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[mollw]

hi there,

i'm looking for some advice on scripting/automating a procedure.

THE SHORT VERSION
I want to put ratings (and playlists if possible) in the comments tag, sth like this:

Comment for Dave Brubeck-Take 5:
rating=5; playlist=ipod faves; playlist=brubeck faves; playlist =jazz faves;

Is there a way to automate this so the comments are automatically updated?

THE LONG VERSION
I've switched to MAc (ye! It's truly fabulous how much better it is after nearly 20 years of DOS/Windows... but I digress).
The only thing I still do on a pc is Media Centre. Partly because it is great, partly because I have on old PC plugged into my hi=fi as a jukebox and my iBook stays beautifully wire-free, roaming the flat at will with its airport and 3-4 hour battery life. I would use media Centre on Virtual PC on the iBook but performance really blows, so I would like to be able to use iTunes easily to listen to the large collection on the PC on the iBook with headphones.
The big problem is that iTunes stores ratings and playlists in its own database and NOT in the id3 tags. The elegant solution would be to write an applescript that synchs id3 tag info for ratings (and playlists in some id3 field) between iTunes and the actual song files. This would allow me to rate a song either on iTunes or on Media Centre.
Well as iTunes doesn't even look at ratings on id3tags I'd be way over my head writing a script that calls sth to do that.
What I can do is write an apple script to store ratings and playlist info in the comments field, which iTunes does access from the id3 tag.
But before I gird up my loins and try to do this I wanted to know if there might be an easier way to do this from the PC end instead.

(Or maybe even find out that someone has already sorted all this out with a more elegant solution - anyone from the iPod neck of the woods aroung?)

In summary I want to make my mp3 files more or less self-contained and platform independent.


regards

m

[Valissystem]

Well, I can't help. However I am very interested to hear how you get on. At the moment, I am considering switching my work notebook to being a Mac Powerbook. However I have a library of media that I'd need to transfer and then I still have stuff at home I'd want to play. So hearing of anything you do would be very interesting and topical!

[mollw]

hello there,

I'll keep you posted.. but as far as switching to mac is concerned... JUST DO IT!!! (would be my advice)


m

[bspachman]

As a cross-platform user myself, I have some ideas:

Check out http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17254 for a utility to export your iTunes playlists as m3u files (Winamp playlists). The m3u files will work in MediaCenter.

Check out http://www.panic.com/audion/ for a Macintosh MP3 player that may be more capable than iTunes in your ratings search.

An interesting possibility is that ratings may transfer from a Windows-based iPod to Macintosh iTunes. I will attempt this in the near future--once I get the newest beta of MC9.1 working with my iPod.

Mostly, however, I just use my Windows jukebox as a repository and use OSX to connect to my MP3 drive as a Samba share. I then imported all the MP3 files into iTunes, leaving them on the Windows drive.

That has left me with a local iTunes library that points at my shared Windows drive. To listen to, rate, and otherwise manipulate the tunes, I just make sure that the shared drive is connected to my PowerBook.

The drawback in this situation is that the MC library and the iTunes library will never be in synch unless you make all changes to both libraries.

Hopefully this will spark some ideas....

Best,
Brad

[mollw]

hi brad,

yes I pretty much do what you do with a samba share, pc jukebox and (not in-syncH) iTunes library on my iBook.

It is the synching part I'm going to try to sort out. I think there may be a framework being developed to read id3 tags ... see http://osx.freshmeat.net/releases/135807/

I haven't programmed for years (pick basic and cobol for goodness sake!) but i'm almost tempted to try and write a script that will use the framework to check the id3 tag for a rating and synch it with iTunes rating. That would be ideal.

The alternative way would be to just use the comments field and write some scripts that will use that to store ratings and playlists... but I think Doug Adams is doing that at the moment.

It's a pity Apple haven't given us a right click menu and more access to tags. I'd like to see a right click menu in iTunes that allows rating, and settings for a few of the id3 tag fields other progs use like "mood",  "situation" and "tempo".

I'll have another look at Audion, but I gutted if i have to leave the beautifully simple iTunes.

regards\

m

[Valissystem]

hello there,

I'll keep you posted..

Thanks!

but as far as switching to mac is concerned... JUST DO IT!!! (would be my advice)

That's what everyone seems to be telling me! :-)