Error in time calculation

[Jahshan Bhatti]

Hi all,
I had downloaded some MP3s (MPEG 2.5 Layer III 11025 kHz VBR) and when I 
played it with Amarok, the total time listed in the playlist was double the 
actual time which led to all sorts of problems. I finally traced the source 
of the problem to taglib. I looked at the source (mpeg/mpegproperties.cpp) 
and calculated using its method and got the same doubled result:

	static const int blockSize[] = { 0, 384, 1152, 1152 };

	double timePerFrame = blockSize[firstHeader.layer()];
	timePerFrame = firstHeader.sampleRate() > 0 ? timePerFrame / 
firstHeader.sampleRate() : 0;
	d->length = int(timePerFrame * xingHeader.totalFrames());

After lots of experimenting, I've come to the conclusion that the calculations 
don't work for resampled music (try using LAME and a 44100 kHz wav file and 
resampling to 11025 or 22050 kHz). Actually, mplayer doesn't calculate the 
time correctly either which changes with different MP3 audio codecs. Only 
xine and realplayer give the right time. I don't know if there is something 
wrong with my MP3 files or LAME or taglib or my system setup, but I invite 
you to try it yourself (the resampling) and see what you get for the time. 
And if this has been reported already, sorry for the repetition.

Sincerely,
Jahshan