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[park]

A while back i was toying with using camera raw photos inside MC and had problems with the "As shot" settings in the files. Sidecar .xmp files existed whcih had the correct info in them, but MC can't currently use them.

This, and the fact that i lost a lot of tag info on some movie and m4a files, while moving all my files around recently (my fault though), got my thinking about the side car files idea.

Why not give all files which MC can't currently write tag info to, sidecar .xmp files? It's an open standard, understood by most high end photo organisation software, and given the necessary integration in MC (ie. "apply to sidecar files too" tick boxes in all move/rename/organization tools) would even mean that tag info could be salvaged for files that accidentally get disconnected from the MC library.

For example, if whole folders get moved around in explorer (outside of MC), then the sidecar files would still be there next to the files, and so even if MC disconnected those media files during the move process and then remiported them, it would still be able to read the sidecar files and retain all of the relevant tag info.

Off the top of my head, these files could be applied to m4a, wav, avi, raw photo formats, documents etc.

Another idea which could work, would be to put the sidecar files in one directory like the cover art folder works now. Then when you rename media files, MC would rename the sidecar files to match, just like it does now with cover art. I personally like the idea of big cache folders, rather than files thrown around everywhere.

[darichman]

You've definitely got my vote.

I can't count the number of times I've lost tag info in video files from my camera. I know how to back it up in the library, but it would be good to have it stored externally too, for files on the go.

This seems like an ideal solution.

[Doof]

I've been asking for something like this for non-taggable formats for quite a while. At the time, I suggested a .tag file that MC could use, but it was pointed out to me that MPL files would do the same thing. While MPL files do seem to do a good job of storing tag data for you, it's a pain to have to remember to do a periodic MPL export. Something automated is really needed here, IMO. If a standard already exists for this, that's even better.

[glynor]

This would be absolutely fabulous as far as I'm concerned.  It would allow MC to interchange tag info with many other applications which support XMP already (and more lots are coming over the next year), and it would solve problems like this.  A couple of things that I think would be required though...

1. Optional, and ability to create the files on-demand.  Not everyone would want them all-the-time, but I can see wanting to export the data for certain AVI files to the XMP sidecars to take them with me portable-style.

2. The option to store them: a) with the files, b) in a specified directory, and c) in a special "XMP" subdirectory of the folder where the files live.  MC should also search those locations when importing new files and pick up the tag data automatically if it finds one.

3. The option to generate them on-demand as part of the disc burning process (and probably handheld too) and include them on the disc.  This is how I'd see myself using them the most!  When I burn my movies and shows off onto disc, I have to manually re-import and re-tag them.  This would make re-tagging them unnecessary, and would allow me to use those discs on other systems without losing my tag info as well.

XMP is certainly looking more and more like it is going to become "the standard" (Adobe is certainly pushing it hard enough).  All of the corporate Digital Asset Management systems my company recently investigated either already included this functionality (import and export) or had it planned for "the next major version".  Extensis products all now support it as well, and as park mentioned, it is an open standard designed to supersede IPTC.

[park]

Another really useful thing about sidecar files would be they, as intermediate locations containing tag info, would be great for when you switch libraries.

Eg. When you switch from library A to library B, and you want all the new tagging info that you did in library A to be reflected in library B. You could do a "Get tag info from files" for all your file types and have an up to date library b in a single step.