AAC and mp4 Audio playback for Linux?

[entropicurity]

Hello Everybody!

So I'm in the process of finding out what i need to do a full conversion from M$ Windows to Linux, though the biggest 2 detractors for me are my games and my audio playback. Games I think I can at least use WINE with, but my biggest concern is my largest investment by far: My iTunes audio library.

In the process of trying to make sure I can play the files, I've searched different forums and websites to see if I can't find if there are at least extensions available to play these files back. If I'm not mistaken, most if not all of my audio is in AAC or MP4 file format. I have read so far that mp4 is likely supported, but not so sure of the AAC.

I've only been browsing the gstreamer listings so far. if there are others available, I'd greatly appreciate the clarification and a point in the right direction. I'd really not like to try to convert over 8k songs to mp3, and pirating just doesn't seem all that safe, let alone legal. I've given them my money for the music, I'd like to use it if I can.

Thanks in advance!
- Christopher
_________________
"A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials." - Chinese Proverb

[Veldrin]

playing aac/mp4 in gentoo poses not problem - just enable aac usaflag.
alternatively just vlc, which plays almost anything - at least for testing purposes.

you mentioned an iTunes music collection. what is the file suffix?
if it m4a, then you are fine, and it is playable in Linux/Gentoo
if it is m4p, then you are screwed. m4p uses drm, which can only be played on/with apple products. there may be a possibility to convert it, but it will take a lot of time.

V.
_________________
read the portage output!
If my answer is too concise, ask for an explanation.

[Gusar]

Not a problem whatsoever. Anything using ffmpeg can decode aac audio. For Gstreamer, if the gst-ffmpeg plugin won't do it, the gst-faad plugin definitely will. Faad is slow and hasn't seen development for years, but it does nevertheless work. The ffmpeg decoder is much faster.

[entropicurity]

Thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure how I was going to sort through over 8k files to figure out what file formats I do or don't have.

Doing a quick search about 800 of those songs are m4p, leaving the majority of the other music as mp3 and m4a's.

Are there any other file formats I should keep an eye out for that could potentially act as a problem?

So far that seems to be the only 3 formats that I have my music in. I'll have to look through the list of music that are m4p's and see if its anything that I actively listen to.

Thanks again all for the help!
- Christopher
_________________
"A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials." - Chinese Proverb

[Gusar]

Audio formats aren't the problem, there's decoders for all of them in Linux. DRM is the problem.

[entropicurity]

Kinda figured as much. Thanks for clarifying it at least. I wonder if they'll ever release the DRM stuff for that or not. I'd really like to try to keep those 800 some files...

Thanks again for all the help!
_________________
"A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials." - Chinese Proverb

[robak]

i'm having a similar problem. i tried to play m4a files with mplayer and i get

[wcg]

Could you just keep those .m4p files on an ipod and plug it into an
aux input on a pre-amp, receiver, speaker remote control, etc?
(Going around the computer, essentially, but whatever, the point
is to have your music accessible.)

I have seen quite a few computer speaker sets that advertise
that capability (plug an .mp3 player, ipod, portable cd player,
tv, etc directly into the remote volume control for the speakers
or into some jack on the speaker with the powered amplifier
in it.)
_________________
TIA