Question about transcoding .m4a files

[grolschie]

Hello.

This is more a general question, rather than a transcoding config problem. I have noticed some interesting behaviour when transcoding .m4a files to .mp3 for the Xbox 360:

• .m4a files I have created myself from CDs within iTunes application play instantaneously on the Xbox 360, which is great. Doing a tail -f on the serviio.log shows that the music starts playing before the file has finished transcoding.
• .m4a files I have bought through iTunes have a decent delay before playback of every file begins - which isn't so great for listening to playlists and albums. It would seem transcoding of file is completed before playback even begins, or at least nearabouts these files.

The only difference I can see is that the iTunes store-bought files have the artwork in them - which is why they get transcoded for the Xbox 360 anyways.

So I am wondering if there is a way to optimize the way FFMPEG transcodes iTunes bought files in general with Serviio, so that they start playback instantly like ripped CD versions do i.e. possibly by not processing the artwork stream entirely - if that's what's getting processed first?

Thanks.

[zip]

Will also noticed this with MediaBrowser. I'm not sure if there is a FFmpeg command we could use, maybe if you send me one of the files, I can have a look.

[grolschie]

Thanks, zip. No can do sorry, since that would be not legal for me to do so. However, if you have iTunes and an Apple account, there's the 'Single of the Week' that you can download for free.