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Forum: VirtualDJ Technical Support

Tema: An .mp3 file (AAC codec) does not load unless renamed to .mp4/.mp4a/etc.
Hey,

I usually prefer .mp3 files for the ease of tagging but some of those refuse to load in VirtualDJ. Needless to say they play just fine in other players or the browser.
After quite some digging through their encoding settings and comparing to files that load in VDJ, it seems that problem occurs only with files encoded with AAC. For some time I had accepted that problem but now I got and renamed one such .mp3 to .aac and VDJ played it! I renamed it to .mp4, then to .mp4a, then .m4a and every time VDJ loaded the file correctly. Then after renaming back to .mp3 it refused to load it again.
So my question is if there is a way to get VDJ to not be confused by the .mp3 extension? Apparently file content is playable unless the extension is .mp3.

Thanks a lot!
 

Mensajes Tue 22 Mar 22 @ 12:17 pm
AdionPRO InfinityCTOMember since 2006
Which version of vdj are you using?
 

Mensajes Tue 22 Mar 22 @ 12:32 pm
That is v8.5 b6839 on Mac OS 11.6
 

Mensajes Tue 22 Mar 22 @ 12:57 pm
Aac encoded files should not have an mp3 file extension.

I am surprised that any application would be able to play them that way.
 

Mensajes Tue 22 Mar 22 @ 4:00 pm
You are right that they should not be having the .mp3 but after all for some files it works and for others it does not. So I was hoping that someone may have had this same problem before and possibly to have found an easy solution.
I guess my way around will be to rename those files and possibly retag. At least I found a way to get them playing :)

Cheers
 

Mensajes Tue 22 Mar 22 @ 8:26 pm
AdionPRO InfinityCTOMember since 2006
If you can share one of the files I can have a look. Seems to work fine for the mp4's I tried here though.
 

Mensajes Wed 23 Mar 22 @ 3:36 am
AdionPRO InfinityCTOMember since 2006
Thanks for sending the file, I will have a look
 

Mensajes Wed 23 Mar 22 @ 11:55 am
wickedmix wrote :
Aac encoded files should not have an mp3 file extension.

I am surprised that any application would be able to play them that way.

The extension is mostly for listing and a hint as to what it is. Most any AV program doesn't pay any attention to it, as it could be anything, and opens the file to determine the files type. But since video decoding software is written by a large assortment of people, it could be that the decoder is not doing the right thing and is using the extension which should be considered a bug and maybe slipped by testing. I had this happen and got the thing fixed.

 

Mensajes Fri 25 Mar 22 @ 1:22 pm
Don you could be right but the tags for MP4 and aac files are not the same as mp3 and if you put an id3 tag inside a aac file maybe it corrupts it in a way that prevents proper playback. Of course I'm no expert but best to have correct extensions on your files
 

Mensajes Fri 25 Mar 22 @ 4:50 pm
Just by chance, are you sure the extension matches the file format? Try using something like MediaInfo (https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo) to find out the real format of the file.
 

Mensajes Sun 27 Mar 22 @ 11:22 am
It surely does not. But that's where the problem comes from - VDJ gets confused by the extension and can't play it.
 

Mensajes Mon 28 Mar 22 @ 9:00 am
wickedmix wrote :
Don you could be right but the tags for MP4 and aac files are not the same as mp3 and if you put an id3 tag inside a aac file maybe it corrupts it in a way that prevents proper playback. Of course I'm no expert but best to have correct extensions on your files

Well nothing should be done to most any file based only on the extension. So the proper way to identify the file is to open it up and go thru some inspection. So a program that is working properly will know what the files type is for sure and will not allow inappropriate modifications to the file. If you have an mp4 with extension mp3 and allow modifications like it is an mp3 then sure that is a big problem. Yes it is best to have an appropriate extension but it is bad for any AV program to depend only on the extension for type information. The extension is a hint but of course should not be used for AV playback etc. except for listing. It's like taking some file any file and change the extension to exe. It won't run because it has been inspected and determined that it is not an exe. You can take an actual exe file and give it some other extension. It may or may not run as an exe. In this case the extension is used to route the opening of the file to some program that may handle that extension. If there is no handler for that extension then it will probably run as an exe. So it should be considered a bug if any program is only going by the extension for whatever purpose other than listing. The extension also does not tell you a lot about the file. Like AVI for instance is a container for a large assortment of AV formats. You only know how to deal with it after you open and inspect it like most any file. Bottom line is it's a bug if not handed properly. And yes MediaInfo is great tool for AV files.

 

Mensajes Fri 01 Apr 22 @ 6:07 pm
pipmilPRO InfinityMember since 2010
Same problem with AAC va01 MP4 Videos files, Virtual dj would Crashed on loading these files, I’ve converted them all now. Can’t understand why no update yet on MAC as they play fine on windows 🤔
 

Mensajes Wed 29 Jun 22 @ 5:54 am
pipmilPRO InfinityMember since 2010
One thing I did notice with having the problem with AAC files I started playing my FLAC files and noticed a improvement in the sound. But the headaches are over for now lol
 

Mensajes Wed 29 Jun 22 @ 6:08 am