The VideoLAN Forums

I have some mp3's that play immediately after they've been encoded,
but won't play after I've added tags to them. In the playlist, the
duration shows as 00:00, and if I right-click for information, there
is nothing under Codec details. The files continue to play using
Quicktime player, Itunes, and Windows Media Player.
Anybody seen this before ?

Roger

What are you using to tag the files? VLC? If so does re-adding them work?

Arite.

I used Window Exporer's Summary tab to add the tags.
Strangely, if I remove the comments the file will play again.

Roger

Don't use Windows Explorer to add metadata. Use a proper tag editor/media player which support ID3 tag writing for MP3 file (for example, VLC can save metadata). Windows Media Player should work, however e.g. foobar2000 is better for handling MP3 ID3v1/v2 tags.

Arite.

Umm, every other program I have is perfectly happy with the tags added
by Explorer. This strongly suggests the problem is with VLC, not with the
way explorer writes tags.

Roger

Yes OK, VLC shouldn't stop playing them. Still using a proper tagging tool should ensure wider compatibility etc. For some reason it is only when Windows Explorer writes the tags (which might not even be ID3 tags) that VLC has a problem.

Arite.

They are in fact valid ID3 tags, readable by several different media
players, and other tools such as MediaInfo.

Roger