Track timings are extended, song repeats

[viennesewaltz]

Hello,

I am using Poweramp build 965 for Samsung S20+ (Android 13). My issue is that on some albums the track timing is way longer than it ought to be. Bruce Springsteen's "Brilliant Disguise" shows as lasting 19:54, although the track itself is just over 4 minutes.  When played, the song ends and then repeats over and over, even continuing to play after the 19:54 is reached.  See screenshots.  Please can someone advise me what is going on here? Many thanks.

[andrewilley]

Most likely the audio files do not have correct duration information included in their embedded data, could you upload a sample for checking? Might be worth doing a Full Rescan (in PA Settings=>Library) first in case it was a database scanning issue.

Andre

[viennesewaltz]

Many thanks, I've uploaded a sample here.  I tried a full rescan but it didn't solve the issue. 

I think it may be related to the album cover art.  I have embedded a very high resolution jpg to these files (6000x6000 pixels with a file size of 24MB). As a result the file size of this mp3 is 32MB even though the audio itself was only 7MB when I downloaded it.

Edited June 21, 2023 by viennesewaltz

[andrewilley]

Yes, a 24MB image added to a 7MB music file is hugely excessive. Even based on a 12inch sleeve that'd be a 500dpi resolution, and no commercial sleeve printing process would use anywhere near that level of colour detail. 1000-1500 pixels should be more than enough, and most of my own images are around 150KB-500KB.

Add to the fact there is no duration tag in the embedded data (for MP3 files, a 'TLEN' ID3 tag) and it's a variable bitrate encode, all that PA can do is make a best-guess by dividing the total filesize by the sampling frequency.

Andre

[viennesewaltz]

Many thanks Andre.  I swapped out the 24MB image file for a 150KB one and the problem is solved.  

[andrewilley]

1 minute ago, viennesewaltz said:

Many thanks Andre.  I swapped out the 24MB image file for a 150KB one and the problem is solved.  

I just noticed that when I checked the file you sent, the image was 1500x1500 311kb, which should be fine.

Andre

[viennesewaltz]

Oh yes, I think I changed it before I sent it to you.

May I ask another question? How do I check for the presence of the TLEN ID3 tag, and add it if necessary? I guess I need a tag editor, but which one should I use for Mac?

[andrewilley]

Most tag editors don't allow generation of TLEN as far as I know, as its part of the initial encode process. I'm sure there's a way to do a "repair tags" task, but I'm not sure of a non-geeky method.

The file is still 32Mb with no tags by the way, which for a ~250kbps encode of a 4 minute song seems a bit excessive to me. I'd have expected it to be around 8Mb, perhaps the padding for the original image is still present? Maybe Max can comment on that?

Andre

[MotleyG]

2 hours ago, andrewilley said:

Most tag editors don't allow generation of TLEN as far as I know, as its part of the initial encode process. I'm sure there's a way to do a "repair tags" task, but I'm not sure of a non-geeky method.

The file is still 32Mb with no tags by the way, which for a ~250kbps encode of a 4 minute song seems a bit excessive to me. I'd have expected it to be around 8Mb, perhaps the padding for the original image is still present? Maybe Max can comment on that?

Andre

This is correct, the TLEN tag is not one that most editors can change. It is supposed to be written by the software when the original file is created. Usually when this is missing, it is an indication of some kind of file corruption. If the original source is a disc, you can re-rip and see if this is fixed. If it was a download, try to get a fresh copy from that source. 

[maxmp]

@viennesewaltz if track is VBR and no total length header provided or CBR but no mention of total # of blocks in the header, the only way to know the actual duration is to decode whole file. Obviously Poweramp doesn't do that for scan as it runs on battery-limited device (and we also want our scan to be fast). Instead, some length estimation happens, which is usually quite close, but may be wrong in some cases, for example, where album art is also considered a song data (it shouldn't).

Also, on first playback there is a bit better estimation which may update the track length.

I will try to improve the length estimation for the file shared, if that's possible. Thanks!

[w3wilkes]

I used to have this problem when I was using Nero way back in the day and encoding to VBR MP3's. I reported this to Nero and they just ignored the report so I went looking for alternatives. I now use DBPoweramp which correctly puts the track time in the tags. You can fix the track time using the VBRFix program.