Format Error!

[John B.]

I have one song that I have downloaded and exported to MP3 that when I try to play it on my MP3 player in my car I get a "Format Error!" message. I did everything the same as the other 200 songs and as far as I know this is the only one that does it. It is "Manic Monday." I have no problem when I play it from My Music folder in Windows XP Pro. It's the same when out of the car using ear buds. I have even downloaded a second time but it's still the same. Should I try the .wav version?

John B.

[Gale Andrews]

I have one song that I have downloaded and exported to MP3 that when I try to play it on my MP3 player in my car I get a "Format Error!" message. I did everything the same as the other 200 songs and as far as I know this is the only one that does it. It is "Manic Monday." I have no problem when I play it from My Music folder in Windows XP Pro. It's the same when out of the car using ear buds. I have even downloaded a second time but it's still the same. Should I try the .wav version?

Did you really do everything the same? Is your Audacity project rate bottom left of the screen at 44100 Hz? That is a universally accepted sample rate but MP3 players may not like MP3s at other rates. By all means export as WAV if the MP3 player accepts WAV, it will just be a much larger file (though of perfect quality, as opposed to the MP3).

If you are still concerned, please upload any MP3 that plays and the one that doesn't so we can examine them. You can uploade them to free services like http://www.yousendit.com/ or http://www.sendspace.com/ and post the link to download them here.



Gale

[Gale Andrews]

You sent the download notifications to Buanzo but he passed them on to me.

The files are the same in terms of characteristics (44100 Hz sample rate, 192 kbps constant bit rate) so you did nothing wrong. Length isn't the reason as the longer file plays OK.

You could use MP3 Repair Tool to remove everything before the first frame and everything after the last frame so that there is no metadata or other data that could possibly confuse the player. Perhaps there is some oddity in the encoder that created the MP3 you originally downloaded. Stick with WAV otherwise.



Gale

[John B.]

Gale,

I downloaded the MP3 Repair Tool but I couldn't read the buttons at the bottom, even after changing my screen resolution, so I opened up Audacity and opened Manic Monday MP3 and managed to delete the first three seconds off of the start on the song, saved it, and I pasted it into my MP3 player and took it into my car and it played ok.

Thanks for your help,

John B.

[Gale Andrews]

OK, try this after I ran it through MP3RepairTool (right-click and save link or target):
http://www.gaclrecords.org.uk/Manic%20M ... paired.mp3

I don't know why you can't reach the buttons. ALT + R might do it.



Gale

[John B.]

Gale,

Here is a screen shot.

John

[Gale Andrews]

Here is a screen shot.

As I said, you can hold down ALT then press R to repair the selected file even if you cannot access the buttons.

Another MP3 validator/repairer is MP3Val. However it sees nothing wrong with your Manic file in terms of pure structure. There is just something in the way the metadata was originally encoded that Audacity doesn't change but which upsets your MP3 player.

Does the file I uploaded for you play in the MP3 player - can I take it down now?


Gale

[John B.]

Gale,

I tried the mp3 you fixed and it still says Format Error! The mp3 I took three seconds off the front works. Is there a tool in Audacity that can shave off seconds from a song? There are several buttons on the splash screen and I can't see what they mean. I changed the screen resolution bigger and smaller but that didn't help. When I got my new wide screen monitor I've had a lot of that problem. Next, I'll download the other.

Thanks,

John B.

[Gale Andrews]

I tried the mp3 you fixed and it still says Format Error! The mp3 I took three seconds off the front works.

All I did was use MP3Repair to remove everything before the first frame/after the last. I did not remove any frames although it can do that.

Is there a tool in Audacity that can shave off seconds from a song? There are several buttons on the splash screen and I can't see what they mean. I changed the screen resolution bigger and smaller but that didn't help. When I got my new wide screen monitor I've had a lot of that problem.

You can use Truncate Silence in Audacity Beta to remove the silence padding and low level noise at the start of the file. It should work fine with the -40dB threshold and all the other values set to "1".

If you want to use Audacity 1.2, you can zoom in (CTRL + 1), hit HOME to make sure the cursor is at the start, then hold SHIFT then right arrow on the keyboard until you have selected what you want to remove. Then CTRL + X or Edit > Cut. If you need to cut actual music out to make the MP3 player work with it, how about instead

* Export as WAV
* Import the WAV back into Audacity
* Export from the WAV as MP3




Gale

[John B.]

Gale,

I have Audacity 1.2 and I like the instructions you gave instead of the downloads. I'm sure the downloads work. I can use Delete as well as Control+X and Edit > Cut. After I cut out a couple of seconds I can then add my two seconds of silence that I like to have before each song. I have that instruction somewhere. Generate/Silence.

John B.