UNSYNCHRONISATION

This module contents a couple of functions to convert readed bytes (as [Word8]) of synchronized values to unsynchronised Integer.

UNSYNCRONISATION

The only purpose of unsynchronisation is to make the ID3v2 tag as compatible as possible with existing software and hardware. There is no use in unsynchronising tags if the file is only to be processed only by ID3v2 aware software and hardware. Unsynchronisation is only useful with tags in MPEG 1/2 layer I, II and III, MPEG 2.5 and AAC files.

1. The unsynchronisation scheme

Whenever a false synchronisation is found within the tag, one zeroed byte is inserted after the first false synchronisation byte. The format of synchronisations that should be altered by ID3 syncIntegerrs is as follows:

         %11111111 111xxxxx

and should be replaced with:

         %11111111 00000000 111xxxxx

This has the side effect that all $FF 00 combinations have to be altered, so they will not be affected by the decoding process. Therefore all the $FF 00 combinations have to be replaced with the $FF 00 00 combination during the unsynchronisation.

To indicate usage of the unsynchronisation, the unsynchronisation flag in the frame header should be set. This bit MUST be set if the frame was altered by the unsynchronisation and SHOULD NOT be set if unaltered. If all frames in the tag are unsynchronised the unsynchronisation flag in the tag header SHOULD be set. It MUST NOT be set if the tag has a frame which is not unsynchronised.

Assume the first byte of the audio to be $FF. The special case when the last byte of the last frame is $FF and no padding nor footer is used will then introduce a false synchronisation. This can be solved by adding a footer, adding padding or unsynchronising the frame and add $00 to the end of the frame data, thus adding more byte to the frame size than a normal unsynchronisation would. Although not preferred, it is allowed to apply the last method on all frames ending with $FF.

It is preferred that the tag is either completely unsynchronised or not unsynchronised at all. A completely unsynchronised tag has no false synchonisations in it, as defined above, and does not end with $FF. A completely non-unsynchronised tag contains no unsynchronised frames, and thus the unsynchronisation flag in the header is cleared.

Do bear in mind, that if compression or encryption is used, the unsynchronisation scheme MUST be applied afterwards. When decoding an unsynchronised frame, the unsynchronisation scheme MUST be reversed first, encryption and decompression afterwards.

1. Synchsafe integers

In some parts of the tag it is inconvenient to use the unsychronisation scheme because the size of unsynchronised data is not known in advance, which is particularly problematic with size descriptors. The solution in ID3v2 is to use synchsafe integers, in which there can never be any false synchs. Synchsafe integers are integers that keep its highest bit (bit 7) zeroed, making seven bits out of eight available. Thus a 32 bit synchsafe integer can store 28 bits of information.

Example:

     255 (%11111111) syncIntegerd as a 16 bit synchsafe integer is 383
     (%00000001 01111111).

(http://www.id3.org/id3v2.4.0-structure)