[HandBrake] FAAC vs FFMPEG or: How to get HE-AAC?

[andrew.46]

Yes, qaac.exe (with qt bits and pieces) seems to run OK with WINE.

I am looking at running qaac under wine but I am a little lost with the required 'Apple Application Support' that is required. How did you work around this?

[shantiq]

hi Andrew from this link go into qaac and run wine qaac works well here

[ron999]

...'Apple Application Support' that is required. How did you work around this?

Hi
In my foobar2000 > components directory there is a folder "qaac".
I downloaded the bits and pieces from www, but not sure where from.
Can't remember.

[qyot27]

I am looking at running qaac under wine but I am a little lost with the required 'Apple Application Support' that is required. How did you work around this?

Download the iTunes or Quicktime installer, unpack the .exe (7za might be able to do this, since 7zip proper can do it under Windows), and use the Application Support .msi installer. Or so I would guess (I use qtaacenc, which needs full Quicktime - I've also never tried it under Wine, IIRC). Considering you can install iTunes under Wine, it should have the ability to install the Application Support package only.

[andrew.46]

Seems ok although I am not a keen wine user:

http://www.andrews-corner.org/samples/luckynight.m4a

BTW new version of qaac out...

Edit: So others can critique here is the commandline I used:

wine qaac luckynight.wav -c 64 -r keep --he \
    --album "Treasure Quest Soundtrack" --title "Lucky Night" \
    --track "9" --artist "Jody Marie Gnant" --genre "Soundtrack" \
    --comment "1-minute song sample demonstrating HE_AAC encoding with qaac." \
    -o luckynight.m4a

And the completed file is as follows:

andrew@skamandros~/media$ mediainfo luckynight.m4a 
General
Complete name                            : luckynight.m4a
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Apple audio with iTunes info
Codec ID                                 : M4A 
File size                                : 480 KiB
Duration                                 : 1mn 0s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 64.9 Kbps
Album                                    : Treasure Quest Soundtrack
Track name                               : Lucky Night
Track name/Position                      : 9
Performer                                : Jody Marie Gnant
Genre                                    : Soundtrack
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-12-26 23:27:38
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-12-26 23:27:41
Writing application                      : qaac 2.10, CoreAudioToolbox 7.9.8.1, AAC-HE Encoder, CBR 64kbps, Quality 96
Comment                                  : 1-minute song sample demonstrating HE_AAC encoding with qaac.

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AAC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile                           : HE-AAC / LC
Codec ID                                 : 40
Duration                                 : 1mn 0s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 64.0 Kbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 69.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 KHz / 22.05 KHz
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 474 KiB (99%)
Encoded date                             : UTC 2012-12-26 23:27:38
Tagged date                              : UTC 2012-12-26 23:27:41

Now that I have setup a bash alias for running wine + qaac it does not even look like I am using wine at all

[andrew.46]

So to get HE-AAC with qaac from any file the following commandline should work:

ffmpeg -i <input.file> -f wav - | \
       qaac -c 64 -r keep --he - -o <output.m4a>

But I have used a bash alias:

alias qaac='wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/qaac/x86/qaac.exe'

just to make things a little simpler Now to assemble the libsndfile extras for qaac....