I've tried encoding via Foobar and the Nero plugin, and can't seem to create reliable files. I've set it to use the Transparent and Extreme VBR settings, using a variety of recent Nero encoders, including 2.6.2.0.

About 1/4 of the files (.M4A) I generate will not play thru all the way on the iPod. They play for a bit and the just skip to the next file. About 1/6 of the files cause the iPod to reboot completely.

Any advice?

-Reardon

It would be very interesting if you could post/upload one of those files.

This problem is known, and seems to be a problem with the iPod. Every other player seems to play the files just fine. The number of your files that don't work seem a bit high though. Other people have just reported occasional crashes...

Menno

I am happy to post a few files to a private FTP site. PM me if you want to try (especially if you are a developer at Ahead

-Reardon

Just to reply to this notion: I'll assert that at present, somewhere around 98% of the MP4/AAC files played in the world are played on iPods. Like it or not (I don't), they are the de facto standard, so any bugs they have are reasonably part of the standard practice now.

Do you happen to know if the problems are with VBR or with Nero-encodings in general?

-Reardon

No industry-wide standard that is used for broadcasting is going to be revised just because Apple's player has a bug

Note that the iPod is flashable - Apple will fix it sooner or later.

Have you tried flashing it with the Linux boot ROM code and trying to play under Linux. Does this implementation work ok (at around 80% realtime)?

I'm sure you will have done this before posting

Fairy

http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net/

What has Linux got to do with this?

Well Garf. It would indicate if the firmwareimplementation on the iPod is the problem, or say the amount of CPU power or the iPod. It would be interesting to know if a different firmware reproduces the problem or not? I'm sure you'd be interested in testing this variable. Perhaps there's a hardware limitation for example.

All in the interests of science.

Fairy the Boffin

CPU power is not a problem for IPods. They are using an ARM/DSP combo that is more than powerfull enough to decode AAC-LC.

Hi Reardon -- if you feel like reading a few pages check out this thread:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=17773

I'm having the same problem, but you can get around it by changing the song's tags in iTunes (add a comment or something) before uploading them to the iPod. Seems to have something to do with the iPod not reading the original tag correctly...

-Aaron

edit -- btw, unless I edit the tag in iTunes, the skipping/crashing still happens with every single Nero/Foobar encoded .m4a file that I put on the iPod...

I had this problem with my iPod Mini, when using an older version of Anapod Explorer to transfer music. It had a bug, which caused uninitialized values in iTunes' version of volume normalization tag. This caused iPod to skip 5-10% of the songs transferred with Anapod, after just a second, and also reboot on occasion. However, both MP3s and AAC files had the problem, not related to the encoder used, and Red Chair has now fixed the bug as well. Since then, my iPod has crashed only a couple of times, seemingly for no good reason. It seems the iPod is not very forgiving if there are tag errors.

So is there a simple answer? I have just got an iPod and loaded it up with FLACs converted to M4A using dbPoweramp and the Nero AAC codec. 50% of my M4A files are not playing ball. This is not funny :-( I think I may have to revert to iTunes encoding and reripping.

Fairy

Try turning soundcheck off on your iPod.

This amount of failures is rediculous. Maybe updating your firmware to latest version will also help.

Menno

I agree that its probably something other than the encoder.

I ripped and encoded (using the 'save tracks' function) 68 CDs (757 songs) within the main Nero application using the VBR Streaming LC-AAC profile. I used the user-defined filename setting to give the files the m4a extension. I then imported the files into iTunes and transferred them to my iPod mini.

There were no applications other than Nero and iTunes involved. No tag editing or other manipulation - Nero tagged them with album and artist, which was enough for me. They all play perfectly on my iPod mini. Not a single skip, hang, or reboot.

Tim

I AM A NOOB
I AM A NOOB
I AM A NOOB

Day 2 of iPod ownership.... ran iTunes it resynched stuff and now all my Nero encode AAC files sound just lovely. No problems, just joy. So much so that I have gone ripping with dbPoweramp

Thanks,
Fairy

I get a similar issue with iTunes where sometimes AAC files it adds just don't play. The other week I added 2GB of songs for instance after formatting my Ipod (it somehow lost a lot of music from its database . . .), and 50% of them just didn't play. Either it skipped over them or it just rebooted. I deleted the problem tracks, dragged the exact same files back, exactly as before and now they work fine (ignoreing the occasion crash or the more common "I don't feel like playing that file so I'll skip it just this once" bug).

I like the ipod and all, but good god these bugs are ridiculous. Apple needs to get its act together on the Ipod already.

Its already running the latest firmware.

Soundcheck is off. EQ is off. This baby is clean.

Can someone else here please try to repro? Convert 20 files using Foobar & Nero (or just Nero is you care) at some higher VBR bitrate. Important to try VBR. Play them on your current 3G iPod. Do they work?

+Reardon

Thanks for trying and reporting Tim.

What Nero profile did you use? What was approx bitrate?

+Reardon

VBR Streaming, LC-AAC. Average bitrate was somewhere around 160kbps. The range was anywhere from 140 to 180 kpbs depending on the complexity and quality of the recording.

3rd-gen iPod
2.1 firmware
Nero 6.3.1.6
Transparent preset (typical 190-200 kbps)
No EQ/Soundcheck

About 175 songs, transcoded from flac using foobar and foo_nero, uploaded via iTunes. I've had zero problems playing them.

I'm curious, the songs that will not play, were they tagged with iTunes or in Foobar/Nero??? Perhaps its the tagging data that is messing up the iPod.

They are all tagged with Foobar/Nero. After importing to iTunes and then transferring to the iPod they won't play. However, if you use the iTunes tagging utility to change ANY field (e.g. add or change the comment section, you can do this with multilple files at once in iTunes) and then re-import them to the iPod they play fine.

This has all been covered ad nauseam before:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=17773

-Aaron

Hmm. This isn't related, at least for me. This is not a tagging issue. I have retagged these files, even blank-tagged them, in iTunes and in Foobar. Files still skip or crash and reboot iPod.

I will note that it appears much worse with VBR and not CBR files. I have not yet created a repro using CBR.

+Reardon

I'm having exact same skipping problem, I first noticed it today.

I was playing a song that I'd added to my iPod recently and after about 8 seconds it just stopped and I was taken back to the main menu. I just assumed it was a fault with that particular song but then I checked a whole album that I added yesterday and the same problem occurs. Though some songs play longer than others before stopping.

Setup:

- 3rd gen iPod, latest firmware
- Using 'nencode' and EAC to create .m4a files
- Nero VBR 'Extreme' preset
- No EQ or soundcheck on either iTunes or iPod

Now, everything was working fine until pretty recently, I'm talking over 3800 files encoded the exact same way.

I re-encoded a couple of the problem songs using the latest Nero dll's (aacenc32 - 2.6.2.0 etc.), but with no success, one particular file stalls on the iPod in the exact same place every time.

What was the version of aacenc32.dll prior to 2.6.1.9? was it 2.6.1.1? Thanks in advance.

Has anyone tried using Ahead NERO HE-AAC Streaming:: Medium VBR preset in conjunction with any generation of the Apple iPod or iPod Mini? Will all of your files play properly?

The iPod doesn't play HE-AAC.

Further to my previous post I decided to try the older Nero files with nencode:

aacenc32.dll - 2.6.1.1
Aac.dll - 2.5.8.1
NeroIPP - 1.0.1.2

Re-encoded a few of the 'problem' files and now they work fine, just like the other 1000s of files. So I'm going to stick with the above versions for now until iTunes is updated.

The problem was never consistant though. Sometimes just readding the exact same file fixed it. FWIW I've gotten periodic problems with the last 10 or 15 builds of aacenc32.dll.

I wonder if FAAC has the same isssues.

Most likely, problem is not in aacenc32.dll - all changes made to AACEnc in last few months do not have anything to do with the bitstream syntax part, which is more or less fixed. I did, however, fix some bitstream bugs - but IIRC they were not related to the coding modes most widely used for iPod.

Errors in iPod come from the tagging fields reading errors, so related to the MP4 container and its tags, and writing to iPod database - Apple confirmed a bug in iPod firmware and said that they'll fix that - so waiting for it.

How is it possible that tagging errors would cause the file to play for a little bit and then to reboot the iPod, or to skip to next song? I understand why it would be unplayable, but not why it would play partially.

-Reardon

Don't have a clue, sorry I only got responses from some people that re-tagging or editing MP4 data fixes the problem, on certain firmware versions.

Apple confirmed the issue - and I hope they will fix that in one of the upcoming firmware versions for iPods.

I think the tagging/retagging had to do with some files not playing at all. The rebooting is caused by something different (where apple is also looking at).

Menno

I've discovered exactly this problem. After installing iTunes 4.5, I tried using Soundcheck for the first time.

The whole database was examined, and from that point on, every single song that was Nero encoded (and that's most of them) would skip without playing anything.

Some would crash the iPod, requiring the two-button reboot.

To my horror iTunes has amended each and every audio file.

Thankfully - and I don't know why this works - but I found (through much trial and error) that turning Soundcheck off, clearing the database, re-importing the songs in the iTunes music folder, and putting them all back on the (reformatted) iPod, fixes the problem.

So I'll stay away from Soundcheck!!

After upgrading to 2.2, all files that previously crashed my Ipod seem to play correctly. So far so good