help with tags on mp3's

[abispac]

Ok heres the deal, i tagged all of my music collection in order so etouch could see'it they way etouch wants it. Fine, all of my albums show the correct way on etouch, but im trying to use itunes or xmbc on my main tv as a media center, as a friend of mine gave me 250 movies,so i thought i was about time to have a dedicated computer in my tv as a media center device, however,any of the damn media players im trying to use fail to read the tags or dont know what it is but, a single album comes in like 10 times,like i said , on etouch the same album comes out just fine.So i wonder if someone  knows whats the deal on here, what do i need to konw about tags.Im trying to use itunes,or xbmc even jriver media center does the same.Thanks for any help.

[PsychoMikey]

OK, i know what you are going trough. I spent more time then I'm willing to admit at organizing my mp3's. There are a couple of reasons why albums pop up numerous times:

1. when importing to iTunes make sure the directory's only contain mp3 files, and maybe some cover.jpg or something like that. Playlist files Will show up like separate files in iTunes.
2. Next to the artist information, make sure the album artist information and grouping is set correctly. If a album contains multiple artists and is a compilation, enter "Various Artists" in the album artist field. Most of the time i copy the album name over to the grouping field.

I would highly recommend using a Tagscanner to get trough your files. Do it 1 dir at a time. Also i would add the cover art directly to the mp3 files them self.

See dir for Tagscanner
http://www.xdlab.ru/en/

[BadMouth]

www.mediamonkey.com

free and can retag the entire collection based on folder/file name or
it can also reorganize into folders based on the tags.
Here's some discussion of using it to reorganize folders to give you an idea:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106828.msg1134388#msg1134388

[drventure]

I've used J River Media center for years. It's got some of the best tagging abilities I've seen. I haven't tried MediaMonkey but from the website, it looks pretty good too. JRiver isn't free, but I've found it to be very handy for all things media related.

[abispac]

I've used J River Media center for years. It's got some of the best tagging abilities I've seen. I haven't tried MediaMonkey but from the website, it looks pretty good too. JRiver isn't free, but I've found it to be very handy for all things media related.

j river its one of themedia centers im trying to use, as i like the 3d flying wall of music, but i cant seem to get,it to recognise some albums as a single album and the cover.jpg in the mp3 forlder as the cover art.

[abispac]

also i notice that jrivers adds the name of the artist at the end of the album title but that its not in the actual tag, like: 20 years on mtv 1981 by lennon, and tag  on tag and rename reads only 20 year on mtv 1981, do you happen to know why jriver adds the artist name at the end of the tag field? thats whats causing jriver to read multiple albums on a compilation album.

[abispac]

im pretty sure album names are identical, otherwize etouch would look at them as varius, i cheked them on tag and rename and they look just fine, however on jriver media plaqyer, itunes, or xbmc the album looks like 20 years on mtv 1981 by lennon,20 years on mtv 1981 by madonna, and so on.....heres a link for one of the albums http://www.mediafire.com/?1ohrnik8xbj029r please dont delete this as im just linking this for information purposes, not to promote piracy. please download album and tellme if somenthing its wrong with it.

[BadMouth]

Not sure what your software looks for.  
Some look at the folders and don't even use the tags.
In that case, make sure they're all in the same album folder.
The software I use (the pc jukebox) looks at the "Album Artist" tag instead of the Artist tag, so I have to make sure it's the same for all the tracks on the album.
On sountracks & compilations, I usually put the album name in that field instead of various because it's easier to find them in the jukebox that way.

Experiment with this one album to try to figure out what the software is looking at.
Change the folder name and see if that changes the album name in the jukebox.
Then try changing the "Album Artist" tag, etc.

[abispac]

Thanks i actually found an answer at the etouch forums, it turns out that i can check an option on etouch that writes the id3 as a compilation, that way jriver would recognise the cd as one cd and not like alot of cd. thanks for all the help.