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  1. I'm confused...sometimes when I rip audio from YouTube, and then add it to iTune's Library, it'll (rarely) make the song's run time appear about nine times its normal run time. Like for example if the track's run time is three minutes, iTunes will display it as 26-28 minutes. It has done this to four songs in my iTunes Library...

    The weird thing is that that's the only part of the file that's affected. Its file size and everything else still remains the same. But if you let the track run till its original run time's end, it will stop like it should, despite the extra twenty-five minutes that are remaining.

    Please help.
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  2. I got a new problem now. I just ripped a song, and it says its play time is 00:45 when moused over, in WinAmp it says its 23:45, and its real time is 3:05, which it holds true to. It's just really annoying seeing it say the song is 23 minutes when it's not... Is there anyway I can make it actually say its run time is 3:05...?
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  3. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Are you using VBR encoding on the audio?

    In iTunes, does the problem persist if you tell it to create an AAC version of the track? (Without deleting the original, of course.)
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  4. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    Are you using VBR encoding on the audio?

    In iTunes, does the problem persist if you tell it to create an AAC version of the track? (Without deleting the original, of course.)
    What I do is I copy the video's URL to KeepVid.com, download the .flv, then use FLVExtract to extract the audio from the .flv, then I have the file.

    And this isn't making sense cause all the times before I ripped and converted these files, I never had this problem. It just randomly started up now, and I don't know why it just started doing it right now, out of all the other times I've done it, and no problems.

    And I haven't done AAC with any of them.
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  5. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Give it a try - it's just to see if the AAC iTunes creates from the 'problem' track also has the same problem with the reported time, and you can delete the AAC version of the track, afterward.

    Run one of the 'problem' tracks through GSpot or MediaInfo - those should tell you if the audio has been encoded using VBR. Usually, whenever I see this issue pop up (incorrect time reporting), it's due to the players having issues with VBR-encoded files (not necessarily all VBR files, though). Are you using the latest versions of iTunes and WinAmp?

    It could be that your sources decided to start encoding using VBR audio. Other than the incorrect time display, you're not experiencing any other issues playing the files, are you?
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  6. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    Give it a try - it's just to see if the AAC iTunes creates from the 'problem' track also has the same problem with the reported time, and you can delete the AAC version of the track, afterward.

    Run one of the 'problem' tracks through GSpot or MediaInfo - those should tell you if the audio has been encoded using VBR. Usually, whenever I see this issue pop up (incorrect time reporting), it's due to the players having issues with VBR-encoded files (not necessarily all VBR files, though). Are you using the latest versions of iTunes and WinAmp?

    It could be that your sources decided to start encoding using VBR audio. Other than the incorrect time display, you're not experiencing any other issues playing the files, are you?
    I just checked MediaInfo, and all the songs with incorrect run time in iTunes have "Bit Rate: Variable".

    I am using iTunes v. 8.1.1.10, and Winamp v. 5.5.4.2165. I don't usually update my programs cause my mom said if it's not broken, don't fix it. But I guess this might be why iTunes is acting all screwy lately is cause it has a newer version out?

    And no, no problems with these files, file size and everything else still remains true to its real run time. Other than if you play a song and try tracking it in iTunes, it might actually run to its incorrect run time.
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  7. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Well... I couldn't guarantee that updating would solve the problem, especially since you're only a version or two off on both iTunes and WinAmp. If you were several versions or a major version or two off, then it might be worth considering... maybe.

    If you don't mind the potential reduction in quality, an alternative would be to re-encode those VBR tracks to CBR, or a different format (such as the above-mentioned AAC), or even VBR that wouldn't give WinAmp and iTunes problems.
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  8. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    Well... I couldn't guarantee that updating would solve the problem, especially since you're only a version or two off on both iTunes and WinAmp. If you were several versions or a major version or two off, then it might be worth considering... maybe.

    If you don't mind the potential reduction in quality, an alternative would be to re-encode those VBR tracks to CBR, or a different format (such as the above-mentioned AAC), or even VBR that wouldn't give WinAmp and iTunes problems.
    I'll try updating iTunes, but I doubt that'll change anything.

    And I like my audio to be the highest quality possible, so I don't want to do the CBR thing.
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  9. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    CBR and VBR don't really have that much impact on the quality of the audio, to my knowledge. VBR is, IMO, just a different way of altering the bitrate while encoding the audio to gain a little more space... sometimes, it doesn't really gain much, and it can also cause problems with some players/encoders, including hardware like set-top and portable players (although they've been better about handling it in recent years).
    (edit: deleted a sentence, because I'm an idiot. )
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  10. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    CBR and VBR don't really have that much impact on the quality of the audio, to my knowledge. VBR is, IMO, just a different way of altering the bitrate while encoding the audio to gain a little more space... sometimes, it doesn't really gain much, and it can also cause problems with some players/encoders, including hardware like set-top and portable players (although they've been better about handling it in recent years).
    (edit: deleted a sentence, because I'm an idiot. )
    So let me get this all straight. You're saying the reason iTunes is saying five of my songs are twenty-three to twenty-eight minutes (one is even thirty-nine!) is cause of its bit rate...? What's a song's bit rate have to do with how iTunes interprets the track's total run time? Just wondering. And I never had this problem before when I used to rip songs in the same exact way.
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  11. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Possibly. (And I should probably have rewritten that first sentence, while I was at it.) What VBR encoding does is shift the bitrate up or down depending on whether or not the encoder (software) thinks it's necessary, based on how it's analyzing the audio, so the bitrate in a VBR-encoded track can theoretically make several jumps in bitrate, even in the same minute. And, depending on the settings, the bitrate can even spike lower than you'd prefer.

    Depending on encoding factors, and other things, software may have difficulty recognizing all these jumps, etc., properly, and have problems (such as in calculating the full running time, or skips). If you're interested in quality, it's probably better to stick with constant bitrate at a high setting (such as 320).
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  12. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    Possibly. (And I should probably have rewritten that first sentence, while I was at it.) What VBR encoding does is shift the bitrate up or down depending on whether or not the encoder (software) thinks it's necessary, based on how it's analyzing the audio, so the bitrate in a VBR-encoded track can theoretically make several jumps in bitrate, even in the same minute. And, depending on the settings, the bitrate can even spike lower than you'd prefer.

    Depending on encoding factors, and other things, software may have difficulty recognizing all these jumps, etc., properly, and have problems (such as in calculating the full running time, or skips). If you're interested in quality, it's probably better to stick with constant bitrate at a high setting (such as 320).
    Aha, so that's why a lot of times I track these false twenty-five minute songs in iTunes it was at a different part of the song even at the same time... I completely understand. I was confused at first, but after I re-read it two or three more times, I got it now.

    So how do I know what should be CBR-encoded? How can I encode it? Will it affect anything else in the file? And also, how come iTunes has no problems with the other audio files that were ripped in the same process as these new false ones?
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  13. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    It's your call, really. There's no way - that I'm aware of - to look at a VBR-encoded track and be able to tell whether or not the players will have problems with it. (If anyone else does know of a way, or what might cause players problems...) You could encode a whole CD in VBR, and experience the problem with one track, five, all, or none.

    As for re-encoding, I'd say you should probably only worry about any files that do have the problem, are definitely VBR-encoded... and then, only do it if you feel it's truly necessary. It wouldn't hurt to keep a copy of the original file/track stored somewhere, either.
    I think iTunes and WinAmp both have ways to re-encode MP3s, but I haven't tried them. Re-encoding to CBR shouldn't change the content of the file, aside from a slight drop in quality (whether or not that's noticable may depend on the bitrate you set).
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  14. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    It's your call, really. There's no way - that I'm aware of - to look at a VBR-encoded track and be able to tell whether or not the players will have problems with it. (If anyone else does know of a way, or what might cause players problems...) You could encode a whole CD in VBR, and experience the problem with one track, five, all, or none.

    As for re-encoding, I'd say you should probably only worry about any files that do have the problem, are definitely VBR-encoded... and then, only do it if you feel it's truly necessary. It wouldn't hurt to keep a copy of the original file/track stored somewhere, either.
    I think iTunes and WinAmp both have ways to re-encode MP3s, but I haven't tried them. Re-encoding to CBR shouldn't change the content of the file, aside from a slight drop in quality (whether or not that's noticable may depend on the bitrate you set).
    Do I have to keep the original files? I don't wanna take up space on the computer.

    And which bitrate should I set it to to not really have a quality drop? And what program should I use to encode it?
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  15. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    It's always a good idea to keep the original files around - that way, if something goes wrong, or you don't like the end result, you always have the original around, or can start over with different settings. You don't have to keep them forever, but if you want to save a copy, you can always burn them off to disc, or write them to a USB drive, etc.

    Use whatever bitrate sounds good to you. I've seen people swear by 320, 192 and 128. It just depends on how it sounds to you.
    As for programs, it might help to look through VideoHelp's Tools section and see if anything works for you. I use dbPowerAmp, and Audacity with the LAME components installed, primarily. The free BonkEnc might also work for you, I don't know (haven't really tried to re-encode an MP3 with it), but there are plenty of MP3 encoding programs out there.
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  16. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    It's always a good idea to keep the original files around - that way, if something goes wrong, or you don't like the end result, you always have the original around, or can start over with different settings. You don't have to keep them forever, but if you want to save a copy, you can always burn them off to disc, or write them to a USB drive, etc.

    Use whatever bitrate sounds good to you. I've seen people swear by 320, 192 and 128. It just depends on how it sounds to you.
    As for programs, it might help to look through VideoHelp's Tools section and see if anything works for you. I use dbPowerAmp, and Audacity with the LAME components installed, primarily. The free BonkEnc might also work for you, I don't know (haven't really tried to re-encode an MP3 with it), but there are plenty of MP3 encoding programs out there.
    I don't need to keep back-ups. It's not necissary. I can just rip the song again in no time.

    And ok, I'll try your programs, but however Audacity doesn't work for me. It always says I need LAME installed, which I do, but it doesn't care.

    How can I use the program(s) to encode? I'm not sure cause I never did this thing before.
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  17. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Audacity needs special components installed for LAME, so the regular LAME package won't work. Which version have you tried? It's different depending upon the 1.2 and 1.3 versions.

    (Edit: I guess both versions will work with the LAME components for Audacity that can be downloaded at http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/ . At least, the Audacity devs link there for the LAME components on both versions.))

    Note that the current versions of dbPowerAmp are shareware, and will limit or remove certain MP3 functions after a while unless you register.
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  18. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    Audacity needs special components installed for LAME, so the regular LAME package won't work. Which version have you tried? It's different depending upon the 1.2 and 1.3 versions.

    (Edit: I guess both versions will work with the LAME components for Audacity that can be downloaded at http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/ . At least, the Audacity devs link there for the LAME components on both versions.))

    Note that the current versions of dbPowerAmp are shareware, and will limit or remove certain MP3 functions after a while unless you register.
    Any free good encoders?
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  19. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Well, all I can recommend are Audacity and BonkEnc. Other than that, I don't know.
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  20. Originally Posted by Ai Haibara
    Well, all I can recommend are Audacity and BonkEnc. Other than that, I don't know.
    K. I'll tr BonkEnc, and see if that makes iTunes make the song its real run time.
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    I also have a question in relation to the whole ITunes thing. Why don'r they let me play certain songs with.wmv in Itunes? Like for example I have a whole bunch of japanese songs that haven't been coverted to AAC yet and it wont play same thing with Monkey Business from Black Eyed Peas but yet some of the other japanese songs I have converted to AAC just fine. And advice?
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  22. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by DNomados
    I also have a question in relation to the whole ITunes thing. Why don'r they let me play certain songs with.wmv in Itunes? Like for example I have a whole bunch of japanese songs that haven't been coverted to AAC yet and it wont play same thing with Monkey Business from Black Eyed Peas but yet some of the other japanese songs I have converted to AAC just fine. And advice?
    It's because .wmv files are video (.wma = Windows Media Audio, .wmv = Windows Media Video), and while the Windows version of iTunes can handle .wma audio files, iTunes is very strict about the types of video it'll accept.
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    So in short is there any way around it? Also I also meant to include .wma not .wmv. lol.
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  24. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Sure. Convert the .wma files to a format iTunes recognizes, like MP3. While iTunes does have some support for .wma files, I'd be surprised if they supported all types/encodings of .wma, such as WM9Pro.
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  25. Ai Haibara, converting the song to AAC does get it the right run time! Thx! Only thing I don't like about doing that, is that it makes the song have a 2-5 MB increase... But not like it's for every song... Only five of them that have to be this way wont hurt.
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  26. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Try experimenting with lower bitrates for the AAC tracks. You can get about the same quality with a slightly lower bitrate compared to the original MP3... I don't remember how much, offhand, though. And, of course, you're the final judge of the quality - reducing the bitrate on the AACs could make them sound like garbage, to you.
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  27. Nah, I'm good. It's only five songs, anyway. Not gonna do any damage.
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