Why is seeking so slow while playing MP3 files?
The MP3 format doesn’t natively support sample-accurate seeking, and sample accurate seeking is absolutely required by some features of foobar2000 (such as .CUE playback). MP3 seeking can’t be optimized neither for CBR files (frame sizes aren’t really constant because of padding used), nor for VBR files (both Xing and VBRI headers in those files contain only approximated info and are useless for sample-exact seeking). Therefore MP3 seeking works by bruteforce-walking the MPEG stream chain and is appropriately slow (this gets faster when you pass through the same point of file for the second time because seektables have been built in the RAM).
Related Questions
- When playing MP3 music files from the USB drive, can the player automatically start playing the CD at the conclusion of all of the music files on the USB drive?
- Im having difficulty downloading or playing the MP3 files. How do I contact technical support?
- Why is seeking so slow while playing MP3 files?
