Is aac streaming supported or not?

Support for Android version of Total Commander

Moderators: white, Hacker, petermad, Stefan2

Post Reply
Hurdet
Power Member
Power Member
Posts: 620
Joined: 2003-05-10, 18:02 UTC

Is aac streaming supported or not?

Post by *Hurdet »

Do it not support aac streaming?
I see tag but not hear.
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Total Commander uses the Android MediaPlayer control. It supports the following formats:
https://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/media-formats.html

AAC should be supported, but your stream may be using an unsupported format.
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
costinm
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 2017-06-05, 15:22 UTC

Post by *costinm »

Something must be wrong with TC Media Player... I also could not get a single AAC+ stream to work, both on Android 5 and/or 6. It reads the tag, but is not playing. Just displays an error notification.

Al MP3 streams playing nice, but no AAC+. Frustrating, because more and more stations are switching to AAC+. Is there any fix planned? TC Media Player is an excellent internet radio player, once it is playing, high quality with features and lowest power drain.
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

It depends on the device vendor whether they pay AAC+ patent fees and include the AAC+ codec or not.

TC Media Player can only use codecs installed on the device, it doesn't come with its own. If you need this, you have to use a player which comes with its own codecs, like VLC.
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
costinm
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 2017-06-05, 15:22 UTC

Post by *costinm »

I am running an ASUS device ZE500KL. Specified device audio codecs for this model are, quote:

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)
AMR / AMR-NB / GSM-AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate, .amr, .3ga)
eAAC+ / aacPlus v2 / HE-AAC v2
MIDI
MP3 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer II, .mp3)
WMA (Windows Media Audio, .wma)
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format, .wav, .wave)

Can't figure out what's wrong... :(
Chrome and Firefox browsers are able to play .AAC links directly into location bar. I wonder if they have own codecs or if they use the device codecs.

As I mentioned above, I definitely prefer to use TC MP to any other player.
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Does TC player play local AAC+ files on your device?
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
costinm
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 2017-06-05, 15:22 UTC

Post by *costinm »

Just tested: TC MP plays AAC files without problems. Not sure about AAC plus, I did not have such a file to try. But so far it played all sorts of media as a file, including all AAC encoded files in different bitrates.

this is an example with an AAC stream (not working with TCMP)
http://s1.viastreaming.net:8100

and the same station with MP3 stream (working ok)
http://s1.viastreaming.net:8000
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

Here you can find more info about the issue:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15225076/android-aac-radio-streaming-doesnt-work-with-mediaplayer-android-4-2-2-sho

Including my own codec isn't feasible. It would cost us several million(!) dollars per year for the installed Total Commander user base.
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
costinm
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 4
Joined: 2017-06-05, 15:22 UTC

Post by *costinm »

Ok, so that would mean Chrome, Firefox and virtually each web browser that play AAC+ streams on my phone, pays millions of dollars every year just to do that. Impressive.
Or maybe somehow they use native Android and HTML5 AAC+ support.

Is not that article on Stackoverflow a bit old? It's about Android 4.1 more than 4 years ago...

Thank you for digging into this. Anyway I think AAC streaming will became a must have feature very soon, as so many online radio stations gave up MP3 streaming for AAC+

Regards
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

TC uses the MediaPlayer Android interface. If it would support AAC+, it would play it without any modifications like mp3.
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
Post Reply