RealPlayer10 for Linux & HE-AAC clips

[Kaiousama]

Hi,
i've downloaded RealPlayer10 (final release, 2 august 2004) for linux from HelixCommunity (https://helixcommunity.org/projects/player) and successfully installed it on my Madrake10 distribution.

I have problems in reproducing videoclips with HE-AAC audio (4cc = racp), the video flows normally but the audio is slowed down during reproduction (like listening at 1/2 of normal audio speed).

No problems in reproducing clips with AAC audio (4cc= raac).

Does anybody experienced the same problem? are there specific libraries for HE-AAC audio not installed with the standard RP10 distribution?

[Sirber]

Can you try with mplayer?

[Kaiousama]

Mplayer tried but no solution founded:

I've downloaded the latest release of MPlayer (1.0pre5) then installed and placed codecs in the proper directories (/usr/lib/RealPlayer9 for linux codecs, /usr/lib/win32 for win32 codecs).
Mplayer successfully play the video (with no seeking support if muxed into .rmvb container, with messy seek support if muxed into .mkv) but is not able to recognise audio codec (both AAC and HE-ACC) so videoclips are played without sound. I've gone to see into /etc/Mplayer/codecs.conf and as predicted raac and racp codecs are not yet categorized (and supported), i've tried to manually add audio codec support for raac (inserting in codecs.conf the new entry with dll to load and the identifier of the codec) but none is changed.
So i've dropped MPlayer.

Returning on RealPlayer10 i've noticed that in the subdir "/usr/local/RealPlayer10/codecs" is present raac.so (for AAC playback) but not racp.so (for HE-AAC playback).
I've searched racp.so over the net and i founded it at HelixCommunity producer project (http://helix-producer.helixcommunity.org/downloads.htm) (there is a specific AAC-fix package in the project page), then i copied racp.so into /codecs
Restarting RP10 with this new file plugged doesn't change anything.
So i've renamed racp.so into raac.so (maybe RP10 doesn't search racp.so but surely it looks for raac.so) but even this time HE-AAC audio sounds slowed down (AAC audio still sound properly with this last configuarion, this probably means that RP10 did used the renamed racp.so->raac.so for AAC playback but was not able to use the same file for HE-AAC playback).

I'm lost :( . Any idea?

[karl_lillevold]

For playback, racp should not be needed. HE-AAC playback should be included in the player's raac. I have not yet tried the player in Linux, but this sounds like a bug. Could you please ask in the forum on
https://player.helixcommunity.org/
https://helixcommunity.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=6
If no one replies right away, I will follow up and if necessary file a bug report. Thanks!

[Kaiousama]

I've just placed a thread on helixcommunity forum.

Thanks for your kindness, Karl ;)

[karl_lillevold]

kaiousama: I just installed RealPlayer 10 Gold for Linux on SuSE 9.0 on my laptop, and I can not reproduce this problem. A video test file with HE-AAC plays normally. I placed the test file here:
http://www.lillevold.com/files/aac_samples/video_he-aac.rmvb
Can you try that one?

[Kaiousama]

I just installed RealPlayer 10 Gold for Linux on SuSE 9.0 on my laptop, and I can not reproduce this problem. A video test file with HE-AAC plays normally. I placed the test file here:... Can you try that one?

Interesting developements:

I've tested your videoclip and it sounds normally even on my configuration (both on winXP and Linux) then there is something strange in the way i'm producing my videoclips.

I've uploaded an example here:
http://www.freewebs.com/kaiousama/test/Harlock_racp0.rmvb

Try to check this clip, it plays correctly on windows but sounds slowed under linux (the female voice singing becomes a male ^_^)

My videoclip's source was a dvd, processed with
this avisynth script (http://www.freewebs.com/kaiousama/test/Harlock.avs), and encoded by producer using this job file (http://www.freewebs.com/kaiousama/test/Harlock.rpjf).

The producer version is the latest developement build (mercury_Alpha1 10.1.0.390 2004-07-01) and the racp codec is indeed the latest(10.0.0.545 2004-04-17).

Can you take a quick look to these files and, if needed, try to encode your last videoclip with that settings. Probably something is wrong in my settings.

Sincerely

[karl_lillevold]

I see a difference... Thanks to D-C's latest RM shell extension (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55392)!

Kaiousama: in your clip, the frequency is set to 22050 Hz, while my version is 44100. This is clearly what is causing the error.

I was using an older version of Sirber's RealAnime to encode my clip. I will try the latest mercury alpha. Maybe there's a bug there.

[Kaiousama]

Originally posted by karl_lillevold
Kaiousama: in your clip, the frequency is set to 22050 Hz, while my version is 44100. This is clearly what is causing the error.

I didn't noticed it, an observation:
Decoding your clip and mine in windows via gabest's realmediasplitter + coreAAC for audio decoding, CoreAAC properties page reports a frequency of 22050 Hz for both the two clips.

To be complete in giving you informations, my videoclip's source audio stream had a frequency of 48000 Hz (it was the dvd's AC3 stream loaded in the avisynth script via AC3Filter).

Encoding the videoclip with raac codecs always result in a frequency of 44100 Hz, encoding with racp codecs the frequency always becomes 22050 Hz in the destination file.
In both the cases original clip's frequency is not preserved.

Here you find how producer (correctly) recognized the original .avs input clip, cut&pasted from producer.log :


--------- Input File Properties from rn-avfile-directshow
Input Filename: D:\HarlockDVD\Karl.avs
File Size: 1KB
Total Duration: 01:32.092
Video Track
Dimensions: 320 x 240
Frame Rate: 29.970 FPS
Format: YV12
Duration: 01:32.092
Audio Track
Channels: Stereo
Bit Depth: 16
SampleRate: 48000 Hz
Format: Uncompressed Audio
Duration: 01:32.092
--------- End Input File Properties
Using My Audience Audience
Using video codec: rv10 (186000 bps)
Using audio codec: racp (64000 bps)
Starting encoding pass
Setting video packet size to 1000
Finished Writing Volume ID 1.
Finished writing RealMedia File.
Out: Total Audio Video Avg Avg Pre- Audience Name
Aud kbps kbps kbps FPS QI roll
S1: 1:1 259 63.655 195 30.0 64 1 My Audience
Out: Min Min Min Min Audience Name
Aud FPS FPS Time QI QI Time
S2: 1:1 28.0 00:01:29 57 00:00:00 My Audience
Total Bitrate = 259 kbps
Encoding successful!

[karl_lillevold]

This seems to be a bug in mercury alpha1 racp. When I encode with Producer Mercury Alpha1, but use an older version of racp.dll (6.0.0.350 instead of 6.0.0.901) the frequency gets set correctly to 44100. I will file a bug. Thanks!

EDIT: in the meantime you can work around the problem by using an older racp.dll as well.

[Kaiousama]

I'm not able to find racp.dll ver. 6.0.0.350 (damned me when i cleaned my hd from old versions), can you provide a download link for this dll until the bug is corrected?

Thanks.

[karl_lillevold]

it seems even the previous version of the available AACPlus SDK add-on has the bug, so I provided a temporary download (the older version of racp.dll):
https://helixcommunity.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=50

[Liisachan]

Originally posted by Kaiousama
Encoding the videoclip with raac codecs always result in a frequency of 44100 Hz, encoding with racp codecs the frequency always becomes 22050 Hz in the destination file.
In both the cases original clip's frequency is not preserved. That feature is not too good, either. Downsampling 48KHz to 44.1KHz should be avoided unless that is really necessary, because it'll damage the sound quality, even with the best known algo (check pics here: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/fa/efu/fsconv/fsconv_2.html)

Personally I usually don't use AAC/RACP when I use RV9/10, but I hope this 48->44.1 feature will be changed. IIRC, that lossless audio codec coming with recent Producer cannot handle a file that is not 44.1KHz either. Sorry for being a bit off topic :)