Marc, Thanks and I already have worked with ID3 tag manipulation. I have several dedicated programs to change/modify tags. My problem goes to this: I've been putting all the data into the tags (artist, album, year, title, trackno, genre) and saving the files as title.mp3. Currently each CD is in its own directory on the PC. But I think I may have a problem because I now have many files with the same name because it is simply the same song only produced by a different artist (most of my collection is jazz and jazz artists use lots of the standard jazz pieces and rearrange). So, will I be in trouble trying to get multiple files to the ipod that have the same name or does ipod take care of it for me? Or should I rename my files before transfer to ipod to make each file distinctive from one another? Therein lies why I was asking how the ipod is storing the files.
R.Baker -----Original Message----- From: Marc Sims [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 3:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: iTunes replacement The iPod handles the ID3 tags through its playlist which is simply a listing of a songs title, album, artists ect. The ID3 database template stored on the iPod was already created with all the fields pertaining to the song by the manufacturer of the iPod, the Title, Album, Artists, ect in accordance to the ID3v1 and ID3v1.1 formats. The ID3 tags are embedded inside the first 128 bytes of an mp3 file inside its header (actually its 125 bytes minus 3 reserved for the first 3 characters for the string "TAG". There are two versions of ID3 format, ID3v1 and ID3v1.1. The only difference between ID3v1 and ID3v1.1 is that the additional field Genre had been added to the TAG and that the comment field has been shortened from 30 to 28 characters. The iPod simply stores the file extracts and displays the ID3 tags from the mp3 files when a mp3 file is copied to a playlist on the iPod. Based on what information the ID3 tag contains inside the mp3 file such as title and artist it will display those items in the playlist. If the full information is placed into the ID3 tag it will display the album, title, artist even genre if its listed. Some songs may just have title and artists while others may contain the full tag. BTW this is partially how the RIAA distinguishes the difference between legal and pirated mp3 files. The legal mp3 files have the ISRC or International Standard Recording Code number which is a 12 character alphanumeric string embedded inside near the end of the ID3 tag which contains the fields: ISO Country, e.g. GB for the UK, or US for the USA, DE for Germany, etc Registrant Code, a three alpha-numeric unique reference Year of Reference, the last two digits of the current year, e.g. '03' for 2003 Designation Code, a five digit unique number, e.g. '00013' The ISRC is a signature which serves as a method for tracking and distribution purposes if not only for copyright protection. Its sometimes best to keep to the naming standard Artists-Album-Track-Title.mpg but you can just use title.mp3 just as long as the ID3 tag is embedded inside the mp3 file with the other information. iPod will take care of the rest. It simply stores the file and sorts them based on the ID3 tags. Details on ID3: http://www.id3.org/id3v1.html Details on ISRC http://www.ifpi.org/isrc/isrc_faq.html#Heading28 -- ---------------------------------------- The WIN-HOME mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
