Solved Support For ID3v2 Tags

[ldpvl]

Hello,

It is known that Windows 7 in general doesn't support ID3v2 and WMP in particular. By saying that it doesn't support I mean that it only reads ID3v1 tag information on mp3 files and doesn't do that for ID3v2. It also doesn't/can't edit tag information of mp3 files that only have ID3v2 type on them. This is really a bit of inconvenience, as ID3v2 tags support longer field values in general (sometimes trying transfer ID3v2 info to ID3v1 results in some values being cut because they are too long - which makes it more inconvenient) and also ID3v2 tags are widely used now.

I've been searching on the net to no avail to see if there's any way to make WMP and Windows 7 to read ID3v2 tags. Is there a way?

Many thanks,
LD

 

[Gornot]

Hi,

Everything you just said is simply not true.
All my CD rips contain ID3v2 tags ONLY, and WMP reads them just fine.
You can edit tags with programs like MP3tag.

 

[ldpvl]

I couldn't edit tags of some songs which then lead me to this.

Windows 7 won't let me edit information... I.E. mp3 file information like artist,

I stand corrected that you still can edit tags in Windows 7 by choosing the file in the explorer and editing tags in the properties section underneath.

However, my problem still persists. If my mp3 files have both v1 and v2 tags, Windows and WMP will display v1 info. If my mp3 files only have v2 tags, Windows and WMP will display the info if the tags were entered/edited by WMP or by manually entering in the explorer, but say if your mp3 file's v2 tag initially had no info in it and you try to edit the tag by other software like Foobar, ID3-TagIt (not sure about MP3Tag), it just won't show in both Windows and WMP.

Sometimes, the mp3 files can have initial v2 tags with info, and windows just won't see it, and if you edit a tag field in windows explorer, it wipes out everything in the initial tag.

Try with a mp3 file, erase all the tag info and edit the tag again using your software and then see if it shows in the explorer, you'll get what I mean.

Many thanks for your reply,
LD

 

[Gornot]

Hi,
First of all, I do not use MP3s for years now, AAC is the format of my choice, but for the purpose of this test, I imported a CD track into Sound Forge and saved it to .mp3 using a CBR bitrate of 192, leaving the bit depth to 16 and the sample rate to 44100 Hz (without any tags).

Using Easy CD-DA I added ID3v2 tags, including artist and album artist, album, track number, track name, genre, year, composer, publisher (in the "comment tag") and album art (.jpg files 200x200px). Upon saving I imported the file into WMP. It took a second to add it, upon playing all the information from the tags were indeed displayed. A right click-> Properties on the song, under "Content" tab displayed all tag info just as I had written. Opening Windows Explorer and highlighting the file displayed the tags, and changing each tag except album art, I reimported the file into WMP and again, all tags were displayed. I reimported the file into CDDA and erased all ID3v2 tags. Opening the file in WMP revealed only the filename, meaning that no v1 tags were written anywhere during the process.
One more import into CDDA, I rewrote all tags, and this time embedded both v1 and v2, again, WMP displayed full tag info. I must add that track name and album name are quite long, so I know that they cannot fit into v1 tags. Changing the tags through Windows Explorer by only adding more characters to track name and album (which were quite long in the first place) didn't change anything, WMP again displayed them properly.

So my test only confirmed what I said. Now I must ask if your installation of Windows 7 was a clean install, or perhaps just an upgrade from Vista? I also wish to know which software package you're using to rip your CDs and/or edit tags? Are there any "unusual" settings you apply to your rips. Also, you mentioned editing tags in foobar. Open source may be one+s best solution in computer usage (I use foobar too ) however, when in doubt, never use open source software for something that can be done with freeware, unless it is drastically more advanced (like MeGUI for example).

 

[ldpvl]

Hi Gornot,

You've done too much effort. I feel bad now. But thank you very much.

To answer your questions, I did a clean install of Windows and I use WMP to rip CD's - as far as I am concerned, WMP doesn't offer any 'unusual' settings for ripping CD's . I mainly use Foobar for tag editing, sometimes ID3-TagIT, when I really have to, I do that in the explorer.

You said:

Changing the tags through Windows Explorer by only adding more characters to track name and album (which were quite long in the first place) didn't change anything, WMP again displayed them properly.

So you weren't able to change the tag info of v1 tags? (In my experience, if an mp3 has only v1 tag type in it and you add a really long title into it in the explorer, windows will automatically add a v2 tag into the mp3.)

As you're also using Foobar, I will state a way to reproduce my problem: choose an mp3 and delete all the tag info by doing that in the explorer. Open the mp3 in Foobar - Foobar should indicate that the mp3 has no tag field values. Right clicke the file choose 'Tagging' then choose 'MP3 Tag Type' and have the box 'ID3v2' ticked only. Click 'Update Files'. Now enter some v2 tag values using Foobar for the mp3 (I'm sure you know how to do it but to be on the safe side the way I do it is by choosing the mp3 and hitting 'Alt+Enter' to open the properties window and then I change the fields inside there).

OK, now if you go back to the explorer and take a look at the mp3's info, it wouldn't show anything, at least in my case. I can confirm that the tag info has been correctly written as ID3-TagIT can also see them.

Interestingly, the same thing happens when I do the above process again but this time instead of using Foobar, I use ID3-TagIT to change the v2 tag info. It just wouldn't show in windows explorer (and WMP) but Foobar can read the tag normally.

It only happens with v2 tags, if the mp3 only has v1 tag type, whenever I change any tag field using Foobar, it displays correctly in the explorer.


Many thanks again for looking at my issue,
LD

 

[Gornot]

To answer your first question, yes, I was "unable" to change v1 tags because some metadata fields were already too large to fit into v1 tags, which makes sense.

The only way I change tags in foobar (if I happen to come by an error in the metadata) is highlighting a file and choosing Properties through right click, then changing the tags from that window. The change would show up in Explorer, too.

I recommend that you try an alternative to WMP when it comes to ripping CDs. It might not be what you want to hear, but you can at least try it out for the purpose of testing these ripped MP3s. I would suggest Exact Audio Copy or CDex | Open Source Digital Audio CD Extractor with more than 38,000,000 downloads, both open source; or my personal favorite, Easy CD-DA Extractor: CD Ripper, Music Converter, CD/DVD Burner by Poikosoft. Easy CDDA extractor is not free, but I have been using it for a while now, and it's definitely worth the money considering that you get a CD ripper, file converter, metadata editor, and CD/DVD burning capabilities; the program supports MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, OGG, AIFF, MPC (Musepack), APE, WAV and a number of variations (most of them are different variations of the AAC codec in a variety of containers such as aac, mp4, m4a, m4b, 3gpp, 3gp2)

 

[ldpvl]

To answer your first question, yes, I was "unable" to change v1 tags because some metadata fields were already too large to fit into v1 tags, which makes sense.

That is very strange. In most cases when I enter a field value that is too long for v1 tag in the explorer, windows doesn't complain but automatically adds a v2 tag with that field value.

The only way I change tags in foobar (if I happen to come by an error in the metadata) is highlighting a file and choosing Properties through right click, then changing the tags from that window. The change would show up in Explorer, too.

If your mp3 had an empty v2 tag only and windows could see the changes after you made changes to it in Foobar then it must be a problem with my system.

I will try the open source software you recommended next time I rip a CD.

Thanks for help,
LD

PS: I'm gonna try MP3Tag, the reviews looks scrumptious.

 

[ldpvl]

Just a quick update. I solved my problem by using MP3Tag. As it were, Windows wouldn't show changes I made in Foobar but if I open the files again in MP3Tag and force to save the files, Windows now shows all the v2 tag info. Hooray... As it always happens, sometimes you gotta use more than one piece of software to make one thing work.

Thanks Gornot for all your help again.

 

[Gornot]

No problem, glad you resolved it. Enjoy MP3tag, it really is a piece of wonder with tags

 

[thatguyfry]

Stumbled across this forum while having similar issues with id3 tags displaying in explorer/wmp. I finally found a solution over at hydrogenaudio's forum where someone suggested that it was possible the mp3's had "chained id3 tags." That is an id3v2 tag followed by an id3v2.4 tag. It's my understanding that windows 7 (and obviously wmp) do not support the id3v2.4 and opted for the legacy id3v2.

The solution suggested (which worked for me) was to use foobar2000. Load your music library (or afflicted mp3's) and select all. Then right-click and select: Tagging>MP3 Tag Types> Select the "Override ID3v2 Revision" and select ID3v2 as your format. Finally select the 'Update Files' button and let it process.

After doing this I had no more issues with explorer/wmp reading and displaying the tag information. Hope this helps somebody!

 

[Gornot]

IDEv2 2.4 still isn't globally supported in all media players/taggers/encoders etc.
Unicode support is much more important than version number, and it has been proven many times that version number doesn't necessarily mean that whatever you're updating is better. Without unicode support in tags, special characters will never be displayed properly. For example, ÀÂÅÇËÐÒÕ will all revert to AAACEDOO (or something even worse) if not saved in unicode format, which is just incredibly annoying, especially because the songs with those kind of characters are in a language other than English.
It's not just a question whether Windows and WMP support 2.4 tags, but also mobile phones, mp3 players etc. I never found a reason for using 2.4 tags since 2.3 UNICODE tags work perfectly.

 

[crashnet]

IDEv2 2.4 still isn't globally supported in all media players/taggers/encoders etc.
Unicode support is much more important than version number, and it has been proven many times that version number doesn't necessarily mean that whatever you're updating is better. Without unicode support in tags, special characters will never be displayed properly. For example, ÀÂÅÇËÐÒÕ will all revert to AAACEDOO (or something even worse) if not saved in unicode format, which is just incredibly annoying, especially because the songs with those kind of characters are in a language other than English.
It's not just a question whether Windows and WMP support 2.4 tags, but also mobile phones, mp3 players etc. I never found a reason for using 2.4 tags since 2.3 UNICODE tags work perfectly.

Gornot, id3v2.4 might not be needed (at least yet) by most people, but some software (such as DJ software, for example the widely used Traktor) needs to store information like cue points on the file and that type of information is only allowed in id3v2.4.