'encoder' information absent in file properties

[hiccup]

It can be mildly interesting to know what encoder was used for mp3 files.
I understand that that information might be present in some tag, or in the header of a file, or I guess it may be completely absent or erased somewhere down the line.
So it will probably never be a solid attribute that you can rely on to be correct or even present.

I learned to accept that, but it still triggers an itch at the back of my head once in a while.
Here is a specific example for a file that confuses me.

MusicBee indicates the encoder is unknown:




MediaInfo indicates Lame 3.99.5 was used.
(looking into the file using a hex editor I am guessing that's correct)




dBpoweramp says Lavc57.24 was used.
(I have no idea where it gets that information from. I can spot no tag, nor any string in the hex editor indicating that)




My question:

Is MusicBee correct in leaving 'encoder' blank here, or is it missing information that is present in the file?

[Steven]

I think it will be a case that the encoder could be infered rather than being directly available but if you send a link to the file I will have a look

[Steven]

The encoder data in the file is explicitly set to "Lavc57.24" and thats what loads into the encoder field for me.
Maybe rescan the file

[hiccup]

Re-scanning the file indeed resulted in now showing Lavc57.24 instead of a blank field.
Not sure why it wasn't picked up when adding the file to the library in the first place, but I can't rule out me perhaps messing around a bit while testing this.
I'm sorry for wasting your time.

At least I now know that MediaInfo doesn't seem to always be accurate.

[hiccup]

I still run into files that MusicBee displays no encoder info for (yes, I re-scanned a couple of times to be sure), while dBpoweramp and MediaInfo do.






Maybe the file contains that info in some non-standard way that both MediaInfo and dBpoweramp do retrieve, and MusicBee doesn't?
Just in case you are interested to further investigate I pm'ed a link to the file.

[Steven]

I have added some handling in v3.4 for the way its expressed in that file, although I have not seen it documented anywhere.

If you have other examples of this it will be useful for me to check my change works correctly

[hiccup]

If you have other examples of this it will be useful for me to check my change works correctly

I just PM'ed you some 10 more songs from a variety of sources.

[Steven]

The change will work with a number of those files, but some are just not following any standard i am aware of. I'll leave it at that

[hiccup]

I get that. I can't deny some of those files may be of some dubious heritage.