC
files from iTunes. They all have a X before their title and Soundbridge
tells me, the format is not supported. And they are not DRM protected, if
someone asks. They all play fine on the Soundbridge with Slim server. That
says nothing about Soundbridge's ability to decode AAC because Slimserver is
decoding AAC and sending uncompressed audio to the Soundbridge. Tried
everything including even a software update (well it didn't work as the
software is up to date). If I convert the files from AAC to MP3 within
iTunes, they play well. It is really strange, as I hardly believe, Roku is
shipping the final product without having ever tried, that it really can
decode AAC. I'm eager to here Roku's statement on that issue.
A second complaint I have is, that a lot of internet radio stations do not
play with Soundbridge (from iTunes). They play well directly in iTunes and
even through Slim server on the Soundbridge. It is the same error message
that I get with the AAC files saying, that the format is not supported. So
probably if the first is fixed, the second will be as well, hopefully.
So far for today.
Peter
_______________________________________________
Roku-tech mailing list
http://lists.rokulabs.com/mailman/listinfo/roku-tech

------
Mike Kobb
Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Get more out of your high-def TV.
High-definition photos, art, music and more.
http://www.rokulabs.com
tel: [phone] x12 fax: [phone]

[Mike Kobb]

Sorry for three emails in a row.

Yes, the same fix for the AAC files will fix your internet radio streams as
well.

--Mike

Post by Peter Gutbrod
Got my Soundbridge 1000 on Friday and did some initial testing this weekend.
First, it looks really great and plays music well, as far as it knows how to
do that, see below.
Installation on my WLAN (Apple Airport) went smoothly. Only issue was, I had
restricted access to the base station only to dedicated MAC addresses and I
first forgot to add the MAC address of the Soundbridge. That gave me the
strange effect, that the Soundbridge was able to see my shared iTunes
library but wasn't able to access it. Probably something to add to the WLAN
troubleshooting guide.
The biggest complaint so far is, that Soundbrige cannot play any of my ACC
files from iTunes. They all have a X before their title and Soundbridge
tells me, the format is not supported. And they are not DRM protected, if
someone asks. They all play fine on the Soundbridge with Slim server. That
says nothing about Soundbridge's ability to decode AAC because Slimserver is
decoding AAC and sending uncompressed audio to the Soundbridge. Tried
everything including even a software update (well it didn't work as the
software is up to date). If I convert the files from AAC to MP3 within
iTunes, they play well. It is really strange, as I hardly believe, Roku is
shipping the final product without having ever tried, that it really can
decode AAC. I'm eager to here Roku's statement on that issue.
A second complaint I have is, that a lot of internet radio stations do not
play with Soundbridge (from iTunes). They play well directly in iTunes and
even through Slim server on the Soundbridge. It is the same error message
that I get with the AAC files saying, that the format is not supported. So
probably if the first is fixed, the second will be as well, hopefully.
So far for today.
Peter
_______________________________________________
Roku-tech mailing list
http://lists.rokulabs.com/mailman/listinfo/roku-tech

------
Mike Kobb
Senior Software Engineer, Roku
Get more out of your high-def TV.
High-definition photos, art, music and more.
http://www.rokulabs.com
tel: [phone] x12 fax: [phone]