Ubuntu
nautilus package

File properties "Audio" tab doesn't display the correct bitrate for some MP3 files (VBR?)

Asked by W. Prins

I've noticed that the normal nautilus file manager interface doesn't display doesn't always display the correct bitrate for some MP3 files (I believe this part is handled by totem?) By comparison, opening the same file in e.g. Movie Player displays the correct bitrate. I think this may be due to the files actually being VBR. Given the above, is this behaviour a bug or simply a side effect of the nautilus/totem UI not really being able to say without reading the file what the correct average VBR rate is? If it's a bug I'd like to report it and get it fixed, so that you get hopefully the same answer from the "filesystem" ui's and other apps (e.g. Movie player in this case.) To be fair I've just checked and Rhythmbox also reports the incorrect bitrate?!?

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Eliah Kagan
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Best Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#1

If an incorrect bitrate is reported in a way that represents it as correct--which seems to be what you're saying--then this is probably to be considered a bug. I recommend reporting it as one. If Rhythmbox is reporting the wrong bitrate as well, then I recommend reporting a big in Rhythmbox too. Before filing any bug reports against any Ubuntu software, please read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs carefully. To report the bug in this case, use Help > Report a Bug... or (if that doesn't appear), launch ubuntu-bug with the PID of the running process as the argument. (That will all make sense once you've read https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs.)

Make sure your bug reports are complete and includes version information for the packages that provide the software. After you've submitted them, you can link to them to this question by using the "Link existing bug" link near the top of this question page. However, while it's a good idea to do that, your bug reports should be complete and self-contained--it should not be necessary for Ubuntu developers to refer to this question page in order to fully understand and appreciate your bug reports.

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marcus aurelius (adbiz) said : 		#2

if it's only with some files, then those files were improperly encoded. if you get mp3s from file sharing sources, there will be a few like that.

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#3

That's true, but even for a damaged file, if some programs are able to display the bitrate correctly, when other programs cannot do so a bug report is reasonable. If nobody wants to put in the time or effort to improve the affected software, then the bug report might just sit around or it might get marked Won't Fix, but the issue will be documented for possible eventual improvement.

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W. Prins (wprins) said : 		#4

Thanks, I'll report it as a bug then as appropriate.

@marcus aurelius -- The files are not damaged. (They are actually rips I did a long time ago of some of my own CD's, in doing some re-organizing I noticed I had multiple copies of some files and that from the filesystem they appeared to be of the same bitrate (128k) however nevertheless had different sizes. A bit more digging then showed that the bigger files are actually higher bitrate [and as I say, I *think* I encoded them with VBR etc...] )

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W. Prins (wprins) said : 		#5

Thanks Eliah Kagan, that solved my question.