Well, it's been a while but I've finally finished some small improvements to MP3Utility. Click on the link below to download version 1.80 beta. I haven't had time to fully test this, so let me know if encounter any problems. Improvements made in this version:
1) Fixed the "Sync error reading frame header 2 expected at byte xxx" error. This problem was due to some tagging program or encoder (not sure which) adding non-standard frames between the ID3v2 tag and the start of the audio data. Does anyone know what program is doing this?
2) Double-clicking in the Output Log will now launch the selected file in your default external player. You can click on any line in the Output Log associated with the file you want to play.
3) Right-clicking in the Output Log will copy the full pathname of the associated mp3 file to the clipboard.
4) VBR files will display a bitrate summary (subtotals for each bitrate). This can be disabled in the Options dialog.
5) MP3Utility will now allow multiple instances. If you start the program without specifying a file to test, a new instance will be launched.
6) The location of the last valid header will be displayed when a sync error is encountered.
7) The program will display more than 30 characters of an ID3v2 tag. Selecting data in the tag beyond the right margin will cause the text to scroll right.
8) MP3Utility will now properly display Unicode tags (I think).
9) I have made a few other minor enhancements/bug fixes.
Note: I have not had time to update the documentation.
Enjoy!
Peter
MP3Utility@hotmail.com
READ DOWNLOAD TIPS (BELOW) BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO DOWNLOAD!!!
Newest version:
Click here to download MP3Utility ver 1.80 beta (approx. 136KB)
Older version:
Click here to download MP3Utility ver 1.72 (approx. 127KB)
Click here for a description of MP3Utility
Download Tips (thanks to Critter and Matthew):
1) Disable all download utilities (e.g., "GoZilla" or "Download Accelerator") before attempting to download (if you get a username/password dialog, this is the problem).
2) You MUST download by clicking the link above! You CANNOT copy and paste the URL (don't know why this is - perhaps it's a restriction put on by GeoCities to limit people from linking from other sites).
3) You may need to wait several seconds after you click the link for the download to start (what do you expect for free web hosting?).
Thanks to Robert Spring (maxjoy on r3mix.net) for identifying the mystery song I've been trying to figure out for over a year! The song is "Mystic Love" by the group "East of Eden". Thank you Robert!
February 11, 2003:
I was thinking about adding a few new features (Unicode support, additional VBR information, a few minor bugfixes, etc.). Any other suggestions welcome. Drop me a line at:
MP3Utility@hotmail.com
November 28, 2001
NOTE: I'm still hoping someone can figure out the song referred to above. It's pretty clear this song is obscure, and since no one has figured it out yet I'm thinking perhaps the song was never released on a major label (just guessing here). I need someone to call in a favor from WLIR or some other source and figure this one out. Please!
I've release a new version of MP3Utility, available at the link above. New features:
1) MP3Utility will now maintain window position, size and state between program runs. Note: the MP3Utility.ini file cannot be read-only for this to work.
2) MP3Utility can now be installed as a shell extension (i.e., having MP3Utility appear in the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer). Note: you will need to manually add this capability to Windows Explorer, and I have included instructions on how to do this in the download zip file (if anyone has any ideas on how to automate this process, let me know). I highly recommend installing MP3Utility as a shell extension as it is a real convenience for individual file testing.
3) I've add the option (in the Options dialog) to auto-start testing when a file is loaded via drag-and-drop or through the shell extension.
4) MP3Utility now displays the estimated frames and time for VBR files with the VBRI-type header frame. It also now displays all the ID3v2 tags headers and associated tag lengths in the cataloging function.
5) As always, a few other bugfixes/minor improvements.
Enjoy (and help me figure out that song)!
September 8, 2001
I've added a few enhancements to MP3Utility (version 1.71) available at the link above. New features:
1) You can now select and copy information in the MPEG and ID3v1/ID3v2 Tag Info boxes (e.g., to paste into Notepad or another application). Thanks to Wish Star for this suggestion.
2) I have added the ability to "drop" files/folders onto MP3Utility (someone asked for this a while back, can't remember who it was). MP3Utility will automatically load the "dropped" file/folder and select the appropriate test function. Note that only single file/folder selection is allowed, and dropping an item is the equivalent of a load (i.e., you still need to click "Start" to begin testing).
As always, please let me know what you think.
August 26, 2001
BUG REPORT: In previous versions of MP3Utility I attempted to filter out non-audio files when testing/cataloging. Unfortunately, I introduced a bug whereby files with capitalized extensions were not processed by the "Test Directory" and "Catalog Directory" functions (i.e., files ending with ".mp3" were processed, but files ending with ".MP3" were not). A big thanks to "BB" for figuring this one out (actually, I'm kinda surprised no one noticed this earlier...) Anyway, this problem is fixed in version 1.7, available via the link above.
MP3Utility version 1.7 is now available. New features:
1) Fixed the extension capitalization problem when running the "Test Directory" and "Catalog Directory" functions (see bug report above).
2) Fixed the progress bar and time index problems when processing large files (turns out people are using MP3Utility on files > 100MB. What the heck are people doing with 100MB mp3 files?) Anyway, MP3Utility should now work with files up to the upper limit of a 32-bit signed integer, which is a little over 2.1GB. Hopefully no one will be bumping up against this limit anytime soon...
3) MP3Utility will now process files generated by FhG's Fastenc encoder (thanks to Wish Star for alerting me to the problem).
4) Added the estimated frame count to the cataloging function.
5) As always, a bunch of small bugfixes/enhancements.
6) One clarification: the "Xing" or "VBRI" that appears in parentheses in the bitrate section for VBR files indicates the type of VBR information frame, not the encoder used to generate the mp3 file (for example, LAME generates a "Xing"-type VBR information frame).
As always, feedback is appreciated.
July 21, 2001
I have completed MP3Utility version 1.6, available at the link above. New features:
1) Persistence of Main Window and Options settings (this includes the current test directory). This means on program start-up all of the settings from your last program run will be re-loaded. You can also make program settings "permanent" (for example, if you always want MP3Utility to start in Test Directory mode with a specific directory loaded, as opposed to reloading the state from the last program run). See the bottom of Section III in the Readme.txt file to see how to do this.
2) The current test directory is automatically reloaded and displayed when "Test Directory" or "Catalog Directory" is selected.
3) The current test directory is now common to both file and directory testing (browsing to a new directory in either changes the default directory for both).
4) Documentation updated to current version.
5) A bunch of other small bugfixes.
Many thanks to "Wish Star" for helping me test this new release.
The only other feature I am contemplating adding is some logic for better locating the time index of sync errors in VBR files. The current algorithm should get you pretty close, but I could add a reverse lookup into the VBR index table (if it exists) to get something closer. Email me if you think this is important/useful.
As always, please let me know what you think.
May 17, 2001
Have finished up most of the work on MP3Utility 1.5 Alpha. I am calling this an Alpha release because of discrepancies in the way different people have implemented the ID3v2 tagging system. I have tested pretty thoroughly, but one or two problems caused by really mangled tags may have slipped by. Please report any bugs ASAP (do not worry about testing - MP3Utility opens all files in read-only mode, thus it will never damage or change the contents of any of your files).
New features:
1) Can now display/catalog ID3v2 tag data.
2) Added a few new options to the Options Dialog.
3) Added new WinAmp genres (by the way, what the heck is "Christian Gangsta Rap"?)
4) Added code for displaying ID3v1.1 tags (i.e., track #).
5) Added code to automatically display/catalog non-printable tag characters with spaces.
6) Fixed file extension match problem (e.g., "test.mpeg" was previously tested as an mp3 file).
7) Fixed output log width problem (the scroll bar used to indicate that the Output Log was wider than it was. Man, this really bothered some people...)
8) Changed the catalog formatting of song length for Excel import (thanks to Koen for this suggestion - you can know use Excel addition to sum song lengths).
9) Added web and URL links to the About dialog.
10) Other miscellaneous bug fixes.
By the way, has anyone else noticed that WinAmp ver. 2.74 mis-estimates the number of frames in an mp3 by a factor of two? Try looking at the number of frames listed in the WinAmp MPEG Info box (on the tag editor screen). Then run MP3Utility in "Test File" mode to get the actual number of frames. Not that I'm knocking WinAmp - it's the ONLY player I use...
That's about it. Let me know what you think...
April 22, 2001
MP3Utility 1.4 Beta is now available at the link above. Major changes:
1) Fixed the file counting problem when testing directories.
2) Added the "move corrupted files to directory" capability that a number of people have been asking for.
3) Updated the documentation
Let me know what you think.
March 29, 2001
It's here! MP3Utility 1.3 Beta is now available at the link above. Major changes:
1) It's fully resizable! Lots of more space for the Output Log.
2) Will now intelligently parse (and display information on) those pesky leading ID3v2 tags.
3) Will now correctly parse MusicMatch VBR files (couldn't get MusicMatch to give me any info on their proprietary first frame header. If anyone has any info, let me know).
4) Exposed more functionality in a separate Options dialog box.
5) A bunch of other bug fixes.
January 31, 2001
As promised, MP3Utility ver 1.2 Alpha (download link above) incorporates the logic to recursively process subdirectories for both testing and cataloging (see the checkbox under "Options For Testing"), as well as maintain the previous directory while browsing for a folder. Please report any bugs and let me know what other improvements would be helpful. Also feel free to send me an email just to let me know if you find this utility helpful (email link at bottom of page).
January 14, 2001
Ok, Ok. My apologies. I haven't checked my email or this site for a while (maybe six months - oops) and didn't realize so many people were starting to use this utility. My bad. I've fixed the download and email links and will be updating MP3Utility based on several suggestions I've received.
Note: I have received a number of requests to add some type of automatic error correction to MP3Utility. However, I'm not sure how this can be done since mp3 files are basically binary streams of audio data (with synchronization headers). I've seen corruption due to extra data inserted in a file, data missing from a file, etc. Thus, I can't see any way to intelligently guess how to fix a file without manually figuring out the problem first. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.
By the way, helping to identify the song above would definitely make me work faster... :-)
Any other suggestions, please email me below. Thanks.
Peter F. Smith
email: MP3Utility@hotmail.com