Features Formats

Every format Bòcan plays, with its engine, and the formats it does not play. This page is part of the Feature List and describes shipped functionality only.

Supported Formats

Bòcan detects formats by magic bytes, never by file extension, so renamed files decode correctly. Two back-ends do the work: AVFoundation (Apple's built-in stack) and a bundled LGPL-only FFmpeg build (no GPL codecs, no plug-ins, no extra installs).

Lossless PCM

Format	Extensions	Engine
WAV / RIFF PCM	.wav	AVFoundation
AIFF / AIFF-C	.aiff .aif	AVFoundation, FFmpeg fallback for exotic AIFF-C compression
AU / SND	.au .snd	FFmpeg
Wave64	.w64	FFmpeg (removes the 4 GB WAV size limit)
RF64	.wav	FFmpeg, detected by magic bytes

Lossless Compressed

Format	Extensions	Engine
FLAC	.flac	AVFoundation, FFmpeg fallback for unusual streams
ALAC	.m4a .alac .mp4	AVFoundation
Monkey's Audio	.ape	FFmpeg
WavPack	.wv	FFmpeg (lossless, hybrid-lossy, and DSD modes)

Lossy

Format	Extensions	Engine
MP3	.mp3	AVFoundation
MP2 / MP1	.mp2 .mp1	FFmpeg
AAC	.aac .m4a .m4b .mp4	AVFoundation
Ogg Vorbis / Speex / Ogg FLAC	.ogg	FFmpeg, content type detected automatically
Opus	.opus .ogg	FFmpeg
WMA	.wma	FFmpeg (ASF container)
Musepack	.mpc	FFmpeg
AC-3 / E-AC-3 (Dolby Digital / Digital Plus)	.ac3 .eac3 .ec3	FFmpeg, including raw files with no container
DTS	.dts	FFmpeg
TTA (True Audio)	.tta	FFmpeg

DSD

DSD is decoded to PCM by FFmpeg for output to standard DACs. Native DSD output and DoP (DSD over PCM) are not supported.

Format	Extensions	Engine
DSF (Sony DSD Stream File)	.dsf	FFmpeg
DFF / DSDIFF (Philips)	.dff	FFmpeg

Containers

Format	Extensions	Engine
Matroska / WebM	.mkv .mka .webm	FFmpeg, audio tracks extracted automatically
MP4 / M4A	.mp4 .m4a .m4b	AVFoundation

Output

Everything, DSD included, is decoded to 32-bit float PCM and played through the system output device.

What Bòcan Does Not Play

Just as important as the format list is what is deliberately or unavoidably absent:

• TAK. Patent-encumbered; there is no LGPL-safe decoder, and Bòcan ships an LGPL-only FFmpeg build.
• SACD ISO images. Raw disc images are not read. Extract individual DSF or DFF tracks and those play fine.
• RealAudio (.ra, .rm). No LGPL-safe decoder exists.
• WMA Lossless and WMA Pro. These may fall back to an FFmpeg probe, but results vary; standard WMA works, the professional variants are unreliable at best.
• Encrypted and DRM files. Apple FairPlay purchases and WMA DRM files will not play, period. Bòcan never attempts to strip DRM.
• GPL-only codecs generally. The bundled FFmpeg is built LGPL-only, so anything requiring a GPL component is out.
• Raw TrueHD files (.thd, .mlp). The library scanner does not pick them up. TrueHD inside Matroska (.mka, .mkv) scans and plays.
• Dolby Atmos object rendering. Surround mixes play folded to stereo; the Atmos objects are not rendered.
• HDCD decoding. HDCD-encoded CD rips play as ordinary 16-bit PCM; the hidden extra bits are not decoded.
• xHE-AAC / USAC. Bòcan supports AAC generically and does not enumerate profiles. AVFoundation on modern macOS can decode xHE-AAC, so it may work, but it is untested and unclaimed.
• Free-format and very high bitrate MP3 (up to 640 kbps). Bòcan relies on AVFoundation for MP3, which does not handle free-format streams.
• APL (APE linking files).
• TwinVQ.
• ATRAC3.
• General IFF (8SVX and friends). Bòcan only handles the DSDIFF branch of the IFF family.
• WSD (Wideband Single-bit Data).
• Shorten (SHN).
• MIDI and all the synth infrastructure that goes with it (SoundFont/DLS, OPL3, SC-55 emulation, Audio Unit synthesizers).
• Tracker music (the libopenmpt family, AHX/HVL, Syntrax).
• SID.
• The entire game-music family: NSF, GBS, SPC, VGM/VGZ, PSF, SSF, Dreamcast DSF, QSF, USF, 2SF/NCSF, Organya, and vgmstream-style streamed rips.
• Playing audio out of archives (ZIP, RAR, GZip, 7z). Extract first.
• Embedded chapter atoms in MP4 and Matroska containers. Bòcan has CUE-sheet markers and Podcasting 2.0 chapters, but does not read MP4/MKV chapter metadata.