Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

2007-08-11 17:49:53

I just got off of a 2 hour phone call with tech support and I have sent numerous e-mails back and forth to tech support as well.  I have made three posts on the Xbox 360 forums and no one is answering.  So maybe someone here on hydrogenaudio can test this out with their own Xbox 360 (if they have one).  I have many, many Nero AAC files that were encoded at -q0.65.  They play just fine on my iPod, Zune, PocketPC, car CD deck via USB, my PSP, and my PS3.  They will not play on my Xbox 360.  I have downloaded the optional media update but nothing.  I also have some iTunes AAC files encoded at various VBR bitrates and they all play fine on my Xbox 360.  However, I recently downloaded some iTunes Plus tracks (encoded at 256kbps CBR and they don't contain any DRM) and they will not play on my Xbox 360.

I also tried encoding some 160kbps VBR and 192kbps VBR AAC files with Nero and they won't play either.  I have tried hooking up my Zune, iPod, and a generic USB thumb drive, nothing.  So why won't my Xbox 360 play Nero AAC files or iTunes Plus file but it will play iTunes AAC files encoded at bitrates of up to 320kbps VBR?  Can anyone with a Xbox 360 try playing VBR Nero AAC files using a USB device?  I am at a loss here.  I have gone through three Xbox 360s and I am on my fourth model.  The first three died due to the red ring of death but I now have a Xbox 360 Elite (so I shouldn't have any hardware issues).  They all had the same problems with Nero AAC files.  I have tried using the Nero AAC encoder at CBR, VBR, and ABR settings and it produces the same non-compatible results.  I am pissed that I cannot play 1/2 of my music library when playing a game.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #1 – 2007-08-11 18:00:06

did you try extracting it and repacking with mp4creator and mp4box? That could give some more insight.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #2 – 2007-08-11 18:23:03

No I haven't.  I will give it a shot though.  Hopefully that works as I want my Nero AAC files to work.  I have a feeling that the problem is with the Xbox 360 and not the files themselves but I am willing to try anything now.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #3 – 2007-09-11 04:55:29

Just to bump my old thread.  I recently updated to the new Nero digital audio encoder (the August 7th build).  My Xbox 360 is still having the same issues.  I extracted the AAC audio and repacked it into a mpeg-4 container and my Xbox 360 still won't play the AAC files.

It is strange as I tried my friend's Xbox 360 and his too did the same thing, it tells him to download the optional media update (of which he already did, same as me) and keeps displaying a red circle over the media.  I would really like the ability to play Nero AAC files.  I have tried VBR, ABR, and CBR encoding modes, none of them work.  I have ripped with dbpoweramp R12.3 and EAC, nothing works.

Does the Xbox 360 just not play Nero encoded AAC files?  I could of sworn that I didn't have this problem before but I don't really remember.  All of my iTunes encoded AAC files work just fine though along with AAC files encoded with RealOne and WinAmp.  I think the Xbox 360 just isn't compatible with Nero's AAC encoder.  Is there a setting that I can try in order to get Xbox 360 compatibility?  My Zune plays the files just fine as well but my Xbox 360 will not play the files off of my Zune.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #4 – 2007-09-11 12:14:57

We had one other hardware player here in QA that refused to play some of our files (in this case it was only 5.1 files). I tried a lot of different things, but nothing seemed to make the files work. Without a way to debug the actual decoder used it will be very hard to figure out what exactly is the problem.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #5 – 2007-09-11 12:27:57

In my opinion it's unlikely that the LC-AAC stream itself is the cause of this issue. There's no logical reason why some of these files are played back successfully and others aren't, though all of them apply to the official specifications. This should be valid for the Xbox-incompatible Nero and iTunes Plus tracks as well.

The only thing that isn't part of a real standard is the tagging. I guess the Xbox 360 has specific troubles with certain ways of storing the metadata. Too bad I can't evaluate this behaviour myself at the moment, since a friend's broken Xbox 360 (the only one I have access to) was just sent back to the vendor. But I'll test some of my Nero-encoded (-q 0.34) audio files with it as soon as the repairs will have been completed.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #6 – 2007-09-11 13:09:25

Well, with the repackaging (assuming he also tried that with the files that do work) you kind of prove that the container is not the problem. In that case the issue must be in the AAC data itself somewhere.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #7 – 2007-09-11 13:22:13

i dont usually use my 360 for media playback but mine plays aac but does not read the tags. i used neroAacEnc.exe (says its 1.0.7.0 in the file info) with q 0.41 settings, the source files were wavpack so i transcoded them with foobar.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #8 – 2007-09-11 15:55:18

Which ending do your files have? I can playback .m4a aac files from my iPod which were encoded with NDA -q0.4.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #9 – 2007-09-11 16:27:18

ah forget to say but my files are mp4 played from a usb flashdrive

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #10 – 2007-09-11 16:34:30

Try to rename a file to .m4a then.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #11 – 2007-09-11 16:46:51

as long as they play thats good enough for me, i only use my own tracks when playing a game with awful music

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #12 – 2007-09-11 16:51:50

I tried extracting and repacking iTunes AAC files and they work just fine on my Xbox 360.  I also removed the track tags from my Nero created AAC files and they still won't play on the Xbox 360.  I e-mailed iTunes about their iTunes Plus support and they told me that the problem must be with the Xbox 360 so I imagine something isn't right there.  It is just strange that every AAC encoder I tried works except Nero and iTunes Plus songs (however, I can encode 256kbps CBR/VBR iTunes AAC files that work just fine).

My files use the *.m4a file naming scheme.  My Xbox 360 will not read the ID tags if I play the AAC files from my USB thumb drive.  It will if I use my Zune or iPod though.

The other strange thing is that I can use Nero Recode to encode some videos to the mpeg-4 AVC video format for iPod playback.  I set the audio to 128kbps LC-AAC and my Xbox 360 can playback those videos (and their audio portions) just fine.  So I know that the Xbox 360 can handle Nero AAC audio, it just can't play stand alone Nero AAC audio files.

I contacted customer service yet again and they still want me to send in my Xbox 360 for repairs.  I won't do that as I know my Xbox 360 isn't the problem.  Not when my older Xbox 360 Premium and my roommate's Xbox 360 premium wouldn't play the files either.  I will wait until next week though whenever my roommate gets his Halo 3 Xbox 360.  If that console refuses to play the Nero AAC files then I know it is a Xbox 360 problem.

Xbox 360 Nero AAC compatibility

Reply #13 – 2007-09-29 04:45:18

I can confirm this same behavior on the Xbox 360.  I use the Zune software to stream my AAC files to my Xbox 360 since Windows Media Player still does not support AAC files.  The Nero encoded AAC files that I ripped to test this using dBpoweramp would not play.  They would show up as music to play, however, there would be a red circle with a slash through it beside the media indicating the Xbox could not play it.  When I selected the file to play it Xbox 360 said it was an unsupported media type.  However, the Zune software recognizes and plays Nero AAC files without a problem so it is my theory that the Zune would play this file as well.  I don't have a Zune so I can't test that.  And since the Zune software reads it fine I do not see why the Xbox 360 is having problems with only Nero AAC files.  I don't think there is anything different about iTunes encoded AAC that makes it unique where the Xbox 360 would be trying to see something specific in the file in order to play it.

EDIT: I just tried using the Optimize MP4 utility in Foobar2000 and now the Nero AAC files are playable on my Xbox 360.  I just loaded up the files in Foobar2000, right-clicked, went to Utils, and clicked Optimize MP4.  If you don't have the option you will need to do a full install of Foobar2000 to get it.  The Nero AAC encoded files are now streaming fine with the Zune software to my Xbox 360.