Some .mp3's sound bad, others don't.

ajwest · 08-02-2008, 07:57 PM

Hi. Recently I upgraded to Vista. Everything has been working great. New computer, wicked fast.

I have always stored my music on an external hard drive. WD 500GB. I've never had a problem doing it this way. After about a week with new Vista computer, I've started to notice that about half of my songs now sound like crap. Quite literally. I've tried them on another computer and I get the same issue. As far as I can tell, my music files that are having this problem have actually been altered. I've tried iTunes (Quicktime) and Windows Media Player and they both get this issue, only with the problematic files.

I guess I must have done something in iTunes to convert or change my music somehow and now it doesn't sound right. I can't describe to you how this music sounds, so I'll provide a link to it. Just listen to it for yourself. It's almost like it's been reduced in quality and sped up X5.

Here is an example song:
http://www.ajwest.ca/Betty_Cooker_Theme.mp3
(I've also added it as a .zip file attached to this post.)

Listen to that in iTunes. It sounds so crappy. Now... Interestingly enough, I know that the music files cannot be damaged beyond repair, simply because if you open the files in VLC Media player, they sound fine.

So try opening that same mp3 in VLC Media Player and I bet you wont hear a problem with the song at all.

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

ajwest · 08-03-2008, 05:46 AM

Hmm... In case that link doesn't work I have some alternatives. All of these are the same file, but they're just different locations to download my example mp3.

http://rapidshare.com/files/13443788...oker_Theme.mp3

http://www.filedropper.com/bettycookertheme

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8BDBNIVQ

So I've tried the file on a Windows XP computer, and it just tells me:

"The file you are attempting to play has an extension that does not match the file format. Playing this file might result in unexpected behavior."

So I click, "Yes" to play the file anyway and it works fine. What has iTunes done to my music. Jeepers.

ajwest · 08-03-2008, 11:43 AM

I realize that nobody has replied to this thread, but given that this is a forum and I know people will be looking at it in the future with the same problem I thought I would post again.

After hours of tinkering I've discovered that this problem was caused by a virus. I guess the virus goes and re-encodes as many mp3s as it can find. I renamed the file to end in .wma instead. If I'm on a Windows XP computer and I open the file in Windows Media player, a website pops opened telling me that I need to download a codec. This is a trojan.

So... this means that I had a virus (which I actually knew that I did, which is why I reinstalled the OS, I just didn't realize it could do that to my music). So now I have no virus, but I'm just stuck with the result. A bunch of mp3s with scripts in them that want me to download a virus.

I have deleted my whole music library and I will have to get it again.

See this article for more information, it doesn't really have a solution to the problem but it does give some insight as to how it works:
http://www.trustedsource.org/blog/13...ltimedia-files

08-03-2008, 05:46 AM	#2 (permalink)
ajwest Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows Vista 64 bit	Re: Some .mp3's sound bad, others don't. Hmm... In case that link doesn't work I have some alternatives. All of these are the same file, but they're just different locations to download my example mp3. http://rapidshare.com/files/13443788...oker_Theme.mp3 http://www.filedropper.com/bettycookertheme http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8BDBNIVQ So I've tried the file on a Windows XP computer, and it just tells me: "The file you are attempting to play has an extension that does not match the file format. Playing this file might result in unexpected behavior." So I click, "Yes" to play the file anyway and it works fine. What has iTunes done to my music. Jeepers. Last edited by ajwest; 08-03-2008 at 06:16 AM.

08-03-2008, 11:43 AM	#3 (permalink)
ajwest Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Windows Vista 64 bit	Re: Some .mp3's sound bad, others don't. I realize that nobody has replied to this thread, but given that this is a forum and I know people will be looking at it in the future with the same problem I thought I would post again. After hours of tinkering I've discovered that this problem was caused by a virus. I guess the virus goes and re-encodes as many mp3s as it can find. I renamed the file to end in .wma instead. If I'm on a Windows XP computer and I open the file in Windows Media player, a website pops opened telling me that I need to download a codec. This is a trojan. So... this means that I had a virus (which I actually knew that I did, which is why I reinstalled the OS, I just didn't realize it could do that to my music). So now I have no virus, but I'm just stuck with the result. A bunch of mp3s with scripts in them that want me to download a virus. I have deleted my whole music library and I will have to get it again. See this article for more information, it doesn't really have a solution to the problem but it does give some insight as to how it works: http://www.trustedsource.org/blog/13...ltimedia-files