MediaFile with .aac extension doesn't play with the type="audio/aac"

victor munoz

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Sep 21, 2022, 8:19:32 AM9/21/22

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Hello Team

I am using the VSI tool to test our Vast Tags and I found that MediaFiles with the type="audio/aac" are returning an error:

Ad error: AdError 403: Linear assets were found in the VAST ad response, but none of them matched the video player's capabilities.

This error is fixed changing the type to type="audio/aac"" to type="audio/mpeg", even if the extension of the media is .aac.

My question is...What should be the right type for playing media with .acc extension? The company that delivers the ads to us claims that for a .aac media, the correct one is "audio/aac", so the problem isn't related to the XML.

This is the VAST Tag that we are using for testing:

```

IMA SDK

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Sep 21, 2022, 2:01:17 PM9/21/22

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Hi Victor,

Thank you for reaching out to us. However, I'm afraid that our team can only support technical concerns specific to the code implementation of the IMA SDK. Since your concern is more on VAST, then we suggest raising this to Ad Manager support for further assistance.

Regards,

Teejay Wennie
IMA SDK Team

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victor munoz

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Sep 22, 2022, 4:46:10 AM9/22/22

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Hello Teejay,

I don't see how the Ad Manager Support can answer questions regarding errors that I am receiving from the IMA SDK. Maybe my question wasn`t clear enough, so I will try again.

First, I want to make clear that we are sure that the XML that I posted is correct because:

1.- We use an online VAST Tag validator provided by iabtechlab.com to check if the VAST Tag is valid.

2.- We checked the VAST 4.0 documentation, and there is no limitation regarding the mediaFile type.

Second, the IMA SDK returns an AdError 403 when it tries to reproduce a media file with the .acc extension. You can check this here https://googleads.github.io/googleads-ima-html5/vsi/

Screenshot 2022-09-22 at 10.07.34.png

Finally, and as additional information, I found that the IMA SDK error is related to the type="audio/aac". The IMA SDK can reproduce the same .aac media file by using the type type="audio/mpeg".

So, this will return an error:

and this will play the .acc file successfully on https://googleads.github.io/googleads-ima-html5/vsi/:

Teejay, I hope you can see the problem now, the IMA SDK is able to reproduce aac files but setting the type to audio/acc, the correct one, will return an error.

Best,

Victor Munoz

IMA SDK

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Sep 22, 2022, 10:46:10 AM9/22/22

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Hi Victor,

I work with Teejay. Thank you for your ad tag, I reproduced this issue and brought it to my team. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Regards,

Aryeh
IMA SDK Team

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victor munoz

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Sep 22, 2022, 12:49:01 PM9/22/22

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Thanks Aryeh

IMA SDK

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Sep 26, 2022, 5:50:33 AM9/26/22

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Hello Victor,

Michael here and I work along with Aryeh.

The reason for the error you are seeing is because the VSI player supports "audio/mpeg" and not "audio/aac".

Even if the .aac file is playing, certain aspects may not be fully supported on the VSI player.

The 403 error itself is based on what IMA detects that the player supports.

Should you try to with other players, please ensure that the player you will be using supports "audio/aac" and the 403 error should not occur.

Let us know should you have other concerns.

Regards,

Michael Angelo
IMA SDK Team

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victor munoz

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Sep 26, 2022, 7:27:11 AM9/26/22

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Hello Michael

We were receiving the same error code when we tried to reproduce the aac file included in the previous XML using 'com.google.android.exoplayer:extension-ima:2.18.1' for Android. Is that library also not compatible with the type "audio/aac"? We are sure that we can reproduce aac media using Exoplayer.

Best,
Victor

IMA SDK

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Sep 26, 2022, 9:50:44 AM9/26/22

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Hi Victor,

Thanks for getting back to us.

Note that the IMA SDK support the following media MIME types:

DASH: 'application/dash+xml'
HLS: 'application/x-mpegURL'
MP4: 'video/mp4'
MPEG: 'video/mpeg'
Ogg: 'video/ogg'
3GPP: 'video/3gpp'
WebM: 'video/webm'
MP3: 'audio/mpeg'
MP4 audio: 'audio/mp4'

You may consider using one of those for IMA to recognize the format.

Regards,

Yasar
IMA SDK Team

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victor munoz

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Sep 28, 2022, 11:29:04 AM9/28/22

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Hello Yasar, thanks for your answer.

I found that IMA SDK supports MIME types that are not included in your list, for example, audio/ogg. So, I would like to ask you...Where did you get this list? Is this list part of any documentation?

Regarding the issue with the type="audio/aac," I understand that the type isn't' supported by the library, but anyway something's not right. We are able to play media with aac format, but in the case of the ads, if they have the same aac format, it doesn't match the video player's capabilities. Don't you think that it is at least weird? I mean, If the Exoplayer for android is able to reproduce medias with the extension aac... Don't you think that the IMA SDK should let it do it? It is hard to see that the same media with aac format can be reproduced just by changing type="audio/aac," for type="audio/mpeg".

Sorry if I insist on this topic, but if we will be able to reproduce only half of the ads that iOS does, for sure my manager going to ask me many questions about it and I would like to have the answers.

Thanks, Yasar for taking care of this issue.

Best,
Victor Munoz

IMA SDK

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Sep 28, 2022, 10:10:32 PM9/28/22

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Hello Victor,

Thank you for responding back to us.

I believe since the SDK supports MPEG4 and 3GPP, it technically supports audio/aac. You can check this information here. This also applies to other types you mentioned not being on the list but is playable.

On the other hand, with regards to compatibility of this 'com.google.android.exoplayer:extension-ima:2.18.1' with audio/aac, I believe it would be best if you post directly to their Exoplayer support channel as their specialist there would be the best people to answer this query. However, I will raise this as well to our wider team to possible get more insights along with your other concerns.

We will get back the soonest we received their feedbacks.

Regards,

Michael Angelo
IMA SDK Team

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victor munoz

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Sep 29, 2022, 3:19:54 AM9/29/22

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Thanks, Michael, I will contact the exoplayer support channel.

Best,
Victor

IMA SDK

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Nov 9, 2022, 7:53:58 AM11/9/22

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Hi Victor,

I hope you're safe and doing fine. Thank you for your patience. Please be informed that the issue reported here has been fixed.

Regards,

Teejay Wennie
IMA SDK Team

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