SpeakOn supports some media types 'out of the box'; others can be supported by installing Windows Media Player / Direct Shows plug-in or external applications.
If you are interested in this additional media format support you have first to install the relevant plug-in / filters / external applications explained below, and then configure SpeakOn to recognize these by selecting the relevant options as explained at the foot of this page.
Real format: to play Real format radio streams SpeakOn requires an external program that supports this format. RealPlayer from Real works well with SpeakOn in all Windows operating systems. For those who want to use Real Alternative from Edskes, the author has had good experience with this program in Windows XP but not Windows 7 where the 'Real Alternative' option during the installation was greyed out preventing selection of the Active X component required for communication with SpeakOn. The author is unsure as to the reasons for this and your experience may differ.
FLAC, OGG and SPEEX formats: To provide FLAC OGG and SPEEX support install the Xiph direct show filter which you can get directly from:
here
Note that SpeakOn already supports out of the box the Ogg and Speex formats but with the above filter, navigation within a media is also provided.
AAC audio format: This format, which includes the '.m4a' file extension, is supported by an increasing number of radio stations.
Windows 8 / 8.1 supports the AAC format out of the box (with Windows Media Player 12 which is installed in Windows 8 / 8.1 by default). It supports both local files and streams and both are available without needing any action by the user.
Windows 7 supports the AAC format out of the box (with Windows Media Player 12 which is installed in Windows 7 by default). However while supporting local files, support of streams is very limited.
The Orban plug-in Windows Media Player filter which adds AAC support in Windows XP and Vista can still be found at the time of writing these instructions here
So if you want to listen to AAC radio stations in Windows XP or Vista, you need to install the Orban Windows Media Player plug-in.
Note that once you have installed this plug-in it might put two shortcuts on your desktop; one pointing to a readme file and the other to a website which plays AAC music with an extra toolbar that you are encouraged by the vendor to download. The author has not tried this, and you don't need either of these shortcuts with SpeakOn; they can be deleted.
If you installed the application / plug-in / filters for any of the media above in the Manager, bring up the Menu and select:
Global Settings > Additional audio formats
Simply select [Enter] (5) the media you want supported (based of course on the software installed).
With Windows 7, support for AAC format streams is unchecked by default. You can check this option but expect some AAC streams not to work due to Windows 7 limited support (the author does not know of any additional filters that can address this issue).
When you have completed your selection, bring the Main menu and select 'OK end task, return to Manager' to confirm your selection.
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