P2P Clients and VBR MP3

[Snarkridden]

Some may know this, so don't crow at me please...

I always tend to go for the better quality high bit rate files in my searches for music, but it seems that some clients are incorrectly reporting real bit rates where VBR encoding is used (Variable Bit Rate)

I've been searching for some rare tracks, and I always sort in bit rate order, high first, so it was with much disgust, that in desparation I had to grab a track registered at 48kbits, just to see if it was the one I was after, surprise, the encoder had set the minimum to 48k, and this was what registered in the list, on playing the bit rate soared up above 224 and it sounded superb, so all is not lost, if you cannot find that illusive track, checkup some of the lower bit rate ones, you may be surprised?

The Clue in this case was in the playing length and the file size, a 6 megabyte file at 48k would be around 20 minutes long, not the usual length for a 6meg file of say 5 minutes.

Well worth a check of some of the 48 & 96k files, afterall who in their right mind would encode the top quality band Ambrosia at 48k?

Until we get a client that can correctly calculate the playing time and median bitrate of VBR's, best to check these odd balls..



Snark.