INPUT BUFFER MANAGEMENT FOR THE PLAYBACK CONTROL FOR MP3 PLAYERS

Input buffer management of the playback control for MP3 players includes initializing a totalizer to zero, finding a synchronization word of a frame, decoding a header, calculating the size of a main_data field, and decoding the enclosed audio data. If it is determined the value contained in the totalizer is less than the main_data_begin of this frame, store the main_data of the frame in an input buffer, add the size of the main_data to the totalizer, and repeat the process starting with finding the synchronization word of a next frame until the totalizer is greater or equal to the main_data_begin of the then current frame. At this point, all of the audio data required by the frame is currently available and decoding and playing can continue as normal.