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[David_1cog]

MC reports all my MP3 comments as blank, but many contain strings such as:

Code: [Select]

Media Jukebox: Tool Name: Media Center\\Media Jukebox: Tool Version: 11.1.160\\Media Jukebox: Date: 38353
when viewed using http://mp3tag.de/en/.

Is this a bug?  By design?

[scthom]

Those are tags, but none of them is a "COMMENT" tag.  So from the looks of it MC is right, your COMMENT tag is blank.

Tags are generally stored in the format NAME=VALUE.

So you have

Media Jukebox: Tool Name = Media Center
Media Jukebox: Tool Version = 11.1.160
Media Jukebox: Date = 38353

In order to have a comment field, you'd need to have one for comment like this

Comment = This is my favorite song

You may also be thinking of album/artists info, in which case you'd need tags that look like this

Artists = My Favorite Band
Title = My Favorite Song

So it looks like your tags aren't filled out.  Try using the File Info action window to add some and then see what it looks like.

[David_1cog]

Thanks for the reply.

I have comment tag enabled.  Not confused with album / artist.  Tags are filled.

OK, but MP3tag (plus two other tagging programs ('The Godfather' + 'id renamer???')) reported 'comments' containing these strings.  Are all of them misreporting the 'comment' tag?  Unlikely.  Even if they are, I can't see a tag in the MC field list that exposes these values.

It's not the end of the world, but I'd rather MC exposed all tag values so I can choose what to edit.

[GHammer]

It's MC's way of adding those value.
If you have an actual comment, it will be added to the tag.
Other tools may or may not show the MC values, none will use them as MC does.
They are not shown within MC as a comment tag because MC does not use them as a comment, but for the values you have I don't know why they need written to the files.

[KingSparta]

Those are tags, but none of them is a "COMMENT" tag.

all of the above is acualy stored in the mp3 comment tags you can have like 255 comments i think in a mp3, just like you can have 255 images in a mp3.

Note the "COMM" That is the Mp3 ID3 comment tag

sometimes other players will show one of the other files as "Comment" if they only support one Comm tag

ID3v2.3 Tag: (659 bytes)
  TYER (Year): 2006
  COMM (Comments): Read by> Simon Jones
  COMM (Tool Name): Media Center
  COMM (Tool Version): 11.1.174
  COMM (Date): 38718

[Alex B]

David,

MC uses that system for all proprietary fields (besides the many predefined proprietary fields also the user made custom fields fall in this category). The standard comment tag is separate from the MC comments as others already said. Unfortunately many taggers don't understand this system and may break these tags.

You may want to install the latest Mp3tag version (beta) from here: http://www.anytag.de/forums/index.php?showtopic=57. It can handle MC's multi-line comment system correctly. Though, it is better to set it to use the ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 tag format option. Mp3tag has also the ID3v.2.3 UTF-16 option, but that format has a compatibility problem with MC. ID3v2.4 UTF-8 is the newest option (available only in beta) and it may work with MC, but the safest is ISO-8859-1.

AFAIK, Mp3tag 2.35 beta is the only external tagger that can properly edit MC's proprietary comments in MP3 files.

[KingSparta]

Dr. Tag Works Good Also

[marko]

as does mp3tagstudio.

I found some mp3's with realone database info saved in a "general encapsulated object (GEOB)" frame.

mp3tag did not pick it up, mp3tagstudio did.

[Alex B]

I'm glad that I included "AFAIK".   

Be aware that there is another Russian "mp3tag" that has nothing to do with the real thing. The correct address for it is http://www.mp3tag.de/en/. I have found that many tagger program names can lead to fake software or spyware sites if simply searched with Google.

As I said there is a compatibility problem with v2.3 UTF-16 tags. A couple of weeks ago I asked about the problem at Mp3tag forum and got this answer:

MC sets the language of comment fields to 3 null bytes. Mp3tag always sets the language to eng. This seems to be a problem for MC.

The thread is here: http://www.anytag.de/forums/index.php?showtopic=3514

However, this is not a biggie since MC has only read support for v.2.3 UTF-16. MC always writes v2.3 ISO-8859-1 tags.

[marko]

>>As I said there is a compatibility problem with v2.3 UTF-16 tags<<

Is that what those were? I had no idea, LOL

I do like the fact that, despite its name, mp3tag is able to handle tags for multiple formats.

[David_1cog]

Thanks for the replies.  All the information I needed, plus a bit more.

So, is it a feature request that JR will consider: expose these additional comment tags so they can be edited within MC?

[hit_ny]

So, is it a feature request that JR will consider: expose these additional comment tags so they can be edited within MC?

If by additional you mean

Media Jukebox: Tool Name: Media Center\\Media Jukebox: Tool Version: 11.1.160\\Media Jukebox: Date: 38353

then that would be No. It's been asked many times previously.

So the question becomes can you live with this if you really need to save tags back to the file ?

If not then no need to save tags to the file using MC, you can save to the library instead and if you use MC to edit tag information, this distinction will be transparent. Be aware that you want to keep copies of the library safe & backed up in multiple locations as a a precaution.

[Matt]

Media Center writes UTF-16 when necessary to ID3v2 tags.

[Alex B]

Media Center writes UTF-16 when necessary to ID3v2 tags.

Oh I see. I just noticed that after MC updated UTF-16 files the File Info Type window didn't display UTF-16 anymore. I guess my files don't need UTF-16 then, since they contain only standard ISO characters.

Would you mind checking this UTF-16 comment field language issue out: http://www.anytag.de/forums/index.php?showtopic=3514 ?

Is it something small that can be easily fixed in MC or is is something that Mp3tag does wrong?