Problems playing *.m4a files

[Anonymous]

Hello,
This is not a big issue as most of my library is mp3, but i have some m4a songs as well that FF finds but my SB can not play them. They are all playable on the computer.
When SB tries to play them it just says “Buffering” for a short moment and then it jumps to the next song which results in “Buffering” and so on.
In the log which is on log level 5, it says:
“2009-01-15 07:24:57 (d98625b3): Finished streaming file to remote: 9984 bytes
2009-01-15 07:24:57 (d986b214): Session 0: Streaming file ’02 Love Letter In The Sands – Pat Bonne.m4a’ to 192.168.1.123 (offset 0)
2009-01-15 07:24:58 (15c98f83): Write error: An established connection aborted by the software in the host computer.
“
Does any one know what this means???

UPDATE:
Just found out that if i convert the files to mp3, they work just fine and plays without probs.

[stretch]

m4a files need to be optimised for “fast start streaming” if you want to play them on a SoundBridge.
many encoders don’t optimise the files.

dBpoweramp can optimise m4a files.

The “optimisation” is simply moving the Id tag to the beginning of the file instead of the end

[Anonymous]

Yes, i saw that on the Roku forum as well and i have tried to optimize my files but they still don’t work with SB. The only way to get them working seems to be converting to mp3.

[fizze]

Well, as a workaround you could transcode them to wav to make them play?

[Anonymous]

@fizze wrote:

Well, as a workaround you could transcode them to wav to make them play?

How do i do that???

[stretch]

Were they encoded with the latest version of iTunes?
I’ve seen posts that ALAC files encoded by the latest iTunes don’t always play on an SB either.
IIRC, ALAC & AAC use the same container. I wonder if they changed / broke something.

@ WilsonTobbe wrote:

How do i do that???

You’ll have to force transcode it. There’s a field in the advanced config. Not sure if it works

Hold that thought… Are these files ALAC or AAC??? Both files types have an m4a file extension.

[Anonymous]

@stretch wrote:

Hold that thought… Are these files ALAC or AAC??? Both files types have an m4a file extension.

They are all AAC and they are encoded with iTunes but i don’t know the version.

I have seen the field in the advanced config but i don’t know how to use it and i can’t find any documentation about it.

[stretch]

iTunes should be able to tell you if they’re ALAC or AAC files.

I think the menu option is Get Info or something like that

[fizze]

@WilsonTobbe wrote:

@fizze wrote:

Well, as a workaround you could transcode them to wav to make them play?

How do i do that???

Add them to the transcoded extensions.

I know that the ssc-prog script doesn’t currently handle aac or alac files, so you’d need to handle that.
FFMPEG should be able to handle it, I guess though.

[Anonymous]

Hmm…ok, so no i’m back on the other post i made here.
The one about the 500general error
http://forums.fireflymediaserver.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10094

Best to apologize now because i feel this is going to be a looooong post

I didn’t do anything about that because i thought i wouldn’t need to config any advanced stuff anyway, but now i need to do it and i must admit, i don’t understand where i’m suppose to change?
I installed FF on another computer to see if there was any difference but there was not…

As i have told before i get this error when i open advanced config:

Options missing from config.xml
The options below are in your mt-daapd.conf and Firefly uses them,
but this web page can’t handle them until they are added to config.xml

plugins:plugins

And if i add a file extension for transcoding on this page i get an error saying:

Error: 500general:always_transcode

Here are also my config.xml file:

- 

- 


- 

Server Name

The name iTunes and other daap clients should see

This is both the name of the server as advertised via Bonjour, and the name of the database exported via DAAP. Also know as "What shows up in iTunes".

text



- 

Web Root



text



- 

Port

The port the server should run at; default is 3689

text



- 

Logfile



text



- 

Run As



text



- 

Admin password

The password for this administration interface.

text



- 

Music Password

The password clients need to access this server.

text



- 

Compress

Should browsing data be compressed on the way to the client?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Truncate Logfile

Should the logfile get truncated on startup?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Debug Level

Possible values are 0 to 9, 9 being the most detailed debug level.

select

- 

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9







- 


- 

Music Folder



text



- 

Extensions



text



- 

Playlist File



text



- 

Compilation Directories



text





- 


- 

Process Playlists

Should static playlists (.m3u, etc) be processed?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Process iTunes files

Should iTunes xml-files be processed?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Process .m3u files

Should .m3u playlists be processed?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Case Sensitive

Is the filesystem case sensitive?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Ignore appledouble

Skip appledouble files when scanning

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Ignore dotfiles

Ignore unix hidden dot files

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Group compilations

Compilations are grouped under "Various artist"

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Follow Symlinks

Should symlinks be followed when scanning directories?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Skip First Scan

Should the initial boot-up scan be skipped?

select

- 

No

Yes







- 


- 

Database Type



select

- 

sqlite

sqlite3





- 

Database Directory



text



- 

Scan Type



select

- 

0 - Normal

1 - Aggressive

2 - Painfully aggressive





- 

Rescan Interval

How often should Firefly look for new files? In seconds.

text



- 

Always Scan



select

- 

No

Yes







- 


- 

Ordered Playlists

Should playlists be returned in the order specified in the playlist?

select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Empty strings



select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Supports update



select

- 

No

Yes





- 

Supports browse



select

- 

No

Yes







- 


- 

Plugin Directory



text





- 


- 

SSC Program



text



- 

SSC Codec Types



text



- 

Never Transcode

Codecs to not transcode, even if plugins are available

text



- 

Always Transcode

Codecs to always transcode, even if client plays it

text

And here’s my mt-daapd.conf:

# This is the Firefly Media Server config file.

#

# Note that any changes made to this file will require the server to be

# shut down and restarted

#

#





[general]

#

# web_root (required)

#

# Location of the admin web pages.

#

# If you installed from .RPM, .deb, or tarball with --prefix=/usr, then

# this is correct.

#

# If you installed from tarball without --prefix=/usr, then the correct

# path is probably /usr/local/share/mt-daapd/admin-root.

#



web_root = C:ProgramFirefly Media Serveradmin-root



#

# port (required)

#

# What port to listen on.  It is possible to use a different

# port, but this is the default iTunes port

#



port =9999



#

# admin_pw (optional)

#

# This is the password to the administrative pages

#

# If it is blank, then no password is required from localhost,

# but nobody can connect from an outside machine (for admin

# pages).

#

# If it is set, then passwords are required for admin pages

# from both localhost and external hosts

#



# admin_pw =





#

# db_type (required)

#

# This is what kind of backend database to store the song

# info in.  Valid choices are "sqlite" and "sqlite3".

#

# sqlite seems to be more stable.



db_type = sqlite3



#

# db_parms

#

# This is any extra information the db needs to connect.

# in the case of sqlite and sqlite3, this is the name

# of the directory to store the database in

#

# If you installed from RPM or .deb, this path likely already

# exists.  If not, then you must create it.  The directory itself

# must be writable by the "runas" user.

#



db_parms = C:ProgramFirefly Media Server



#

# mp3_dir (required)

#

# Location of the mp3 files to share.  Note that because the

# files are stored in the database by inode, these must be

# in the same physical filesystem.

#



mp3_dir =\NSPACEopenshareFilesMusik



#

# servername (required)

#

# This is both the name of the server as advertised

# via rendezvous, and the name of the database

# exported via DAAP.  Also know as "What shows up in iTunes".

#



servername =Firefly



#

# runas (required)

#

# This is the user to drop privs to if running as

# root.  If mt-daapd is not started as root, this

# configuration option is ignored.  Notice that this

# must be specified whether the server is running

# as root or not.

#

# This is a leftover from the port from unix -- it's

# not used on windows, but still hanging around, like

# an appendix.

#



runas = nobody



#

# password (optional)

#

# This is the password required to listen to MP3 files

# i.e. the password that iTunes prompts for

#



#password=mp3



#

# extensions (optional)

#

# These are the file extensions that the daap server will

# try to index and serve.  By default, it only indexes and

# serves .mp3 files.  It can also server .m4a and .m4p files,

# and just about any other files, really.  Unfortunately, while

# it can *attempt* to serve other files (.ogg?), iTunes won't

# play them.  Perhaps this would be useful on Linux with

# Rhythmbox, once it understands daap.  (hurry up!)

#

# Failing that, one can use server-side conversion to transcode

# non-standard (.ogg, .flac) music to wav on the server side.

# See the ssc_* options below.

#



extensions = .mp3,.m4a,.m4p,.wma,.flac,.ogg,.wav



#

# ssc_codectypes (optional)

#

# List of codectypes for files that the daap server should

# perform internal format conversion and present to clients

# as WAV files.  The file extensions that these codectypes correspond

# to must also be present in 'extensions'

# configuration value, or files are not probed in the first

# place.

#

# Valid codectypes:

#

# mp4a - for AAC (.aac, .mp4, .m4a, .m4p)

# mpeg - for mp3

# wav - for wav

# wma - for wma

# ogg - for ogg

# flac - for flac (.flac, .fla)

# mpc for musepack (.mpc, .mpp, .mp+)

# alac for alac (.m4a)

#



#ssc_codectypes ogg,flac,alac



#

# ssc_prog (optional)

#

# Program that is used in server side format conversion.

# Program must accept following command line syntax:

#     ssc_prog filename offset length ...

# Parameter filename is the real name of the file that is

# to be converted and streamed, offset is number of bytes

# that are skipped from the beginning of the _output_ file

# before streaming is started, length is length of the song

# in seconds (or zero).  All other possible arguments must

# be ignored.  The resulting wav file (or the rest of

# the file after initial seek) is written to the standard

# output by the ssc_prog program.  This is typically

# a script that is a front end for different conversion tools

# handling different formats.

#



#ssc_prog /etc/mt-daapd-ssc-script



#

# logfile (optional)

#

# This is the file to log to.  If this is not configured,

# then it will log to the syslog.

#

# Not that the -d  switch will control the log verbosity.

# By default, it runs at log level 1.  Log level 9 will churn

# out scads of useless debugging information.  Values in between

# will vary the amount of logging you get.

#



#logfile /var/log/mt-daapd.log



#

# art_filename (optional)

#

# There is experimental support thanks to Hiren Joshi

# ([email protected]) for dynamically adding art to the id3v2

# header as it is streamed (!!).  If you were using a music system

# like zina or andromeda, for example, with cover art called

# "_folderOpenImage.jpg", you could use the parameter

# art_file _folderOpenImage.jpg and if the file _folderOpenImage.jpg

# was located in the same folder as the .mp3 file, it would appear

# in iTunes.  Cool, eh?

#



#art_filename _folderOpenImage.jpg



#

# rescan_interval

#

# How often to check the file system (in sec) to see if any mp3 files

# have been added or removed.

#

# if not specified, the default is 0, which disables background scanning.

#

# If background rescanning is disabled, a scan can still be forced from the

# "status" page of the administrative web interface

#

# Setting a rescan_interval lower than the time it takes to rescan

# won't hurt anything, it will just waste CPU, and make connect times

# to the daap server longer.

#

#



rescan_interval = 600



# always_scan

#

# The default behavior is not not do background rescans of the

# filesystem unless there are clients connected.  The thought is to

# allow the drives to spin down unless they are in use.  This might be

# of more importance in IDE drives that aren't designed to be run

# 24x7.  Forcing a scan through the web interface will always work

# though, even if no users are connected.



always_scan = 1



#

# scan_type

#

#

# This sets how aggressively mp3 files should be scanned to determine

# file length.  There are three values:

#

# 0 (Normal)

#   Just scan the first mp3 frame to try and calculate size.  This will

#   be accurate for most files, but VBR files without an Xing tag will

#   probably have wildly inaccurate file times.  This is the default.

#

# 1 (Aggressive)

#   This checks the bitrates of 10 frames in the middle of the song.

#   This will still be inaccurate for VBR files without an Xing tag,

#   but they probably won't be quite as inaccurate as 0.  This takes

#   more time, obviously, although the time hit will only happen the

#   first time you scan a particular file.

#

# 2 (Painfully aggressive)

#   This walks through the entire song, counting the number of frames.

#   This should result in accurate song times, but will take the most

#   time.  Again, this will only have to be incurred the first time

#   the file is indexed.

#



scan_type = 1





# compress 0



#

# Truncate

#

# should the server truncate the log files on startup.

# Defaults to zero

truncate = 1

logfile = firefly.log

password =

debuglevel = 5

admin_pw = xphomelillan

[scanning]



#

# process_m3u

#

# By default m3u processing is turned off, since most m3u files

# sitting around in peoples mp3 directories have bad paths, and

# I hear about it.  :)

#

# If you are sure your m3u files have good paths (i.e. unixly pathed,

# with relative paths relative to the directory the m3u is in), then

# you can turn on m3u processing by setting this directive to 1.

#

# I'm not sure "unixly" is a word, but you get the idea.

#



process_playlists = 1

process_m3u = 1

case_sensitive = 0



[plugins]

plugin_dir = C:ProgramFirefly Media Serverplugins

plugins =

Where should i change?

[Author]

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