audio file format

[philh77]

the file format I get sent to my email address when I get a voice mail will not play on my iphone
can you make it compatible with quicktime?
maybe make it an mp3

[FONGO_kris]

mp3 would be a pretty big file to compress and send automatically for all of the users who use vm to email... We use .au which is compatible with Quicktime as far as I know.. But if you're saying it's not that you would be the correct one here. Have you tried downloading FLV player?

[philh77]

mp3 would be a pretty big file to compress and send automatically for all of the users who use vm to email... We use .au which is compatible with Quicktime as far as I know.. But if you're saying it's not that you would be the correct one here. Have you tried downloading FLV player?

I don't have a problem with the file on windows media player, just a problem with iphone, FLV not available for iphone.

[FONGO_kris]

What about VLC? It SHOULD be compatible with Quicktime though, .au is the standard audio file format used by Sun, Unix and Java, it's pretty universal.

[Agent942]

I can confirm that voicemail sent to email will NOT play on the iPhone (as I use one as well). .au is not compatible with the iPhone's "version" of Quicktime and doesn't have the ability to use plugins or other players.

I have a paid provider that I use for my 800# lines and they just send standard .wav files - a 20 second voicemail works out to about 250K and is playable by the iPhone without any trouble.

Hope that helps clarify things.

[blairfleming]

www.iphoneconvert.com - although you can auto-forward to this service it sometimes fails due to the email Header configuration from FPL. But if you forward to your normal email, delete the FW: from the subject, delete all the text in the email leaving just the attachment, and then forward to your iphoneconvert account you'll get the vm in about 3 minutes in a mp3.

I worked with the developer of iphoneconvert and there is something funky in the email Header that his servers reject.

Ideally, it'd be nice if FPL would give an option for the file format.

[FONGO_kris]

With all the voice mails we get, compressing them to mp3 would put unnecessary stress on the servers - We get I would say anywhere from 4 - 5000 per day of which three quarters are forwarded to voice mail.

[westor]

Both .wav and .au files can hold uncompressed PCM data.
The iphone/itouch can play .wav files but not .au files.
I just took a voicemail I received from FPL in .au format and changed the file extension to .wav.
I them emailed to myself so I could receive it on my iTouch.
Surprise, surprise, the itouch can play it.
This would require some more testing but it appears the only processing the FPL servers would have to do is append ".wav" to the end of the voicemail file name and the iphone/itouch users would be able to listen to their voicemails.

I hope this works. It should be easy to implement.

[FONGO_kris]

You are correct, yes. - Here is a fix you may want to try, download Audacity for the iPhone and see how that works out.

[bridonca]

You could also use a remailer service like http://www.magikinfo.com/vm2wm/, it should convert it to mp3.

[westor]

1) If I could control which application opened the ".au" attachment in my email on the itouch then I wouldn't have a problem. I would just open the audio playing application. Unfortuanately, the ".au" extension causes it to open a movie playing application and then says it does not recognize the format. Changing the extension on the server would seems like it would not require much processing and would saolve the problem for all iphone/itouch users. Just make it an option when choosing to have voicemails emailed.

2) I tried using http://www.magikinfo.com/vm2wm/. It took about a month for them to respond to a setting up a new account and then it didn't even work for changing .au to .wav. It just emailed me the same file as far as I could tell. At least the file name was the sme and it still would not play on the itouch.

[FONGO_steve]

Changing the extension on the server would seems like it would not require much processing and would saolve the problem for all iphone/itouch users. Just make it an option when choosing to have voicemails emailed.

Unfortunately it would require a lot more work than one would think because the SIP server natively encodes to .au - the request is active for a more versatile format, but we can't guarentee if/when it will be done in the future.

[qwavel]

The au files are not recognized by my Android phone either.

I'm not asking you to change anything (I'll install something on my phone to add the needed support) but if you do decide to support other formats then I would suggest that you include one of the Android formats.

Here is a list of the 'core' Media Formats for Android:
http://developer.android.com/guide/appe ... rmats.html

[Bloodsong]

I can't same I'm overly surprised if the iPhone/iPod Touch lack the functionality to select and save attachments locally, however I have a hard time believing this would be the case with the Android. If you can save the file locally on your Android you should be able to select a program to play the audio files.

Perhaps I'm just spoiled from all my years with Garnet (Palm OS 5.0)

[Joe B]

I have a Blackberry and the voicemail format of au is not compatible. Can anyone suggest something?

[Bloodsong]

Well I suggest you read back through this post a bit and look at some of the re-mailers that are mentioned.
But more likely, you can save the file and attempt to open it with an audio player of your choosing.

Another thing noticed, I believe on this post, is that the .au files use a close enough codec to .wav, that in many cases you can simply re-name the saved copy of the attachment file to make it recognizable by your player.

iPhones seem to run into an issue where they can't save the attachment to a local folder outside of the e-mail to be able to access it from an alternative program or attempt to rename the file. (Natively the iPhone is trying to open it in Quicktime and failing miserably.)

[FONGO_kris]

Funnily enough, I can open my voicemail attachments first shot when opened via Windows Media Player, or Quicktime. .au is a Linux native audio format, though can be renamed as you say as .wav and works with ease. Odd that no one buy myself can open it without a hastle... I'll look into different compression methods tomorrow, but changing our compression method (.wav or .mp3) is unlikely

[Bloodsong]

Yeah I figure it's something specific to the cell-phones that people are trying to open it on, either they don't have the codecs for the .au by default, or users are exhibiting the prototypical fear of tech and not attempting/searching manually for specific program upgrades/updates.

Especially Apple users have been scared stiff from all the bricking stories out there. I could be wrong though *shrug* my Palm Treo 700p never gives me a problem

[FONGO_kris]

You have a point. Though I know I don't need to, I'll remind you that PalmOS =/= Apple/MacOS

[jgionet76]

it would be nice to have the option to receive voicemail attachments in a different format other than *.au
the iphone's version of quicktime doesn't open .au and there's no way to make it open email attachments with another app.
wav files work no problem.

[FONGO_kris]

.au is a Sun Media format used because it's uLaw encoded and has a small file size (thus not using many resources when processing large amounts of voicemails)

The server we use only supports .au and unfortunately I do not see this changing any time soon.

What I would suggest is when you get an email notification, call one of our remote access numbers and pick the voice message up from there.

[jgionet76]

.au is a Sun Media format used because it's uLaw encoded and has a small file size (thus not using many resources when processing large amounts of voicemails)

The server we use only supports .au and unfortunately I do not see this changing any time soon.

What I would suggest is when you get an email notification, call one of our remote access numbers and pick the voice message up from there.

thanks Kris

where can I find a list of the remote access numbers?

[FONGO_kris]

Here is the list, and you're welcome!:

http://www.freephoneline.ca/vmAccessNumbers

[kakgungor]

I upgraded my iPod touch to iOS 4.0 and was able to play a voicemail file from the Mail.app program. I would recommend that everyone that is having problems try upgrading to iOS 4.0 (it's free) and see if that solves the problem.

[jgionet76]

I upgraded my iPod touch to iOS 4.0 and was able to play a voicemail file from the Mail.app program. I would recommend that everyone that is having problems try upgrading to iOS 4.0 (it's free) and see if that solves the problem.

sweet! great to know! thxs