INTERACT FORUM

1. Is there some bug that randomly leaves metadata out of some songs ripped from an album?

I don't know. It doesn't happen for me.

2. How can I tell Media Center to go through all my files and make sure the Ogg files have metadata and if not, to store the metadata from the database?

You can see the actual file tag info in Action Window -> File Properties- > File Type Info.

You can update file tags by selecting the files and doing Library Tools  -> Update Tags (From Library).

Maybe you can find a common pattern if you check your files inside MC just after ripping.


Edit,

Jim was faster...

Just guessing, but could the problem have something to do with e.g. some illegal characters for APE2 tag?

You can select files and use the tool (right click) called Library/Update Tags from Library/

Thanks... now to find out why the tags are missing in the first place.

Can you repeat the problem? Is it always the same if you rip the same song again? What happens if you change the original encoder back?

I have recently replaced the MP3, OGG and MPC encoders with different versions. I have not noticed any problems yet, but I usually rip to APE and do file conversations afterwards.

Replacing the build-in encoders with third party software is of course unsupported by JRiver and you do it at your own risk.

I also think JRiver could update encoders more often. Media Jukebox was famous for supporting many file formats with recent encoders, but I think JRiver team has been busy with other areas recently.

I added the "third party" clause, because I don't exactly know how the tag writing is implemented with various codecs. E.g. there are also the .dll files for each encoder besides the .exes.

JRiver team should comment/fix the possible tag-writing bug. I don't see that specific problem, because I do things differently.

Quote from: Garret on August 22, 2004, 02:54:58 pm

I could try going back to the JRiver oggenc.exe, but that seems lame (pun not intended)---why should we be stuck with encoding code that's over two years old?

Sometimes older software is more stable.  We try to stay behind the bleeding edge with what we include.

It turns out that my switching to oggenc.exe 1.0.1 probably is the reason for the tag update problem.

I finally went ahead and ripped a CD with the old (pre-Ogg 1.0, mid-2002) oggenc.exe that ships with Mecia Center. No missing metadata on any tracks. I erased the files and tried again with the oggenc.exe from the Ogg Vorbis 1.0.1 toolkit. Two files were missing metadata.

This isn't definitive proof that the newer oggenc.exe is causing the problem, but I did an ogginfo sweep of all my music files, and realized that several CDs I've ripped over the past few months are missing metadata on random songs. All were those ripped using oggenc.exe 1.0.1.

1. Can J River verify that this problem occurs using oggenc.exe 1.0.1?

2. Could J River fix the problem and start shipping oggenc.exe 1.0.1? I think that two years is more than enough to get past "cutting edge"---Ogg Vorbis beta code would surely seem dull by now.

This issue doesn't sound like a stability problem---it sounds more like a timing/result/notification problem, which might happen if there is an API change. There is mention of API changes here:

http://www.vorbis.com/files/1.0.1/Changelog

I would think upgrading to at least 1.0 is important. "We've also included some fundamental improvements to mid and high bitrate," according to http://www.vorbis.com/news.psp . I'm no codec expert, but two years and "fundamental improvements" make me want to switch to something newer.

For now, I'll continue using oggenc.exe 1.0.1 and then update the tags manually from the library.

If nothing else, could Media Center please start using lowercase ".ogg" extensions like everyone else instead of ".OGG"?

Thanks!

That was fixed in MC11.  It may be fixed in a more recent version of 10.0.  I'm not sure.

11.0.12 (7/2/04)

7. Fixed: OGG encoder would capitalize its extension as "OGG" instead of "ogg".

Today I updated to MC11 (funny---a year to the day the OGG bug was fixed) and did an *.OGG to *.ogg rename before importing my files.

Now, before I rip any files, what about Ogg Vorbis support---my biggest concern? I note that Ogg Vorbis just hit 1.1.1:

http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/vorbis-dev/2005-June/018105.html

What Ogg Vorbis version does MC11 now support?

Garret

I think you have encountered a quite serious bug. The used Ogg Vorbis encoder version has nothing to do with it. As a test I ripped some CDs using the default encoder and a new beta encoder (1.1.1 aoTuVb4).

To my surprise I experienced similar problems: leftover temp files (not wave, because the sizes were identical with the ogg files) and completely missing file tags (e.g. 17 of the 20 ripped CD tracks didn't have tags).

Garret,

Until the bug is fixed you could rip in lossless APE format and convert the files to Ogg Vorbis afterwards. That seems to work correctly.

The issue of no cover art in the last file of a CD is still a problem in MC11.314.  Using the supplied APE encoder, if there is art on the web, all tracks except the last one have cover art.

In addition, I still get some files with the tags either missing or corrupted. 

I have found that turning off the Get Cover Art option fixes this.  I now manually apply the cover art to the CD using the Library Browser view ( as this selects all the files at once and it is very easy to see which CD's are missing cover art ).

nick