I installed the .mp4 plugin from www.rarewares.org/files/aac/in_mp4.zip (linked from coolplayer.sourceforge.net/?plugins). It works fine for all my .m4a's (only about 30) except for 3 I got from a friend. These are recordings from the built-in mic on is Mac laptop. They play fine in VLC and MPlayer Portable. MPlayer's output log is identical for the files that work in CoolPlayer+ and those that don't. They seem to have the same fourcc code in the header. Any ideas?
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You could convert them to something that you can play with CoolPlayer.
Try XMediaRecodePortable or BoncEncPortable.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Or I could use a different player. I'm just the curious type, wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
The .m4a's were created in GarageBand on a MacBook. CoolPlayer puts wrong data into the "kbps" and "kHz" fields, like 128/24, 96/12, 224/8, 64/84, etc. The songs that do work all show 0 kbps, 44 kHz. And the display of "remaining time" is wrong too. Must be something non-standard in the header.
Sounds like an issue figuring out the format/data/etc.
You might try to find a Coolplayer forum - they might have more information on the way that their product handles various formats.
The other thing you might want to consider is trying another player, such as XMplay. It is under continual development, supports many plugins to read virtually every format under the sun, has active forum/support, and best of all, a portable version is available here.
Coolplayer was last updated almost a year and a half ago. While many freeware/open source programs are still good for that length of time, in digital music land where new developments happen often, that's pretty old.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
They're not variable bitrate files are they? I know some players do not handle VBR MP3s very gracefully. Either that, or the Mac GarageBand is setting some kind Original Bit flag or some other digital rights issues; try playing it on your iPod (assuming you have one and it assuming it plays m4a format).
Thanks for the suggestions. I did think about the variable bit-rate possibility too: I'll check that. And I'll take a look at XMplay.
IMHO XMPlay is THE best MP3 (audio) player out there. It has the best audio output quality, it's lightweight, but it has all the features you need and supports a vast number of formats without the need for additional plugins.
Definite thumbs up! AND I see on here that it may well be added to the PortableApps collection, which means I'll definitely ditch CoolPlayer+, it's just not robust enough. I used to Winamp many moons ago, but I think XMPlay is even better than the mighty Winamp!