AAC: Winamp vs iTunes

[Mr. K]

Using the default settings, a song ripped to AAC using Winamp (.aac) will not play in iTunes, and a song ripped to AAC using iTunes (.m4a) will not play in Winamp.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this new format not all that it's cracked up to be?

I appreciate any insight you might provide.

Thanks

 

[chaos945]

I think this is what you'll be needing, its a plugin for Winamp to play .m4a files and .acc files encoded from iTunes. Enjoy!

Download Here

Source Page

/edit
Apparently this is caused by some sort of bug in the decoder, the "Source Page" has lots of resources you can try.

 

[Johnny]

winamp 5.01 already has them in it .. Winamp is a lot better than itunes. All Itunes is is just a windows media player shell.

 

[Mr. K]

I think this is what you'll be needing, its a plugin for Winamp to play .m4a files and .acc files encoded from iTunes. Enjoy!

Download Here

Source Page

/edit
Apparently this is caused by some sort of bug in the decoder, the "Source Page" has lots of resources you can try.

Thanks, that plugin did the trick. I thought that AAC and MP4/M4A were interchangable, but I get the impression that there are competing formats for a supposed standard. Between Winamp5 and iTunes, is there a player that is better/more proper when it comes to encoding?

 

[allbusiness]

the nero AAC encoder is awesome, the best IMO, it's included with the demo you can download - but who doesn't have a full version of nero, legal or otherwise, by now? ^_^

 

[Teddy]

winamp 5.01 already has them in it .. Winamp is a lot better than itunes. All Itunes is is just a windows media player shell.

Not sure about that.

 

[NetRyder]

All Itunes is is just a windows media player shell.

Where did you get that idea?
iTunes is completely separate from Windows Media Player. It uses Quicktime as it's back-end. Do you really think Apple would use Microsoft's technology in their product? 😀

As for the point about Winamp being better than iTunes...that's just one opinion. I have found iTunes to be a much better app for my purpose. Can't beat it's organizational capability.

 

[SPeedY_B]

winamp 5.01 already has them in it .. Winamp is a lot better than itunes. All Itunes is is just a windows media player shell.

It's not.

Thanks, that plugin did the trick. I thought that AAC and MP4/M4A were interchangable, but I get the impression that there are competing formats for a supposed standard. Between Winamp5 and iTunes, is there a player that is better/more proper when it comes to encoding?

I thought they were too, guess not ^_^
If you want interchangable, just rip 192k mp3's with iTunes 🙂

 

[SPeedY_B]

Do you really think Apple would use Microsoft's technology in their product? 😀

Yes. How do you think the iTunes Music Store is rendered? MSHTML all the way baby 😛 😀 😀

(note: to my knowledge, I may be wrong)

 

[NetRyder]

😱 Is that really true?

 

[SPeedY_B]

The only knowledge I have of it being that someone asked if iTunes uses Safari to render the store on Windows machine.. obviously it doesn't, the webcore isn't available to windows, therefore it was pointed out that any app can use MSHTML.

So I believe that iTunes uses the MSHTML libraries on Windows, just makes sense 🙂

 

[NetRyder]

Makes sense. A little "Googling" revealed the same information. 🙂

 

[Johnny]

Where did you get that idea?
iTunes is completely separate from Windows Media Player. It uses Quicktime as it's back-end. Do you really think Apple would use Microsoft's technology in their product? 😀

As for the point about Winamp being better than iTunes...that's just one opinion. I have found iTunes to be a much better app for my purpose. Can't beat it's organizational capability.

What makes you think they would'nt ?? Do you know for a fact that it uses quicktime ?? If I remember correctly, M$ has a huge hand in Apple. So I think it is a windows media player backend. It does use quicktime on a mac, but not a windows machine.

Also I have been using winamp since right after it came out. So I would be bias 🙂

 

[NetRyder]

Yes, I know for a fact that iTunes uses Quicktime, and not WMP, on Windows as well. If you check the system requirements on the iTunes download site, you'll find:

* Windows XP or 2000
* 500 MHz Pentium class processor or better,
* QuickTime 6.5 (included)
* 128 MB RAM minimum/256 RAM recommended
* Latest Windows service packs recommended
* Supported CD-RW drive to burn CDs, video display card, soundcard
* DSL, cable modem, or LAN-based high-speed Internet connection recommended for buying and streaming music

 

[SPeedY_B]

What makes you think they would'nt ?? Do you know for a fact that it uses quicktime ?? If I remember correctly, M$ has a huge hand in Apple. So I think it is a windows media player backend. It does use quicktime on a mac, but not a windows machine.

Also I have been using winamp since right after it came out. So I would be bias 🙂

Microsoft has no "hand" in Apple. Currently the only things Apple related which they have control over is the fact that a lot of mac owners run Office X (Info), in-fact the very first versions of word and office were released on Macintosh 20-years ago, and this year will see Office 2004 being released to Mac way before Windows users get to see it. Microsoft are probably one of a few software developers who have created and supported software for the mac for it's entire life-time and still do to present day.

Microsoft once owned shares of none-voting stock of the Apple company, but that was a contract that ended years ago.

As for iTunes using WMP. It doesn't, you can't run it without Quicktime.

 

[dom02]

What makes you think they would'nt ?? Do you know for a fact that it uses quicktime ?? If I remember correctly, M$ has a huge hand in Apple. So I think it is a windows media player backend. It does use quicktime on a mac, but not a windows machine.

Also I have been using winamp since right after it came out. So I would be bias 🙂

Where did you get the idea that microsoft has a hold on apple??? the only hold the had at one point was an agreement that microsoft would make office for osx and apple will bundle internet explorer with their comps. But microsoft has no hold. A few years ago microsoft baught some stock of apple but it was non-voting shares. Microsoft has no hold at all on apple.

 

[Johnny]

Where did you get the idea that microsoft has a hold on apple??? the only hold the had at one point was an agreement that microsoft would make office for osx and apple will bundle internet explorer with their comps. But microsoft has no hold. A few years ago microsoft baught some stock of apple but it was non-voting shares. Microsoft has no hold at all on apple.

Hmm .. O.k - Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I guess I was mis-informed ..

 

[dreamliner77]

FYI: re mp4, m4a, acc

mp4 and m4a are just containers that contain acc music streams.

mp4 is the container. m4a is a *******ization of that.
these containers can contain anything (music [aac/mp3], and/or video)
aac is Advanced Audio Coding and is just the same as any audio codec.