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Topic: Problem with the Genre ID3 Tag - Help much appreciated! (Read 2155 times) previous topic - next topic
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Problem with the Genre ID3 Tag - Help much appreciated!

Hello all. Bit of a long one I'm afraid, but the experts amongst you might have come up against this before (I'm clueless!)

I am very confused by the way in which Foobar is tagging my MP3 files. If I select a file, right click it, select properties and then change the Artist Name, this change is recognised by Foobar, Windows Explorer (looking at the file properties and clicking the summary tab) and my MP3 player (a Sony Walkman NWZ-A818). The same is true for most tags.

However, something strange happens with 'genre'. If I change this, in the same way as described above, Foobar recognises the change, but neither Windows nor my MP3 player do. What's more odd is that if I change the genre tag using Windows Explorer Properties --> Summary (Advanced), the change is then recognised by Foobar, but if I change it again in Foobar, Windows and my MP3 player then show the tag to be blank.

In summary, changing 'Genre' in Foobar causes Windows and my MP3 player to see the tag as blank, but changing it using Windows does change it for Foobar, Windows and my MP3 player.

Extra details that !might! help: I've noticed that if I use notepad to look at an mp3 file that I have done the above for (changed the tags in Windows and in Foobar several times), the top line has several ID3 sections (see below). Here, I first changed the genre with Foobar, to "test1", then using Windows, to "test2", the Foobar again, to "test3" and finally with Windows again, to "test4". I notice that both test1 and test3 (changed using Foobar) are still present, whilst only the most recent change using Windows is present.

ID3    vTALB    Significant OtherTYER    1999TRCK    11TIT2    TrustTCON    Test4TPE1    Limp Bizkit                                                                                                                                        ID3 €  vTCON    Test3 TDRC    1999 TRCK    11 TIT2    TrustTALB    Significant OtherTPE1    Limp Bizkit                                                                                                                                    ID3 €  !7TCON    Test1 TDRC    1999 TRCK    11 TXXX 
  Rating 3 TIT2    Trust TALB    Significant Other TPE1 
  Limp Bizkit PRIV  '  WM/MediaClassPrimaryID ¼}`Ñ#ãâK†¡H¤*(DPRIV  )  WM/MediaClassSecondaryID                PRIV    WM/WMContentID “çc<>`J¼ÝGêŒFXŽPRIV  
  WM/UniqueFileIdentifier A M G a _ i d = R      4 2 1 3 8 8 ; A M G p _ i d = P      2 1 3 3 2 7 ; A M G t _ i d = T    2 9 8 9 5 9 1  PRIV  "  WM/WMCollectionID ˆ\fס¥úO¨ŽìâëªJÐPRIV  '  WM/WMCollectionGroupID

I then changed the genre again using Foobar to "test5", and low and behold, the following ID3 info is now in the file:
ID3 €  vTCON    Test5 TDRC    1999 TRCK    11 TALB    Significant OtherTIT2    TrustTPE1    Limp Bizkit                                                                                                                                    ID3 €  vTCON    Test3 TDRC    1999 TRCK    11 TIT2    TrustTALB    Significant OtherTPE1    Limp Bizkit                                                                                                                                    ID3 €  !7TCON    Test1 TDRC    1999 TRCK    11 TXXX 
  Rating 3 TIT2    Trust TALB    Significant Other TPE1 
  Limp Bizkit PRIV  '  WM/MediaClassPrimaryID ¼}`Ñ#ãâK†¡H¤*(DPRIV  )  WM/MediaClassSecondaryID                PRIV    WM/WMContentID “çc<>`J¼ÝGêŒFXŽPRIV  
  WM/UniqueFileIdentifier A M G a _ i d = R      4 2 1 3 8 8 ; A M G p _ i d = P      2 1 3 3 2 7 ; A M G t _ i d = T    2 9 8 9 5 9 1  PRIV  "  WM/WMCollectionID ˆ\fס¥úO¨ŽìâëªJÐPRIV  '  WM/WMCollectionGroupID

It seems that each time Foobar is used to change the genre, it simply deletes the Windows ID3 info and adds another set of it's own, in front of those already there but, if Foobar is used to change genre to "test6" now, the info is exactly the same as above but with "Test6" instead of "Test5" - no further replication. Similarly, if Windows is used to change genre two times consecutively, it just changes the first set of ID3 info (the set it generated previously).

So 2 questions, which I suspect may have related answers:
1) Why do neither Windows nor my MP3 player recognise the ID3 tag for genre that Foobar generates, but Foobar does understand the ones that Windows generates,
2) Why does Foobar delete Windows ID3 info and then keep adding additional sets of ID3 tags instead of editing what it's already added?

FYI, in Foobar, for the file I have been testing this on, I have selected "ID3v1" and "ID3v2" tags to be added.

This is extremely annoying as I generally search for music on my MP3 player by Genre, but now everything I add to it using foo_sendtodevice is genreless, so inaccessable unless I look for that artist or song specifically. If anyone can help I'd be extremely grateful!!

Problem with the Genre ID3 Tag - Help much appreciated!

Reply #1 –
I admit I didn't fully followed your explanation and observations, however the problems you have described were most probably caused by ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 incompatibilities.

Windows and, most probably, also your MP3 player, support only ID3v2.3, while foobar2000 uses ID3v2.4 by default (but reads ID3v2.3 fine).

The excepts from Notepad you pasted reveal that there are sometimes even 3 tags in yours files now (see how many times is the "ID3" string there). I think that's because foobar2000 rewrites the tag as ID3v2.4 each time, then Windows does not recognize it and "prepend" another new ID3v2.3 tag before the exiting 2.4 one.

You can try to tell fb2k to write ID3v2.3 tags as well by enabling that option under "Preferences > Advanced > Tagging/MP3/ID3v2 writer compatiblity mode" and see if that helps to achieve consistency for you.
Full-quoting makes you scroll past the same junk over and over.
 

Problem with the Genre ID3 Tag - Help much appreciated!

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Yirkha on
You can try to tell fb2k to write ID3v2.3 tags as well by enabling that option under "Preferences > Advanced > Tagging/MP3/ID3v2 writer compatiblity mode" and see if that helps to achieve consistency for you.


That worked perfectly; thank you so much!! For a moment I though I'd have to give up and go back to using iTunes/WM Player, but alas I am saved .

Cheers,

LM