aac encoder output not interoperable with aac decoder, possibly erroneous

[Tommaso R. Donnarumma]

Binary package hint: gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse

Steps to reproduce:
1. Ensure you have the AAC encoder and decoder plugins (sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse)
2. Insert non-drm-protected audio CD
3. Start Sound Juicer
4. From Edit | Preferences, select Output format CD Quality, AAC (MPEG 4 audio)
5. Import the CD
6. Play the songs in any Gstreamer-based player (Totem, Rhythmbox, Exaile!, ...)

Erroneous outcome:
Playback is ugly (constant jitters, noise, distorted or unrecognizable audio)

Expected outcome:
Playback is fine

Discussion:
Songs imported from audio CDs using the default AAC seetings (Gstreamer pipeline: audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2 ! faac ! ffmux_mp4) don't play back correctly. They constantly skip or jitter, and audio quality is ugly at best. Often, music is not even recognizable. Processor usage during playback is quite low, and free RAM is also not a prolem.
The same audio files, uploaded onto an iPod, play back very fine, although reported track duration is incorrect (for example, 15'+ reported for a circa 4' song). Still the same audio files, when played inside the latest iTunes on Windows, also play back fine and report the correct track duration.
Please, also note that other audio files, previously imported from audio CDs though the latest iTunes on Windows using the same hardware, play back just fine in all Gstreamer-based players that can't play back the files encoded through the Gstreamer AAC encoder. I think this might point to a problem in the encoder rather than the decoder, but feel free to ignore this as uninformed guess at best.

I can attach or post a sample encoded track, which I think I could do under fair use. Please let me know if this is acceptable and if this could be helpful.

Package version: 0.10.4-3

[Vincent (vtence)]

Same here. Files encoding using Banshee in aac (gstreamer-0.10) won't play. On the other hand, banshee plays m4a files encoded on other platforms.

[Vincent (vtence)]

BTW I'm using feisty

[Dinis (dinisrebolo)]

same here!

[ski (skibrianski)]

I have a similar problem - avi files with x264 video and aac audio encoded using mencoder won't play back in totem (although they *do* play in mplayer just fine)

ski@ganiodayo:~/tmp$ totem test.avi
JACK tmpdir identified as [/dev/shm]
** Message: don't know how to handle audio/x-avi-unknown, codec_id=(int)28781
** Message: Missing plugin: gstreamer|0.10|totem|audio/x-avi-unknown decoder|decoder-audio/x-avi-unknown, codec_id=(int)28781 (audio/x-avi-unknown decoder)
no application found
** Message: No installation candidate for missing plugins found.
ski@ganiodayo:~/tmp$ mplayer test.avi
MPlayer 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu13 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7600 @ 2.33GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 6)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0: No such file or directory
Can't init input joystick
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing test.avi.
AVI file format detected.
VIDEO: [h264] 720x416 24bpp 25.000 fps 750.0 kbps (91.5 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
 Software: MEncoder 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu13
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
GNOME screensaver disabled
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [faad] AAC (MPEG2/4 Advanced Audio Coding)
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 127.9 kbit/8.33% (ratio: 15986->192000)
Selected audio codec: [faad] afm: faad (FAAD AAC (MPEG-2/MPEG-4 Audio) decoder)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 416 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 2.46:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 720x416 => 1024x416 Planar YV12
GNOME screensaver enabled.116 ct: -0.030 62/ 62 5% 1% 0.7% 0 0

Exiting... (Quit)

FWIW, m4a files play perfectly in rhythmbox.

Thanks.

[ski (skibrianski)]

PS - I'm on gutsy/amd64 if it makes any difference.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 beta?

[Tommaso R. Donnarumma (tawmas)]

Sorry, I agreed to closing the upstream bug but forgot this one lingering... I'm marking it closed as the symptoms are no longer present.