only .m4a files are able to be played with MPD 0.17 on os x snow leopard

Question

I set up an MPD server on my iMac with Snow Leopard and the database displays my music collection correctly but in MPDroid and Theremin I am only able to select the .m4a files. I can see /mp3 files and such with these clients but neither will let me play anything but and m4a file. Does anyone know a fix to this?

Answer 1

I think you are missing the MP3 decoder in MPD. You can check this by entering the following command in terminal:

mpd --version

Under the header Decoder plugins you should see the following:

Decoders plugins:
 [mad] mp3 mp2
 [vorbis] ogg oga
 [oggflac] ogg oga
 [flac] flac
 [audiofile] wav au aiff aif
 [dsdiff] dff
 [dsf] dsf
 [faad] aac
 [mp4ff] m4a m4b mp4
 [pcm]

If you don't see the MP3 entries, you have to manually install the libmad package. Do this by opening a terminal and entering the following command (assuming you use macports):

sudo port install libmad

Then uninstall and reinstall mpd. This worked for me.