Windows Media Player

I don't use Windows Media Player on a daily basis. I prefer to let iTunes manage my library.

When adding new songs from an old CD of burned MP3s, I like to sample them using Windows Media Player (iTunes is ill-suited for this).

Every once in a while I get a complaint from Windows Media Player that the "Format is invalid." Well, today I decided to see what Microsoft help had to say about the problem.

Get a load of this:

C00D0BB8: Cannot play the file
Windows Media Player cannot play the file. You might encounter this error message for the following reason:

You are trying to play an MP3 file that contains compressed ID3 headers. The ID3 header is a portion of the file that stores the song's album information (for example, the song name, artist name, album name, and genre). This information is sometimes called a "tag."
To fix the problem, make a copy of the file and then use a non-Microsoft ID3 tag editing program to remove or reset the file's ID3 headers. After you remove the ID3 headers, Windows Media Player should be able to play the MP3 file.

Attempting to remove ID3 headers might damage the file and make it unplayable. Therefore, always make a copy of the file before you edit it.

If this solution does not resolve the problem, the file might be corrupted.

Error ID = 0xC00D0BB8, Condition ID = 0x00000000

Bottom Line: They don't support compressed ID3 tags. This is something that I myself know is simple because I've implemented it myself. Something inside me says they crippled the application so that it can be more secure. But at what point does it become useless?