> There is a 100% Java MP3 decoder/player/converter
> library called JavaLayer:

But not an encoder, which will be the more common requirement, ISTM.

> It's Open Source. I haven't tried it yet, but it
> looks very cool.

It hasn't had a release since July 2001 - is it actually still alive?

> We should use it to support MP3 if JMF doesn't
> support it anymore.

On what I saw, I can't agree :)

>JMF can be used to support other
> media formats.

Without MP3 support the Power Packs lose a significant chunk of their usefulness; I really don't see what they offer (that's useful) that the Java version doesn't now (except, perhaps, MP2 support?).

> We should definitely support Ogg Vorbis:

Agreed

> http://www.jcraft.com/jorbis/
> http://www.javazoom.net/vorbisspi/vorbisspi.html

> Another interesting link:
> http://www.javazoom.net/jlgui/jlgui.html

Again, these are all just decoders. To support the conversions suggested by the spec we need to find some means of encoding.

>
> Mp3 support as far as I know DOES exist in the
> powerpacks, because it uses the underlying decoder of
> the operating system. The problem is with the
> all-java implementation, and it has to do with
> licensing issues.

Indeed - the power packs still support the decoding of files, but not streams, and no encoder of any sort (which are obviously neccessary for transcoding).

>
> In any case we should stick to an all JMF version at
> least for the beggining, and try to improve on some
> of the JMF problems ( ex you can't add a new plug-in
> without shutting down and re-initliazing a processor
> or player)

Ok, makes sense - actually get the thing working before running off on codec goose-chases :)

Cool - sounds sensible.

As far as MPEG audio is concerned we don't need a full decoder at all to extract meta-data (good thing too :) - parsing the chunk headers is nice and easy.

With your agreement, I could start work on an MPEG audio meta-data parser and have a look at what other formats require (AFAIK MPEG video is similarly structured from a meta-data point of view, i.e no full decoding required to access it).

I've got the basics of an MPEG Audio meta-info reader done; thus far it returns the obvious fields - sample rate, bit rate, channels etc.

The next step is to handle Xing VBR headers and ID3 info tags.

Code encl.

> It looks like the org.jboss.media.util.BinaryUtils
> class is missing in your attachment. I just commented
> that part. Please send the class to me.
>
Whoops - ditched the class, but forgot to finish the job. Sorry. Diff attached for ID3.java