AAC Files Not Playing on SlimNAS

[benshead]

I have been enjoying SlimNAS (v.0.41 running SlimServer_v6.5.4) for a month or so now and have, up until now, had no problems whatsoever. Most of my files are ripped to alac, with some older ones in mp3 and a few in aac (m4a: itunes non-drm). We recently realized that the aac files won't play, with a "problem: can't open file" error showing on the squeezebox.

I know that alac decoding has been added to SlimNAS in the most recent release. I am wondering whether I need to use mplayer to get aac files to play, or if there is something simpler. The only thing that confuses me is that I was sure I had tested aac files when I first tested SlimNAS in VMWare, so I was surprised to find them not working now.

Any help is appreciated!
Ben.

[benshead]

Can anyone help? Am I just being stupid, or is this just a limitation of SlimNAS? How can I fix this?

Any ideas appreciated...

[mherger]

Hi Ben,

I'm sorry for the confusion. I usually do respond. But I always forget that the mailing list -> forum gateway is broken for the 3rd party list.

>> Now I've tried fiddling with convert.conf with no luck, but I have to
> admit to not being sure what to do next. I have to think there's a way to
> get aac content working. Do you have any suggestions?

Honestly - I don't have any experience with this. You might want to search the forums for the mplayer solution. I think it's been used on the SSODS, too.

[bpa]

If SlimNAS has the modified mplayer-stdout and not mplayer then the following is a educated guess for custom-convert.conf. If you use custom-convert.conf then the changes will remain if a new version of SC in installed

mov wav * *
        [mplayer-stdout] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null 
mov mp3 * *
        [mplayer-stdout] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null | [lame] --silent -r -x -q $QUALITY$ -b $BITRATE$ - -
mov flc * *
        [mplayer-stdout] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --endian=little --channels=2 --sign=signed --bps=16 --sample-rate=44100 --compression-level-0 -

[benshead]

@Michael:
Thanks for the reply. I'll post the solution when I get it working.

@bpa:
This doesn't seem to work. Checking the logfile, I get a generic-looking:
2007-11-19 08:16:35.9719 ERROR: playmode: Couldn't gotoNext song on playlist, stopping
When I try to play AAC.

I'm not convinced that SlimNAS uses mplayer-stdout, however. I have a file called 'mplayer' in /usr/bin/. Is there another place to look?

Thanks for the help!

Ben.

[bpa]

This thread seems to indicate that a patched mplayer is used in SlimNAS
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32900

If SlimNAS includes AlienBBC - can you post the custom-convert.conf from the Alien directory. I can then suggest conf mods for AAC.

[benshead]

Michael has a tutorial on installing AlienBBC on SlimNAS:
http://www.herger.net/slim/detail.ph...kategorie=slim

I haven't done it, but here the custom-convert.conf:

rtsp wav * *
 [mplayer] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -bandwidth 10000000 -cache 128
           -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2
           -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null
rtsp mp3 * *
 [mplayer] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -bandwidth 10000000 -cache 128
           -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 
           -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null 
           | [lame] --silent -r -x -q $QUALITY$ -b $BITRATE$ - -
rtsp flc * *
 [mplayer] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -bandwidth 10000000 -cache 128 
           -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 
           -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null 
           | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --endian=little --channels=2
           --sign=signed --bps=16 --sample-rate=44100 --compression-level-0 -

wma wav * *
 [mplayer] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 128 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2
           -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null
wma mp3 * *
 [mplayer] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 128 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2
           -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null 
           | [lame] --silent -r -x -q $QUALITY$ -b $BITRATE$ - -
wma flc * *
 [mplayer] -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 128 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2
           -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=- $FILE$ 2>/dev/null
           | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --endian=little --channels=2 --sign=signed
           --bps=16 --sample-rate=44100 --compression-level-0 -

[bpa]

OK - it looks like mplayer on SlimNAS is a patched mplayer - functionally the same as mplayer-stdout.

So change all the references to mplayer-stdout to mplayer in the suggested conf file entries above.

[benshead]

Thanks bpa! I will try tonight. One question, though. My aac files have .m4a extensions. Should I replace 'mov' with 'm4a' in your custom-convert.conf?

Thanks,
Ben.

[bpa]

Leave extension alone - the following line in types.conf maps the "mov" onto file extensions & MIME types for "types" in the convert.conf files.

mov     mov,m4a,mp4,m4b	audio/x-quicktime-movie,audio/x-m4a         audio