INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Possibility of extending metadata support  (Read 6219 times)

darichman

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1362
Possibility of extending metadata support
« on: April 21, 2004, 07:52:46 am »

One of the reasons I love using MJ/MC is the ability (albeit limited) to use Winamp input plugins to expand supported file formats. This way I can use MJ/MC to play, organise and catalogue all my media files no matter how old or just plain weird they are.

There are many file formats out there besides MP3, windows media etc that contain their own metadata in tags which aren't recognisable by MC (or the vast majority of players, for that matter). I know it would be ridiculously time consuming to implement native support for recognition of all these file types, but it's equally time consuming to add all this data manually into the MC database.

Why not exploit the countless input plugins out there that can read this data? Most winamp input plugins for specific file types are able to recognise tag data and often send this info to the winamp player directly (displaying a plugin-defined title, track length etc). This sort of adaptibility is what makes winamp so popular and widely used.

So I was wondering, considering MC already has partial support for winamp input plugins and is able to play such files, would it be that difficult to extend this functionality and implement a "read tag info from plugin" or at least a "display tag info from plugin" option like in winamp? (I'm mainly talking about winamp plugins here) Even if such functionality couldn't import tag fields directly into the MC database (I imagine this would be quite difficult to implement), surely it wouldn't be too hard to view the tag data in MC through the plugin (like the "view file info" option in winamp). This way all of this 'hidden' tag information could be accessed from MC rather than using winamp or external programs to display/edit tag data for less common media files.

In addition, some older & unconventional formats display incorrect track lengths or just "Live" in the track length field in Media Center (despite having constrained track lengths). In Winamp, the player is able to read the track length from the plugin (rather than from the file itself). Similarly, for files which aren't natively supported by MC, would it be possible to retrieve track length data from input plugins (instead of MC trying to read from a file it doesn't understand)?

It just makes sense to me exploit these plugins -- this way MC can:
1. accurately display the information for plugin supported file types and
2. expand its organisational capabilities (by viewing tags through input plugins).

So what do you guys think? Is this possible?

Before anyone brings it up, I know MC can add its own tags to files but these tags 1) may not be attached to all file types 2) are only recognisable by MC.

I'm currently using Media Center 10.0.117 on Windows XP
(Sorry for long post  :-[ )
Logged

rocketsauce

  • Regular Member
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1059
Re:Possibility of extending metadata support
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2004, 11:27:32 pm »

Quote
There are many file formats out there besides MP3...

MC already has support for a lot of audio formats. Off the top of my head, mp3, mpc, ape, ogg, wma, aac, m4a, wav, shn & flac (via plugins, I believe), plus some I've probably forgotten. Maybe if you mentioned which Winamp plugins or formats you're talking about, you might get more of a response.

Rob
Logged

darichman

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1362
Re:Possibility of extending metadata support
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2004, 08:04:13 am »

Thanks for the reply, rocketsauce. Some of the plugins I've been using lately (these ones are mainly game related) are listed below with some links/samples if anyone is interested:

==== Highly Experimental v2.07: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/download/HE110R.zip
Plays playstation and playstation 2 sound files: http://www.neillcorlett.com/
                                                                 http://www.zophar.net/psf/

====SNESAmp v3.05: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/download/SAmp303.exe
Plays spc files from SNES games: http://www.zophar.net/zsnes/spc/

====YMAMP v0.2b: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=124973
Plays sega sound files: http://www.zophar.net/gym/

====NotSoFatso v0.70: http://www.zophar.net/utilities/download/notsofatso-v0.51.rar
Plays .nsf and .nsfe files from nintendo games: http://www.zophar.net/nsf/

====VGM Input Plugin v0.30: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=133560
Plays master system sound files: http://www.zophar.net/vgm/

Look, I know these files aren't for everyone - I just thought since the plugins already exist and partial support is already available, it would make sense to finish the job. This would give MC extensive file format support (moreso) and eliminate another one of winamp's ever-dwindling advantages over MC.
Logged

StarVector11

  • Recent member
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Possibility of extending metadata support
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2017, 11:21:28 am »

Just found these to be useful! I play video game music in the background at home for my tinnitus.
Logged

darichman

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1362
Re: Possibility of extending metadata support
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2017, 03:12:02 am »

Holy old thread, Batman!!! Glad you found the info helpful :)
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up