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[realish]

I have a simple question and I can't seem to find an answer on the site or on these boards.  Maybe it's staring me in the face somewhere, but I want to be very certain of it before I try the software.

I've used MusicMatch in the past, almost entirely because of one feature (under what they call "super-tagging"): you can select any song or group of songs on your hard drive and MM will look up the tag for you based on information in the file name.  Since I get lots of poorly tagged mp3s from... uh... friends, this feature is invaluable to me in keeping my library organized.

I'm not talking about looking up a CD, mind you.  I'm talking about random mp3s (and/or .ogg's) already on your hard drive.

Does MediaCenter do this?

Also, MM will rename files based on tags.  Since almost every program does this, I assume MC does too, but I might as well ask while I'm here.

[JimH]

It's called "Track Info".  Select the file, right click and do Library Tools / Lookup Track Info...

The other one is called "Rename files from properties".  Also under Library Tools.  Do a few before you do a lot.

[jleerigby]

Try Jim's suggestion first re looking up track info.  If that doesn't find the tracks try this program:

http://www.medic.dk/PsychicMP3_v2.0.exe

Point it at the directory containing the tracks and get it to rename the files (e.g. Track # - Artist - Name - Album).  Then use the Fill Properties From Filename feature in MC to fills the tags in MC and the file.  I say this because, though Psychic MP3 can tag the files with the results it finds I find this less reliable than it's rename feature.  

Don't let this put you off though, I've used MMJB Super Tagging but it's nowhere near as fast and reliable as Psychic or YADB (that's what MC uses) in terms of finding matches.  This tool is an absolute must for looking up tags for files already on your hard drive.

Let me know if you find it useful.

[realish]

Thanks for the answers.  Two quick follow-ups:

1.  I know lots of programs will look up the info for you -- the advantage of MM (to me anyway), is that it will update the tags automatically at the same time.  This is handy when you're looking up the tags for 10 or so disparate songs at once.  The last thing I want to do is look up the info in a database and then manually enter the tag info for each of the files, one at a time.  Make sense?  I'm asking if MC not only looks up the info, but (once you confirm it) tags the info to the song in the same step.  

2.  Re: psychic mp3 -- my impression, though I've never used it, is that it works only for mp3s.  I have a lot of ogg files too.  I sometimes use this program: http://www.mp3tag.de/en/index.html and it works quite well.  However, the primary reason for me to switch to MC would be the all-in-one aspect of it.   (Oh, and the Tivo interoperability is a big selling point too.)  Right now I have about five separate programs I use for various things.   But most of them are free, and $40 is pretty steep, especially for me, right now, knowing that I'd have to pay more when v10 (v11, v12, etc.) comes out.

[KingSparta]

psychic mp3

I did not think it worked well

[jleerigby]

MC, like MMJB, will update the tags for you if it finds a match.  No-one suggested you would have to manually enter the tag info one at a time.  

Psychic MP3 was merely suggested as a fall back where MC does not find a match, because Psychic uses a different DB.  I don't know if it supports non-MP3 files.  I have a load of tracks in a separate directory that have not been tagged yet and have not been imported into MC.  They are in a directory structure e.g. D:\untagged files\Bon Jovi\Crossroads\Track 01.mp3 etc.  I can use Psychic to quickly fly down the list of directories and rename the files to e.g. 01 - Bon Jovi - Livin on a prayer - Crossroads.mp3.  Then I import the whole lot into MC at once, then select them all and right click Library Tools> Fill properties from filename.  It's not a lot of work really.  Like I said this was suggested as a fallback - MC will do it for you.

I wouldn't recommend buying MC9.1 and then having to upgrade to 10.  This will cost you an extra $20.  v10 is at least as stable as 9.1 and is a much better product so I would suggest you purchase v10 now.  Just use the link in the v10 thread at the top of this board.