Just to clarify, MC doesn't use the Excel Epoch, they just both happen to use the same Epoch, as explained in
Reply #7 above. I linked to the various Epoch definitions. It isn't January 1st 1900.
The Epoch Date used by MC is December 30th, 1899 at 00:00:00, which is the Microsoft COM DATE epoch. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch_(computing)#Notable_epoch_dates_in_computing. Other applications should be capable of using it.
Good find here EnglishTiger.
when I used MC to convert a Flac File to Monkeys Audio (APE) Format guess which Non-Standard APE Key/Tag ended up in the File - Yes you guessed it one called "Date" with a value of 72986
MC does indeed save the date to APE files in a tag such as "Date: 34335". But that is an APE tag, and not a Vorbis Comment Block tag. Different.
Another point of clarity. All tags written to files are characters, as they are just text. It is only an application which may assume a particular tag that contains the text "1994" is a numeric value. Each application can treat that differently. MC has fields in String, Integer, Decimal, Percentage, List and Date, but they are all just text in the database.
For FLAC files:
1. MC doesn't by default write the [Year] field to file tags, and in fact, you cannot make MC write those tags. It shouldn't, because it is calculated based on the [Date] field, and to save it in a tag would be redundant. Any "Year" tag in a file comes from somewhere else, or is just the DATE tag presented as only the year.
2. Windows Explorer takes the Date tag and displays it as the "Year" and "Date Released" in four digits. Most Date fields in Windows Explorer are about the file date, not the content date. Even if the "DATE (RELEASED)" tag is written to a FLAC file, Windows Explorer doesn't use it.
3. Discussion of ID3 is largely irrelevant. MC writes TYER to MP3 files, and not Date Released.
4. MC does not write FLAC tags in the format "DATE=36245". It just doesn't do it. It does write the "DATE (RELEASED)" tag using the numeric value. If there are "DATE=36245" tags in a FLAC file, MC didn't write them.
5. Jamil, I can't tell from your first image in Reply #15 what file type you are displaying in FooBar2000. Is it FLAC? We are talking about FLAC files here aren't we? If FooBar2000 shows both the YEAR and DATE tags in one column like that, fine. There is no standard for this stuff. The fact that they show 2007 and 39xxx means that Foobar2000 also uses and Epoch date, and they are probably actually displaying the DATE tag in year format, as is saved to tags, and the "DATE (RELEASED)" tag in Epoch format, the same as MC. Your second image is of an APE file's tags, or is using APEv2, which is just not relevant.
If you want to sort out which applications are saving which tags in which format, get a Hex Editor and looks inside the files directly, after saving tags in the various applications. I recommend Tiny Hexer version 1.8.1.6. Just be careful where you download it from, as some sites can't be trusted.
Be warned though, that some applications won't overwrite tags if they exist. So test carefully.
MC26 is writing a tag called Date that contains this number: 38718.
No, it isn't.
Bottom line, MC isn't putting numeric strings into the DATE tag in FLAC files. It does put them into the "DATE (RELEASED)" tag, and some applications use that tag and display it as the Date.
Didn't I say all that in my first reply to this thread? Reply #7? Yes, I did.