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Topic: WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP (Read 569200 times) previous topic - next topic
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WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

I have released WMP Tag Plus, a Windows Media Player plug-in for viewing and editing metadata tags of MPEG4, Vorbis, FLAC and WavPack files.

WMP Tag Plus is different from the existing tag support plug-ins in the fact that it has a deeper integration into WMP, while the other plug-ins rely more or less on a workaround. This means that you can now use the Advanced Tag Editor to edit the tags of MPEG4, Vorbis, FLAC and WavPack files, which wasn't possible with the existing plug-ins. Another advantage is that WMP Tag Plus can set the playback length of these files in the library, which makes seeking possible when playing them.

WMP Tag Plus is written for Windows Media Player 11 and 12.

For more information and screenshots, please visit the official WMP Tag Plus web page.

Download WMP Tag Plus

October 22, 2009: WMP Tag Plus is now officially released, only some minor issues had to be fixed since the release of the second beta. The official WMP Tag Plus web page is at http://bmproductions.fixnum.org/wmptagplus

November 7, 2009: WMP Tag Plus 1.1 fixes a bug that prevented tag changes from being written correctly to certain FLAC files. This update is recommended if you are using the FLAC tag support of WMP Tag Plus.

February 12, 2010: WMP Tag Plus 1.2 fixes a possible crash in Windows Media Player 11.

May 13, 2012: WMP Tag Plus 2.0 adds album art support, Monkey's Audio and Musepack tag support, a feature to refresh song tags in the media library, and much more.

June 2, 2012: WMP Tag Plus 2.1 fixes a possible crash when closing Windows Media Player on Windows 7.

November 29, 2013: WMP Tag Plus 2.2 fixes several bugs, such as a possible crash when accessing the plug-in's settings, and adds full Musepack SV8 support.

March 29, 2015: WMP Tag Plus 2.5 adds read/write support for star ratings stored in FLAC and Ogg Vorbis files, and fixes broken plug-in functionality on Windows 8.1 as caused by certain Windows Updates.

August 15, 2015: WMP Tag Plus 2.6 adds support for Windows 10.

September 11, 2016: WMP Tag Plus 2.7 contains, among other improvements, a fix for a possible error when reading MPEG-4 tags and for Windows Media Player 12 leaking memory while it reads embedded album art.

October 29, 2016: WMP Tag Plus 2.8 fixes a possible Windows Media Player hang that was introduced in version 2.7.

January 7, 2017: WMP Tag Plus 2.9 fixes tag support issues in newer versions of Windows 10.

July 19, 2018: WMP Tag Plus 2.10 fixes an error message on Windows Media Player startup in the Spring Creators Update of Windows 10.

October 30, 2020: WMP Tag Plus 2.11 fixes tag support issues since the May 2020 Update of Windows 10 and now forces Windows Media Player to write FLAC tag changes to file.

November 12, 2021: WMP Tag Plus 2.12 fixes an error message at Windows Media Player startup on Windows 11, as well as on newer versions of Windows 10.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #1
I got so excited upon seeing this that I immediately downloaded and installed it, without noticing the fine print that FLAC support is coming soon.

You might want to have a look at this concerning the missing length and bitrate fields for FLAC files played from the Media Library. (Or perhaps you already have a clear idea on how to fix it...)

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #2
I got so excited upon seeing this that I immediately downloaded and installed it, without noticing the fine print that FLAC support is coming soon.

You might want to have a look at this concerning the missing length and bitrate fields for FLAC files played from the Media Library. (Or perhaps you already have a clear idea on how to fix it...)

When opening an external FLAC file in WMP12, the xiph Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC and DC-Bass Source Filter are both able to provide seek. madFlac provides the length and bitrate but seek is broken. In any case WMP12's "Preview" can always skip successfully...

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #3
You might want to have a look at this concerning the missing length and bitrate fields for FLAC files played from the Media Library. (Or perhaps you already have a clear idea on how to fix it...)

Thanks for the link, but I already knew about that thread. It actually was one of the reasons why I started writing this plug-in (if you view the thread in Google Groups, you will see that I even posted some replies).

I do have a clear idea on how to fix it, and it's already implemented in the plug-in  WMP Tag Plus will set the length of files for all supported formats, so once FLAC support is ready, it will set the length for FLAC files too.

When opening an external FLAC file in WMP12, the xiph Directshow Filters for Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Theora and FLAC and DC-Bass Source Filter are both able to provide seek. madFlac provides the length and bitrate but seek is broken. In any case WMP12's "Preview" can always skip successfully...

That's correct, but with the emphasis on "external". Files being played directly from the library won't be seekable. WMP Tag Plus fixes this.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #4
That's great! Thanks in advance.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #5
fantastic.  couldn't come at a better time.  thanks for the work and i look forward to the flac support.

(was just reading through this thread and was wondering what happend to your guy's wonderful ideas.
http://groups.google.mg/group/microsoft.pu...c9c48e535f0bf8)

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #6
I am pleased to announce that the next beta of WMP Tag Plus is ready for download. On top of MPEG4 tag support, this release now includes tag support for FLAC, Vorbis and, as a bonus, WavPack. WMP Tag Plus is now UAC (User Account Control) aware too.

Download WMP Tag Plus

If no real issues arise, this beta will become the final release of WMP Tag Plus 1.0. Again, please let me know if you find any problems, so they can be fixed before the final release.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #7
I am pleased to announce that the next beta of WMP Tag Plus is ready for download. On top of MPEG4 tag support, this release now includes tag support for FLAC, Vorbis and, as a bonus, WavPack. WMP Tag Plus is now UAC (User Account Control) aware too.

Download WMP Tag Plus

If no real issues arise, this beta will become the final release of WMP Tag Plus 1.0. Again, please let me know if you find any problems, so they can be fixed before the final release.

After deleting the FLAC files and re-adding them to the library everything works great. Thanks!!

P.S: While you're at it what about tag support for APE?

EDIT: I just noticed that some/all tags failed to be read from files with non-ASCII characters in their filenames (depending on the Unicode plane I suppose).

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #8
What version of WMP and Windows are you using? Does this only happen with FLAC files, or with Vorbis and MPEG4 files too? Would it be possible to give me some examples of filenames that fail?

P.S: While you're at it what about tag support for APE?

As far as I know, APE is just a tagging format used in different audio formats (such as WavPack). Do you mean Monkey's Audio?

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #9
nice that was fast.
99% of my flac made it in.

the one album i code not add properly is godspeed's "f#a# ∞"  i think it is the  '∞' character in the album name that is giving the problem.  just a guess as it is one of the only flacs i could not get in there.  i can zip it up and upload to a share if you'd like a sample to play with.

the single other issue i have is this, and it is a little strange and i am kind of guessing at how it manifests.
it appears that when WMP adds an mp3 to the library it uses the song tag's 'album artist' field to populate the WMP's artist information, and the 'artist' field to populate WMP's  'contributing artist' information. 
so let's say i have a compliation album that i put 'various artists' into the song tag's 'album artist' field, and the actual artist for each song in the song tag's 'artist' field.  if it is an mp3, WMP will file it under "various artists", with each song having it's contributing artist as the actual performer of the song.  if i add a flac of the same album, it does not process the 'album artist' field, and instead the album will end up with WMP adding each artist seperately.

i really hope that makes sense.  again i can send a zip of a flac vs. mp3 version of the same album with the same tags if you'd like to compare how WMP treats them.

i cannot thank you enough for this contribution.  it has made MCE an actual viable solution.  you did some great work here.  let me know if you need any help or more input.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #10
Thanks for the information. There indeed was a problem with filenames containing Unicode characters such as '∞', but I'm pretty sure that I have been able to fix it. Please re-download WMP Tag Plus and install it over your current installation. Re-add that one album to your library and check if the tags are now being read properly.

Regarding your second problem, WMP Tag Plus does support the album artist-field of FLAC files, but only when it's stored as a Vorbis tag. FLAC files can contain both ID3 and Vorbis tags, so I guess that your FLAC files contain the album artist only as ID3, resulting in WMP Tag Plus not being able to read it. I could verify this if you would PM me a sample FLAC file (1 file is enough).

BTW, you still haven't told me your WMP and Windows version

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #11
Thanks very much for adding WavPack support to your plugin! 

Once you have a final release (or maybe you have?) I will put a link up on the WavPack site (if that's okay).

David

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #12
Please do, David, that would be great. The current version can be considered a "release candidate". If no big issues come up during the following week, it will become the final release.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #13
Thanks for the information. There indeed was a problem with filenames containing Unicode characters such as '?', but I'm pretty sure that I have been able to fix it. Please re-download WMP Tag Plus and install it over your current installation. Re-add that one album to your library and check if the tags are now being read properly.

Regarding your second problem, WMP Tag Plus does support the album artist-field of FLAC files, but only when it's stored as a Vorbis tag. FLAC files can contain both ID3 and Vorbis tags, so I guess that your FLAC files contain the album artist only as ID3, resulting in WMP Tag Plus not being able to read it. I could verify this if you would PM me a sample FLAC file (1 file is enough).

BTW, you still haven't told me your WMP and Windows version

hey that worked perfectly for the unicode character.

i pm'd you two files for album artist thing.

hey seek works for the flac files as well.  my system is win7 x64 pro, so that makes it WMP12.
great job.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #14
What version of WMP and Windows are you using? Does this only happen with FLAC files, or with Vorbis and MPEG4 files too? Would it be possible to give me some examples of filenames that fail?

P.S: While you're at it what about tag support for APE?

As far as I know, APE is just a tagging format used in different audio formats (such as WavPack). Do you mean Monkey's Audio?

WMP12 on Windows 7 x64.

Well APE tags originated from Monkey's Audio, so yes. It shouldn't be hard to add support for .ape files now right? (Like how FLAC uses Vorbis comments...)

EDIT: Yes, the latest version does fix the Unicode filename problem. Thanks!

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #15
i pm'd you two files for album artist thing.

Thanks for the files. It looks like the FLAC file does contain the album artist as a Vorbis tag, contrary to what I was expecting. However, I noticed that this was stored as "ALBUM ARTIST", while WMP Tag Plus only checks the "ALBUMARTIST" field (without the space). I could easily fix this, so please re-download and reinstall WMP Tag Plus and re-add the files (once again, sorry ). Check if WMP Tag Plus now reads the album artist correctly.

Well APE tags originated from Monkey's Audio, so yes. It shouldn't be hard to add support for .ape files now right? (Like how FLAC uses Vorbis comments...)

I'm afraid that it is actually quite hard to add support for Monkey's Audio (.ape) files. WMP Tag Plus uses TagLib, which does support APE tags in WavPack and MPC files, but doesn't support the Monkey's Audio format at all. If there are a lot of requests for it, I might add support for this in a future version. Someone else could make this too; WMP Tag Plus has pluggable tag support and I'm planning to put some API documentation online soon.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #16
Thanks for the files. It looks like the FLAC file does contain the album artist as a Vorbis tag, contrary to what I was expecting. However, I noticed that this was stored as "ALBUM ARTIST", while WMP Tag Plus only checks the "ALBUMARTIST" field (without the space). I could easily fix this, so please re-download and reinstall WMP Tag Plus and re-add the files (once again, sorry ). Check if WMP Tag Plus now reads the album artist correctly.
Be aware that some people/applications use ALBUMARTIST, and others use ALBUM ARTIST.  Welcome to loose tagging formats. 

For reading, the best practice would be to read either.  For writing, that's really up to you on which one you think should be the 'correct' one.  Winamp & dBpoweramp, for example, write ALBUMARTIST.  foobar2000 writes ALBUM ARTIST.  The previous popular tag extender, Mab_fr's WMPTSE used ALBUMARTIST.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #17
Thanks for the files. It looks like the FLAC file does contain the album artist as a Vorbis tag, contrary to what I was expecting. However, I noticed that this was stored as "ALBUM ARTIST", while WMP Tag Plus only checks the "ALBUMARTIST" field (without the space). I could easily fix this, so please re-download and reinstall WMP Tag Plus and re-add the files (once again, sorry ). Check if WMP Tag Plus now reads the album artist correctly.


i will check the second i get home.  stuck at work now and itching to try it out.  (the system is off when not in use so no remote.)

Be aware that some people/applications use ALBUMARTIST, and others use ALBUM ARTIST.  Welcome to loose tagging formats. 

For reading, the best practice would be to read either.  For writing, that's really up to you on which one you think should be the 'correct' one.  Winamp & dBpoweramp, for example, write ALBUMARTIST.  foobar2000 writes ALBUM ARTIST.  The previous popular tag extender, Mab_fr's WMPTSE used ALBUMARTIST.


i am using tag & rename to tag the all the music files, which i now realize is using "album artist".  i did notice with foorbar that it is captured as "album artist" when checking the songs as well.

this tag extender works 1000x better than the previous popular tag extender.  if the above issue is in fact corrected, i have no album that did not get placed into the library exactly as it should.  PLUS now you can seek though the file and the time is correct.  fantastic work.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #18
Thanks for the files. It looks like the FLAC file does contain the album artist as a Vorbis tag, contrary to what I was expecting. However, I noticed that this was stored as "ALBUM ARTIST", while WMP Tag Plus only checks the "ALBUMARTIST" field (without the space). I could easily fix this, so please re-download and reinstall WMP Tag Plus and re-add the files (once again, sorry ). Check if WMP Tag Plus now reads the album artist correctly.


i will check the second i get home.  stuck at work now and itching to try it out.  (the system is off when not in use so no remote.)


just got in and it looks perfect my friend.  i can't tell you enough how great this is and what great work you did here.  thanks for the effort.

one other thing, unrelated to your plugin but it is related to WMP tagging... does WMP read the "Disc Number" tag value??

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #19
Quote
I'm afraid that it is actually quite hard to add support for Monkey's Audio (.ape) files. WMP Tag Plus uses TagLib, which does support APE tags in WavPack and MPC files, but doesn't support the Monkey's Audio format at all. If there are a lot of requests for it, I might add support for this in a future version. Someone else could make this too; WMP Tag Plus has pluggable tag support and I'm planning to put some API documentation online soon.

I don't use APE files, but they are quite popular too (second only to FLAC for lossless audio I suppose?)... It will definitely be something to look forward to.

EDIT: Added a taglib feature request here

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #20
For reading, the best practice would be to read either.  For writing, that's really up to you on which one you think should be the 'correct' one.  Winamp & dBpoweramp, for example, write ALBUMARTIST.  foobar2000 writes ALBUM ARTIST.  The previous popular tag extender, Mab_fr's WMPTSE used ALBUMARTIST.

WMP Tag Plus will now read both fields, and will write ALBUMARTIST, so I guess that should be alright.

one other thing, unrelated to your plugin but it is related to WMP tagging... does WMP read the "Disc Number" tag value??

I think WMP does actually read it, but doesn't seem to be using it anywhere. In WMP 11, you could still view and edit this tag with the Advanced Tag Editor, which is unfortunately removed in WMP 12. There isn't something like a Disc number-column that can be enabled either.

EDIT: Added a taglib feature request here

Thanks. I have voted for the request and added myself as CC, so I will be notified when something changes.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #21
Ah! this is real nice to see, thanks for the notice in the topic about 'WMPTSE'. The problem with that plugin was that is wasn't actually writing the tag information into FLAC files.

I hope this works, so I can finally start using my flac collection again

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #22
So, I spend some time.. and have to conclude it is NOT working for flac files. This is what I have experienced:

Clean WMP library (the latest WMP, comes with Windows 7). Put one album of flac files in directory 'music' (no subdirectory's). In WMP I have added the directory 'music' as the library directory. WMP finds the album (10 files). I search for album details with internetservice of WMP and I download correct titles and additional tag info. Then hit update media details. What happens: files are placed in subdirectory's ('rip file option') and have been given the right titles in file name. So far so good. Then I delete the WMP database file from my c: drive. Now I start up WMP again.. it start building a fresh new library.. If the plugin was doing allright, I should have written the correct titles hardcoded into flac files. Now this is where it goes wrong, because once finished building the library again, it shows the old titles and not the new one I received by looking up the album..

WOuld be real nice if you could fix this in the plugin.. thnx!

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #23
Thanks for the report. Did you use Apply media information changes (in the Tools menu) after the tags were updated? This command forces WMP to immediately write the changes to the files. This is important, because WMP usually waits a while, before writing the changes in the background. Also, please make sure that you don't have any other tag support plug-ins for WMP installed, as these could be getting in the way of WMP Tag Plus.

I currently don't have access to a Windows 7 system, so I can only try to reproduce your problem later tonight. In the meantime, could you disable the "Rename music files" and "Rearrange music in rip music folder" settings, and check if the changes get written to the FLAC files if you edit the tags manually in the library? Don't forget to use "Apply media information changes" here too. You can verify that the changes got written by removing the files from the library, and adding them back through Tools - Advanced - Restore deleted library items (so there's no need to rebuild the library). You can also use an external tagging tool such as AudioShell.

WMP Tag Plus - MPEG4, Vorbis and FLAC metadata support for WMP

Reply #24
Hey Tim,

I did indeed apply the media information changes. And that also resulted in the files being placed under subdirectory's and renamed filenames with correct titles. I will check out your options asap, first, since I'm not at a windows xp machine, I will do exactly the same like I did yesterday on the windows 7 machine, just to make sure it's not caused by something I'm doing wrong.

I'll get back to you.