iPods, iTunes3, and AAC

cogitur ignace

Chaps,

iTunes3 does not seem to support the AAC codec - at least not for encoding. (Anyone with QuickTimePro6 try encoding an AIFF with AAC and see if iTunes can play it?). Do you reckon this was because the iPods could not be programmed to handle AAC decoding?



Does anyone know any information regarding AAC in iTunes and iPods? Do the iPods have any hardware MP3 decoding built in or is it all done in software on the StrongARMs? If it is the latter, then why does Apple not upgrade to a superior Codec? Is it something to do with royalties?



Steve Jobs went through a lot of trouble actually demonstrating the advantages of AAC in his keynote. This seems odd if it only going to be a relatively small feature of QuickTime.



CGI

pesi

i would say that it is probably a feature yet to come. I would say it's actually quite a bit better to stick with MP3 for the time being, since it is still the preferred format for "sharing".

_ alliance _

[quote]Originally posted by pesi:

<strong>i would say that it is probably a feature yet to come. I would say it's actually quite a bit better to stick with MP3 for the time being, since it is still the preferred format for "sharing".</strong><hr></blockquote>





nothing wrong w/ having them both as options...

transition requires it.

fran441

Moving to the Digital Hub.

macsrgood4u

When ACC comes to iTunes and the iPod it will be mean more song capacity!

mr. h

Oh No, I appear to have registered... I can feel my real life slipping away...



If you visit this site: <a href="http://www.designchain.com/coverstory.asp?issue=summer02"; target="_blank">Elecronics Design Magazine</a>



You will discover that the iPod actually has a hardware mp3 decoder "The rest of the device uses a dedicated MP3 decoder and controller chip from PortalPlayer". This would seem to imply that the iPod cannot be updated to support AAC, but the tech specs page at Apple says "Upgradable firmware enables support for future audio formats", so a bit of conflicting information really.



Also, I haven't actually read anywhere that the iPod has StrongARM processors. Anyone know where that info actually came from?

buis

I dropped a 128k mp4 sound file on iTunes 2; nothing, just snapped back. Dropped it on iTunes 3: it plays. Shows up as a QT movie, which makes sense since it is. PLays beautifully and has options to add tags.



I hope iPod would play AAC aswell, but I don't have one to try it out. Care to donate one?

protodada

hello!



it (aac) played on itunes 3, but when i tried to sync it with my ipod, message said "Some of the songs in the Itunes music library were not copied to the iPod "my ipod" because they cannot be played on an iPod." oh well... i guess i have to wait and see until the new firmware comes out, etc... ;-)



[ 07-21-2002: Message edited by: ProtoDAda ]</p>

torifile

I'd say wait until the next iPod Firmware revision. They've got to get audible.com format playing, so I'm sure that they'll pick up the rest of the formats that iTunes 3 can play, as well.

apple.otaku

Any place to download professionally done non-streaming AAC samples?

pusherman

otaku:



Apple has a gallery of AAC audio on their web site at <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/gallery/aac.html"; target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/quicktime/gallery/aac.html</a>; . It has some good examples there, some of which are downloadable.



My apologies if you've already caught that one (I know it's sort of obvious)



[ 07-23-2002: Message edited by: poor taylor ]</p>