Apple trailers and audio problems

[PaulJBis]

Hi all:

I'm having a problem trying to play some of the trailers at Apple's site using Media Player Classic and ffdshow. My software is:

-Windows XP SP2.
-Media Player Classic 6.4.8.6.
-ffdshow: build 20051208.

Supposedly, the audio in Apple's trailers is AAC, so in the ffdshow audio setup I enable the "AAC" option (putting either "realaac" or "libfaad2"; both have the same result). Then I rename the .mov file to .mp4 (because otherwise MPC just uses the Quicktime 6 libraries to try to play it, and it doesn't work)... and when playing, MPC says that "The following pins failed to find a connectable filter: Apple Sound Media Handle", and the video plays, but with sound.

I tried both enabling and disabling the AAC option in "Transform filters", in MPC, without success. I have searched the forum and found a quite detailed post... but it talked about using the Matroska splitter, and I'd prefer not to use it. The way I see it, I already have a player that understands both the .mov and the .mp4 formats, and I have a codec (ffdshow) that can play both H264 and AAC... so what's not working?

[Czarek Kwasny]

hello, cannot help you with the audio issue, but here's little tip:
If you want to prevent unecessary Mov->MP4 renaming just make sure to set this option:
http://gfx.artivo.pl/temp/qtviadshow.png

[bond]

again:

.mov and .mp4 are DIFFERENT containers.
the aac audio is stored DIFFERENTLY in .mov and .mp4.
therefore a player supporting aac-in-mp4 will NOT support aac-in-mov (or the other way round) unless it explicitely support .mp4 AND .mov

so DONT rename .mov to .mp4

[PaulJBis]

Okay, okay ;)

Anyway, I did what Czarek Kwasny recommended, and now I can get MPC to play Quicktime files by itself without renaming the file, but the audio problem persists. I tried downloading and installing the CoreAAC filter (and disabling AAC in ffdshow), but it had the same problem. I even tried loading the filter in the "Overrides" section of Media Player Classic (more to see if it worked by dumb luck than anything), and... no, it doesn't. What else can it be?

[bond]

disable the internal mpc .mp4 splitter and qt alternative
install haali splitter + coreaac

try again

[PaulJBis]

Thanks, that worked. And wow, it didn't even mess with my current settings for playing AVIs... ;) So thanks.

Now that it works, there's only one question left: why? If .mov and .mp4 are different formats, how does changing the MP4 splitter (from the MPC one to the Haali one) affect anything when I try to play .mov files?

Also, I tried disabling the CoreAAC filter and letting either MPC or ffdshow decode the audio, and now it works too. Why? Is the default MPC MP4 splitter "corrupting" the AAC stream somehow when decoding it? (notice the quotes; I know nothing about the internal workings of all this stuff, as it should be obvious).

[bond]

Thanks, that worked. And wow, it didn't even mess with my current settings for playing AVIs... ;) So thanks.

Now that it works, there's only one question left: why? If .mov and .mp4 are different formats, how does changing the MP4 splitter (from the MPC one to the Haali one) affect anything when I try to play .mov files?

Also, I tried disabling the CoreAAC filter and letting either MPC or ffdshow decode the audio, and now it works too. Why? Is the default MPC MP4 splitter "corrupting" the AAC stream somehow when decoding it? (notice the quotes; I know nothing about the internal workings of all this stuff, as it should be obvious).the default mpc mp4 splitter is what the name says: a mp4 splitter, and therefore only handles mp4
haalis media splitter is a mp4 + mov splitter, and therefore handles mov too

as i said aac is stored differently in mov and mp4, therefore a mp4only splitter will not output something useful with aac-in-mov files