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Topic: XLD producing files not readable by other major software (Read 5176 times) previous topic - next topic
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XLD producing files not readable by other major software

I really like XLD, but it seems to be producing mp3 files that other software has trouble reading. The problems revolve around tags. I understand XLD writes V2.3 tags in UTF16 (UCS-2) format. The popular Tag&Rename product on Windows can't seem to read the tags - just produces gobbledygook (a technical term) in the tag fields, even though the product is supposed to support Unicode and even if I tell it to use a Unicode font.

In addition, Windows Media Player says it doesn't support the file format and won't even play the files produced by XLD. Even this revolves around tags. If I tell XLD to not add tags, Windows Media Player plays the files fine.

Now, I don't want to necessarily use these Windows products, but before I start using XLD in earnest I'd like to be sure it produces files that are as "universal" as possible.

Any ideas anyone? Thanks.

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #1
I tried to play Lame MP3 file created with XLD on Foobar2000 and did not have any problems.  I was able to playback and trancode the Lame MP3 file created with XLD.  All tags in Foobar2000 seemed correct.  Unfortunately I could not playback the MP3 with Windows Media Player the error I got was:

The path to the file is not correct Windows Media Player cannot find the file. The server name, shared directory name, or file name may be incorrect.

Check the file name and path for any misspellings or discrepancies. If this error message persists, contact your content provider for the correct location of the file you want to play.

Error ID = 0xC00D1197, Remedy ID = 0x00000000

I do not have iTunes installed on the window side.  I wonder if this is just isolated to Windows Media Player.  If someone with iTunes installed on their Apple Windows side would please test a file a XLD Lame created MP3 file in iTunes.  Maybe we can isolate the problem.

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #2
I've tried dbPoweramp on Windows and it can read the tags, but as I said Tag&Rename has problems (there's a trial download of that product). The Windows Media Player that can't play XLD files is on Vista. iTunes on Vista and Mac plays the files and seems to support the tags.

While I have you, is the ability to "batch" convert many files on the cards? I'd like to point XLD at a single folder that contains many subfolders with many albums that I'd like to convert.

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #3
I am not the developer TMKK is the developer of XLD.  I believe that this option has been suggest and placed in the features request thread.  Feature Request

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #4
My apologies. I've seen you post a lot and got confused!

How were you attempting to play the file in Windows Media Player? I have tried right-clicking and selecting "play in Media Player" and drag-and-dropping on to Media Player.

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #5
Just a gentle bump on this issue, since it does seem to me to be rather serious. I've tried to email the developer in the past (not on this issue) and never received a response, so not sure the best way to proceed.

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #6
Done a bit more playing. I downloaded a trial of the Jaikoz tagger. If I take a file produced by XLD and re-save the tags, even in exactly the same format (V2.3 UTF16), Tag&Rename can now read them, and Windows Media Player can play the file.

 

XLD producing files not readable by other major software

Reply #7
Problem solved! Been communicating with tmkk. Some quotes from him:

"Tag & Rename doesn't support BOM of UTF-16, and can't read big-endian (begin with 0xFEFF) strings. So obviously it is a problem of T&R."

"WMP also can't read UTF-16 tags in big-endian order, and says that file is unsupported if title tag is not readable. Jaikoz tagger writes UTF-16 in little-endian order, so it is compatible with T&R and WMP."

"I don't think this is a problem of XLD side. UTF-16 with BOM (both endian) is ID3v2-compliant, and must be supported by every software. See this: http://www.id3.org/id3v2.3.0#head-1a37d4a1...950f77e47000bca
All Unicode strings use 16-bit unicode 2.0 (ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993, UCS-2). Unicode strings must begin with the Unicode BOM ($FF FE or $FE FF) to identify the byte order."

tmkk then sent me a new LAME plugin that causes XLD to write tags in little-endian order, and this solved the problems I have been seeing. He said this would become the default plugin in the next version, due in a week or so. Incidentally, this release should also enable batch conversion of many folders, which is also great news for me! Fantastic support for a product that just seems to get better and better...