M4a?

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 16 Jul 2008 12:54 pm

On Charles Tilly's site the new song by Jimmy Ragan is an M4a file. Is that really a music file, or something else. I have seen that extension before but could never open one.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 16 Jul 2008 1:07 pm

Yes, it's an audio file. You should be able to open it in the QuickTime or iTunes player.

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 16 Jul 2008 7:22 pm

Thank you Steinar. I had so many problems with Quicktime player that I had to remove it. Too bad, I'd like to hear the song.

John Cipriano · Post by **John Cipriano** » 17 Jul 2008 12:52 pm

If you don't like the regular Quicktime player you can try Quicktime Alternative or QT Lite.

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 18 Jul 2008 12:20 pm

Thank you John. I finally got service pack 2 on my computer and now QT is behaving.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 18 Jul 2008 4:02 pm

Winamp will also play those Mp4 files. I guess it's a file related specifically to iTunes. My friend from CA sends me these files that he downloads from his or thru his iPod or iTunes subscription.

Pain in the butt.

Randy Phelps · Post by **Randy Phelps** » 18 Jul 2008 5:44 pm

CHIP FOSSA wrote:Winamp will also play those Mp4 files. I guess it's a file related specifically to iTunes. My friend from CA sends me these files that he downloads from his or thru his iPod or iTunes subscription.

Pain in the butt.

.m4a files are an implementation of the new mpeg standard designed to replace .mp3.

They are not specific to iTunes, but iTunes uses them in the interest of standards compliance and to provide better audio and because they have the ability to enforce digital rights management. When you buy a song in the iTunes store it will be 'protected' from folks 'giving it to you' or pirating it.. which can be a hassle...

Most modern music applications can play .m4a's....

You can read more about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.m4a

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 18 Jul 2008 6:05 pm

Thanks Randy,

I guess you mean that when you buy or download a song from an Mp4-specific site you have a somewhat guarantee it's the real McCoy, and not someones' copied version?

My friend did mention that about why he is given an MP4 file as opposed to an MP3. I forgot to include that in my post. Thank you.

Also, not sure what you mean by "most modern music applications" will play these files.

I have a brand-new-hated Vista PC and right off the bat Windows Media Player will not play them. When I had a SoundBlaster card running, it didn't play them. Goldwave, Cubase LE4, and Audacity, to name a few more, also do not play them.

I also have Quicktime Alternative, and Realplayer Alternative (which my buddy said both would work) but they do not recognize or play MP4s - maybe I need their full versions.

Chipper

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 18 Jul 2008 6:11 pm

Whoops, sorry for the double post.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 18 Jul 2008 7:05 pm

CHIP FOSSA wrote:
I have a brand-new-hated Vista PC and right off the bat Windows Media Player will not play them. When I had a SoundBlaster card running, it didn't play them. Goldwave, Cubase LE4, and Audacity, to name a few more, also do not play them.

Same here. I have to right click on the file, go to "open with" and then choose Quick Time or iTunes...

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 18 Jul 2008 7:36 pm

Yeah Steinar (and Randy)...

Just another headache. As if we already don't have enuff to deal with.

Like when they came out with TORK screws; and of course a whole new set of TORK screwdrivers, ratchets, drivers and all other re-tooling junk that, if you wanted to stay in the mechanical world, then get busy and open up your wallet and start buying these necessary tools; or ELSE - you're stuck buddy.

WHO, and WHY came up with, yet, another way to fasten things?

AUTO INDUSTRY is my best guess. Try to throw another monkey wrench at the average joe from getting at his vehicle to fix it. A feeble attempt to steer him/her to the local garage. How ridiculous and desperate can you get.

Someone please explain to me the reason for the TORK head concept? I can see going from flathead to Phillips; and even allen wrenches for in-tight spots and set screws. But I can't see the need for TORK or any other NEW way to screw things down; or .UP.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 18 Jul 2008 7:41 pm

Just a wild idea, but could the "a" in m4a stand for Apple, which is why they will only open in Apple's QuickTime and iTunes players?

John Roche · Post by **John Roche** » 18 Jul 2008 11:28 pm

See here ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_14

Lou[NE] · Post by **Lou[NE]** » 19 Jul 2008 5:59 am

Chip - Re. Torx fasteners. I think I saw them first on automobiles, and I agree with you in principle about them wanting to sell more tools, etc. But as an ex-HP assembly tech I can tell you that Torx fasteners are quicker and easier to deal with in an assembly-line environment than Phillips screws. It's pretty easy to bugger up the head on a Phillips screw. Not so with Torx.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 19 Jul 2008 9:31 am

The "a" in .m4a stands for "audio", not "Apple". Apple did start popularizing the .m4a extension as opposed to the .mp4 extension to differentiate between the audio only files (.m4a) and the combined video, text and audio files (.mp4).

The Wikipedia link provided by John Roche gives a good overview of the hardware and software that currently supports MPEG-4 recording and playback.

Randy Phelps · Post by **Randy Phelps** » 19 Jul 2008 2:11 pm

a little background... The standards organizations get together and many vendors participate in the organizations both as scientists and to protect what they are doing in the marketplace.

During the building of the specifications for both video and audio and what would be needed for consumers and for providing guidelines teams of folks work on what would be the 'best solution' to provide the best experience for users given all the considerations that would face the hardware, software and consumer...

to that end, the methodology that Apple's scientists developed and were commoditized as part of the quicktime product suite was adopted. What became the mp3 file is slowly, but surely being replaced by mp4. mp4 has much more functionality and will, over time, prove to be really valuable by consumers and vendors... mp4 is part of lots of different technologies that we are already using in video and audio etc. The A in m4a was appended because the mp4 standard did not call out certain characteristics that vendors found that consumers wanted and expected.

There are lots and lots of programs that recognize and use m4a. As for it being a headache... it hasn't been one for me... granted, I work in the technology field and have worked with and on many of the products mentioned in the wikipedia article.... the value, for me, to listen to audio on my computer and the internet, my phone, my ipod etc etc is worth the couple of minutes it takes to learn about it.

mp3's were a 'headache' when they first came out, but became ubiquitous to the point that they became 'simple'. I'd submit they didn't change at all, we did!

if you use itunes you can 'translate' all of your m4a files to mp3 if you choose to (except for the songs bought on the itunes store which are protected) you'll experience a little loss in sound quality, but if you are sending them to friends who can only use mp3's it is a reasonable compromise.

On the quicktime player woes: There are millions and millions (not exaggerating) of folks using it with great success... I wonder what is keeping you from enjoying the same experience? I'm sure if you wanted to work through it you could get it working for you.

John Cipriano · Post by **John Cipriano** » 19 Jul 2008 4:52 pm

MP3s will never die.

In the old days a lot of people had to trade in their Lisp workstations for the new-fangled Unix ones. Unix was fragile and weird. As we now say, "worse is better".

A hardware manufacturer could port Unix quickly to their new hardware. It was lean and portable, as opposed to complete or well-thought-out. Unix was the assembly-line product that everyone could afford. The Model T of computer systems.

This was what academia got, but it was too good for the rest of us. We all joined the fun when DOS was in full-swing. DOS is not an improvement over Unix in *any* sense. No networking, no security, no multi-tasking. But it was cheap, and so it spread like a forest fire.

Most MP3 players are based on Chinese SoCs (system-on-chip) that cost pennies. Manufacturers love this. Despite the shortcomings of MP3, the industry is set up around it, and change costs money. Support for more file formats in portable players means faster processors and better batteries.

Other formats like MPEG-4 Audio and Ogg Vorbis have better quality at the same file sizes. They have features like gapless playback, better tagging, support for copy-protection, and more. MP3s are worse technically, which pretty much guarantees that they are never going away.

(Torx, incidentally, allow factories to apply more torque to screw before it strips. They like it. So, we most bow down before our new hexagonal overlords.)

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 27 Jul 2008 1:37 pm

I'm running Vista. Winamp will play MP4.

Just today I reinstalled for the umteenth time: SB AudigyIIValue.

I had problems with SB when I first got this new Vista PC. They sort of had some update Vista drivers, but they didn't seem to help.

Creative's website now has very new Vista updates. Says that playing MP4 files is now possible. But their feature called Media Source Go, is not working. It's an upper screen drop-down menu. Convienience.

But, I thought SB would increase my overall PC volume. I did a check on playing the same song thru: SB; WMP; and Winamp. No noticeable difference.

My Altec woofer/satellite speaker system bit the dust, so I'm running 4 satellites and a Radio Shack sub woofer. Not the best.

Could this be why my volume is diminished?

Didn't mean to change the focus here, but I'm just typing as I'm thinking.

Please forgive and help.

Thanks all.

Cipriano