Hi there, some people have been asking to get the original untouched HE-AAC file of the Movies Anywhere version - here it is.

Note: The HE-AAC file is NOT better than the iTunes file. It's spectrograph may look better, but HE-AAC works like this: It has an AAC core which goes up to half the frequency of the original file. So the TLJ audio has an AAC core that goes to 12kHz (or rather 11kHz) in this case. The rest of the audio is reconstructed via Spectral Band Replication data. The iTunes AAC audio WILL be better, because it actually stores the frequencies properly, and doesn't just have some data to reconstruct it.

With headphones you can also clearly the compression artifacts in the HE-AAC file.

Compare these two speks, first one is the HE-AAC file, second one just the AAC core of it decoded to wav:





So, if anyone has the iTunes AAC file, or a recording of it, please do share *nudge nudge*.

Anyway, for archival purposes, here is the untouched HE-AAC isolated score of The Last Jedi - by my comparison it needs +767ms delay compared to the BluRay audio if you mux it into a BluRay rip:

https://www.mediafire.com/?uuaa1outxd6gbsr

And for good measure, split into single tracks with ffmpeg -c:a copy and times determined via Ableton (no track titles, 40 tracks, just "TLJ 01" etc, because I'm lazy):

https://www.mediafire.com/?0eqmlcn8e3y31f3

The pw for both files is:


subvertingexpectations

Enjoy!

The laziness is too damn high

Thanks so much, skeletonmage!
Now there's no more need for the previous sets that were encoded to flac to preserve the very low quality of the Movies Anywhere version...

Thank you very, very, very much!

Thanks so much, skeletonmage!

Thanks for the share.

Thanks for this :) Always nice to get the source.


Thanks so much, skeletonmage!
Now there's no more need for the previous sets that were encoded to flac to preserve the very low quality of the Movies Anywhere version...

But this is the Movies Anywhere version and if they encoded the original untouched source file to flac, they would still be the same as this, no? ;)

Wastes a whole lot of space though. 107MB vs whatever the flac encode is. The 16/48 wav is 1.7GB, the 16/48 flac of that is 558MB ... still quite a lot larger than the original m4a, and for no real reason at all. Not even speaking of the bloated 24/48 flacs that are also around.

It's m4a which means you can tag it normally, most if not all modern player play HE-AAC fine ... the only drawback is no gapless playback, but just don't split the file during music (I only split during actual silences) and you're good.

Now this is interesting! Thanks to you I can decode it myself. BUT: what was that little tidbit about an iTunes version? Does it exist? And is the quality higher?

The quality is higher what I could tell from an Audacity spek somebody posted on JWFan, but nobody has publicly posted a rip of it. It's (probably) true AAC, thus higher bitrate and actually retains the frequencies instead of storing reconstruction data.

The problem with iTunes is that it's an iTunes extra and you can only stream iTunes extras ... so I don't think it's possible to rip the original iTunes file, just record the audio in the computer. Further, it's US and CA only, and I'm in Germany :P

I wanted to get around to trying it with someone this weekend, but I didn't have the time.

You don't have to record it, just know how to store it. There is a program that downloads video streams. You just chose what quality and it downloads them (only works in my country from public TV). I suppose there are programs that can handle this stream in the same manner which means original audio stream.

Now this is interesting! Thanks to you I can decode it myself. BUT: what was that little tidbit about an iTunes version? Does it exist? And is the quality higher?

I’ve got the iTunes version and I of course have Audacity. Why nobody here has done this yet boggles me, there are plenty of iTunes users here and Audacity is free.

Now the real question is: how the hell do I record it in Audacity while it’s playing in iTunes?

There's a paid app on MAC ($50 USD?) that lets you rip iTunes extras.
Should be a lossless process to get the original AAC-LC out of the iTunes stream.

For Windows, you have to look up the other apps. Some record from the soundcard. So you get frequency domain and codecs go out the window.
There used to be apps that would catch the temp files that build the original stream. Like very slow streaming sites that cache bits and pieces as it plays.
But I don't know what apps do that today. You really have to read a lot to find out.

The cache files from iTunes extras probably self-destruct after a few more segments are downloaded for playback. So you can't really go hunting for the cache files and re-assemble.
Unless there's a program to keep those forever.

Too bad youtube-dl isn't compatible with it. Or is it. I don't know.
I haven't bought anything on iTunes that has exclusive extras so not really able to try find out what to do.

Thanks for the rip skeletonmage.
And DOUBLE thanks for using ffmpeg to trim/copy into tracks.

Yeah I’m not paying for anything. I wanna do it for free ninety-nine.

Yeah I’m not paying for anything. I wanna do it for free ninety-nine.

I understand you, specially if the cost of the app is 50$... I guess it should be a cheaper/free option. I'm not in US so it seems I can't get the only-score extra.

Just download the app. I'm sure there's a pirated version of it somewhere online.

I would record it the internal mixer of the soundcard. Though I don't know if that's possible on a Mac. The sound interface I have allows me to do that... but since I'm in Germany my options are limited. Though there seems to be a way which involves faking an account from the U.S. and buying an iTunes gift card on eBay.

Thank you