I have recently downloaded some podcasts from the XLR8R website of dj mixes in AAC audio format. They are mixes in long audio files. When I play them in my iPod I notice that there are track markers that allow you to skip forward to a specific point in the mix. My question - Is this done by embedding an audio file with a cue sheet? If so, then how is this done, and can it be done with other audio formats eg mp3 or wav? This would really help with listening to dj mixes on mp3 players without support for gapless playback.

wow...no-one?

Apparently the AAC format supports cue points. Don't know how they do it. WAV and MP3 don't by default, but they could have non-standard unsupported tags embedded.

Thanks mate, thats good to know...off to Google.

For anyone who's interested- the podcasts I was downloading from XLR8R are known as "enhanced podcasts". These are long audio files that can only be created using Garageband. These files can have info embedded in them such as song titles and pictures. It makes navigating between song tracks on a long file easy. I'm actually looking for a way to do this with mp3, FLAC or WAV files, and make them compatible with normal portable mp3 players in order to play dj mixes with gapless playback. iPods seem to be one of the few players which support gapless playback.

Does anyone know of any portable mp3 players which support embedded cue sheets in their audio files?

You have essentially answered your own question. GarageBand can with AAC, but it's only usable on Apple hardware. Although technically possible, such a feature does not currently exist for other audio file formats or players.

The new top of the range Sony Player has Android, which can run a version of Winamp. By doing this it has FLAC , and gapless playback- 2 features not available without winamp. Therefore, it seems that gapless playback is not a hardware limitation and could probably be implemented on most mp3 portables. I don't know why they don't. DJ mixes are quite popular.