Except this one time, I’ve never really had any issues while playing or encoding MP3 files. But just that once, an encoder refused to encode a MP3 file, by saying that it was corrupted (can’t really remember the exact issue though).
So the thing is, even if you have MP3 files that play without issues, still, they might contain somewhat corrupted, content issues (has a common error that has something to do with “audio frames”, for instance) that you aren’t aware of. Because most audio players can just skip these issues and continue the playback.
So, if you’re looking for a tool that lets you identify and fix these issues with ease, then you might find “wxMP3val” of being quite useful.
It’s actually a graphical front-end that uses the original command-line based tool known as “MP3val”, has an extremely simple UI and runs in both Windows and GNU/Linux platforms.
Main features …
*. Supports batch file (MP3) scanning and repairing.
*. Once scanned, it shows details such as the audio layer version, meta-tag version, if the file was encoded using CBR (constant bit rate) and the condition (“OK” means you’re good to go, “PROBLEM” means, oh you know :D).
*. “MP3val” can fix some of those playback/encode issues but it’s recommended that you keep a backup of the original files first, just in case.
*. They have a “.deb” file that you can use in Ubuntu/Debian and just to check, I downloaded it and installed in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, where it ran without any issues (why the heck are you using a screenshot in Windows then!?, oh well you know, just for a change :D).
If you wanna give it a try, then please go to this “wxMP3val” project page and get it.
As usual, Ubuntu users should get the “.deb” packages (32-bit or the 64-bit version) and when the download finishes, double click on the file and follow the on-screen details with Ubuntu Software Center to install it. Good luck.
Great post!