Corrupted song titles using ID3 tags in Wincab?

[dmworking247]

I've got wincab set to using ID3 tags (not folder/file structures) and I have an annoying number (30%+) of songs that have 'corrupted' artist or song titles?

When I open up the tags in a utility like MP3 tag they look fine, and I've even tried modifying it and re-saving it.

I've gotten desperate and tried rebuilding my entire ID3 tags based on the file name structure in MP3Tag, but when I go into Wincab some that were broken get fixed, others that were fine are broken! Argh.

Example attached... note the extra characters, the left justified text and the 'spot' on the top and bottom songs (its not always the same characters/symptoms but left justifying and extra characters are common).

Does anybody else have this problem, or know what I'm doing wrong with the settings or INI files? Its really painful to be trying to correct these one by one.

I'm not sure if its any relevance but I'm using the 'classic' skin.

[Chris]

I'm guessing it's a faulty Unicode encoding, or my faulty reading of Unicode.  I have one song that exhibits these symptoms and I always just assumed it had a corupted tag; I'll look at it closer to see if it's a tag problem or a reading problem.

[quarterback]

I "fixed" a bunch of my tags using WinXP's built in properties.


I selected a bunch of mp3s in Explorer, right clicked, went to the Summary tab, clicked the advanced button (if necessary), click on any one of the tags,  changed it and hit "apply".   By having XP re-write all my tags, Wincab was able to see them all as they should be.

The obvious downside to this 1-click solution is that you're changing at least 1 tag in every mp3 to be the same thing.  But you can also do this by album or artist, so you don't really end up changing the info at all.    Select all your Barry Manilow mp3s, go through the above process, click on the "artist" tag and then click somewhere else.  I don't think you even have to change anything to get the "apply" button to become active.   Or, if you have to, just backspace over the "w" of Manilow and retype it.    I didn't do it with every one of my mp3s, but it seemed to solve all the problem tags that I encountered.

[wwwombat]

I used to get this from time to time when I used Winamp to alter a tag in a mp3. Would display okay in Winamp/MediaPlayer etc, but apparently random changes or additions to the string would appear in Wincab.

Using Tag&Rename however I have not had a fault in Wincab yet to do with the tags (only some misunderstanding about how Wincab associates things for collections and artist affiliation).

So I did one mass change (since I have a definite naming pattern for songs in my collection) and I'm done.

Unicode / UTF8 may have something to do with it.

[dmworking247]

The unicode thing (I think) is unlikely since there are no special characters/unicode characters in the ID3 tag (at least not when I view it with MP3 tag).

I've tried editing the tag by overtyping the characters and 'resaving' it but that hasn't worked, or works very inconsistently.

Unfortunately I cant play with the file names because many of the file names are hard coded into ultrastar (for Karoke), so I've only got the tag to play with.

Side (related) question: I originally tried using Wincab without the id3 setting (so using filenames) but that would always use the folder name as the artist. Since most of my collection is singles grouped into chronological folders, with filename syntax of "artist - title.mp3" this doesn't work for me. Is there a way to use file structure (not tags) and modify the syntax that wincab looks for?

Sorry if I've missed something obvious.

[quarterback]

I've tried editing the tag by overtyping the characters and 'resaving' it but that hasn't worked, or works very inconsistently.

You said you'd tried that using MP3Tag, have you tried my WinXP/Properties method?

[dmworking247]

The jukebox is running Win2k, but I've copied it onto a "TinyXP" box and the symptoms come straight across, so I'll try 'fixing' one of the tags using properties of XP on that one.

[quarterback]

The jukebox is running Win2k, but I've copied it onto a "TinyXP" box and the symptoms come straight across, so I'll try 'fixing' one of the tags using properties of XP on that one.

If you continue to have troubles, you should get a problematic file to Chris to see if there's something he can identify. 

Wierd

qb

[dmworking247]

Strangely that DID work using XP 'properties', retyping the title and saving it.

I wonder if there is a version incompatibility or something with wincab (eg older ID3 tags, but when I re-save the tag its in a newer format?)

Perhaps I should turn this thread into a feature request:

Could we see a feature in Wincab to enter 'administrator' mode where when you select a song you can edit the ID3 properties and see the full path of the song, and move or delete the file? (it would make cleaning up/sorting the collection SOOO much easier )

In the mean time it looks like I've got a LOT of manual tag cleanups to do.

[Chris]

The WinCab database is just a text file so you can edit it and change titles and such to your heart's content.