AAC+

This page needs editing. Listed prerequisite is SlimServer 6.3 or 6.5. The article provides a link to a forum thread for 7.0, but it needs to be updated with internal text about newer versions of SBS (all the way up to 7.5 or higher).

AAC+ (also known as aacPlus, HE-AAC v1, High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding version 1) is a format which seems to be used mostly in streaming source. It is designed to provide high quality audio with low bandwidth requirements.

The following gives instructions on how to enable playing Shoutcast/Winamp AAC+ streams within Squeezebox Server. It does not handle the Windows Media Play/AAC+ streams. Although these changes should handle AAC+ files with the aap extension, it has not been tested.

Pre-requisites:

• Mplayer at least 1.0pre8. 1.0rc2 will not play AAC+ streams unless built with external-faad. If in doubt, run test in step 2 to check.
• Slimserver 6.3 or 6.5

Installation Instructions

If you are installing on SqueezeCenter 7.0 - there is a different install and preliminary instructions can be found here http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=272774&postcount=19

For Slimserver 6.5 and 6.3 the steps are below

Step 1.

Install Mplayer or replace your current version of Mplayer if it is not later than pre8. For windows users - Install a new version of !Mplayer in the BIN/[./MSWin32%E2 MSWin32�]��x86−multi−thread directory which has .exe files like socketwrapper.exe. Use the pre built mplayer found in this table row "MPlayer 1.0pre8 Windows build" at this location http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html. . Download and unzip. For Macintosh, download the GUI version: Control click the application to show package contents, go inside folder External_Binaries, pick mplayer that corresponds to your processors all macs since 2006 are Intel. Copy file and move to /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin. Note to be able to see appropriate paths if you are not familiar with Unix, you download a shareware program such as ToggleDfiles to get to correct pathway.

Step 2.

Test Mplayer by running one of the following command for example. Let it run for a few minutes - if the version of mplayer is not up to date problems will show.

mplayer -playlist http://www.somafm.com/groovesalad48.pls.mplayer -playlist http://www.sky.fm/aacplus/classical.pls

Step 3.

There are additions needed to the types and convert config files. The changes depend on whether you are running Windows or Linux. After step 6 of these instruction there are details how to use the files attached to this wiki page to help making the additions.

For Linux

Modify the following files that are in the slimserver directory. Add the following lines to custom-convert.conf file:

aap wav * *	[mplayer] -ac faad -demuxer aac -really-quiet -vc null -vo null  -cache 64 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=/dev/fd/4 $FILE$ 4>&1 1>/dev/null
aap mp3 * *	[mplayer] -ac faad -demuxer aac -really-quiet -vc null -vo null  -cache 64 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=/dev/fd/4 $FILE$ 4>&1 1>/dev/null | [lame] --silent -r -x -q $QUALITY$ -b $BITRATE$ - -
aap flc * *	[mplayer] -ac faad -demuxer aac -really-quiet -vc null -vo null  -cache 64 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=/dev/fd/4 $FILE$ 4>&1 1>/dev/null  | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --endian=little --channels=2 --sign=signed --bps=16 --sample-rate=44100 --compression-level-0 -

Add the following line to the custom-types.conf file

aap     -              audio/aacp,audio/aac           audio

For Windows

Using a suitable editor (e.g Wordpad) modify the following files that are in the slimserver server directory Add the following lines to custom-convert.conf file

aap wav * *	[mplayer] -ac faad -demuxer aac -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 64 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=#PIPE# $FILE$
aap mp3 * *	[mplayer] -ac faad -demuxer aac -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 64 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=#PIPE# $FILE$ | [lame] --silent -r -x -q $QUALITY$ -b $BITRATE$ - -
aap flc * *	[mplayer] -ac faad -demuxer aac -really-quiet -vc null -vo null -cache 64 -af volume=0,resample=44100:0:1,channels=2 -ao pcm:nowaveheader:file=#PIPE# $FILE$ | [flac] -cs --totally-silent --endian=little --channels=2 --sign=signed --bps=16 --sample-rate=44100 --compression-level-0 -

Add the following line to the custom-types.conf file

aap     -              audio/aacp,audio/aac           audio

For Macintosh

SlimServer Directory is located under either Library/PreferencePanes or ~/Library/PreferencePanes. Control click SlimServer.prefPane to show package contents. Make changes adding required to convert.conf, types.conf, and strings.txt as shown in the Linux example above in step 3 & 4.

Step 4.

The step is not essential but without you will get an error message and blank fields in the Server / Filetypes as we have added a new file type AAP. Edit the file strings.txt in the slimserver directory (server directory for Windows) and add the following 2 "AAP" lines to the file probably somewhere near other extensions such APE - keep the tabs on the "EN" line. The

AAP 	EN	AACplus

Step 5.

Stop and restart Slimserver. Look at the server / Filetypes and check if there are 3 lines of AACPlus entries or 3 lines with blank as the format if you did not edit strings.txt file) . For Macintosh users, start and restart Slimserver through Preference Panes windows under System Preferences.

Step 6.

Test some AACplus streams using Tune in - such as

Soma Groovesalad     http://www.somafm.com/groovesalad48.plsSky Classical        http://www.sky.fm/aacplus/guitar.plsVirgin               http://aacplus-vr-32.smgradio.com:80StreamingSoundtracks http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/aacPlus-hi.pls

Using the attached files.

There are 3 files attached to this page. If you have not installed any plugins and the following files are NOT in the slimserver directory then you may copy the attached files into slimserver directory:

• custom-types.conf
• custom-convert.conf
• slimserver-convert.conf
• custom-strings.txt

If you running Slimserver 6.3 then after copying the files, rename /custom-convert.conf/ to /slimserver-convert.conf/.

If one or more of the files existing in the slimserver directory then append the contents of the attached file to the files in you slimserver directory. If running 6.3 append the contents of the /custom-convert.conf/ file to the /slimserver-convert.conf/ file in your slimserver directory.

Media formats (codec comparison)
AAC - AAC+ - Apple Lossless - CD - DVD - FLAC - M3U - MP3 - Ogg Vorbis - WAV - WMA