Support for tagging or converting AIF (1 Viewer)

[rickd]

Two questions

My music is currently in AIFF format and I want to look at converting it to FLAC using mptag that and then into mp

1. Can tagthat achieve this for me?

2. Alternatively Tagging AIF files would be good as I want to get my music into media portal from itunes and use the ASIO feature for bitperfect (or WASAPI) playback.

iTunes handles and tags AIF files fine but I think there maybe issues moving this music to mediaportal

Thanks and this looks great

 

[hwahrmann]

The problem with AIF is, that there's no official Taggin format for it.

i had a look at an AIF file, which i ripped with iTunes and it looks like that iTunes is writting a ID3 V2 tag at the end of the file, which is a total proprietory misuse of the ID3 format, since at the end of a file, you should only see a ID3 V1 tag.
It seems not to be so complicated to make this supported, but with the testing needed, it'll take some time.

I'll look into it, if i find some time.

btw, MediaPortal play AIF just fine. Just add the extension aif to the music extensions. but you need to use the Shares View, as we can't read tags from it.

 

[rickd]

It would be cool to add this to tagthat and if possible have mp music plugin read those tags based on the itunes approach...aif is becoming more popular with audiophiles as for whatever reason they sound better than lossless even though both formats are bit perfect.

MP is the best for video amd movies and tv this would take it on the music front in my opinion

 

[hwahrmann]

as MPTagThat and MP Tagreader share the same code, this would be done automatic.
Just need to play a bit with AIF and see how easy to implement that.
Hopefully, i find enough documentation on the header format.

 

[rickd]

Thanks this would truely make it the killer mc....need to make sure it works with tags from itunes as that seems to be the most common starting point also dbamp batch converter supports aiff tags too if you need something to test against

 

[hwahrmann]

Was easier than i thought. Handling of AIFF files has been added.
All Tagging possibilities, which are available for ID3 v2, are supported.

I've tested with various files created with iTunes and dbamp and all was fine. After changing files, the changes were recognised in iTunes.

New version has been uploaded.
Mediaportal TagReader will be updated accordingly and should have the ability to read AIFF files with the next public SVN build

 

[rickd]

WOW awsome thanks so much!!!!

one question when will aiff tag reading work inside the music plugin in mp based on your comment thy share the same code what do I need to do to get MP to read in my aiff itunes library.

Once this is working I will post this to all audio forums as this will be unique feature full tags from aiff inside a bit perfect player with a great tag editor thrown in will mean great sound and userability.


Thanks Rick

Edit:

Ok had a play and can see some issues which are itunes related I think and questions re useage.

For some reason only cover art I have dragged and dropped into cover art feild in itunes is coming into tagthat all art in itunes aif files that has been downloaded automatically via get album artwork is not coming across or is not embeeded in the aif files. Maybe i have to drag downloaded artwork to the artwork box in itunes or get it by using tag that. Can I get all artwork for all ablum in multilevel folders automatatically or do one at a time?

Also save folder as thumb is not working is that due to artwork being .bmp or some other reason? I am assuming it would save it to album folder with tracks

Also to get the database into MP with all the tags do I use the build database option where do I then save that file for use in MP? Will this then give me a complete library view in MP music plugin?

THanks and looks great

Rick

 

[hwahrmann]

ok, let me address your questions

one question when will aiff tag reading work inside the music plugin in mp based on your comment thy share the same code what do I need to do to get MP to read in my aiff itunes library.

In MP Configuration, just add the folder, where you store your AIFF music files or any other music file format, you currently maintain via itunes, to the Shares. (Configuration -> Music -> Music Folders)
Once you've done that, navigate to the "Music Database" node and start the Update.
This will read the tags out of your music files and build the MediaPortal Music Database

For some reason only cover art I have dragged and dropped into cover art feild in itunes is coming into tagthat all art in itunes aif files that has been downloaded automatically via get album artwork is not coming across or is not embeeded in the aif files. Maybe i have to drag downloaded artwork to the artwork box in itunes or get it by using tag that. Can I get all artwork for all ablum in multilevel folders automatatically or do one at a time?

Sure. MPTagThat doesn't know and even care that iTunes is installed. I'm just taking pictures, that i find in the files itself.
iirc, itunes downloads the artwork, stores them in some folder and references them from it's database.
And because the file doesn't contain the artwork, there's nothing i can do about, besides processing the itunes library and to find out which artwork the file has.

Also save folder as thumb is not working is that due to artwork being .bmp or some other reason? I am assuming it would save it to album folder with tracks

No, the file get's saved, but it has an attribute of hidden. The reason for that is, that the MediaPortal Picture Plugin does not handle the artwork as pictures.
There's one problem tough. I save the file as .jpg, regardless which format it is.
i think i need to convert it first to a jpeg.

Also to get the database into MP with all the tags do I use the build database option where do I then save that file for use in MP? Will this then give me a complete library view in MP music plugin?

No, it is the other way around.
You would use MediaPortal to build the database and then reference this database from MPTagTHat, so that you can edit using the DB View or have the auto completion when editing Artists
I've just added the ability to build a database to MPTagTHat, if for whatever reason someone doesn't use MediaPortal.

 

[rickd]

might keep it all here

I followed the build the database from the share in mp config. which worked in there.

However when I go into MP I see songs and albums no cover art and cannot play the songs as they are not listed in library mode only in shared mode.

I think I need to understand how this all works.

My music is on a network share and mp database and mp are on my htpc....

how do I get all the cover art (some is there probably.jpg stuff) and correct info into database and use tag that to update my files etc from the htpc with MP on it? and how do we get the songs to show up in libray mode?

 

[hwahrmann]

There are a number of options in the Database Updae dialogue, that you may wish to tick.
For example that folder.jpg should be used and that embedded cover art should be used.

So if there was a folder.jpg AND / or embedded cover art, we will show cover art.
If neither one of the above was there, then there's nothing we can do at this stage.
As i described before, the issue with iTunes is different, as they store the cover in a separarate folder and refer to it from the itunes db.
There's nothing we can do, besides reading the iTunes db and copy the atwork over, which requires development.


If you see some files only in shares view, then there was a problem reading the Tags.
Either there were no Tags or we couldn't read the tags.
In both cases you should see a message in Configuration.log

if you have a file, which we couldn't process, please upload it to a free file hoster nd PM me the link.
i will have a look at it.