Analyze information on how your MP3s were encoded.
EncSpot is a freeware application that will guess which encoder your mp3 files were encoded with as well as displaying other information. It also reports on the files' quality and displays a bitrate histogram for VBR files. It uses a familiar Explorer user interface.
Good and simple.Bit old, but can't find anything better
pete_run
Pros
As far as I can see, it's the only (free) program that displays this info
Cons
I understand there is a later paid version 2.2 which can be found for download, but noone can buy a licence!
Summary
Does anyone know of anything better? I assume that there are more recent features of MP3 files that it does not look for.
Invaluable and easy to use
English Bob
Pros
I didn't even know that it was possible to determine the encoder used to make an MP3 file. This is easy to set up and use, and has been invaluable in troubleshooting my collection for quality problems.
Cons
The three-colour quality indication isn't much use, and bears little relation to the actual subjective quality. Still, that wasn't what I wanted if for.