ALAC to PS4

[heddhunter]

Hi there. I have a bunch of music in ALAC/.m4a format on my Mac which I would like to stream to a PS4. I would have to have it transcode to mp3 or AAC since the PS4 doesn't support ALAC natively. Right now it just doesn't play whenever I select an m4a file from my Mac. How do I set up the Mac to transcode ALAC?

[Nadahar]

This is determined by the renderer configuration file, the UMS default for the PS4 looks like this: https://github.com/UniversalMediaServer ... tion4.conf

What it says regarding audio is

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Supported = f:m4a         m:audio/x-m4a
Supported = f:flac  n:2   m:audio/x-flac
Supported = f:mp3 m:audio/mpeg

It means that any audio that doesn't match should be transcoded. The problem is that ALAC isn't excluded from M4A for some reason. Try replacing that line with:

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Supported = f:m4a a:(?!alac).+ n:2 m:audio/x-m4a

This should make sure that any M4A/MP4 audio files using the ALAC codec is transcoded. I don't know if this is a bug in the default configuration file or if some PS4's support ALAC. It's a bit strange that it isn't already excluded, it is for the PS3 for example.

[heddhunter]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it didn't work. I no longer see any music files in the regular folder view. If I go into the Transcode folder and click one, it doesn't play and I get the "broken file" icon.

Here's what's in debug.log:

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INFO  2018-03-28 12:11:22.652 [StartPlaying Event] Started playing 01-x-dream-rain_(astral_projection_rmx).m4a on your PlayStation 4
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:22.652 [StartPlaying Event] The full filename of which is: /Volumes/TB-404/iomega/Music/Astral Projection - Goa Classics Remixed/01-x-dream-rain_(astral_projection_rmx).m4a and the address of the renderer is: 10.0.1.153
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:22.654 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 15] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:22.657 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 16] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:22.670 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 1] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:22.982 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 2] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.687 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 3] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.690 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 4] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.698 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 5] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.710 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 6] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.722 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 7] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.725 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 8] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:24.737 [HTTPv2 Request Worker 9] Recognized media renderer "PlayStation 4"
INFO  2018-03-28 12:11:28.738 [StopPlaying Event] Stopped playing 01-x-dream-rain_(astral_projection_rmx).m4a on your PlayStation 4
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:28.738 [StopPlaying Event] The full filename of which is: /Volumes/TB-404/iomega/Music/Astral Projection - Goa Classics Remixed/01-x-dream-rain_(astral_projection_rmx).m4a and the address of the renderer is: 10.0.1.153
INFO  2018-03-28 12:11:28.738 [StopPlaying Event] Checking shared folder: /Volumes/TB-404/iomega/Music
INFO  2018-03-28 12:11:28.738 [StopPlaying Event] Checking shared folder: /Volumes/Seagate/Ripped CDs
DEBUG 2018-03-28 12:11:28.738 [StopPlaying Event] adding "[No transcoding]" to playlist "Recently Played"

[Nadahar]

That little snippet of log is useless and it's not in "trace mode". Follow the instructions in read on the top of the page to post proper debug files.

[heddhunter]

Sorry about that. ums_dbg.zip attached.

[Nadahar]

The log isn't in "trace" mode so it has no useful information. Please follow the description above exactly.

[heddhunter]

I pushed the trace button before generating that log. How do I tell if it actually worked or not?

[Nadahar]

You're supposed to "Press the "Create TRACE logs" button which restarts UMS in the TRACE mode". After UMS has restarted after you clicked that button, you should be in "trace" mode. The way you can make sure of it is to look at the "Log Level" selection in the lower right of the Logs window. It should be grayed out/disabled and set to trace.

[heddhunter]

OK try this.

[valib]

If you want transcode unsupported formats to the MP3 you should add to your renderer conf the

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TranscodeAudio = MP3