I am trying to have my web site users play some .M4A files that were created with Nero 6 Ultra.

All files were encoded using HE-AAC with CBR at 32k or 48k and are mono files. No special options were selected. Enable PNS was NOT checked in Nero. Normal presets for 32k and 48k CBR were used to encode.

The files play well (after being renamed from .mp4 to .m4a) in RealPlayer 10.5, but will cause WinAmp to crash or hang almost immediately after it loads them and tries to play them. I get weird error messages. This is fresh install of WinAmp 5.07 Pro.

I recall WinAmp not being able to play some AAC LC files encoded with Compaact a while back due to a MPEG 2 compatibility issue/limitation in WinAmp, but was not aware of troubles with Nero 6 generated HE-AAC files. I tried the same source file encoded with the same bitrate (32 or 48k) with Nero 6 that was AAC LC and it played fine.

So it appears that WinAmp 5.07 does not like HE-AAC files created with Nero 6. This is a major problem for widespread adaption/use of HE-AAC (AACPlus) low-bitrate files over the Internet as many users use WinAmp and don't know how to search for and/or install the FAAD WinAmp Plugin (which does play the HE-AAC files correctly by the way).

Is it a WinAmp thing (bug) or some incompatibility with files produced by Nero? Does anyone know a solution for this problem of being able to play Nero created HE-AAC files in WinAmp (other than making all users in the world download the FAAD WinAmp plugin)? I understand that WinAmp licensed the CT decoder so I don't understand where the problem could be.

Winamp does not use the CT decoder for MP4 files, but an older, buggy Dolby decoder.

These bugs have been reported to the Winamp developers but obviously they are not interested in fixing them.

Thanks for the explanation of the problem Garf!

Well, I guess we will have to wait for iTunes to add AACPlus/HE-AAC encoder support so that the sheer volume of iTunes/iPod users will be making so much noise to the WinAmp developers, that they will use the CT decoder for MP4/M4A files instead of the old Dolby decoder. Then WinAMP will be able to properly play both Nero and iTunes generated HE-AAC M4A files.

What I've noticed In the past is that WinAmp's developers tend to wait until there is an avalanche of user complaints before adding new features or fixing rather trivial bugs/problems. What a shame. WinAmp used to be more responsive to its users. And AOL/WinAmp paid all the big bucks to Coding Technolgies to license the AACPlus v2 decoder to boot, and are just letting it sit there for just playback of .aac files and Internet streams. They are not using its full potential for M4A/MP4 HE-AAC/AACPlus file decoding in WinAmp. They paid royalties for it, so why use the old Dolby decoder? Makes no sense to me!

Well, I just posted a "bug report" against WinAmp 5.07 on WinAmp's community forum at:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=...085#post1539085

We'll see what they say. Perhaps others having this problem might want to post over there as well so they can see the magnitude/severity of this problem/bug.