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[grahamk]

I am thinking about moving to a lossless format.

What has stopped me in the past was disk space (solved) and tagging. I am thinking of using APE. I can use my ripping program of choice (CDex) to create APE files and it is giving me the choice of saving with APE tags, or ID3V1 tags.

Are either of these formats able to accept MC ratings in the tags? I'd like to be able to import the same file into multiple MC instances and have the ratings follow. What other parameters (album art, comment, etc) does one style have over the other.?

I am going to be experieminting, but I figured I'd ask the group for any relevant experience.

Thanks!
 Graham

[GHammer]

APE should use APE tags.
At least, I wouldn't consider trying to use ID3 tags on APE files.
ID3V1 is extremely limited in the size and type of tags it allows.

[grahamk]

Would you happen to know if MC supports APEV2 tags?

[Matt]

Media Center has the best APE support available, including full APEv2 tag support.  It's also probably the best secure ripper.

-Matt (from Monkey's Audio)

[grahamk]

Cool, thanks.

I am seeing some weirdenss in having the cover art in the tags. I haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet though.

I use CDEX because it's easy to rip from more than one device at a time. I'm having trouble determining if the latest CDex version does APEV2 tags or not. It appears to work well though....

Graham

[grahamk]

Hmm. bad news - I'm guessing this means CDex is using version 1:

Monkey's Audio 3.97 (extra high)
Format: 44.1 khz, 16 bit, 2 ch
Length: 3:37
Compression: 62.98% (23.0 MB / 36.6 MB)
Tag: APE Tag 1.00 (145 bytes)
   Artist: Blind Boys of Alabama
   Album: Higher Ground
   Title: I may not can see
   Track: 9

Is there a way to have MC convert the tags to V2?

Thanks,
Graham

[Matt]

We would recommend using MC for ripping.  It has on-the-fly APE encoding, a great secure mode, and properly handles APEv2 tags.

To upgrade tags in MC, right-click files and pick Library Tools > Update Tags (from library).  APEv1 tags won't hurt anything, but they don't support international characters.