I thought Java had no MP3 support.  Have you a third party codec?

   You can read the specifications for the MP3 file format at
http://mpgedit.org/mpgedit/mpeg_format/MP3Format.html

   The bitrate information is stored at bits 12-15, but to actually decode
them, you need to know the layer description, which is stored in bits 18 and
17.

   If your player is half decent, can you make it open source? I'm looking
for a Java based mp3 players, and I wouldn't mind contributing some code.
Specifically I'm looking for a replacement to iTunes with better Unicode
support, and support for the Ogg Vorbis file format.

   - Oliver

Everything I've done so far continues to fail. I know where the bitrate
values are stored in the bytes, but the data that my program is getting
is not what Windows and Winamp are. I have no idea why it's this way. I
found some code through one of the links here, but it doesn't seem to
be working. In fact, it gets one value the first time, and the
consistantly returns 128 every time after that. I don't get it.

   protected int sync(FileInputStream in) throws IOException {
       int store = 0;
       while (!finished) {
           int skip = in.read();
           while (skip != 255 && skip != -1)
               skip = in.read();
           if (skip == -1)
               throw new IOException();
           store = in.read();
           if (store >= 224)
               finished = true;
           else if (store == -1)
               throw new IOException();
           else {}
       }
       return store;
   }

   private int getBit(int input, int bit) {
       if ((input & (1 << bit)) > 0)
           return 1;
       else
           return 0;
   }

   protected int convertMPEGLevel(int in) {
       if (in == 1)
           return 1;
       else
           return 2;
   }

   protected int convertLayer(int in1, int in2) {
       if (in1 == 0 && in2 == 0)
           return 1;
       else
           return(4 - ((in1 << 1) + in2));
   }

   protected int convertBitRate(int in1, int in2, int in3, int in4) {
       int[][] convert = {
           { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 },
           { 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 8 },
           { 64, 48, 40, 64, 48, 16 },
           { 96, 56, 48, 96, 56, 24 },
           { 128, 64, 56, 128, 64, 32 },
           { 160, 80, 64, 160, 80, 64 },
           { 192, 96, 80, 192, 96, 80 },
           { 224, 112, 96, 224, 112, 56 },
           { 256, 128, 112, 256, 128, 64 },
           { 288, 160, 128, 288, 160, 128 },
           { 320, 192, 160, 320, 192, 160 },
           { 352, 224, 192, 352, 224, 112 },
           { 384, 256, 224, 384, 256, 128 },
           { 416, 320, 256, 416, 320, 256 },
           { 448, 384, 320, 448, 384, 320 },
           { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 }
       };
       //System.out.println(in1 + ", " + in2 + ", " + in3 + ", " +
in4);
       //System.out.println(layer + ", " + level);
       int index1 = (in1 << 3) | (in2 << 2) | (in3 << 1) | in4;
       int index2 = (level - 1) * 3 + layer - 1;
       //System.out.println(index1 + ", " + index2);
       return convert[index1][index2];
   }

And then actually calling those...

protected int readProperties(File file) throws IOException {
       FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(file);
       in.mark(15);
       int second = sync(in);
       int third = in.read();
       in.close();

       level = convertMPEGLevel(getBit(second, 3));
       layer = convertLayer(getBit(second, 2), getBit(second, 1));
       int bits = convertBitRate(getBit(third, 7), getBit(third, 6),
getBit(third, 5), getBit(third, 4));

       return bits;
   }

I just don't understand why it won't work with most of my files.
There's no way that 90% of them aren't encoded right. Any ideas?