MP3val is a tool for MPEG audio files validation and (optionally) fixing problems. It was primarily designed for MPEG 1 Layer III (MP3) files, but supports also other MPEG versions and layers. It can be useful for finding corrupted files (e.g. incompletely downloaded).

MP3val supports:

• MPEG-1, 2, 2.5; Layers I, II, III
• ID3v1 tags (must be at the very end of the file)
• ID3v2 tags (must be at the very beginning of the file)
• APEv2 tags

This program can be compiled both for Windows and major Unix systems.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Why to use it'

MPEG is a streamable format, that is, it is optimized for quick and easy recovery from errors. Modern MP3 decoders are very tolerant to inconsistencies in the input file. Most players even don't report to user about stream errors. So, as a rule, user doesn't know whether his files are valid or broken. But using broken files can eventually lead to problems during playback on certain software/hardware.

MP3val can assure you that your files are consistent in the terms of MPEG frames, that is, it ensures that the file can be easily split into the frames and doesn't contain garbage. It checks also some other issues, such as track length stored in the VBR header. Checking by MP3val isn't a full test for compliance with existing formal and informal standards. MP3val neither decodes audio data nor checks for data validity in the frame.

MP3val can also fix most of the problems. Be careful: although MP3val can repair even files with MPEG stream errors, it is recommended that you find a "good" copy of this file, because a "click" sound usually can't be removed, the repaired file will only look like good.