MP3 files....what exactly are "headers"

[Lyquist]

I was just curious if it is actually possible to stick something in a MP3 file other than just the audio information and the information needed to play it on whatever media player you are playing. If this is possible, then just exactly how much in KB or MB can be stored in there? If you have some type of solid evidence of this, then you are welcome to post a link so I can look into it further. Thanks.

 

[Andrew_Carr]

File headers generally store useful information like(in this case), the artist, genre, etc.

They aren't very large, so I'm not sure if you could store an e-book in an mp3 header, but you could certainly store some information in them besides the typical music related stuff.


This should help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/vbmp3header.aspx

 

[phide]

As far as I'm aware, there is no specific maximum size. Some applications might have problems parsing through an excessively large header simply because they aren't designed to be that large, so that's something you'll want to look out for.

 

[Arkangyl]

Sounds like someone wants to write a virus :-P

According to the linked documentation, you have 256mb to play with in an ID3v2 tag, that 256mb is broken into 16mb frames so no one piece of data can be more than 16mb. I believe these tags are generally just parsed as character arrays so any data placed into them would merely be read as a string, or a sentence for those non-programmers out there.

What exactly where you thinking about doing with the tag?

 

[Lyquist]

I have absolutely no interest in writing viruses. Thanks. I was just honestly curious.

 

[Impulse]

For one thing, album art.

 

[Lyquist]

Thanks. I was just curious.