Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[bspachman]

All the following comments seem to apply to MC12.0179 (at least that's what I'm using)

I'm beginning the probably hopeless task of trying to catch up with AlexB's knowledge of MC tagging behavior... Let me begin at the very beginning (it's a very fine place to start):

1) What kind of tags are written to what kind of files?

I've found posts saying that MC12 reads ID3v2.4 (UTF-8) files as well as ID3v1, ID3v2.2, ID3v2.3 (UTF-16 & ISO-8859-1), but that MC only writes ID3v2.3 (ISO-8859-1) tags. I've also seen several references to the possibility that there is an incompatibility in reading ID3v2.3 UTF-16 files.

It can also read/write APE tags (I'm assuming v1 & v2) to APE/APL/WAV files.

Am I missing anything?

2) AAC-encoded files can have their tags read, but not written (m4a, m4b, m4p). I know I'm not the only person yearning for this feature to be added someday... <puppy-dog eyes>

3) Is there any place where there's a mapping between the ID3v2.3/2.4 frames and MC terminology? I looked in the DeveloperZone, but didn't see anything there.... I'm looking to do some cross-application (& cross-platform) conversions using mp3tag.

4) An odd bug I think:
a - Add an mp3 file to library with full tags
b - Edit the file's tags with external editor (I used mp3tag) - I deleted every tag and changed the title tag.
c - Either delete file from MC library & re-add or 'update library from tags'
d - All blanked tags still read original values from step 1, except title which reads from step 2
HOWEVER...if you...
e - Then delete the file from MC's library
f - Duplicate the file in explorer
g - Add the newly duplicated file back to MC, then all the tag changes show as expected


The reason for all of my tagging shenanigans is that I'm finally trying to reconcile my main library files with my lossy-converted files for my iPod. What I do is:

1) Use MC12 as my main media player on windows (a mix of APE/APL/WMA/mp3/m4p/m4a).
2) Use iTunes on windows to maintain my iPod with all the APE/APL files converted into m4a files (an iTunes library of mp3/m4p/m4a). I also have all of the converted files in my MC12 library.
3) Use iTunes on my Macintosh laptop with the same files that work on the iPod from #2. I frequently copy all of these files to an external drive for traveling or some sub-set to my internal drive if I'm traveling light.

I love using MC12 to do my library maintenance, but I need to get as much information written to the tags (particularly of the m4a files) so that I can maintain that meta-data between MC and Windows iTunes and Mac iTunes.

Any ideas, work-arounds, or other information will be most appreciated!

Best,
Brad

[zirum]

my thougths:
1. Don't know for certain, but i would suppose since MC reads all kinds of tags, it will write all in the latest (and most advanced, i guess) version. As long as all tags that i specifiy gets stored in the tag, i don't care much more for it:)

I only have mp3 currently, so don't know of any other format's...

2. Dunno...

3. Not sure if i get what you are thinking of, but cant you just read the id3v2.3 iso spec on what fields that exists. The rest is MC specific, and written to the comm (rigth one?) field. If they are to be written to tag of course.

4. This is by design i think. If a tag is removed externally, it does not delete it in the library. I think this is good, because something is better than nothing usally. The reason it discovers just the new tags on the copy is because it sees it at a completely new file. Ergo no old fields keep in case of empty ones. Am i right if i think you in 4d mean that when the title gets blanked externally, this get's blank on the update in the library as well? That seems a bit inconsisten...

When it comes to working with iTunes and apple formats i have no clue. That stuff stays out of my computer...

[bspachman]

my thougths:
2. Dunno...

A further odd behavior with reading tags on m4a/m4p files...

Examining my m4a files with mp3tag show that they are tagged with an mp4 tag (as expected). Besides the usual Album, Artist, Track, etc. (the basics), there are also several entries for MEDIA JUKEBOX: BPM, MEDIA JUKEBOX: ALBUMARTIST, and several others. This would be excellent news, except none of these tags are loaded into the MC library... It doesn't seem to matter if the file is newly imported into MC or if I try to 'Update Library (from tags)'-- those tags that are visible in the external tagger are not loaded into MC.

4. This is by design i think. If a tag is removed externally, it does not delete it in the library. I think this is good, because something is better than nothing usally. The reason it discovers just the new tags on the copy is because it sees it at a completely new file. Ergo no old fields keep in case of empty ones. Am i right if i think you in 4d mean that when the title gets blanked externally, this get's blank on the update in the library as well? That seems a bit inconsisten...

I've got to disagree here. An import should always read/re-load the current tags from a file, and even if that were not the case, then specifically choosing to reload the tags from the file should display those tags--not leftover library entries.

Any further input graciously welcomed...
Brad

[bspachman]

<bump>

[Matt]

a - Add an mp3 file to library with full tags
b - Edit the file's tags with external editor (I used mp3tag) - I deleted every tag and changed the title tag.
c - Either delete file from MC library & re-add or 'update library from tags'
d - All blanked tags still read original values from step 1, except title which reads from step 2
HOWEVER...if you...
e - Then delete the file from MC's library
f - Duplicate the file in explorer
g - Add the newly duplicated file back to MC, then all the tag changes show as expected

This is by design.  We don't replace valid values with empty values when updating from tags.