[BNM] Sound File Geeks...

[Mike Pelton]

Am embarrassed not to know the answer to this one myself, so please be
gentle....

This is all about "how do I find out which codecs are being used to play a
file?"...

I have an MP3 file which plays in Windows Media Player BUT it won't render
in GraphEdit, the very splendid and usually infallible DirectShow utility
that automatically wires codecs together by negotiating the input and output
types of each one.

What I need to be able to do (in code) is to create a string of codecs that
will play it.

So.. given that I have all the codecs I need (which we know because the file
plays in WMP) how do I work out what's being used to render the file by WMP
(or anything else that will render it)?

The file is the very splendid London Underground
(http://solo2.abac.com/themole/london_underground_song.htm) (DON'T give this
to the kids or play it in the office out loud) - the reason it's significant
for me is that there's clearly a common class of MP3 files that are encoded
in some way I haven't seen before and I'm developing code (www.Vixer.co.uk)
that needs to be able to unpick MP3's.

Any words of wisdom very welcome and the normal consultancy fee (a pint)
will be payable to the first N helpful replies (N to be determined by how
many pints I've had already).

Thanks in advance!

Mike