Whe amarok writes id3 tags to files, they cannot be read correctly by easytag. Anything over a certain length gets cut off when displayed by easytag... then when easytag saves the file again, the cut off information is lost.

amarok can read files written by easytag correctly, but not the other way around.

I have noticed that different id3 programs seem to work in different ways. For instance, easytag has extra fields, like \"composer\" or \"Original artist\". A command line program like eyeD3 can write more than one comment field.

It is a problem because I wish to use amarok to write id3 tags. It is very convenient to be able to make quick corrections or add comments in the music player rather than have to start up another program, find the file to be edited, etc.

However, I want all my id3 tag programs to be able to read the files correctly. I fear that if I write them with amarok they may not be readable by other applications in the future.

Why does this problem happen? Is it possible to configure amarok write id3 tags in a different format that will be readable by easytag and the others?

Note: I am using ubuntu 5.10 with the latest versions of amarok, easytag, etc availible for this distrution... 1.3.7 and 1.99.7 respectively.

The reason for the different behaviour that you are experiencing is that there different versions of id3 tags:
- id3 v1: these are limited to 30 characters in length (i think) and there is no standard character encoding (such as utf-8, ...)
- id3 v2: these don\'t have such tight limits as id3 v1 and can be present simultaneously with id3 v1 on the same file, and there are several versions of id3v2 tags, v2.3 and v2.4 are most important

Now to the explanation of your problem: amaroK uses taglib for metadata reading and writing, which supports (besides several other metadata formats) reading of id3v1, id3v2.3 and id3v2.4 and writing of id3v1 and id3v2.4. Easytag is based on id3lib, which can read and write id3v1 and id3v2.3, but not id3v2.4. So when you change tags with amaroK, they get written as id3v2.4 and as id3v1 (but limited to 30 characters). When you later use easytag, it will only be able to understand the possibly shortened id3v1 tag.

Unfortunately, there is no way to write id3v2.3 tags with amaroK/taglib, so there is probably no solution to your problem.

Martin

Thanks for the explanation, its good to be able to understand this issue better, even if there is no clear solution as of yet.

Perhaps this is a foolish question, but would it not be good for the makers of id3lib and taglib to try to work together so the formats they write in can understand each other?

Could not id3lib be updated to understand id3v2.4... or taglib to write in
id3v2.3?

If openoffice.org and koffice can agree to a standardized format, should not the open source id3 tagging tools be able to do the same? It would seem to me rather important that this be done... if not there is a serious danger that users may lose data by inadvertantly saving their music in the \"wrong\" application.

In any case, I would like to suggest that until a solution to this issue exists, perhaps the amarok documentation should make mention of this issue to warn users.

According to the easytag webpage, they\'re working on implementing the ability to use taglib for tagging, instead of/as well as id3lib. That should help, but doesn\'t answer your last question

By the way, amarok 1.4 (currently in svn) has music organization features almost as sophisticated as easytag\'s... I removed easytag from my system as a result

Combining musicbrainz lookups with the ability to insert individial tracks into your collection (as well as rearrange and rename) puts amaroK well in front.

Post edited by: dangle_wtf, at: 2006/02/09 17:31

I'm using EasyTag 2.1.2 which now supports v2.4. I don't know if the problem still exists with this Easytag version.

EDIT: Tested and the problem is gone 

good to know!