Windows 7 Media Player Audio Corruption of Very Short MP3 Files

Microsoft has warned customers running the latest iteration of the Windows client that they may experience the audio corruption of extremely short MP3 files when they are played in Windows Media Player. The issue is related to Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12, according to the Redmond company, but only MP3 files that are less than a second long are affected.

“In Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 7, if you attempt to playback MP3 audio files that are less than 1 second in length you may hear a slight popping noise or stuttering of the audio. This can be especially noticeable when using audio files that only contain vocals or the spoken word,” the software giant stated.

At this point in time, Microsoft is not offering an update or a hotfix designed to resolve this problem. The Redmond company did document the issue in a Knowledge Base article, but offered no solution for the time being. A mitigation does appear to be possible, but it involves modifying the MP3 audio files themselves.

“There is currently no direct workaround available for this problem. If however it is possible to modify the MP3's by adding a second of silence before and after the audio this should allow for the audio to be correctly heard. Application developers can also use other playback methods that aren't affected by this issue,” Microsoft stated.

According to the Redmond company, Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 7 is not the only application impacted by the audio-corruption glitches described above. Users can experience the same issue in additional third-party audio players, although the levels of intensity will vary. No other media players were specified.

“In some cases the application may attempt initialization of the audio outputs but the process may not have been completed before playback of the audio file begins. This can lead to an unwanted stuttering, subsequent attempts to play back the audio file may work correctly,” the company explained.