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[Dirhael]

I'm currently testing MC13, and there sure are a lot of positive things about it that I like. However, there's this one major problem with it that makes it a dangerous tool to let loose near my music collection: Editing tags strips away any and all id3v2 information if the files initially have id3v2.4 (utf-8) tags, leaving nothing but id3v1 behind. Media Center 13 have no problem reading most of the id3v2 info when I'm initially importing my music. If I on the other hand re-store the tags as id3v2.3 using a tool like mp3tag before trying to edit them in MC then there are no problems any longer. This behavior is new to MC13, because it did not happen in 12.

...

Oh and one more thing (unrelated to the topic at hand), is it possible to get MC to stop adding useless tags, like what tool etc. was used to tag the files? I do not need nor do I want such information added to my files.

[JimH]

Editing tags strips away any and all id3v2 information if the files initially have id3v2.4 (utf-8) tags, leaving nothing but id3v1 behind.

I don't believe that's the case.  Why do you think so?

What filetype?  FLAC?  If so, please see the thread on FLAC problems.

[Dirhael]

I don't believe that's the case.  Why do you think so?

What filetype?  FLAC?  If so, please see the thread on FLAC problems.

The files are regular MP3's. Not the case? Well, that's certainly possible but neither mp3tag, foobar2000 or dbpoweramp can read the tags after updating them from MC13 if they originally were id3v2.4 (again, there are never any problems if the files are id3v2.3 or lower before trying to tag them).

Now, I tried to check this further using yet another tool, this time TagScanner 5.0 and it also had problems with the files after they've been updated using MC13, but it did show something that the others didn't. It claims the MC13-tagged files now have id3v2.4 utf-16 (they all were utf-8 originally) tags, despite the fact that I don't think Media Center in any edition have been able to write anything above 2.3 (am I wrong here?).

So it appears not all information is completely gone, but MC13 clearly have messed up something it shouldn't have...

EDIT: Tested some more, and things goes a little better if I remove all embedded artwork before reloading information from the files then re-tagging them. It still messes up a bit, like I now end up with duplicate "year" frames along with the fact that the encoding of the tags have changed, but at least now other programs can extract the tag information that remains...

[JimH]

If you read the tail of the Flac thread I linked, and read Alex B's posts, you'll get a better understanding of what's going on.

[Dirhael]

If you read the tail of the Flac thread I linked, and read Alex B's posts, you'll get a better understanding of what's going on.

I just did, but I don't understand how that explains why MC13 is creating all these problems with mp3's using id3v2.4 tags only, especially in files with embedded cover art (see my last edit in the prev. post). Are you saying that the two problems are related, even if the file formats are different?

[JimH]

Maybe.

[Matt]

If you have an MP3 file you believe Media Center has problems tagging, please send a copy to matt at jriver dot com.

ID3v2.4 (with any string encoding) should not be a problem.

Also, the tool and version information in the tag are quite useful.  If there turns out to be a bug with a certain version, this allows elegant handling.

[Dirhael]

I'll be sure to do so when I get up again tomorrow

[Matt]

In Media Center 13.0.90 and later: (should be available next week)
Fixed: MP3 ID3v2 tagger would not correctly parse tag fields that contained a data length in the frame. (Foobar v2.4 APIC frame)

Sorry for the hassle.  As you may know, the MP3 tagger was rewritten in Media Center 13.  Overall, it's much better but there has been some shake-out.

An interesting aside was that it appeared to me that WMP 11 on Vista x64 can't read ID3v2 tags written by Foobar.

[JimH]

In Media Center 13.0.90 and later: (should be available next week)

Or sooner:  ftp://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/MC13/MediaCenter130090.exe

[Dirhael]

Thank you very much for the very quick response and solution! Not that I didn't expect you guys to solve it, I actually purchased a license just a couple of hours after making my initial post here based on the assumption that you'd fix it, I just didn't expect things to move so quickly (I sent the files to Matt just a few hours ago).

EDIT: New build already? Thanks, that should take care of this topic and problem then

[JimH]

Hopefully.  Thanks for the kind words.

[Dirhael]

Just thought I'd let you know that it now is working well with all of the files I've tested so far (a few hundred or so).

[sonicbox]

ggiAn interesting aside was that it appeared to me that WMP 11 on Vista x64 can't read ID3v2 tags written by Foobar.

Sorry, old message to reply to... but Windows Media Player 11, along with XP & Vista Explorer shell and many other devices/applications.. does not support ID3v2.4.  It uses de facto standard ID3v2.3 only.  That's why it won't read the tags.  foobar2000 can be set to use ID3v2.3, by setting "ID3v2 write compatibility mode" in Advanced... Tagging.  Even Winamp only writes ID3v2.3 (though it can read ID3v2.4)...