Print

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

[Telbit]

I've just checked out MC12, and I have to say I love it!

I'm still running MC10 and I have never updated, due to the ID3 tagging issues which others and myself have described more then two years ago in detail.  The only thing which has been improved is the proper usage of the play counter frame and the "popularimeter" frame (for the file's rating).  But MC12 still puts it's name and version information into the comment fields and deletes every but the first commend and genre information.  It also deletes any but the first picture in your mp3 file if you add or change an image.

I think it is perfectly ok, if MC doesn't handle multiple tag entries, but it should not destroy any of them if they are previously present.

On the other hand I like to point out, that the usage of multiple genre tags would be a very cool feature for MC and I would really like to see this in the near future.

[bugmenot]

At my knowledge multiple tag like genre & image is used in ID3v2 2.4. MC still use 2.3 for backward compatibility with some car stereo, mp3 player, etc.

I didn't heard of any implementation of 2.4 into MC 12.

I may be wrong though. My comment is just to light up some kind of explanation if anyone else have a better one.

[Telbit]

At my knowledge multiple tag like genre & image is used in ID3v2 2.4. MC still use 2.3 for backward compatibility with some car stereo, mp3 player, etc.

In ID3v2 ver. 3. multiple comments, genres and images are allowed. (see http://www.id3.org/id3v2.3.0). I didn’t checked it for earlier versions, but for my understanding this feature was introduced with ID3v2.

By inserting three comment fields into the tag, MC proves, that it is able to handle multiple tags anyway.

What bothers me is that MC overwrites e.g. existing comments with its name and version information and does not append it to the existing ones. Not to mention that I don’t like MC to add this information to my mp3 files anyway.

MC should not enter, alter or delete any information within the media files without the explicit consent of the user.

Backwards compatibility should not be a problem, since ID3v2 is constructed as a container for several information blocks, called frames, whose format need not be known to the software that encounters them.

[Alex B]

Currently MC rewrites the whole multi-line comment frame when it writes !D3v2.x tags. This can write and update only those fields that are present in the library and which are designed to be written in the ID3v2.x comment frame. Foreign tags in the comment frame are not preserved. The only way to avoid this when file tags are changed is to disable physical tag writing (either completely or in the Comment field specific options).

As you requested, it would be good if MC could preserve the existing unrecognized multi-line comments when it adds its own tags.

[Telbit]

As you requested, it would be good if MC could preserve the existing unrecognized multi-line comments when it adds its own tags.

Yes, preserving existing information is essential. Especially the information stored in multi genre and image tags contain a huge amount of work and effort.

As I already mentioned, it would be great if MC would support multiple genres, but this is optional as long as all existing information is preserved.

So far the only option is to switch of tagging altogether. This is a workaround witch I can live with for a while.

Regarding the developers, I really appreciate the work they did on MC. It is the best media software I know of. I especially appreciate the fact that MC12 actually make use of the rating and play counter fields in the ID3v2 tags with virtually no other software does.

As minor as this issue may look like to you, it prevents people with a well tagged and maintained media library from using MC.

[JimH]

Telbit,
The word you want is "which".  A witch is an old lady who flies on a broom.

We'll take a look at this problem.

[Matt]

This isn't so simple.

If you change the genre in Media Center, it will rewrite the tag with that as the genre.

Preserving the old genre would effectively mean that tags would grow forever, and keep every old piece of information along with the new pieces of information.

Media Center already tries to keep anything it didn't explicitly set.  If there's a flaw in this logic, could you send a sample file to matt at jriver dot com with a specific list of steps to get a result you don't agree with?

Thanks.

[Telbit]

Telbit,
The word you want is "which".  A witch is an old lady who flies on a broom.
We'll take a look at this problem.

:-))  As a regular Harry Potter reader, I should have noticed that…

…as you have noticed without doubt, I’m not a native English speaker and therefore I trust my spell checker maybe a bit to much. Please feel free to correct such obvious bloopers. (I hope blooper is the right translation)

[JimH]

blooper is a good word.  Extra points.

[eso]

Preserving the old genre would effectively mean that tags would grow forever, and keep every old piece of information along with the new pieces of information.

Of course, but in cases when there are already multiple valid entries for a certain tag MC could simply display and modify the first (or last) entry, but without deleting any others. Only if no tag exists at all MC should create a new one. This would be fully transparent to the user and preserve any existing data.

[Telbit]

Media Center already tries to keep anything it didn't explicitly set.  If there's a flaw in this logic, could you send a sample file to matt at jriver dot com with a specific list of steps to get a result you don't agree with?

Hi Matt,

thanks for joining in to this discussion.

I will prepare some tests and samples and send it to you via email. This may take some days, but be sure you won't be spared :-)