HE-AAC audio decode on WDTV Live?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live & Live Plus
1

I’ve searched alot but can’t find the answer to this.

Does the WDTV Live support decode of HE-AAC audio in mpeg2 ts files?

The manual says “Mpeg Audio” for that container but the Audio section lists AAC LC/HE as a format for several containers.

I’m talking about decode of 2 channel audio to 2 channel pcm and output over hdmi.

HE-AAC is also sometimes refered to as aac+ or similar.
See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEAAC

The reason is that some tv-channels here use HE-AAC so recorded (or streamed live with dvblink or similar) programs doesn’t get audio. Video is fine but kind of pointless without the audio… :wink:

2

The manual says it supports LC / HE in MKV, ADTS, ADIF, Quicktime (MOV/MP4)  containers only.

Really?   Some TV Channels are broadcasting in an Apple-proprietary format?

3

TonyPh12345 wrote:

The manual says it supports LC / HE in MKV, ADTS, ADIF, Quicktime (MOV/MP4)  containers only.

 

Really?   Some TV Channels are broadcasting in an Apple-proprietary format?

 

Don’t think it is Apple-proprietary. It is part of the MPEG-4 standards. According to the Wikipedia article linked by the OP it is used for Digital Radio and TV in various parts of the world.

However, you are right in that mpegts is not one of the supported containers for HE-AAC.

4

Yeah, you’re right; it’s not proprietary…My mistake.

5

Why would the container matter in this case?

Just to test, I’ll remux it to an mkv and see how it goes.

6

matbl wrote:

Why would the container matter in this case?

Just to test, I’ll remux it to an mkv and see how it goes.

 

 

I don’t know. It is just the way this category of devices work. They only support certain codec/container combinations.

If you want to see something more ridiculous look at the network connected TVs. A lot of them will only play certain codec/container combinations from an attached USB device. Network playback is ususally limited to mpeg2 or very limited options with avi. Now of course they claim to play all sorts of codecs/containers, even with all the certification logos on their packaging. It is not until you dig through their manuals that you find all the restrictions.

7

parnott100 wrote:> I don’t know. It is just the way this category of devices work. They only support certain codec/container combinations.

 

 

Not if they are properly developed, then they would separate container processing with video and audio decoding.

Note: I work with software development for embedded devices…

Anyway, I’ve done some remuxing of the stream so I now have a ts and a mkv with exactly the same audio and video tracks. Will test tonight.

8

The WDTV Live seems to be properly developed in regard to this. :slight_smile:

It plays HE-AAC audio both in mkv’s and ts.

BUT only as long as the HE-AAC audio is the only audio track in the file. If there are multiple audio tracks, I can’t get the HE-AAC ones to play.

9

I’ve done some more tests.

A ts file with one HE-AAC audio stream and one h.264 video stream, audio and video is played ok.

A ts file with three audio streams where one is AC3 and 2 are HE-AAC, only the AC3 streams give audio ouptut, the HE-AAC ones can be choosen but results in silence. Video is ok.

The HE-AAC streams in the two cases are identical, only a remux has been done, not any reencoding.