AAC vs MP3 in terms of usability, etc.

[sdrob04]

I'm in the process of building my first arcade cabinet and would like to have it double as a jukebox.

[Space Fractal]

The problems with AAC, are this is heavy patented by the owners, and it costs for use.

This is why I didden't add AAC support in my own jukebox software,  but I did have a sort of extensions support instead.  There are new extension dll's on www.un4seen.com homepage (that dll I use), that (may) can add AAC support on my jukebox software (these extra dll are not tested).

Mp3 is (still) free for use for free application, or as long there was not sold for 1500$ in total per year (if i remember correct. This is of course why, it added in the most common/popular jukebox players.

[Chris]

Mp3 is (still) free for use for free application, or as long there was not sold for 1500$ in total per year (if i remember correct. This is of course why, it added in the most common/popular jukebox players.

This actually isn't true, but those of us providing freeware players have generally been ignored. They used to have it in writing that freeware players did not need to pay royalties, but that letter has been withdrawn.  The rights holders do go after people providing freeware encoders, though.

DOSCab/WinCab Jukebox supports MP3 and OGG.  It does not support AAC, nor is it likely to in the future.

--Chris

[Space Fractal]

My own (Arcade Music Box) support bass.dll officiel extensions (FLAC, WMA). There are a unofficiel AAC plugin DLL for bass.dll, but I have not tested it (I could corretly not to get the winamp plugin to work, mostly because it still a beta).

It may works with alterning the extensions.txt in AMB, but I have not tested it. Otherwice, there would been a better extension system in v2.0 to support all unofficiel extensions (but dll's itself would not been includede because the licens).

Otherwice good luck to trying to adding AAC support in the most common jukeboxes (not just mine, and Chris, if it possible.

[DrewKaree]

AAC seems to be getting larger attention, but the codec isn't the best thing for encoding your music.  You're actually better off encoding to OGG or FLAC than EITHER of the two formats you're considering, but if you're looking for widespread functionality, you'll be better off encoding to MP3 and keeping AAC for your eyepod. 

I have heard that Apple is/has made tunes encoded to AAC specific to ONE player, similar to WMA's "license", and crap like that would be enough to piss me off and encode to MP3 just in case my eyepod ever went CRAP.  A backup for your music, if you will.  Eventually, something WILL happen to your eyepod, and I can almost guarantee that contacting Apple will get you the "We're so sooory, but try as we might to care, we regret to tell you that you are SOL".

[Silver]

The annoying thing is that if you use an ipod, you have loads of aac files - i want to use them on my jukebox, but don't want to have to re-encode.

But such is life!

[DrewKaree]

Yeah, but if I'm correct about the licensing thing Apple has (it may just relate to crap purchased from their iTunes offerings), you won't be able to play it on your jukebox anyway. 

Check to see if there's an AAC plug-in for EAC and follow my ripping guidelines, if you wanna rip CD's to AAC, you can do it in Burst mode in EAC to make THAT part faster, and do it in Secure mode for mp3.

I dunno if this will work for a jukebox, but the player I use for my mp3's is Foobar2000.  I'm almost POSITIVE there's an AAC plug-in for it, and you can "skin" it fairly easily to bend it to the way you want it to look. 

And in case someone's looking for another REALLY good format to rip to, APE is another good one, but you'll find an easier time finding OGG support (which ain't that easy either )

Good luck, hope that helps.

[krick]

The annoying thing is that if you use an ipod, you have loads of aac files - i want to use them on my jukebox, but don't want to have to re-encode.

And as of the iTunes 4.7 update, you can't even download your own songs off of your own iPod anymore.

But there is a solution....  don't buy an iPod in the first place.

There are plenty of other quality non-proprietary mp3 players on the market.

[DrewKaree]

So I DID hear correctly on that!  Man, that's just asinine.....if I bought a friggen CD single, I could play it in ANYTHING.  That's SO damn annoying, and one more reason for me to hate the eyepod.  Don't get me wrong, I think it IS wicked-cool looking and from just playing around in the store, it IS intuitive as all get out, but for the friggen price they charge for those things - man, that's just OUTRAGEOUS!

He did say he got his eyepod as a gift, but krick is right.  Creative makes some nice players, and the Zen's seem fairly easy to upgrade to a larger drive if you want, plus they can work with a few codecs, so the choice is yours on what you wish to rip, AND, big fat bonus - all your mp3's can be transferred over to your jukebox.

Sounds like David Foley is a consultant for Apple

[Space Fractal]

This is why, i diddent implement AAC on my jukebox.

Apple try to protect Itunes based AAC, so they only play on Ipod (like Sony own Attrack format, that have the same problems). Itunes store do not even work in Denmark yet, so I diddent test and use AAC files.

The only way to support files is maybe to have support for Winamp plugins, so AAC files must could play with Winamp and not Itunes.

Only Flac, ABE and OGG can been free to use, because they doesn't have patents on them. Flac seen do have better attention than ape.

Howover the winamp plugin for bass.dll is still in beta, so I must wait to implent that.

[Silver]

Oh, I hate itunes.

But I use EPHPOD - lets me copy music on/off the ipod easy as pie. Much nicer. The end of the day its a firewire hardrive - all the restrictions are in software.

I've used AAC plugins before - recently I found the dbmusicconverter has an AAC plugin so can convert AAC -> anything quite fast. It will convert AAC->MP4 and back fast and losslessly too if I recall correctly.

Most of my music is mp3, but with about 8 gig on the ipod it would be criminal to re-rip all of that on the pc. Worst case scenario I will convert it all to mp3, which will obviously take ages AND reduce the quality. Unless anyone adds a AAC/MP4 player plugin for a jukebox. (unlikely)

[Chris]

Well, for those jukeboxes that require Media Player, they should play anything Media Player plays.  Likewise, Howard's Dragonator Jukebox uses WinAmp, so that could be a solution too.

I have thought about looking into using Media Player to get around the legal issues related to built-in MP3 support, but of course that woud leave DOS behind. 

--Chris

[Silver]

True, but I like WinCab better 

I've had to drop dos though - can't get wireless networking going on it.