looking for an audio codec

SomaFM · **Joined:** 16 Aug 2007 06:25 **Posts:** 367

I am looking for an audio codec to play a wav file. No players I have are able to play it (winamp, windows media player, vlc, etc). They are claiming they need the following codec:

Sipro Lab Telecom ACELP.G.729 (0x0133)

The wav file comes from a voicemail message from someone's phone. It was emailed to me because the sender was also having problems playing it. I have googled, but have not been able to find this codec anywhere. Most sites refrence it, but don't provide any download links for it. Was hoping one of you guys might be able to help.

Thanks!

Sethioz · **Posted:** 14 Feb 2009 10:31

huh. my BSPlayer with K-lite full codec pack plays it fine. actually my BSPlayer plays all formats i've ever came across (all phone formats, like 3gb or whtever it was..even those and also .smv which is some sigmatel motion video). isnt .wav a default for audio CDs ? it should play just fine without any 3rd party codecs.
send it and i try ?
have you considered that its corrupt ?

off-topic. i suggest you NOT to use wmp and vlc, they suck. winamp for music and shoutCAST tv/radio and BSPlayer for movies. thats the best choice.

aluigi · **Posted:** 14 Feb 2009 13:19

as far as I know the g729 codec is open source and it's implemented also in asterisk (but don't know if it has quick tools to do the play/decoding job) and probably mplayer has the codec too:

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

so if mplayer (or maybe also vlc) don't play that wave I think you must write a quick decoder using the codec source code

SomaFM · **Joined:** 16 Aug 2007 06:25 **Posts:** 367

Thanks for the reply guys. No luck with mplayer or bsplayer. I also tried a tutorial that claimed to do it in linux, but I never got it to work.

It's noting critical anyway, so I'm not going to go much further in getting it to play on the PC... but if you guys want to give it a look I have attached the wav file. I zipped it because the forum doesn't allow the .wav extension. Let me know if you get it 8-).

aluigi · **Posted:** 15 Feb 2009 13:12

download the decoder from: http://www.voiceage.com/openinit_g729_eula.php

then removes the riff header from the file, the data you need starts at offset 0x3e
run: va_g729_decoder.exe input.raw output.raw
and open the output.raw file in a program like audacity (import raw file) or cool96 (just drag on it) as pcm little endian, 8000hz, 1 channel, 16 bit

Sethioz · **Posted:** 15 Feb 2009 14:52

eem Soma...its a blank file, this is why it wont play :S
either your friend messed something up when copying it from phone OR it really is blank message. my BSP opens it just fine, but its blank.
however it froze my winamp, which happens when i try to open blank or corrupt files. either its corrupt or blank.

aluigi · **Posted:** 15 Feb 2009 14:58

sethioz follow the steps I showed above, the message is decoded perfectly.
it's someone who talks about a phone call he has not received yet, anyway my understanding of english is horrible so except the final "bye bye" the rest is obfuscated :)

SomaFM · **Joined:** 16 Aug 2007 06:25 **Posts:** 367

I used the settings in the picture below for audacity, but i can't make out anything in the message.. the audio is very distorted. I'm thinking one of my settings is wrong. Let me know, im gonna keep playing with it:

aluigi · **Posted:** 15 Feb 2009 16:44

0x3e is the offset of your input file because it has the riff header and the decoder there works only with raw files so you must remove the first 0x3e bytes of the wav using a hex editor.
then pass it to va_g729_decoder.exe
and then open the output.raw file in audacity exactly as you did in the image but without specifiying the offset

SomaFM · **Joined:** 16 Aug 2007 06:25 **Posts:** 367

Thanks luigi, i misread your previous post about the offset. Got it to play just fine now! :)

Sethioz · **Posted:** 17 Feb 2009 05:28

i never knew that .wav can be compressed in such format which cannot be read by .. .wav players ?!

aluigi · **Posted:** 17 Feb 2009 22:03

wav (aka riff) is only a container (like avi) and it can contain various types of streams:

http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=TwoCC

Sethioz · **Posted:** 18 Feb 2009 18:18

i know what .wav is, but i never had problems with .wav formats before. Ive copied lots of .wav formats from different sources: digital cams, phones, mp3 players, ipods..etc. all works just fine. It HAS to be some retarded phone where it was copied from.

aluigi · **Posted:** 18 Feb 2009 22:44

if you don't have the needed codec it's logical that it can't play :)

Luigi Auriemma

looking for an audio codec