add mp3 support

[m4iler]

• [ I did ] I carefully read the contribution guidelines and agree to them.
• [ I did ] I checked if the issue/feature exists in the latest version.

Call me granddaddy McSquare, but now that MP3 is slowly moving from patent to free software, can we expect MP3 support? Not to knock M4A, but my player simply doesn't understand it and the podcasts I frequent are too large to be practical as video when it's just a still image.

Thank you for your answer, love your app! Helps me get off google that little bit more.

[mauriciocolli]

Youtube doesn't offer mp3 direct links, so the only alternative is converting it (we could implement the FFMpeg library, but I don't know when or if it'll ever happen...).

But did you tried the background player of NewPipe?
It uses only the audio stream of the video saving a lot of data, and now that ExoPlayer is implemented (very recently, my PR was merged today), is more stable than ever, I think you should give a try.

[m4iler]

Fair enough, I suppose, until then I think I'm forced to use FFMPEG for Android, huh? Too bad there are no good alternatives on f-droid. Seriously, though, keep up the awesome work, I love your app! Thanks to you I'm one step further away from Google. On 19 Apr 2017 01:32, "mauriciocolli" <notifications@github.com> wrote: Youtube doesn't offer mp3 direct links, so the only alternative is converting it (we could implement the FFMpeg library, but I don't know when or if it'll ever happen...). But did you tried the background player of NewPipe? It uses only the audio stream of the video saving a *lot* of data, and now that ExoPlayer is implemented (very recently, my PR was merged today), is more stable than ever, I think you should give a try. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#507 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AXP3NwQW8AlMFKJ6rgY2Ht9gTVqCHD9mks5rxUgegaJpZM4NA85W> .

[theScrabi]

FFMPEG for Android, huh? Too bad there are no good alternatives on f-droid.

Yea an ffmpeg converter app on fdroid would be a serious and valuable addition to the repo. I'd realy loved to see something like that.

Also having an external app for converting things sounds much more covenient to me than putting ffmpeg (which is a huge thing) into NP.

That sounds interesting:
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Android

[darkon5]

Not to knock M4A, but my player simply doesn't understand it

Android natively supports AAC on M4A containers. Maybe something is wrong with your player?

Source: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/media/media-formats.html#core

[utack]

@m4iler what happens when you rename the m4a to mp3 or aac manually?
I know this is not a "clean" solution, but that might just force your player to open it and play it
Or grab vanilla from F-Droid

[SkyzohKey]

Couldn't this be solved by using a webservice to convert the song instead of embeding ffmepg in the app ?

[theScrabi]

Uch ... than you'd have to upload it to some muddy service.
I don't like this solution.

But we could make someone implement a proper android fronted for ffmpeg.

@theScrabi: Wouldn't that make the NewPipe binaries much bigger? Or will you provide it as an optional add-on? If you'll provide it as an optional add-on, how will you do that? I can think of 2 ways: 1. Add some button in the app to download the add-on (from GitHub?) 2. Create another app (without a launcher intent) that you'll publish at F-Droid and communicate with that (btw does F-Droid allow different packages for different architectures?)

[theScrabi]

I'd like to have an app that provides ffmpeg, so we could write an interface to that app. So second choice.

[SkyzohKey]

What about a converter hosted on your, website?

[theScrabi]

@TheAssassin would kill me, because everything runs on his server.
Also I don't want to make anyone depend on infrastructure I provide.

[utack]

I still don't believe there is an Android media player out there that does not support ogg/vorbis or aac/m4a
Maybe you just need to trigger the Android Media Scanner after each download, so it shows up?
I think that is usualy only done when USB is connected and disconnected?

[SkyzohKey]

Good idea, but MP3 allows better ID3 tagging I guess.

@utack: On some devices there's also a refresh button in the music player. Btw you could also trigger it with some code.

[TheAssassin]

There's several issues with this feature proposal. Below I point out most of them.
TL;DR: Bad idea, don't implement it.

• You don't need a whole ffmpeg bundle to convert stuff to MP3. As ffmpeg doesn't do the conversion itself but uses LAME (patent issues, see below), you need to bundle both. It doesn't make sense to include both then.

• A hosted converter makes us vulnerable for copyright complaints worldwide. YouTube as a platform deals with this by having contracts with GEMA and their competitors in other countries, or providing a permissive standard license most users use for their uploads.
  Having users download files and convert them on the phones means they are responsible for respecting copyright laws and other regulations themselves though, and if they break copyright, the tools cannot be made responsible, at least in most countries. This protects us very well at the moment.
  If we offered a hosted version, we would be responsible ourselves personally though, meaning that the single devs might be sued at any time. I don't want to take that risk, and can not recommend anyone to host such platforms.
  (For example, even conversion of stuff licensed under CC-*-ND potentially breaks the license.)

• A client conversion solution might be really slow, depending on the hardware and the codec in use. But as performance gets better, I wouldn't care about that too much.

• There are several patents on parts of MP3 coding held by Fraunhofer IIS, Technicolor and other companies (same goes for AAC etc., only free codecs like Vorbis are not affected by that). I believe that most devices sold (like laptops, phones etc.) do have a valid license for MP3 and other codecs as the device vendors have to acquire them anyway so that using stuff like the Android media player is legal for the users. Though, I'm not a lawyer, you shouldn't rely on my words at all, but I'd be worried anyway if I were you. LAME FAQ contains a paragraph on that, too, that is worth reading. You might have to investigate the patent situation thoroughly for newer codecs, MP3 patents' validity should time out around 2017 and/or 2018 anyway, but for example AAC is way younger.

But the most meaningful argument that I can come up with to prevent you from implementing it is the following.

Downloads of copyrighted material are usually not prosecuted as there's too many of them and it's not really worth the effort. But as soon as you change the material, it can get dangerous.

E.g., you convert a file, the converter puts some information on who did it into the file (yes, that's happened in the past with some "freeware" (maybe they wanted to track their software usage or something), some people have been sued (I'd try to find the link if anyone cares, but it was quite a while ago, even if I wouldn't find it, it's a realistic scenario)). Then, if the people sent it to a friend who sent it to a few friends etc etc, police might somewhen get hands on these files, and try to find the origin. That might cause serious trouble for those people.

Sure, you can blame the users for breaking laws there, but to be honest, most users are quite unexperienced and (sorry, I didn't find another word), naive, and as a software vendor, I'd try to protect my users from such stuff. You shouldn't make them break law even more. Downloading is primarly an issue for YouTube as the hoster, but they are a huge company and can deal with it accordingly. Anything that happens after that is risky.

Us software devs have the responsibility for protecting users from such stuff. Please think about this feature, and try to compare costs and benefits of implementing this. This is just an advice, and I don't want to prevent anyone from implementing it, but primarily make you think about it.

(Side fact: In Germany, it should be fine to save and even convert the files for private use, as they are validly licensed via YouTube and thus can be saved for offline use (it's called "Privatkopie"), as long as you don't share them with anyone (even family users would have to download and thus create their own copy) and use them for private purposes only (e.g. listening to it with friends). But most other countries don't have something like that in their copyright laws. So yeah, try to avoid such stuff.)

But, if the executives of the project consider it more useful than risky (democracy ftw), please don't use MP3 or AAC, use something open such as Vorbis (it's in the list @darkon5 linked to) . They are way less problematic in so many ways, well supported and we should spread the spirit of patent less open-source (and even public domain) code.