Music shows multiple entries for same Album (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

MediaPortal Version: v1.2.1
MediaPortal Skin: PureVisionHD Blue
Windows Version: Win7 Ult 32
Hardware as Old HTPC in sig

For example, with the view Albums it's set to

[U]Selection  Layout  Sortby  Asc[/U]
Album       List    Album  Yes
track       List    track  Yes

When I use this view, it shows multiple entries for the same Albums, with one or more tracks under each entry.

It also shows a lot of blank entries at the top, as I have lots of songs that aren't off Albums and therefore don't have any Album data. It would be good if these could be filtered out when listing Albums.

PS. Forum still isn't offering Confirm as a prefix choice.

 

[elliottmc]

Hi,

Have you enabled 'Treat tracks in an individual folder as an album' ? Of course this makes assumptions about how the files are organised on your hard disk.

I found that I saw this problem when I had an album that had tracks from multiple artists. In that case, make sure it is tagged as a compilation. Personally, I use iTunes for ripping and tagging, and it gets it right most of the time.

For the tracks with no album data, why not tag them as 'no album' in the album field?

Mark

 

[doveman]

Hi,

I'm not sure that would work for me as I have the following

Music Folder\Genre\Album (which would be fine)

but also

Music Folder\Genre (with lots of individual singles in that folder)

I'll try your tips about tagging tracks as compilation or no album though, thanks.

EDIT: Even with 'Treat tracks in an individual folder as an album' ticked, an album in a folder with 49 tracks, all tagged as Album "J.Period Presents... The [Abstract] Best" shows up 30 times in the list, with each entry again showing 30 folders, each of which contain all 49 tracks!

 

[elliottmc]

EDIT: Even with 'Treat tracks in an individual folder as an album' ticked, an album in a folder with 49 tracks, all tagged as Album "J.Period Presents... The [Abstract] Best" shows up 30 times in the list, with each entry again showing 30 folders, each of which contain all 49 tracks!

I am guessing that each of these tracks has a different artist.

Try tagging as compilation.

Failing that, try putting something in the 'Album Artist' tag, or checking the tag version (I use 2.4).

Mark

 

[doveman]

EDIT: Even with 'Treat tracks in an individual folder as an album' ticked, an album in a folder with 49 tracks, all tagged as Album "J.Period Presents... The [Abstract] Best" shows up 30 times in the list, with each entry again showing 30 folders, each of which contain all 49 tracks!

I am guessing that each of these tracks has a different artist.

Try tagging as compilation.

Failing that, try putting something in the 'Album Artist' tag, or checking the tag version (I use 2.4).

Mark

I don't see why the tracks having different artists should affect the Albums view, so I'd say that is a bug. That's what it seems to be doing, as some of them have the same artist, which accounts for why the Album is listed 30 times, rather than 49.

The tracks already have Album Artist information, but I can't see why that should be necessary for the Albums view to work properly anyway.

The tracks are already tagged as part of a compilation. I see an option for this in MPTagThat but not in MP3Tag. Is that a MP only tag?

In MP3Tag I can see they're ID3v2.3, but I don't see where I can change this and in MPTagThat I can't see that information anywhere. I don't see why I should have to go through my collection changing everything to v2.4 tags for it to work in MP anyway.

 

[elliottmc]

EDIT: Even with 'Treat tracks in an individual folder as an album' ticked, an album in a folder with 49 tracks, all tagged as Album "J.Period Presents... The [Abstract] Best" shows up 30 times in the list, with each entry again showing 30 folders, each of which contain all 49 tracks!

I am guessing that each of these tracks has a different artist.

Try tagging as compilation.

Failing that, try putting something in the 'Album Artist' tag, or checking the tag version (I use 2.4).

Mark

I don't see why the tracks having different artists should affect the Albums view, so I'd say that is a bug. That's what it seems to be doing, as some of them have the same artist, which accounts for why the Album is listed 30 times, rather than 49.

Okay, so I have 10 different albums called 'Greatest Hits'. Do I want them all in one list, mixing them up, or do I want one entry per artist?

MP isn't smart enough to tell that your situation is different.

One additional thought.

After you enabled 'treat all tracks in one folder as an album, did you delete/rescan your music database? This might help.

The tracks already have Album Artist information, but I can't see why that should be necessary for the Albums view to work properly anyway.

The tracks are already tagged as part of a compilation. I see an option for this in MPTagThat but not in MP3Tag. Is that a MP only tag?

No, it is also used in iTunes.

In MP3Tag I can see they're ID3v2.3, but I don't see where I can change this and in MPTagThat I can't see that information anywhere. I don't see why I should have to go through my collection changing everything to v2.4 tags for it to work in MP anyway.

I don't see why either, but maybe the tags were much older versions that didn't contain all the information. I didn't have enough information from you, so I was guessing and trying to cover all options.

If you want to zip 5 of the tracks of the problem album, and upload them somewhere, I am happy to download them and see how my settings handle them.

Mark

 

[mbuzina]

Use the album artist field. MP defines album + album artist to be unique. For samplers set album artist to various artists. This is generally accepted practice when tagging mp3 files.

 

[doveman]

Okay, so I have 10 different albums called 'Greatest Hits'. Do I want them all in one list, mixing them up, or do I want one entry per artist?

I would have thought the sensible thing to do would be to name each Album "Greatest Hits of Elton John" or "Elton John's Greatest Hits" and then each would list separately.

After you enabled 'treat all tracks in one folder as an album, did you delete/rescan your music database? This might help.

I don't think I did as I thought MP scanned it each time it started, but I've done it manually from MP config now. The J.Period Album is OK now, but there's still loads that aren't. For example I've got an Album named "The Piece Maker 2". This is listed twice, with two entries under each which just say "0", each of which then contains all 19 tracks. All the tracks are by Tony Touch or Tony Touch ft. xxx. If I set the AlbumArtist for them to Various it does then show normally, but I really don't think I should have to do this.

There's also all my singles, which don't have Album or AlbumArtist filled (and why would they?) which results in MP showing an untold number of blank folders at the start of the list, each of which has numerous blank subfolders, each of which then contains all the singles.

I don't see why either, but maybe the tags were much older versions that didn't contain all the information. I didn't have enough information from you, so I was guessing and trying to cover all options.

If you want to zip 5 of the tracks of the problem album, and upload them somewhere, I am happy to download them and see how my settings handle them.

Thanks for the offer but it seems to be an issue with MP, rather than a problem with the tracks per se.

 

[tourettes]

There's also all my singles, which don't have Album or AlbumArtist filled (and why would they?)

Album (and AlbumArtist) need to be filled in for singles. Otherwise it wont be possible to handle those correctly.

Album doesn't mean a physical album -> id3v2.3.0 - ID3.org

The 'Album/Movie/Show title' frame is intended for the title of the recording(/source of sound) which the audio in the file is taken from.

 

[elliottmc]

My view based on your description is that there is no actual bug.

At least I will set the thread to 'Confirm' since it should never be set to 'Bug' until a bug has been confirmed.

All we have now is that MP doesn't behave the way you expected it to.

Mark