I noticed that lame lets you remove the Xing VBR header from its output files (-t option I believe).

Winamp seems to work fine without it and I haven't yet had the time to try it on the empeg.

Does anyone know what this header does and what harm, if any, is caused by not having it?

-D

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reg. #10798 - blue 40gig MK2 #764

If this is the header that musicmatch leaves out then the time remaining display in winamp will be incorrect.
Symptoms also include the bitrate display changing all the time..

I use MP3 tag studio to "repair" all of my vbr files and they work great on the empeg...(Check the release notes for a mention of how the wrong vbr headers can screw up fastforward and rewind)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)

I was afraid this could be the one.

Anybody from empeg could confirm that this header is required by the decoder for proper time display?

-D

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reg. #10798 - blue 40gig MK2 #764

Anybody from empeg could confirm that this header is required by the decoder for proper time display?

You don't need anyone to confirm it, it is definitely a confirmed problem already. It's in their software release notes for the player software, and has been for several versions:

It appears that Audio Catalyst will produce files with incorrect VBR headers if Real Player 7 is also installed. It is not possible to fast forward or rewind such files, the time display will not update and the player will not remember where it was in the track if powered off. Apparently the latest version of MP3 Tag Studio can repair these files although we have not tested it.

___________
Tony Fabris

I remember reading about this but I wasn't sure that this header and what lame calls the 'Xing VBR header' was one and the same piece of data.

Thanks,
-D


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reg. #10798 - blue 40gig MK2 #764

Well, it seems like the -t flag in lame is useless.

The help states 2 uses for it (one relative to wav files and one for the Xing VBR tag), yet encoding with our without -t produces EXACTLY the same file.

BTW, winamp seems very confused over the length of my VBR files. So it seems this isn't related to this tag.

-D

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reg. #10798 - blue 40gig MK2 #764