Hey all, long time reader, first time poster. I just noticed tonight when editing an Ogg file's tags in Winamp 2.91 that the filesize goes up by about 15 to 20 kb. This is a one-time occurance in that after the filesize has had this increase in size, it doesn't happen again.

I then went and used tOGGer to edit another Ogg file from the same album. This time when I changed the tag, only a few bytes were added. I then edited this file's tag in Winamp and noticed the few kb added, just like with the other file.

My question is, what exactly is Winamp doing to the files that tOGGer (and I assume other Ogg tagging software) isn't? Also, is there a way to reverse the process and gain the few kb back per file?



Gauge

The plugin for Winamp 2.91 is probably adding "padding" to speed up subsequent metadata editing. It's there to speed up tagging updates, but it takes up space.

However, most plugins or taggers don't use padding when tagging. It's no use if only one or two programs do padding. Rather, all programs need to cooperate.

It was a nice idea, but it didn't work out. I don't really know the exact reasons, but the padding feature got removed in subsequent versions of the plugin.

The Vorbis plugin for Winamp 2.91 is probably a buggy version anyway; upgrade to in_vorbis 1.35, and you'll be fine. You can download it from the sticky thread here in the Ogg Vorbis - General forums. Search for 1.35.

It worked, thanks! Editing the Ogg files that were affected even removes the "padding"!

Now the long, hard task of finding out which Ogg files I edited using Winamp over the, oh.... last several months! Can you think of an easier/quicker way to remove the padding from the affected files? I know that using tOGGer doesn't get rid of it.... would have been a dream come true if it did.


Thanks again,
Gauge

Maybe MP3Tag can do that. Just select all files and select "write Tags" - It will leave all of them unchainged but if you uncheck "use padding" under "settings"/"MPEG" than it could work. Would you report if it did so?

Edit: You can select all files you have without thinkin about if you used Winamp with it.

I went ahead and hunted down manually all the files that were affected, editing them with Winamp again, this time with "in_vorbis.dll" version 1.35. Padding is gone (!!!), but all those files still have screwed up vendor tags. They read "Xiphophorus libVorbis I 20011231", even though I KNOW they used to be Ogg 1.0 encoded. Does anyone know how to change the vendor tag back? If "in_vorbis.dll" version 1.32 was able to screw them up, there has got to be a program out there that can fix them!

Any ideas?

Perhaps you can try opening up the Ogg Vorbis file in a hex editor and manually changing the vendor tag. The header is at the start of the file so you'll see it straight away. I just opened up one in the hex editor from VirtualDub and could see the vendor tag.

Make sure you recompute the checksum if you do that.

I opened several Ogg files in the Hex editor and began tinkering around with them, but after I edit them they won't work (probably because of the checksum thing you pointed out). I noticed that certain locations within the Ogg file vary from file to file and after I edit one or more of the tags, but I can't figure out why. Does anyone know what goes into these locations, or link to a FAQ/guide on the Ogg file spec?

0x0000000E - 0x00000011
0x00000016 - 0x00000019
0x00000048 - 0x0000004B
0x00000050 - 0x00000055


Gauge

Ogg and Vorbis specs

Ok I figured out what goes into each of those file locations except for:

0x00000050 - 0x00000055

This seems to be in an area between the identification header packet and the comment header packet, and I can't find any information on it in the spec.

This area is very similar to another one that can be found at the very beginning of the Ogg file. They both begin with the string "OggS" and are 28 bytes long (the 2nd area seems to have an additional 14 or 15 bytes, but they are always the same), and I can't seem to find any info on them in the Ogg spec. I know I'm probably putting way too much effort into this, but it's a thorn in my side to have an collection of Oggs that started off with the correct vendor tag only to have just a couple mislabled because of Winamp. Anyone know what these 2 areas are and, more specifically, what the last 6 bytes in each of them are?


Thanks,
Gauge

You visited my link above, and yet you still somehow managed to miss the Ogg framing spec?

Yep, you're right! I went straight to the ogg spec and missed this entire link. Silly me, forgetting about Ogg framing. STUPID STUPID!
Oh well, you were kind enough to help me. Thanks, Peter Harris.

You're welcome.

Thanks again, I was able to fix quite a few Ogg files. I got into a routine, but now I encountered some files in which I must have used a different encoder because the file locations are off by a few bytes. Back to the specs I go!


Gauge