AAC in ASF files

[scgroup]

I have some .asf files with H264 video and AAC audio streams. When one of these files is opened in VLC (either 0.9.8a under Win XP or 0.8.6e under Ubuntu), the video plays fine but there is no sound. The Errors window shows: 'No suitable decoder module: VLC does not support the audio or video format "mp4a". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.' The files won't play in mplayer or WMP, either. The Stream Properties Object for the audio stream has a Format Tag of 28781 (0x706d, FAAD AAC). I tried changing it to 0xff (AAC), with no effect. The audio stream payloads contain raw AAC data (CPE and END elements), without any headers other than the payload headers defined by ASF. Is this expected to work? If not, what additional header is needed?

I know that the audio is good and that VLC can decode it, because if the audio payloads are extracted, prepended with suitable ADTS headers, and written to a .aac file, the result can be opened in VLC and it plays fine!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Can you give us access to this stream?

[scgroup]

Can you give us access to this stream?

Thanks for offering to take a look.
A failing .asf file (truncated to 100 packets): http://rapidshare.com/files/187541245/test1.asf.html
A .aac made from it: http://rapidshare.com/files/187541246/test1.aac.html

Messages when I try to play the .asf:
main debug: looking for demux module: 59 candidates
asf debug: found object guid: 0x75b22630-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c size:682
asf debug: read "header object" subobj:6, reserved1:1, reserved2:2
asf debug: found object guid: 0x8cabdca1-0xa947-0x11cf-0x8ee400c00c205365 size:104
asf debug: read "file properties object" file_id:0x0-0x0-0x0-0x0000000000000000 file_size:732 creation_date:0 data_packets_count:0 play_duration:30000000 send_duration:0 preroll:3000 flags:1 min_data_packet_size:3000 max_data_packet_size:3000 max_bitrate:5120000
asf debug: found object guid: 0x5fbf03b5-0xa92e-0x11cf-0x8ee300c00c205365 size:46
asf debug: read "header extension object" reserved1:0xabd3d211-0xa9ba-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 reserved2:6 header_extension_size:0
asf debug: found object guid: 0x75b22633-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c size:80
asf debug: read "content description object" title:"Test" artist:"Tester" copyright:"" description:"" rating:""
asf debug: found object guid: 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 size:150
asf debug: read "stream Properties object" stream_type:0xbc19efc0-0x5b4d-0x11cf-0xa8fd00805f5c442b error_correction_type:0x20fb5700-0x5b55-0x11cf-0xa8fd00805f5c442b time_offset:0 type_specific_data_length:72 error_correction_data_length:0 flags:0x2 stream_number:2
asf debug: found object guid: 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 size:114
asf debug: read "stream Properties object" stream_type:0xf8699e40-0x5b4d-0x11cf-0xa8fd00805f5c442b error_correction_type:0xbfc3cd50-0x618f-0x11cf-0x8bb200aa00b4e220 time_offset:0 type_specific_data_length:28 error_correction_data_length:8 flags:0x1 stream_number:1
asf debug: found object guid: 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 size:158
asf debug: read "stream Properties object" stream_type:0x3afb65e2-0x47ef-0x40f2-0xac2c70a90d71d343 error_correction_type:0x20fb5700-0x5b55-0x11cf-0xa8fd00805f5c442b time_offset:0 type_specific_data_length:80 error_correction_data_length:0 flags:0x3 stream_number:3
asf debug: found object guid: 0x75b22636-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c size:50
asf debug: read "data object" file_id:0x0-0x0-0x0-0x0000000000000000 total data packet:0 reserved:257
asf debug: + 'Unknown' GUID 0x0-0x0-0x0-0x0000000000000000 size:0pos:0
asf debug: + 'Header' GUID 0x75b22630-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c size:682pos:0
asf debug: | + 'File Properties' GUID 0x8cabdca1-0xa947-0x11cf-0x8ee400c00c205365 size:104pos:30
asf debug: | + 'Header Extension' GUID 0x5fbf03b5-0xa92e-0x11cf-0x8ee300c00c205365 size:46pos:134
asf debug: | + 'Content Description' GUID 0x75b22633-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c size:80pos:180
asf debug: | + 'Stream Properties' GUID 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 size:150pos:260
asf debug: | + 'Stream Properties' GUID 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 size:114pos:410
asf debug: | + 'Stream Properties' GUID 0xb7dc0791-0xa9b7-0x11cf-0x8ee600c00c205365 size:158pos:524
asf debug: + 'Data' GUID 0x75b22636-0x668e-0x11cf-0xa6d900aa0062ce6c size:50pos:682
asf debug: found 3 streams
main debug: selecting program id=0
asf debug: added new video stream(ID:2)
asf debug: added new audio stream(codec:0x706d,ID:1)
asf debug: Ext stream header detected. datasize = 80
main debug: using demux module "asf"
main debug: TIMER module_Need() : 2.000 ms - Total 2.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 2.000 ms)
qt4 debug: New Event: type 1103
qt4 debug: Updating the stream status: 2
main debug: looking for a subtitle file in xxxxxxxx
main debug: looking for decoder module: 34 candidates
avcodec debug: libavcodec already initialized
qt4 debug: New Event: type 1108
avcodec debug: ffmpeg codec (H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10)) started
main debug: using decoder module "avcodec"
main debug: TIMER module_Need() : 4.000 ms - Total 4.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 4.000 ms)
main debug: thread 5164 (decoder) created at priority 0 (input/decoder.c:217)
main debug: thread started
main debug: looking for decoder module: 34 candidates
avcodec debug: refusing to use ffmpeg's (MPEG AAC Audio) decoder which is buggy
kate debug: kate: OpenDecoder
main debug: TIMER module_Need() : 12.000 ms - Total 12.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 12.000 ms)
main error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `mp4a'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
main debug: killing decoder fourcc `mp4a', 0 PES in FIFO
qt4 debug: Hide the Interaction Dialog
main debug: xxxxxxxx successfully opened

Messages when playing the .aac:

To help you, we need messages, to completely understand what your problems is.
To fix this, please be sure before you start the playback to:

1. Open: Tools -> Messages.
2. Set Verbosity to 2
3. Start playback to reproduce your issue
4. Save text in a file or copy into clipboard
5. Then paste the full resulting log here between [​code]and[​/code] (or use Pastebin.com if it's too long)

Also don't forget to name your Operating System and provide the VLC media player version.

packetizer_mpeg4audio debug: detected ADTS format
packetizer_mpeg4audio info: AAC channels: 2 samplerate: 32000
main debug: selecting program id=0
main debug: looking for decoder module: 34 candidates
main debug: using decoder module "faad"
main debug: TIMER module_Need() : 0.000 ms - Total 0.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 0.000 ms)
main debug: thread 5936 (decoder) created at priority 2 (input/decoder.c:217)

[scgroup]

Just for laughs, I tried patching the running libavcodec_plugin.dll to ignore the "refusing to use" check. The messages now show:
avcodec debug: libavcodec already initialized
avcodec warning: Physical channel configuration not set : guessing
avcodec warning: Audio object type 0 is not supported.
(aac@00D19440)
avcodec error: cannot open codec (MPEG AAC Audio)
kate debug: kate: OpenDecoder
main debug: TIMER module_Need() : 15.000 ms - Total 15.000 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 15.000 ms)
main error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `mp4a'.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.
main debug: killing decoder fourcc `mp4a', 0 PES in FIFO

So, perhaps the real problem is that my .asf files don't specify an audio opject type. I assume this means AOT_AAC_MAIN, AOT_AAC_LC, etc. Does this belong in the Stream Properties Object somewhere? Or is a per-payload header of some sort needed to specify it?

Or, could someone please point me to a sample clip in .asf format with AAC audio, so I can see what a good file looks like?

[pc2000b]

Did you fulfill AAC in .asf file successfully?