ID3 Version

App/Lib/Encoder

Symptom

Description

Submitter

v2.3

Winamp

Bad Language field in COMM frame

Winamp will record apparently gibberish bytes in the Language field of the Comments (COMM) frame. I don't see any pattern to the bytes, so I'm guessing that it's just some uninitialized variable that's getting written to the Language bytes. (Fixed as of Winamp 5.2)

Mitch H.

v2.3

Winamp

Description field in the COMM frame is ignored

Winamp does not take into account the Description field of the Comments (COMM) frame when reading a tag with more than one COMM frame. Instead of using the COMM frame where the Description field is blank to set the "Comment" field on the "MPEG file info + ID3 tag editor", Winamp displays whichever COMM frame happens to be read *last*. So, if another app writes two COMM frames to a tag, one without a Description value followed by one with a Description, Winamp will ignore the first generic COMM frame and use the second. This was can happen when using MusicMatch Jukebox to edit a tag (which properly uses COMM frames with Description values to store its Preference, Mood, Situation, and Tempo fields) and using Winamp to read tag. (Fixed as of Winamp 5.2)

Mitch H.

v2.3

iTunes

Extra nullchar in COMM frame

iTunes adds an extra nullchar to the end of the Comments frame.

Mitch H.

v2.3

iTunes

Non-standard TCMP frame

When you check the "Part of a compilation" checkbox on the Info tab of the tag editor form, iTunes will add a non-standard TCMP frame to the tag.

Mitch H.

v2.3

Unknown App

Non-standard NCON frame

Some unknown app/lib/encoder adds a non-standard NCON frame to tag. This frame appears in many tags, so it is likely that it is being created by a widely-used piece of software, but what software that is remains unknown.

Mitch H.

v2.3

MP3ext Windows Exporer

Corrupt padding area

The MP3ext Windows explorer extension corrupts all of its ID3 v2 tags by repeatedly writing an advertisement for itself (ie. "MP3ext V3.3.18(unicode)") in the tag padding, which violates the spec.

Paul Grebenc

v2.3

Winamp

Last frame ignored

Winamp ignores the last frame in a v2.3.0 tag if there is no padding in the tag. (This issue is fixed as of Winamp 5.2)

Paul Grebenc

v2.3

Mixmeister BPM analyzer

Invalid values in TBPM frame

Mixmeister BPM analyzer (among others it seems) writes floating point values to the TBPM (Beats Per Minute) frame.

Paul Grebenc

v2.3

Windows XP

Windows XP does not read UTF16-BE encoded text frames

Robert Manson

v2.3

Windows Media Player

Does not seem to support extended headers.

Birkir A. Barkarson

v2.3

Windows Media Player

Does not seem to support unsynchronization.

Birkir A. Barkarson

v2.3

Quicktime Player

Doesn't correctly display unicode characters.

Birkir A. Barkarson

v2.3

VLC Media Player

Crashes when reading bad tag

Sensitive to ill formatted tags and will crash with a memory read error.

Birkir A. Barkarson

v2.3

Winamp 5 Lite

Will not display unicode characters in default mode.

(This issue is fixed as of Winamp 5.2)

Birkir A. Barkarson

v2.3

Windows Media Player

Won't play an MP3 if certain ill formatted frames are detected

Birkir A. Barkarson

v2.3, v2.4

Windows Media Player

v2.4 tag overwritten by v2.3 tag

I've seen Windows Media Player write a v2.3 tag to a file that already had a v2.4 tag, resulting in two tags in the same file and thus "disappearance" of the 2.4 tag (as the 2.3 tag is written first, and there is no mechanism in 2.3 for chaining tags).

Pyt

v2.3

Audiograbber

Invalid language code

The Audiograbber sets the Language Code field ID3v2.3 frames to "XXX", which is not one of the standard values. If a language is unknown or undefined, the Language Code should be left blank.