I have downloaded ffdshow and installed. What is the next step? I have lots of files that I converted to AAC via iTunes a couple of years ago, and I want to be able to see them and play them via WMP 11...and ultimately Vista Media Center. I have looked and looked, and there are little crumbs of info, but I have been unable to figure it out. Please help. Thanks.

Start the ffdshow audio-decoder conigurator and look under the "Codecs" menu if AAC is enabled.

Says libfaad2...not disabled. What do I do next?

Well, that's how it works for me (although I still use XP, could be a Vista related bug)

Doesn't the Zune software install a AAC decoder?

No, it's specific to the Zune Software itself... probably due to licensing.

Install Haali Media Splitter as well.

Tried that and get the:

"MP4: no supported tracks found."

Download the Orban (CT Decoder) plugin listed at the top of the page Here
More info:
SUPPORTED FILE TYPES

AAC / HE-AAC / eAAC / eAAC+ / aacPlus®

.aac ISO/IEC 13818-7

.mp4 ISO/IEC 14496-3/12/14

.m4a (Apple iTunes® Unprotected) ISO/IEC 14496-3/12/14

.m4b (Apple iTunes® Unprotected Bookmark) ISO/IEC 14496-3/12/14

.3gp 3GPP TS 26.244

METADATA FILE TAG INFORMATION

.aac ID3v2 .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png 80 x 80 min. Unicode Artist / Title – Line 1 / Line 2

.mp4 UTF-8 Under Development

.m4a,m4b Apple iTunes® .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png 80 x 80 min. UTF-8 Artist / Title – Line 1 / Line 2

.3gp 3GPP TS 26.244 UTF-8/16 Artist / Title – Line 1 / Line 2

Artist, Title, and Media Graphics are shown in the media player video window at 320 x 240 while playing.

SUPPORTED LIVE STREAM TYPES

HTTP/ICY/TCP ADTS SHOUTcast® RFC 2616

HTTP/ICY/TCP ADTS Icecast2 RFC 2616

RTSP/RTP/TCP MPEG-4 RFC 2326 2327 3550

RTSP/RTP/TCP MPEG-4 Packet Optimized RFC 2326 2327 3550

RTSP/RTP/TCP 3GPP/LATM RFC 2326 2327 3016

RTSP/RTP/TCP 3GPP/LATM Packet Optimized RFC 2326 2327 3016

HTTP/RTSP/RTP/TCP MPEG-4 RFC 1945 2326 2327 3550

HTTP/RTSP/RTP/TCP MPEG-4 Packet Optimized RFC 1945 2326 2327 3550

HTTP/RTSP/RTP/TCP 3GPP/LATM RFC 1945 2326 2327 3016

HTTP/RTSP/RTP/TCP 3GPP/LATM Packet Optimized RFC 1945 2326 2327 3016

RTSP/RTP/UDP MPEG-4 Under Development

RTSP/RTP/UDP MPEG-4 Packet Optimized Under Development

RTSP/RTP/UDP 3GPP/LATM Under Development

RTSP/RTP/UDP 3GPP/LATM Packet Optimized Under Development

UVOX/TCP ADTS Under Development

UVOX/TCP MPEG-4 Under Development

Still no dice

@ Heboil (the original poster)

The Orban AAC Plug-In works very well for Windows Media Player 11. I have been using it to play standard (NO DRM encryption) AAC (.m4a) and HE-AAC encoded audio files in WMP 11 without any problems for almost 3 months now.

I assume you already know that you cannot play songs purchased on Apple iTunes that have DRM protection (.m4p files) on WMP. So if you have any DRM protected AAC files from iTunes, just forget about playing them on WMP unlesss the DRM is "removed". I'll let you figure that part out for yourself.

First of all, make sure you installed the Orban AAC Plug-In correctly. Just double click on the downloaded .exe file and follow the automated install instructions. Restart your computer and open WMP 11.

Important!!! >>> You should know that the Orban AAC Plug-In will NOT show any AAC encoded files in the WMP 11 music library list. So this means you will NOT be able to add any AAC files to your WMP library and you will not actually see any AAC music files in the WMP playlist. You will only be able to see the usual MP3 and WMA files in the music library and playlists but not any AAC files.

Unfortunately, what you have to do is manually play "individual" songs with the "file open" command. So go to your menu bar and click on File and then click on Open. Then locate the folder where you have your AAC files stored, for example, your My Music folder. Once you click on the relevant folder, make sure you choose the correct "files of type:" choices. You should now be able to see and add your AAC files to WMP 11.

The really cool thing is that the Orban plug-in also allows you to listen to free internet radio streams that are using AAC or HE-AAC encoding. This provides you an alternative to using Winamp 5.3 (although in my opinion Winamp is better for listening to radio streams). Check out www.tuner2.com and click on the "windows media player directory" button for lots of cool free internet "radio" channels with a variety of music from around the world. You can play these radio channels in WMP 11 once the plug-in is installed.

Hope all this works for you.

Use WMPTSE to be able to add mp4 (non-DRMed) in the MediaLibrary.
It also read the MPEG4 metadata in the file and adds them in the library (if you don't want this, disable the plug-in, you will still have the ability to add the file in WMP).

Also, prefer to "Add To Library" the directory containing all your files. Opposed to "drag'n'drop" the directory directly on the "Library" icon which is quite CPU intensive because WMP will call the plug-in for each and every file one by one.

You can get WMPTSE here,
learn more here and report any bug here

Please note that you still NEED a directshow filter to be able to READ the audio datas.

WMPTSE IS NOT A CODEC. See Ajax previous post for this.

WMPTSE + the right DirectShow codec = full support in WMP.

See this tutorial to learn how to get things right with Media Center

Cheers,

MaB_fr

These are all songs I have ripped myself...so no DRM. Perhaps it is a Vista problem. I will try again tonight.

I previously installed the Orban AAC plug-in and it worked fine on my system. I am running Windows Vista Business and WMP11. I then uninstalled it and installed the latest version of Nero 7. Nero 7 even allowed for WMP11 playback in Vista.

No dice.

try Haali Media Splitter(if you don't have it installed yet) with CoreAAC

to install CoreAAC, place it in C:\WINDOWS\system32 . then click Start > Run > type in "regsvr32 CoreAAC.ax" without the quotes.

i guess you could also run the bat files...