Full Version: Reading flac file with ID3 tag at start
I thought the flac identifier was always the start of the file but I have a file that contains an ID3 (as used by mp3) header before the flac file. Is this valid, I read somewhere that Flac used to support ID3 but couldnt find any details of whether it did it by prepending file with ID3 like in my file or some other method.
FLAC doesn't use ID3 at all, but vorbis tags.
I know Flac doesnt support ID3 anymore. But looking at some older threads such as http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofive...php/t36283.html it seems that it did,and the ID3 info in my test flac file is read perfectly well by Winamp and the file plays ok.
When you look at the FLAC format specification, then such a file is not "valid" (as you already said, a FLAC identifier has to be the first in the stream). Your lucky if playback software can read these ID3 tags anyhow.
QUOTE(exec @ Jan 26 2008, 16:49) 
Your lucky if playback software can read these ID3 tags anyhow.
Well Im not lucky because a customer has raised an issue because my software cannot read these files, but other programs can - so as far as he is concerned the fault lies with my program.
>then such a file is not "valid"
Not true, if it was once a standard then it should be supported by all decoders.
Not true, if it was once a standard then it should be supported by all decoders.
QUOTE(spoon @ Jan 26 2008, 21:58)
Not true, if it was once a standard then it should be supported by all decoders.
But then it still should be part of the specification (and marked as obsolete). Or at least there should be a hint on the FLAC homepage that once ID3 tags were used.
Edit: on the FLAC changelog there are some hints that once ID3 was supported.
But when asking the FAQs about tags, you'll find this:
QUOTE
What kinds of tags does FLAC support?
FLAC has it's own native tagging system which is identical to that of Vorbis. They are called alternately "FLAC tags" and "Vorbis comments". It is the only tagging system required and guaranteed to be supported by FLAC implementations.
Out of convenience, the reference decoder knows how to skip ID3 tags so that they don't interfere with decoding. But you should not expect any tags beside FLAC tags to be supported in applications; some implementations may not even be able to decode a FLAC file with ID3 tags.
Still hoping somebody could point to be the hows id3 tags were stored, when it was supported in flac
Have you found out something yet?
If not, I guess that the FLAC developer hangs around somewhere in these forums.
A short PM should do the trick.
If not, I guess that the FLAC developer hangs around somewhere in these forums.
A short PM should do the trick.
not sure what the question is... flac the format never specified id3, but the reference tools tolerated them for a while. compliant implementations are not required to support id3 on flac.
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