HE-AAC support

[Wazof]

It would be nice if HE-AAC mutli-channel (5.1) would be supported in VLC (Mac version to be precise). Now I have to start my MacBook up in Windows, and use a different video-player. I like VLC (certainly after the dts-solution), so it's a pitty I can't use it. Someone knows if the team is working on this?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

HE-AAC should work. Samples ?

[Wazof]

No, only together with a movie. It's Nero HE-AAC 6ch ~192kbps. It's been recognized as 8 channels in VLC, and the output (even with spdif-out activated) is stereo-sound. I've tested a lot of movies, but there wasn't one that worked.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

samples ?

[Wazof]

I don't got any samples because I don't use the HE-AAC compression. But I tried to take the audio-track from the .mkv-file but it doesn't work. Only dts and ac3-tracks can be extracted.

[VLC_help]

What tool you tried (mkv extract part)?

[Wazof]

It was something like MKVToolnix. But it crashes when I load a mkv with HE-AAC (no problems when I load mkv's with dts or ac3).

[VLC_help]

Virtualdubmod might work (if you have access to Windows machine).

[Wazof]

And is it possible to take a part out of the audio-track with that tool? Because otherwise I would have more than one hour of audio.

[VLC_help]

Yes. First demux whole audio track.
http://www.digital-digest.com/articles/ ... page1.html
then cut small sample from it.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p ... post424391

[Wazof]

Ok, I will try to to make a sample. But you guys are sure it's possible to play multi-channel (5.1) HE-AAC audio in VLC for Mac? Because for Windows there are only plugins who can AAC change into AC3.

[VLC_help]

5.1 (and 7.1) should work but channel order might be wrong. And Nero Showtime handles 5.1 AAC audio without issues and Quicktime should also handle 5.1 AAC inside MOV container (many Apple trailers have 5.1 or 7.1 AAC).
http://www.grigio.org/howto_play_aac_5_1_over_spdif
that pages has few samples you can try.

[Wazof]

OK, I've downloaded some Apple-trailers with AAC 5.1. But when I play them with Quicktime and VLC, there isn't any DD 5.1 output. Just sound through the left/right+center speakers. No surround-sound. I there some option that I didn't activated?

[VLC_help]

AAC ain't Dolby Digital. They are both completely different formats. With AC3filter you can get AAC -> DD conversion on fly, but it doesn't work with VLC and VLC hasn't that option build in. Only real option is sound card / motherboard that has Dolby Live support if you want to do AAC 5.1 -> Dolby 5.1 with VLC.

[Wazof]

Ok, I tought it would be something like that. That's why I put this in the feature requests. Isn't it possible to put this in VLC, or are there to many copyrights or something, so you can't use such an ac3-filter.

[VLC_help]

AC3Filter is Open source, so yes, someone could implement same feature to VLC. Problem is that currently even SPDIF in VLC is broken for some users and without proper fixes and testing, adding this option might cause even more issues.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

VLC channels order for AAC will be fixed in next versions.