For instance track 1 disc 1 of Steely Dan Showbiz Kids Compilation shows 8:18 in Roon and 5:57 in Widows Explorer and other apps. Same type of thing for all the other tracks on the compilation. Roon also shows the files to be 160kbps fixed rate even though they are VBR. On playback the waveform trace shows about a quarter of the end of the track as a flat line. Playback stops when the track reaches its real length and the next track in the queue plays.
All the files showing this behavior were downloaded from eMusic a couple of years ago, so I don’t doubt there’s some fault with them. It’s just odd that only Roon has a problem with them.
More information - all the problem album tags show the encoder as FhG.
This is a common issue with a VBR (Variable Bit Rates) rip because as it states the bit rate varies throughout the song. When a song is played a bit rate sampling is measured at a given point and then compared to the actual file size and a determination is then displayed with regard how long the time is (length of song) and then displayed in some type of graph.
This cannot be performed accurately with a VBR song because the bit rate varies throughout the song and when a sample of the bit rate is obtained it is different from 1 second to another second depending on the rip.
Different programs grab this sampling at different areas of the song therefore displaying different results from one program to another.
This is why most MP3 players do not support VBR playback even though they will playback a VBR song.
Hope this helps.
MD
It’s 2020 now. I’m surprised that Roon still did not fix this issue. Even 1997’s WINAMP can show length correctly.