# \[X\] Slight duration discrepancy?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230
**Category:** No Bugs
**Created:** [August 16, 2017, 3:18am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230 "2017-08-16T03:18:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lozzy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Lozzy)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 3:18am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/1 "2017-08-16T03:18:38Z")
I was processing some 56k bitrate mono mp3 files, and noticed a discrepancy of around 10 secs in the duration reported by mp3tag compared to the actual playing time from foobar or mp3directcut.
I duly checked the files with both mp3VAL checker and VBR fix but no issues reported.
It's not a major problem really, but I thought I'd mention it as I'm curious to know why.
Screengrab is attached for clarity
regards
Lozzy
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### Author:  [@poster](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/poster)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/2 "2017-08-16T03:25:54Z")
As you mention Mp3DirectCut:
Did you perhaps truncate the file with Mp3Directcut and after that did not refesh the view of Mp3Tag?
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/3 "2017-08-16T03:28:45Z")
In regular intervals, you find reports about the variation in bitrate for VBR files.
Apparently, the first few frames are important for MP3tag to calculate the length. If these are longer or shorter than the rest in average, you get an inaccurate result.
This is nothing to worry about. It is just that MP3tag simply does not look at the whole audio part.
If MP3val and Mp3diags have not reported anything, fine.
If you want to get matching results, transform the file into a CBR file (e.g. winmp3packer).
BTW: reports about the length differences have so far been categorized as "no bug".
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### Author:  [@Lozzy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Lozzy)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 3:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/4 "2017-08-16T03:32:42Z")
> [@poster](#):
>
> As you mention Mp3DirectCut:
> Did you perhaps truncate the file with Mp3Directcut and after that did not refesh the view of Mp3Tag?
No, the files were untouched by me at this point
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### Author:  [@Lozzy](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Lozzy)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 3:33am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/5 "2017-08-16T03:33:50Z")
> [@ohrenkino](#):
>
> In regular intervals, you find reports about the variation in bitrate for VBR files...
> ...If you want to get matching results, transform the file into a CBR file
I should have mentioned these are CBR already
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/6 "2017-08-16T03:57:58Z")
Please try MP3diags and see if you have stacked tags or unidentified streams in the file or something like that.
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2017, 10:14am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/7 "2017-08-16T10:14:02Z")
Can you send me one of those files for analyzing purposes?
Kind regards
– Florian
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-slight-duration-discrepancy/19230/8 "2018-12-28T18:52:45Z")
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