Yes, you can teach an old Dingoo new tricks.

Aside from being a neato mini portable retro gaming platform, the Dingoo is also a little media player. There’s a long list of digital audio formats that it can handle. For some reason I never noticed that AAC (file suffix m4a) was not one of them.

See way back when, AAC was going to be the new big thing. I’d read that it was better than mp3, technically superior, better sounding, and all that jazz. So when I digitized my music collection, I used AAC. Now, over 90% of my collection is in AAC format.

So I was initially confused when I put a bunch of AAC files on the Dingoo, only to have them not show up in the music player. Of course, mp3 files appeared ok, but it was like the AAC files didn’t exist.

In all my bricking & unbricking adventures, I had acquired tools for examining and mucking with the firmware. I could see a list of codecs and there was an AAC codec in there. So why weren’t my files working?

It turns out that the AAC codec is in there for supporting movies. For whatever reason they didn’t set it up to support AAC files on their own. Wierd. But fixable.

So I opened up the main binary file in a hex editor and got to work. Of all the music formats it was set up to work with, I picked a format I’ve never heard of and know nothing about – APE. I then went through the binary and changed all the references to .ape files, into references to .m4a files. These references were in areas of the binary that determine what files are displayed, and how.

Dingoo playing an AAC / .m4a music file.

And voila, my Dingoo recognizes and plays AAC files. I don’t actually think it’s any big deal, since it already had the codec. All I did was fix up the interface so that the AAC files were available to the user.

But then again, maybe it is a big deal? I don’t know. Maybe noone else has done it, and maybe my Dingoo is the only one in the world that can play AAC music files.

Back on Rememberance day, the best version of Maple Leaf Forever that I could find was a crummy synthesizer midi file that just didn’t cut it.

Here’s a clip of a better version. It’s an m4a (aka AAC) file, so if you have trouble playing it you may need to add another codec or whatever to your music playing software.

Maple Leaf Forever

This clip is the right size to make into a ringtone, by the way… if you download the file and change the suffix from m4a to m4r then drop it into iTunes, you can copy it to your iPhone and use it as a ringtone. Just sayin’ is all.

More music & video fun… this time the music is by Laibach and the video is just… compelling.

Fear the Kittens!

Great song, great video, great fun.

Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

Ring-ring-ring goes that f-ing phone, I wanna be retired
Email’s full and fax is on a roll, I wanna be retired
Keep me in my house, it’s quieter in here
Just sit me by the TV, lemme have a beer
Find me the remote, leave it somewhere near
Oh no no no oh oh

Ring-ring-ring goes that f-ing phone, I wanna be retired
Email’s full and fax is on a roll, I wanna be retired
Customers are angry, want me to call them back
The stress just keeps on building, think I’m gonna crack
Please not another meeting, I really need a nap
Oh no no no oh oh

Ring-ring-ring goes that f-ing phone, I wanna be retired
Email’s full and fax is on a roll, I wanna be retired
Not gonna check my messages, please unplug my phone
Computer must be broken, them emails are all gone
I can’t take no more pressure, please let me stay at home
Oh no no no oh oh

Bam bam ba-bam, ba-bam bam ba-bam, I wanna be retired
Bam bam ba-bam, ba-bam bam ba-bam, I wanna be retired
Bam bam ba-bam, ba-bam bam ba-bam, I wanna be retired
Bam bam ba-bam, ba-bam bam ba-bam, I wanna be retired

I wanna be retired.

* to the music of I Wanna Be Sedated, by The Ramones

One of my favorite CDs for playing around Yule is the Very Scary Solstace disc by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society.

You know, nothing gives me warm fuzzies quite like seeing a room full of my mom’s friends and relatives socializing, when great hits like It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Fishmen or Away In A Madhouse come on the stereo.

Well, just in time for this year’s Yule season, those great folks at the HPLHS have done it again! Their newest CD is even scarier and comes with a singalong songbook, so you can join in the Yuletide fun, to such new classics as All I Want For Solstace Is My Sanity, Death To The World, and Slay Ride.

So, hurry on over to the HPLHS and orderyourself up an Even Scarier Solstace CD now, while you still can! The Great Old Ones command it.

An Even Scarier Solstace CD