time issue

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 5:25 pm

ok, so i have this mp3. media monkey lists it as being 2:45 in length. when i play it, winamp lists it as being 7:01 in length in the playlist, but just over 5 minutes (it seems to change) in the scrolling info window.

the track, when played, is 5:04.

i'm guessing the problem is with the mp3? has anyone else experienced this? is there a way to fix the mp3 without re-ripping?

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:28 pm

i had some in winamp like that and i find one everynow and then but i dont really notice it much anymore. must be something to do with the mp3 file its self. as i fixed mine by converting to wav putting it in a wav editor and adding on one or two secondes of silent space at the end then the editor fixed the time when it was saved. then when i reconverted it back to the mp3 or ogg file the time was right again.

zyb · Post by **zyb** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:16 am

I think this sometimes happens when encoding mp3s with variable bit rates (VBR) and playing them with a different player than the one with which it was encoded (although it is very strange since the codecs are the same in most cases). In my experience, mp3s encoded VBR via EAC and played with MediaMonkey or MusicMatch Jukebox result in what you describe.

Cheers, zyb

Post by **jiri** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:38 am

All mp3 VBR files should start with so called Xing header, which is a special frame that contains some information necessary for a fast understanding of the file structure. There were some attempts to use other ways of VBR identification, but nowadays it's quite generally understood that VBR files without Xing header are invalid (although it was originally a proprietary solution of Xing encoder).

Jiri