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[vagskal]

I have set a folder on a hard drive as a handheld to convert my flac files in the master MC library to mp3 files in the "handheld" folder for further syncing with iTunes to my iPhone.

The first sync went very well (apart from many crashes during the process). The tags transcoded nicely. The only things I noticed were that the COMPILATION tags in my flac files were converted to TXXX COMPILATION ID3v2.3 tags, not TCMP tags as is used by iTunes, and that the ORIGYEAR tag was transferred to a TXXX ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE ID3v2.3 tag (I had wanted it in a TORY tag). I had expected those caveats.

But now when I add flac files or change the tags in existing flac files and make a resync the tags are suddenly not transferring as before. Many flac tags are now transferred to TXXX [tag name] ID3v2.3 tags instead of the designated ID3v2.3 tags they were transferred to before: ALBUMARTIST=>TPE2, TRACKNUMBER=>TRCK, TOTALTRACKS=>TRCK as 1/12, DISCNUMBER=>TPOS, TOTALDISCS=>TPOS as 1/2 etc.

I also noticed that if I change the name of a flac track (the song name, not the file name) I get an additional mp3 file (with " (1)" appended to the original file name) with the new song name, but the mp3 file with the old song name is not deleted. I have checked the option Delete from handheld any files not in sync list.

I am using a newer build now than I did when I did the first sync. Has something changed in the last builds or am I doing something wrong?

[JimH]

... crashes during the process ...

Please see the "Stability" link in my signature.

You could read the build histories to see what has changed.  Alex B keeps a list you can find in his signature.

[vagskal]

Thanks for the reply!

I can live with the crashes now that the time consuming initial conversion is done.

I did read the change log, but could not find anything relevant.

The initial sync was done 27 July 2010 (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=58805.msg397843#msg397843) and I usually update to the latest build when it becomes available. Everything went well on the initial sync. The day after (28 July) I changed some tags and did a resync to check if that worked. It did. After that I did a number of resyncs after having added files or changed tags, but I did not check the conversions. Today I noticed strange things in iTunes and checked the tags in the converted files. If I look at the date modified it seems that the irregularities started already 29 July.

Below are the tags for a file with 24 July as date modified as reported by MC (Windows reports 28 July), with the tags correctly transferred:

MPEG-1 Layer 3
320 Kbit CBR
44.1 Khz Joint stereo

Copyrighted: No
Original: Yes
Protected by CRC: No
Encoder: LAME
Gapless: Yes (576 start, 1848 end)

ID3v1 Tag: none

ID3v2.3 Tag: (384017 bytes)
  TALB (Album): Deceptive Bends
  TPE1 (Artist): 10cc
  TPE2 (Album Artist): 10cc
  COMM (Comment): Sörens CD
  TCOM (Composer): Graham Gouldman; Eric Stewart
  TPOS (Disc #): 1/1
  TCON (Genre): Pop/Rock
  TPUB (Publisher): Mercury
  TIT2 (Name): Modern Man Blues
  TRCK (Track #): 5/12
  TYER (Year): 1977
  TXXX (Album rating): 4
  TXXX (Mood): Irreverent; Humorous; Witty; Laid-Back/Mellow; Quirky; Wry
  TXXX (Review): <too large to display>
  TXXX (Style): Art Rock; Album Rock; Contemporary Pop/Rock; Soft Rock; Prog-Rock
  TXXX (Tool Name): Media Center
  TXXX (Tool Version): 15.0.80
  TXXX (UPC): 731453497429
  TXXX (replaygain_album_g..): -6.66 dB
  TXXX (replaygain_album_p..): 1.126707
  TXXX (replaygain_track_g..): -5.83 dB
  TXXX (replaygain_track_p..): 1.031612
  APIC (Picture) (Cover): <too large to display>


And here are the tags for a file belonging to the same album with a date modified of 31 July as reported by MC (Windows reports a date modified of today, 21 August):

MPEG-1 Layer 3
320 Kbit CBR
44.1 Khz Joint stereo

Copyrighted: No
Original: Yes
Protected by CRC: No
Encoder: LAME
Gapless: Yes (576 start, 1296 end)

ID3v1 Tag: none

ID3v2.3 Tag: (385024 bytes)
  TALB (Album): Deceptive Bends
  TPE1 (Artist): 10cc
  COMM (Comment): Sörens CD
  TCOM (Composer): Graham Gouldman; Eric Stewart
  TPOS (Disc #): 1
  TCON (Genre): Pop/Rock
  POPM (Rating): 3
  TIT2 (Name): Honeymoon with B Troop
  TRCK (Track #): 6
  TYER (Year): 1977
  TXXX (Album rating): 4
  TXXX (Albumartist): 10cc
  TXXX (Mood): Irreverent; Humorous; Witty; Laid-Back/Mellow; Quirky; Wry
  TXXX (Organization): Mercury
  TXXX (replaygain_track_g..): -4.46 dB
  TXXX (replaygain_track_p..): 0.995480
  TXXX (Review): <too large to display>
  TXXX (Style): Art Rock; Album Rock; Contemporary Pop/Rock; Soft Rock; Prog-Rock
  TXXX (Tool Name): Media Center
  TXXX (Tool Version): 15.0.87
  TXXX (Totaldiscs): 1
  TXXX (Totaltracks): 12
  TXXX (UPC): 731453497429
  APIC (Picture) (Cover): <too large to display>

-------------

I have made the interesting parts bold.

I did a resync today and I have imported the folder into iTunes, but I do not use iTunes to change tags.
 
Any hints as to what can be going on?

[Alex B]

When MC tags files it gets the tag values always from the database field values. The converter does not read the source file's tags and "convert" them from a format to another. The encoded file is tagged from the database info. Probably the old file was already in the MP3 format and thus it was simply copied.

Regarding MP3 tagging in general, the "totals" and the album gain tag format in your first example are not supported. In addition, MC does not use an "album peak" value at all. The clipping prevention system checks the highest track peak when the Album Replay Gain mode is enabled. MC uses its proprietary system for calculating the album gain values and tag writing for the Album Gain field is disabled by default (it would be useless for MC because it always calculates the album gain values automatically.)

Your four user fields are tagged correctly (Albumartist, Organization, Totaldiscs, Totaltracks).


An unreleased test build has new tag mappings for FLAC and Ogg Vorbis:

Publisher = Organization

Album Artist = Album Artist & Albumartist   (it will write both even though you may not like that -- a necessary compromise that was made for compatibility reasons.)

[Alex B]

... COMPILATION tags in my flac files were converted to TXXX COMPILATION ID3v2.3 tags, not TCMP tags as is used by iTunes...

13.0.127 (02/23/2009)

10. NEW: If the field "iTunes Compilation" exists, it will be read and written to ID3v2 MP3 tags using the TCMP frame.

You would need to use iTunes Compilation, not COMPILATION.

[vagskal]

Thanks for the replies!

As always you are correct. I had used dBpoweramp to make a mp3 copy to that folder upon ripping but stopped over a year ago. I had added many new CDs since and changed many tags in the existing flac files. By using the handheld sync I wanted to create a mp3 copy of the new files and correct the tags that had changed. I checked several files after the initial sync and the first resync and they all had the MC TOOL tags and looked OK so I supposed that MC had corrected the tags/added the files I looked at. If MC only writes the content of its fields to a converted file, then the files I looked at cannot have been converted by MC since I only import the album gain tag into MC. Sorry, it must be a user error, and thanks for the clarifications! I guess MC was not as good at converting as I initially thought...

(Strange though about the different date modified reported by MC and Windows.)

An unreleased test version has new tag mappings for FLAC and Ogg Vorbis:

Publisher = Organization

Album Artist = Album Artist & Albumartist   (it will write both even though you may not like that -- a necessary compromise that was made for compatibility reasons.)

That sounds good!

Do you by any chance know if there is something planned for the TORY tag as well?

[vagskal]

OK, I think I have got it now. Just a couple of things:

1. If I in MC change the song name for a flac file, I get a duplicate mp3 file with " (1)" appended to the file name, i.e. I end up with duplicates in iTunes. Is there any way to prevent duplicate files being created? I have checked the option Delete from handheld any files not in sync list.

2. Is there a way to not have a playlist file (.m3u) written upon sync? As default the playlist ends up in the same parent folder as the music files and I get duplicate entries in iTunes for all files. As a workaround I have set the filepath for the playlist to a completely different folder.

3. Any chance of having flac COMPILATION mapped to iTunes Compilation (TCMP)?

With the newer builds the disc #/Discnumber conversion works and the pending amendments Alex talked about will take care of the Albumartist/Album Artist conversion (as well as Organization/TPUB). Great!

[Alex B]

1. I think MC uses a rule that compares the library field values (aka tags). I.e. MC sees the file that has a new Name value as a new file that does not exist on the device. The (1) string is added to the filename just to prevent MC from overwriting the "different" file.

2. AFAIK, there is no way to disable it, but what is wrong with the "workaround"?

3. TCMP is something that Apple invented. It is not part of the ID3v2.x standards. iTunes doesn't support FLAC, but in m4a files the header for its compilation tag is "cpil", not "Compilation".

I don't know if it would be good to map Compilation with a tag that only iTunes can use. Some MC users may have a Compilation library field that is filled with textual information. iTunes excepts to see only a boolean true or false value (i.e. 1 or 0 inside the file).

[vagskal]

Thanks for the reply and your patience!

1. I think MC uses a rule that compares the library field values (aka tags). I.e. MC sees the file that has a new Name value as a new file that does not exist on the device. The (1) string is added to the filename just to prevent MC from overwriting the "different" file.

But why is not the "different" file deleted/overwritten then? If other fields than the Name field are changed, the mp3 file is replaced (as far as I can tell).

I tried deleting the files with appended " (1)" (actually I deleted the file without " (1)" and then deleted the "  (1)" part), but MC recreated the " (1)" duplicate files upon next sync. Deleting the corresponding files without " (1)" did, however, not trigger a resync. I guess I will have to use a smartlist to find albums that contains duplicate Track # and manually delete the duplicate files.

2. AFAIK, there is no way to disable it, but what is wrong with the "workaround"?

Oh, nothing much apart from the redundant file, which will produce unwanted entries if scanned by the music software I use (iTunes and Squeezbox Server, apart from MC, of course).

3. TCMP is something that Apple invented. It is not part of the ID3v2.x standards. iTunes doesn't support FLAC, but in m4a files the header for its compilation tag is is named "cpil", not "Compilation".

]I don't know if it would be good to map Compilation with a tag that only iTunes can read and use. Some MC users may have a user field Compilation that is filled with textual information. iTunes excepts to see only a boolean true or false value (i.e. 1 or 0 inside the file).

But how about mapping a custom Compilation tag to TCMP ONLY upon conversion to mp3 (or any other format that iTunes supports and that can have such a tag) AND ONLY if the tag value is 1 or 0?

Well, I guess that will never happen so I will just have to check the converted files manually (I use a different filepath for converted VA albums where the flac file has a Compilation tag so it is easy to see if a file in that folder lacks the TCMP tag).