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elasticdog

Member

From: Washington, USA

Registered: 2005-05-02

Posts: 995

Website

mp3 player capable of calculating vbr track time?

I'm finding that I prefer to rip mp3s using <code>abcde</code> with the lame <code>--preset standard</code> option thus creating variable bit rate (VBR) files.  The problem I'm finding is that all mp3 players I've tried don't calculate track times accurately...I imagine they try grabbing the initial bit rate used at the beginning of the song, and then divide the file size by that number to estimate a song's length.

I've seen this using mpd, xfmedia, itunes (on my windows box), directly on my ipod, and IIRC winamp as well.  Is there some setting I'm missing that would add meta-data to the mp3 with info about the actual length of the song, or is that just a limitation in the way all modern software calculates the track times?  I would think that since VBR mp3s have been around for a long time now, they would have tackled the issue (especially considering you get a better quality rip for typically less space than CBR).  Does anyone have any words of advice on this one?

stonecrest

Member

From: Boulder

Registered: 2005-01-22

Posts: 1,190

Re: mp3 player capable of calculating vbr track time?

I've never heard of this. I use vbr ogg files and MPD displays the correct song length for all of them..

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Snarkout

Member

Registered: 2005-11-13

Posts: 542

Re: mp3 player capable of calculating vbr track time?

I've had this issue with many podcasts not playing correctly as well as cross-platform buggyness similar to what you describe (ie encode on one platform, play on another, and suffer weird time issues).  Generally any bug reports I've read blame the xing header.  VBR may be better than CBR, but I've had a ton of issues with it, even on non-linux platforms.

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Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
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ploxiln

Member

Registered: 2006-10-27

Posts: 50

Re: mp3 player capable of calculating vbr track time?

Actually, in my extensive experience, I've never had issues with VBR mp3s on any platform, and I've used them exclusively. They certainly shouldn't have any cross-platform problems, and all media players I've used, including WinAmp (way back in the day), modern versions of iTunes (5 and up maybe?), rhythmbox, banshee, amarok... my various physical mp3 players... lame --alt-preset standard is pretty much the most compatible high-quality compression format around.

Edit: and to address the question more directly, no, I don't think there's a special tag, some players are just stupid with VBR files, but the vast majority of the one's i've used get the song length right. Including, interestingly enough, the iTunes and iPod you mention. Maybe... its abcde? I actually ripped all my music in windows using EAC...