Tags and coverart in id3 files carry over to new installation?

[colinjones]

Does anybody know if the id3 files LMCE creates for video media on a file share carries over to a new LMCE installation?

I am assuming that the data that UpdateMedia collects about video files, that is then written into the database - including coverart/thumbnail - is also written into the id3 file. Is that correct?

1. If you present new media to LMCE/UpdateMedia that has an associated id3 file (same filename with .id3 on the end, eg created by a previous installation of LMCE), does UpdateMedia read the tags and image out of that file and write it into the database rather than just replacing it?

2. If you update the database directly through the admin site, does UpdateMedia subsequently detect these chanes and write them back into the id3 file?

3. If there are changes in both the id3 file and the database, does UpdateMedia know to replicate them "multi-master"-wise so that it merges the changes between both sources? And if so, which source has precedence when the same attribute has changed in both the database and id3 file?

Edit: should this thread be in the developer's forum?

[Hagen]

I have added a couple of stills from TV-shows as icons, and they have carried over between installs.
Never had the time to bother much with the music (mp3s), so I don't really know.

[cirion]

The new .id3 files for movies do work great on a new install.
I was adding a few tags in Beta2 and when Beta3 came I decided to reinstall since I wanted to go for 64bit.
All the tags I had added earlier was found and worked

I have also tried copying a .id3 file and giving it to another movie, and that works too
Coverart and info is copied that way...

[colinjones]

Cool! Thanks!

Next question:

Does this work for embedded tags with mp3s as well? Other file types?

Still outstanding - which is the master in this model or are the multimaster (bi-directional sync between db and tag file) and what is the attribute conflict resolution criteria if the same attribute is changed in both?

[Hagen]

0704 doesn't read embedded id3 tags, I did seem to recall (iirc) that this would change with 0710, but I don't know if it has.

[totallymaxed]

0704 doesn't read embedded id3 tags, I did seem to recall (iirc) that this would change with 0710, but I don't know if it has.

0710 does read embedded public id3 tags :-)

[tkmedia]

It does not seem to work with flac.

I just made a new post about it.

Am I the only one concerned about disk space and lossless audio ?

[colinjones]

0704 doesn't read embedded id3 tags, I did seem to recall (iirc) that this would change with 0710, but I don't know if it has.

0710 does read embedded public id3 tags :-)

Totallymaxed - so for the separate id3 files with video and the embedded ones in mp3s(etc), is this bi-directional synchronisation? If I update the db directly and then run UpdateMedia, does this update both the id3 file and the id3 tags embedded in the mp3s? What about (and this is the important one!) if I use an external id3 tag editor on my WinXP machine to change the embedded tags on my music, then run UpdateMedia, will these changes propagate back into the DB?? Or will UpdateMedia detect that the tag in the file is different than the DB and overwrite the file version with what is in the DB?

[bulek]

It does not seem to work with flac.

I just made a new post about it.

Am I the only one concerned about disk space and lossless audio ?

Certainly not. now it makes two of us 

Regards,

Bulek.

[jondecker76]

0704 doesn't read embedded id3 tags, I did seem to recall (iirc) that this would change with 0710, but I don't know if it has.

0710 does read embedded public id3 tags :-)

Totallymaxed - so for the separate id3 files with video and the embedded ones in mp3s(etc), is this bi-directional synchronisation? If I update the db directly and then run UpdateMedia, does this update both the id3 file and the id3 tags embedded in the mp3s? What about (and this is the important one!) if I use an external id3 tag editor on my WinXP machine to change the embedded tags on my music, then run UpdateMedia, will these changes propagate back into the DB?? Or will UpdateMedia detect that the tag in the file is different than the DB and overwrite the file version with what is in the DB?

I would also like to know how the interaction between the DB and the id3 files behaves. It is extremely important to those of us who want to preserve all their hard work filling out attributes and such.
Also - what is the reasoning behind storing attributes both in the database and in id3 files?

[tkmedia]

Any updates on this

[colinjones]

I'm still seeking to understand how this works - there have been some suggestions..

Jondecker76 - I'm not questioning the need for metadata in both db and id3, I understand that. The db is so that LMCE can do complex queries, sorts and groupings etc for the media grid. However, we can't rely entirely on the db because that means if you loose your system, have to rebuild or something, or get a corruption you loose everything. Ideal world metadata and data should always be bound together as an entity and managed as such - hence embedded id3 tags - but this isn't practical from the query point of view I just mentioned. Most media players rely on their own database/library plus the tags, so it isn't unusual.

That there are .id3 files is less than ideal and a compromise - I assume because unfortuately some of the most common video container formats don't support embedded tagging...

[cirion]

I like having those id3 files there...

I recently had to reinstall due to changing motherboard in my core and wanting to use a ide drive instead of a sata drive as core boot disk. I wanted to free up sata ports for my RAID setup and after installing the DVD all media was back with all tags exept those on folders.

I would like to have id3 files for folders too, not just files.
I like browsing by filename and have it like this: series/Heroes/Season1 then have a picture from that series on the folders.
It works great except when reinstalling I had to manually update all folder tags.

[colinjones]

I agree - folders like video containers are not necessarily going to support id3 embedded tags and even if one filesystem did, it wouldn't be consistent across filesystems. The "folders" in the database already support meta data, and there is already a bit of a defacto standard for folder art - a "folder.jpg" or <foldername>.jpg - would be nice if we could have a "folder.id3" and/or <foldername>.id3 file to contain and sync this data.

Perhaps you could log this as a feature request in Mantis, Cirion? I think they must be getting sick of me by now because I keep logging issues! I note Ender has stated that we are now in a feature freeze period in the run up to release, so it won't be added until after the 0710 release.

Keeping my eyes peeled for Beta4, haven't seen it yet - can't wait