How to play my my .m4a/aac files on D2 - what are my options?

[JakeDrums]

Hello,

Apologies, I'm aware that this topic has been covered before but I've been unable to find a definitive answer so I thought I'd ask my questions here.

I recently purchased a 16Gb D2 after my old iPod stopped working after I accidentally dropped it! I decided on the D2 after listening to a friend's D2 and reading the good reviews etc.

I'm a Mac user and everything I read implied that the D2 would work fine with it so I thought life would be simple.

Unfortunately I only discovered after getting my D2 that it won't play nice with .mp4 files and since ~99% of my music collection is stored as .aac files having ripped them in iTunes at the highest aac setting, this is proving a bit awkward. I know I can change the extension from .m4a to .aac and the D2 will then play them but then all the tag information is ignored which makes it frustrating to use.

I would rather not convert my whole selection to mp3 as I will lose quality when converting from one lossy format to another and I would rather not spend the time re-ripping several hundred cds. So what are my options?

Is there anyway I can get my D2 (presently using FW 2.59) to understand the tag information in the aac files? I could write a script to rename the extensions on my music files which I wouldn't mind doing if the tag information could be used.

I've read that older firmwares supported aac/m4a - did the older firmware understand the aac tags and if so where can I get hold of the older firmware and which version could I use? I wouldn't mind using older firmware if it means I can play my music collection on my D2.

What about alternative firmware such as Rockbox? I keep reading mention of it being worked on for the D2 but I can't find anything about the current status and the D2 is not listed as a supported player for it. If I do manage to put Rockbox on my D2 will it play my m4a/aac files and understand the tags? Is Rockbox usable on a D2 or is it too buggy?


I would be greatful for any advice or help that you could provide. I like the sound quality and features of the D2 but I don't want to re-rip my entire music collection just to get it to play with my new player.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Jake

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Your options for proper AAC playback indeed are slim, you should have informed yourself about the D2's codec support before you bought it...

Originally Posted by JakeDrums

Is there anyway I can get my D2 (presently using FW 2.59) to understand the tag information in the aac files?

No.

Originally Posted by JakeDrums

I've read that older firmwares supported aac/m4a - did the older firmware understand the aac tags and if so where can I get hold of the older firmware and which version could I use? I wouldn't mind using older firmware if it means I can play my music collection on my D2.

The unofficial, unfinished AAC support was always the same, just missing from some firmware versions in the middle of the D2's life cycle. All other firmwares work (or, don't work) the same regarding this matter.

Originally Posted by JakeDrums

If I do manage to put Rockbox on my D2 will it play my m4a/aac files and understand the tags?

Yes.

Originally Posted by JakeDrums

Is Rockbox usable on a D2 or is it too buggy?

Unfortunately it's far from being finished, but for listening to music it might suffice.

You can read about the current status and progress here: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/CowonD2Info

[billrhea]

Your problem is not the D2, it's that you got sucked in to using Itunes. There is a reason mant other players do not sync well with itunes. Apple would love nothing ebetter then for you to buy a crappy ipod.

[dfkt]

A part of the problem is certainly that Cowon really doesn't have a clue about what features customers from the western world want/need. Hence the neverending discussions about gapless, playlists, h.264, AAC, etc. Hell, even Cowon's own O2 can play AAC files, but the much more popular D2 and S9 cannot. Figures.

Samsung, Sony, Zune, Rockbox - they all play AAC just fine. It's not like AAC is a crippled, locked-down format exclusive to Apple (the decoder is free open source) - every other company could support it, if they had a bit of common sense.

[JakeDrums]

Many thanks for your helpful response dfkt. I'll look further into rockbox.

I know I should have checked the codec support more closely but as it was recommended to me by another mac user and seemed to be an open player I thought I'd be fine to just drag and drop my files across.

Anymore useful ideas will be welcomed.

[Flamin_Spirit]

if you ripped from CDs you could always rerip in a different format, but if you do anything do not convert the .aac to another lossy format, as your quality will go down the tube, if you got the .aac from an online store or iTunes then you're pretty much sunk unless you use Rockbox