It was primarily designed for verification of MPEG 1 Layer III (MP3) files, but supports also other MPEG versions and layers. It can be useful for finding corrupted files (e.g. incompletely downloaded).
MP3val supports :
- MPEG-1, 2, 2.5; Layers I, II, III
- ID3v1 tags (must be at the very end of the file)
- ID3v2 tags (must be at the very beginning of the file)
- APEv2 tags
Why to use MP3val?
MPEG is a streamable format, that is, it is optimized for quick and easy recovery from errors. MP3 decoders are very tolerant to inconsistencies in the input file. Most players even don't report to user about stream errors. So, as a rule, user doesn't know whether his files are valid or broken. But using broken files can eventually lead to problems during playback on certain software/hardware.
MP3val can assure you that your files are consistent in the terms of MPEG frames, that is, it ensures that the file can be easily split into the frames and doesn't contain garbage. It checks also some other issues, such as track length stored in the VBR header. Checking by MP3val isn't a full test for compliance with existing formal and informal standards. MP3val neither decodes audio data nor checks for data validity in the frame.
MP3val can also fix most of the problems. Be careful: although MP3val can repair even files with MPEG stream errors, it is recommended that you find a "good" copy of this file, because a "click" sound usually can't be removed, the repaired file will only look like good.
Changes in MP3val 0.1.8 :
- The garbage handling behavior slightly changed. Some issues with ID3v2 tags being removed should be gone now.
• MP3val 0.1.7
- More precise report about CRC.
- A new option added to keep file timestamps.
- Added more accurate handling of write errors (Debian #413946).
- Attributes are now correctly preserved.
•
MP3val frontend 0.1.1 beta:
- Added toolbar
- Added preferences
- Window style slightly improved
- A lot of minor bugfixes and improvements
Important Note :
- Read MP3val's online manual
here.
