Re: Tagging issues between Itunes and SlimserverDB's

JJZolx;164979 Wrote: 
> I think I did come across mention of the '/' character used to delimit
> multiple entries while on the id3.org web site over the weekend.  I'm
> not sure I'd want to use it, as I no doubt have the same character in
> the data.  Debating the id3v2 "spec", such as it is, seems totally
> pointless.  There is no common acceptance of how it works and it's so
> old and has been extended in so many ways that it's nearly irrelevant
> any more beyond the basic tag layout.

It's an actual specification, and it's both well written and pretty
clear to read. Being old has never to no relevance really. As for there
not being a common acceptance of how it works, I'd contest that
strongly. I'd accept that there's been a lot of incredibly poor
implementations and uses of it, but it defines its use quite well -
certainly better than either APE or Vorbis 'comment' frames have ever
been.

I don't actually know of any 'extensions' which have been made to
ID3v2. There are uses of COMM by iTunes, which have been incorrectly
placed mainly because iTunes are a law unto themselves. People abusing
a standard are just people abusing a standard - it doesn't make it any
less of a standard. iTunes is just poor when it comes to ID3v2. This
doesn't actually change the fact that the specification is well
written, structured and actually defines the content in a useful
manner.

I'd agree that the '/' character making it impossible to have that as
part of your name is an excellent reason not to use it. This is also
true of your '&' and ';' in the examples you cite. ID3v2.4 addresses
this issue quite clearly and unambiguously by providing for multiple
text values within any frame.

When I wrote my original comment I believed that SlimServer had support
for the Multi-value text fields. I had forgotten that it hadn't actually
been applied to the software yet :-( . Vote for bug#3972 and Slim might
incorporate the support for multi-value tags into the MP3::Info
component so that that part of the specification is followed. Maybe.

The ARTISTSORT/TSOP problem however is unreliable and - personally, and
without any bearing on the Vorbis or ID3 specifications - I believe has
been handled incredibly poorly. The problem in that case is the
unordered frames/tags mean that the association between an artist name
and its sorting name is not maintained. This has not been addressed by
any specification that I'm aware of. Which is a little surprising given
that in just the last couple of months it's cropped up on these forums a
few times :-(


-- 
gerph
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