Hi,
I've read that audio files MUST have a valid ID tag for them to work properly in the XBMC music library.
Does someone could explain me why?
I would d like to understand.
I mean, when a music is scanned, all informations are stocked onto the database, why xmbc still need ID tags on a file ?
thansk for my comprehension.
Uhhm, I may be getting you wrong, but all the information that is stocked into the database comes from the tags, in the first place, right?
I think it is false.
Why do I need to restore the database when I change a PATH if all information are already in the ID tags so ?
The other way to get the informations back is to scan again the files with a scraper.
and also, everything seems to be in the database :
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...ic_Library
If you've changed path then you need to rescan, yes, as those files are "new" to XBMC. We don't know whether you've just deleted all your old music and got a bunch of new music, or whether it's the same thing.
New files -> new scan from tags.
My initial question was about an explanation for why musics MUST have ID tag to be scanned to the library.
Note that I am not here to criticize your choices, I am not good enough to make you advices
but I really do not understand the process.
From my point of view, XBMC access a music through their filenames, not their ID tags, then load the informations stocked in the database for displaying the fanart etc...
I tried to identify the "scan audio to library" in the GIT sources but as I said before, I am not good enough, and I did not found the proper function so I can't figure out the whole process.
the embedded tags tell you the year/genre/artist/album/album artist/track number/disc number/artist/comment
how do expect to organize your library correctly without this info - xbmc doesnt care about the filenames only the info held in the track
this is a less messy way of organizing
can you imagine trying to stick all the info above into a filename ......very messy
all popular media players use id tags so why should xbmc be any different?
thats why they must have an id tag
Leepenny...
my medias are accessible remotely, in a read only mode.
when I scan info through the scrapper AllMusic, the tags are added in the Database and ONLY in the database (tags can't be rewritten on the files, it is read only).
so, all the informations are stocked and used from the database, not from the files.
I agree the fact than a media player can extract informations from an ID tag but today, it is quicker and safer to retrieve them from a database.
and It is exactly waht XBMC does.
I think I have found where is the function to scan music in the MusicDatabase.cpp, in the AddSong function.
I have no knowledge about C++ development but I will try to hack it.
XBMC will use tags in music files to populate the music database.
Using the artist/album details extracted from the Tags, it will then use an additional scraper to download additional information.
Unlike movies/tv shows where the filename is all it uses, the filename is completely irrelevant to music.
Therefore - it is imperative that your music is correctly tagged. It is well worth spending some time sorting your music tags out using your favourite tag management application (I use MP3Tag on Windows). Even spending just an hour a day on this will see massive improvements - and once it's done once, it's a short task to keep any newly acquired music up to date, and get the tags correct before allowing XBMC to read the details into the database.
I think we are out of topic.
I don't want to know why my musics should be tagged, I know they should, for improvment.
My initial quesion is :
does someone can explain why music MUST be tagged to be added in the library database ?
Maybe everybody agreed that XBMC works in this way but nobody know why...
I thought I answered your initial question - if you dont tag your music xbmc wont be able to read it beacause it has no initial information to place it in the database - unlike other media players xbmc must have id tags to be able to place it in the database - if you have no tag xbmc CANNOT catalogue it
why xbmc works this way is unimportant - the important thing is it would save you a lot of time tagging your music like everybody else rather than trying to hack the program as you will come to difficulties every step of the way.
if you dont want to tag your music thats up to you - good luck with that
as confusedta said it is imperative you tag your files.
We've all answered your question
Your music
MUST be tagged
IF you want to scan it into the library database. This is the way XBMC is designed to work - that's why we're telling you to do it!
There are no alternative methods to add music to the library if it is incorrectly tagged.
Ok I understood a part of the problem, the AddSong function does not know how to get the album/artist/songname from the path or filename so it can't add it to the library even if the information comes from a scrapper.
It seems not to difficult to modify it, if it is simply that.
you say : if you dont want to tag your music thats up to you
just for information, I do not want to simply let my audio files without tags, but unfortunately, every audio files simply cannot have tag and create a CUE for each of them is painfull (and also ugly/dirty).
as I said good luck with that..........................?
use playlists/custom playlists for TAGGED music - not ugly/dirty
The scraper stuff comes
after it's read the tags (to know what information to ask for from the scraper)
I'm sure if you can modify this to automagically figure it all out without tags, and using the various file naming schemes people may have (good luck finding out what artist/album "01 Song name.mp3" relates to via RegEx!) - I'm sure the developers will welcome some code they can merge in if you manage to do so.
yep.
I'll try to match, at least, a standard naming scheme, just as XBMC already does for videos.