diff --git a/libavcodec/aacdec.c b/libavcodec/aacdec.c
index 1fb91853d0..1e15cb45fc 100644
--- a/libavcodec/aacdec.c
+++ b/libavcodec/aacdec.c
@@ -534,6 +534,25 @@ static int set_default_channel_config(AVCodecContext *avctx,
     *tags = tags_per_config[channel_config];
     memcpy(layout_map, aac_channel_layout_map[channel_config - 1],
            *tags * sizeof(*layout_map));
+
+    /*
+     * AAC specification has 7.1(wide) as a default layout for 8-channel streams.
+     * However, at least Nero AAC encoder encodes 7.1 streams using the default
+     * channel config 7, mapping the side channels of the original audio stream
+     * to the second AAC_CHANNEL_FRONT pair in the AAC stream. Similarly, e.g. FAAD
+     * decodes the second AAC_CHANNEL_FRONT pair as side channels, therefore decoding
+     * the incorrect streams as if they were correct (and as the encoder intended).
+     *
+     * As actual intended 7.1(wide) streams are very rare, default to assuming a
+     * 7.1 layout was intended.
+     */
+    if (channel_config == 7 && avctx->strict_std_compliance < FF_COMPLIANCE_STRICT) {
+        av_log(avctx, AV_LOG_INFO, "Assuming an incorrectly encoded 7.1 channel layout"
+               " instead of a spec-compliant 7.1(wide) layout, use -strict %d to decode"
+               " according to the specification instead.\n", FF_COMPLIANCE_STRICT);
+        layout_map[2][2] = AAC_CHANNEL_SIDE;
+    }
+
     return 0;
 }