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Thanks, this answers it. I'm just wondering, is it enough to copy the plugins (DLL files) to the GStreamer directory in Songbird?

JeCh: The DirectShow/GStreamer wrapper isn't generic: it uses some directshow filters, not arbitrary ones. So installing third-party directshow filters doesn't help.

I agree about other AAC decoders being a good idea - if people want to create addons for those, that's fantastic. We can't do it for free though, because it isn't legal to distribute them without paying for the AAC licensing fees. The linux distributions generally don't include this sort of thing in the main repositories, they have it in external repositories that have... legally dubious status, at least in some jurisdictions. But I'm not a lawyer!

Hi Mike,

I find your answer quite confuding. If I understand things correctly, the addon is a GStreamer wrapper to DirectShow. So it should play anything supported by DirectShow (= plays in WMP). So to support AAC, you need an MP4 splitter (if the file is MP4) or AAC Parser (if it is raw AAC stream) and of course an AAC decoder like ffdshow.

Most people try Songbird because they dislike iTunes and QuickTime. So installing QuickTime is no oprtion for most users.

The other confusion comes from the fact that GStreamer has it's plugins tu support nearly all common media formats (including AAC). What's wrong with these plugins? Why don't you use them and suggest a DirectShow wrapper instead?

Also I think that AAC is as much free as MP3. Both formats are restricted by patent law in many countries. That's the reason why they are in the "bad" and "ugly" GStreamer plugins. But it should be possible to create an addon which includes them. In fact almost all Linux distributions allow you to install them. So there must a be a legal way to do it.

Great, glad that helped.

Unfortunately, windows doesn't come with an AAC decoder (!). We can't include one ourselves, because AAC isn't free - and songbird is.

Quicktime, however, does have an AAC decoder - which we'll use if it's installed. So if you install a recent version of quicktime, it should work. Can you try that? You'll need to restart songbird after installing quicktime, but you don't need to install any extra addons for songbird.

Thanks a ton, should definitely be mentioned in the "How to Enable GStreamer" page. Anyways, my AAC files aren't playing, why? MP3s are fine though.

Hi. To get support for common formats (like mp3) via gstreamer on windows, you'll need to install this addon: http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/...

If that doesn't help, please let us know, and we'll try to get this fixed for you.

Sweet!

Go grab the latest SHOUTcast addon (version 0.4.8) where I fixed this exact bug. Thanks!

http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/...