On 11/6/05, Michaelwagner
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I think an intermediate step, before we go to Pat's full blown database
> that stores its own stuff, we should make better (full?) use of the MP3
> (and other format tags) that are defined today.
>
> Pat (or someone else, don't remember) pointed out that most taggers
> don't give you access to the full repertoire of MP3 tags (I should
> really be calling them ID3 tags).
>
> I use Tag & Rename and the latest version of it supports ID3v2.4.0 (the
> newest version, if you're keeping track). I haven't gone through and
> checked if it gets them all, but it gets a whole bunch.
>
> The thing is, Slim doesn't make use of many of those tags. I guess it
> should. I think before we go off in major new directions, it would be
> much easier and faster to improve on the Slim support for the tags that
> already exist.
>
> That would be my suggestion, anyways.

I agree with Michael here, although I have to say I'm not a classical
buff, in that I don't have enough classical albums to care about who
composed which movement while living in which Eastern European
subcountry.

That said, if all we're wanting to do is (a) store some extra data
about each track and (b) make use of that data in the Slimserver UI,
why not leverage the existing tag options available with MP3 / OGG? 
Building and maintaining data separately to the file is always going
to cause unnecessary problems.  Does the metadata refer to the music
data by filename (what happens if you want to systematically rename
your music files)?  By some ID tag?  You then need a UI of some kind
(as discussed) to allow easy manipulation.  You then need to train SS
to find and *read* this external metadata.

As far as I know, ID3v2 allows custom tags.  Reading and writing *all*
MP3 tags, as well as creating custom ones, is simple with the
excellent, free MP3Tag (under windows - sorry, not sure about *nix). 
I don't know enough about FLAC/OGG Vorbis metadata, but perhaps these
extensions would help (I don't know if they were actually
implemented):
http://www.gophernet.org/articles/vorbiscomment.html
Someone who knows about MPC and WMA formats would have to chime in on
solving it for those cases.

>From there, it's matter of DB-persisting the tags as part of the
normal scan process, and presenting menus in the desired sequence in
the SS UI.  Something that the SS developers have proven to be
particularly good at.

Cheers
Geoff
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