Roku Developer Program

[Arwen]

It is a shame that MP3 become the standard for music. Now many devices support
better methods like FLAC or AAC.

Using 128Kbps MP3s is noticably lacking but I have found that all 4 of my music
playing devices support 320Kbps MP3s. That's a car stereo, (via a USB flash drive),
my Roku 1 XR & 2 XS, a tablet using webOS, and a Linux netbook.

Even if Roku could not easily support FLAC, why can't it support music only AAC?

(AAC is supported as an audio option for Videos...)

[RokuJoel]

Roku does support music only AAC, just not via Shoutcast. For progressive download and (theoretically, haven't tested this yet) HLS audio only, AAC is supported.

- Joel

[Arwen]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
Roku does support music only AAC, just not via Shoutcast. For progressive download and (theoretically, haven't tested this yet) HLS audio only, AAC is supported.

- Joel

Joel,

Could AAC work for local media streaming channels like Roksbox?

I tried just naming the song "NAME.aac" but that did not work.
Roksbox just skipped over that song and went to the next one.
(Yes, my song seemed to be a properly made AAC.)

The USB media list does include AAC. I would like to see if AAC
can be supported by local streaming methods.

And if not, could this be added to the wish list for the next release?

Note for people that don't know, AAC seems to be twice as good as
MP3 at compression. Thus, a 128Kbps AAC stream is equivelent in
quality to a 256Kbps MP3 stream.

[gonzotek]

"Arwen" wrote:
Note for people that don't know, AAC seems to be twice as good as
MP3 at compression. Thus, a 128Kbps AAC stream is equivelent in
quality to a 256Kbps MP3 stream.

And more importantly, it's what many broadcasters are choosing to use for their streams. The TuneIn app on Roku, for instance, has lost the ability to play several streams from my local area radio stations, due to their change of streaming formats. They(the locals) appear to be prioritizing streaming content for Apple and Android devices. Since the codec already is available in the Roku, and there appears to be a growing demand, I'd also like to request Shoutcast-based AAC+ audio streaming.

[RokuJoel]

try naming your file .mp4 or .m4a and see if that fixes it with Roxbox.

- Joel

[Arwen]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
try naming your file .mp4 or .m4a and see if that fixes it with Roxbox.

- Joel

Thanks for the suggestion, but neither worked. Roksbox skipped over and gave me
an invalid audio format error, then played the next song.

That said, it's possible that the channel developer could change things around. I'll
follow up with him.

[RokuJoel]

pm me a link to download the file, I'll see if there is some reason why it might not play.

- Joel

[Arwen]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
pm me a link to download the file, I'll see if there is some reason why it might not play.

- Joel

Thanks. I did some more investigation and created a CD rip into AAC/M4A using;

/usr/bin/faac -w -q 130 -c 19000 --artist "%A" --album "%d" --title "%n" --track "%t" -o %m %w

That seems to be working. Roksbox is playing it right now for me.

Checking, my car stereo and tablet seem to support AAC/M4A. With that in mind,
I'll see if all 5 of my devices support AAC/M4A.