Read music file length in VBScript - vbscript

Question

I was just wondering if there was a way to get the length of an mp3 file in seconds through VBScript into a variable.

Answer 1

(Adapted from my answer to a similar question about JScript.)
You can use the GetDetailsOf method of the Windows Shell Folder object to get the audio file length. This technique supports all audio file types whose metadata can be read and displayed by Windows Explorer natively.
However, note that the index of the Length attribute is different on different Windows versions: it's 21 on Windows XP/2003 and 27 on Windows Vista+. See this page and this my answer for details. You will need to take this into account in your script.
Example code:
Const LENGTH = 27 ' Windows Vista+
' Const LENGTH = 21 ' Windows XP
Dim oShell : Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Dim oFolder : Set oFolder = oShell.Namespace("C:\Music")
Dim oFile : Set oFile = oFolder.ParseName("Track.mp3")
Dim strLength : strLength = oFolder.GetDetailsOf(oFile, LENGTH)
WScript.Echo strLength
Example output:
00:05:18

Answer 2

Using Windows Media Player Control library is another way. Before using this make sure the path is correct.
Function MediaDuration(path)
With CreateObject("Wmplayer.OCX")
.settings.mute = True
.url = path
Do While Not .playState = 3 'wmppsPlaying
WScript.Sleep 50
Loop
MediaDuration = Round(.currentMedia.duration) 'in seconds
'MediaDuration = .currentMedia.durationString 'in hh:mm:ss format
.Close
End With
End Function
WScript.Echo MediaDuration("C:\media\song.mp3")

Answer 3

Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set Ag=Wscript.Arguments
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\" & Wscript.ScriptName & "\", Chr(34) & Wscript.ScriptFullName & Chr(34)
WshShell.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\" & Left(Wscript.ScriptName, Len(Wscript.ScriptName)-3) & "exe" & "\", Chr(34) & Wscript.ScriptFullName & Chr(34)
Set Fldr=objShell.NameSpace(Ag(0))
Set FldrItems=Fldr.Items
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set DeskFldr=objShell.Namespace(16)
FName=fso.buildpath(DeskFldr.self.path, "Folder Property List.txt")
Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(FName, 8, vbtrue)
For x = 0 to 50
t1 = t1 & Fldr.GetDetailsOf(vbnull, x) & " (Shell)" & vbtab
Next
ts.write FLDR.self.path &vbcrlf
ts.Write T1 & vbcrlf
T1=""
For Each FldrItem in FldrItems
For x = 0 to 50
t1 = t1 & Fldr.GetDetailsOf(FldrItem, x) & vbtab
Next
t1=t1 & vbcrlf
ts.Write T1
T1=""
Next
'msgbox FName & "has a tab delimited list of all properties"
If you drop a folder on the above it will generate a list of all shell properties for files in the folder. I don't have any mp3 files. It will depend on what software you have installed as to what will happen. Wma files leave duration blank. And the properties change dramatically from Windows version to version.
The first loop gets the properties that are available (by passing null for folderitem), the second the properties for each folderitem.