# Why Can't Windows Media Player Add Songtimes Correctly Anymore?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-windows-media-player-add-songtimes-correctly-anymore/223846>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 10, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-windows-media-player-add-songtimes-correctly-anymore/223846 "2004-01-10T18:43:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gypsymoth3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-windows-media-player-add-songtimes-correctly-anymore/223846/1 "2004-01-10T18:43:25Z")

</div>

i’ve made a playlist of songs with the following lengths: 8:36, 1:06, 7:12, 1:12, 6:47, 3:06, 6:02, 8:10, 9:23, 4:48, 11:07, 8:44, and 2:38. windows media player is telling me the whole playlist totals up to 1:18:56. how is this happening, and (how) can i correct it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Phage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@Phage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phage)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-windows-media-player-add-songtimes-correctly-anymore/223846/2 "2004-01-10T20:07:01Z")

</div>

Umm… that looks about right. Remember, there are 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Phage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@Phage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phage)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-windows-media-player-add-songtimes-correctly-anymore/223846/3 "2004-01-10T20:22:23Z")

</div>

Oh, ok, I see.

8+1+7+1+6+3+6+8+9+4+11+8+2=74 minutes  
This makes 1 hour and 14 minutes.  
36+6+12+12+47+6+2+10+23+48+7+44+38=291 seconds  
This makes 4 minutes and 51 seconds.

Added together, this makes the expected play list duration equal 1:18:51, meaning that the time shown is 5 seconds off.

I think that what you are seeing is the duration of each individual song being rounded to the second, apparently by just dropping any fractions of a second. One solution would be to have the decimal display include tenths or hundredths of a second, but that would require significant changes to the program itself. Honestly, I cannot see why this would bother you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gypsymoth3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-windows-media-player-add-songtimes-correctly-anymore/223846/4 "2004-01-10T22:25:10Z")

</div>

oh God… i am an idiot. i was thinking it was like 118 minutes.