False track length

Philby · Post by **Philby** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:10 am

Hi All,
A few of my tracks have incorrect playlength values. That is the way they came, I guess. How can I reset these values to the correct length of the song ? The field is displayed under "Properties/Info", but is not editable. Can MM calculate this parameter for me ?
Philby

Eyal · Post by **Eyal** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:26 pm

It happen with (almost all) VBR Mp3 encoded files (Variable Bit Rate) because MM is calculating the lenght based on bit-rate and lenght of the file. Some encoders can add additionnal information (like a Xing header) to the file to help the software figure out more precisely the lenght.

Unless your files are corrupted?

And no, you cannot edit that value.

To always see the exact songs lengh, maybe you'll want to convert your files to CBR (Constant Bit Rate) since there is no calculation to do.

Have a nice day.
Eyal

Philby · Post by **Philby** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:05 am

Thanks,
I shall try conversion to CBR
Philby

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:44 am

Although this makes sense, would it not be sensible for MM to remember the actual length of files it has played if they don't match the calculated value?

Eyal · Post by **Eyal** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:06 am

Hey trixmoto, this is really a good a idea! You're a genius. Thanks to MM's library, it should be easy for the developers to add a field in the database for that. Maybe you should but that request under Whishlist topic.

By the way, Philby, it may me realize that it's possible for you to use a Custom Field to enter the real track lenght.

Have a nice day
Eyal

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 4:40 pm

Thanks! I have suggested it here:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 3185#23185

Adding the actual track length manually would be a very lengthy and tidious task, especially if you have a large collection.

Eyal · Post by **Eyal** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:00 pm

You are right. It makes no sens. It was only a suggestion to be able to have the real track-lenght for some absolute-critical-must-have tracks.
I think the encoder as a high incidence on the result track header information.

As my research, (I'm not sure at 100%) it appears that LAME encoder is better than everage and is more consistant, produces better sound result than others non-totally-compliant encoders (Xing, iTunes and Blade) that in some cases lack consistency.

Here I found some interresting discussion about it:
http://www.audiomastersforum.org/amforum/topic-965.html

To encode my files, I use the latest LAME (3.96) with Mediamonkey, put sometimes I prefer to use another software that uses Fraunhofer IIs (FhG) encoder because it seems faster, and also to encode all my Mp3PRO tracks.

- Please make a little pray for victims of Hurricane Katrina -

Have a nice day
Eyal

Philby · Post by **Philby** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:03 pm

Interestingly enough, I loaded up some of my tracks in a couple of other Tag/Rename type tools (there are heaps of them out there), and the track lengths all displayed correctly. For example, one of my tracks shows 0:11 seconds as the songlength in MM, but all the other apps show it as 3:31 (3 minutes, 31 secs). This suggests a bug in MM !

Post by **jiri** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 2:57 am

This code was made very reliable in the history of MM, actually in my tests it usually gave better results for damaged mp3s than other applications had. Anyway, if you have a mp3 that you think isn't reported correctly in MM, you can e-mail it to me.

Jiri

paddleyay · Post by **paddleyay** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:34 am

I'm wondering if more is known about this yet? I've been playing
with MM for a couple of weeks but have the same problem, a huge
number of my files have the wrong track length. In many cases this
causes the track to be cutoff before the end. All the other players
I've tried correctly see the track length. I can send more examples
if that helps.

Cheers, B.

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:36 am

It's something to do with header tags or something. The answer is in this forum somewhere! If I can find it again I'll post a link here!

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:43 am

There's an explanation here:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=613

Either of these should fix your problem:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4794
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2613

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:31 pm

trixmoto,

The links you have provided (well done!) basically refer to VBR files, and will help any person in trouble with VBR's.

But this problem can also occurr in non-VBR files, as was the case with me. I sent jiri a copy of one of the files (which read correctly in every other music manager tool) but not in MM. Resampling the track via another tool fixed the problem for MM. Strange that MM was unable to interpret a value that seemed fine to all other tools ? I think it may well be the way in which a binary value is stored (notation). But only the developers would know the inner workings here.

trixmoto · Post by **trixmoto** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 4:22 am

What type of file were you using? CBR? I have only heard of this problem with VBR files before.

Post by **Peke** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:28 pm

Few years ago I remembered that there was some problems with CBR written in LOW Bitrate <48 and some mono tracks, but this was at least 5-7 years ago.

False track length

False track length

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