Possible to Assign Track Ratings in Bulk?
#1
Is there a way, or an Add On, that will allow me to assign ratings in Kodi to multiple tracks at once? I am hoping to translate ratings assigned in iTunes Apple Lossless files (ALAC), which unfortunately does not embed the ratings in such a way that they can be read by Kodi.
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#2
Not that i'm aware of, but it would be a nice Add-on to write.
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#3
I've always done this by sorting my iTunes by the star ratings and using an empty tag to store the numeric rating, i.e. highlight all the one-star tracks and use the comment or other blank field to temporarily store the value. Once values are stored for 1 to 5 stars I go to mp3tag, select all tracks and copy the comment tag to the rating tag. Then you can import to Kodi. A bit messy but may be quicker than writing an addon.
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#4
Paul that is quite a clever way to do it Smile

I was going to say that I would just get down into the SQL on the database, but since Kodi does not import/export song data such effort would be easily lost. Getting the values into the tags is a good way forwards.
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#5
Thx MP, we are of the same mind on this. Are you also using ALAC, (or .m4a files)? As I read it, and have tried, KODI cannot read the Rating tag on MP4 files. (See MP4 column under Section 4). I've tried to use the comment tag, which does translate and I've tried to display in a customized Full Screen visualizations. Too clunky...

I can, however, directly assign and store a rating to these same songs if I am in Kodi. Where and how does this rating info get stored in Kodi?

Similar to what you've done, I've created smart playlists in iTunes based on track ratings and can move the playlist over to Kodi, but walking through each track individually and setting the rating using keystrokes in Kodi is too tedious for my large library. That's why I was hoping to discover a quicker way to assign ratings.

Am I missing something?
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#6
(2016-10-21, 19:25)jasn Wrote: As I read it, and have tried, KODI cannot read the Rating tag on MP4 files. (See MP4 column under Section 4).
Is there a standard tag for ratings on mp4? If there is I am happy to add processing for it in Kodi. But references to prove it is some kind of standard please. My understanding is that iTunes ratings are not stored as tags in the music files but internally to iTunes.

Quote:I can, however, directly assign and store a rating to these same songs if I am in Kodi. Where and how does this rating info get stored in Kodi?
Kodi processes the RATING (Vorbis/FLAC taken as 1 to 100) and POPM (ID3 v2.4 decoded from 1 to 255) tags in song files and stores them in the userrating field of the song table as an integer 0 to 10 (talking v17, different in v16).
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#7
(2016-10-21, 19:48)DaveBlake Wrote:
(2016-10-21, 19:25)jasn Wrote: As I read it, and have tried, KODI cannot read the Rating tag on MP4 files. (See MP4 column under Section 4).
Is there a standard tag for ratings on mp4? If there is I am happy to add processing for it in Kodi. But references to prove it is some kind of standard please. My understanding is that iTunes ratings are not stored as tags in the music files but internally to iTunes.


Quote:I can, however, directly assign and store a rating to these same songs if I am in Kodi. Where and how does this rating info get stored in Kodi?
Kodi processes the RATING (Vorbis/FLAC taken as 1 to 100) and POPM (ID3 v2.4 decoded from 1 to 255) tags in song files and stores them in the userrating field of the song table (talking v17, different in v16).


I'm quickly gassing out on what I know about this Dave, but from what I am gathering MP4 files do have all of the metadata embedded automatically. I've pasted a reference link and, as best as I can tell, the standard used is mpeg-4. https://auphonic.com/blog/2012/02/18/pod...o-m4a-mp4/

Another link from a knowledgeable iTunes site: http://forums.ilounge.com/1439516-post7.html

I am holding off on v17 for now until Aeon MQ7 transitions out of v16. Can you tell me where it is stored in v16?
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#8
Thanks for the links jasn, unfortunately no mention of rating there. I'm not being difficult, but I don't use iTunes or have example files so unless someone can tell me that there is tag data XXX that Kodi could process I really can't do anything.

Have a good look at the tags you have in your ALAC files using Mp3tag (ctrl+T shows all of them for a song in a popup dialog).

Quote:Can you tell me where it is stored in v16?
Read from the same music file tags song rating is stored in the rating field of the song table (having been converted from tag to a 0 to 5 value). In data migration to v17 this data gets doubled (to be out of 10) and moved to the userrating field, with rating field set to 0.
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#9
I think Jasn is right that Kodi isn't picking up the rating tag from the MP4 files. I can't explain why, but I'll do my best to describe. I downloaded a test file from here, and loaded it into Kodi library. I went through all the mp3tag rating options and then rescanned the file in Kodi but in none of them did the rating tag get picked up in the database. When looking at the extended tags in mp3tag everything looks normal but it evidently doesn't work on import. There was a thread about this in the dim and distant past, when I'm relieved to say even Jonathan misunderstood the problem to start with - sorry Jasn. I don't think it ever got resolved, as even the POPM rating basis is a bit flakey as we already know.

One final oddity about this, is that I tried using Media Monkey to rate the track and then checked how mp3tag showed that. The tag it shows is RATE, which isn't one of the tags you can generally select in mp3tag and is done on the 20/40/60/80/100 type scale for 1-5. So, unfortunately I think it's one of those typical Apple incompatibility issues.
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#10
Yes Paul, currently Kodi does not attempt to read any kind of rating tag from mp4 files. If someone can tell me what that tag is called then I will add the processing to handle it. But I don't believe there is a standard rating tag for mp4 files, or even one commonly used, hence the difficulty.

BTW just because Mp3tag offers a set of tag names you can add others, seems that media Monkey did just that. Also there is a difference between what tagging software calls a tag, and the actual tag name in the particular format e.g. "rating" in ID3 v2.4 is actually the POPM tag.

I'm all for Kodi handling as much tag information as it can Smile
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#11
Thank you Dave and WP for your spending some time on this. I had found that old thread myself awhile back and, based on the outcome, concluded that this issue is another example of Apple-being-Apple. That was why I started this thread, actually. I was hoping to import iTunes smart playlists sorted by rating into Kodi and rate all of those particular tracks correspondingly in one fell swoop. Doing this track-by-track exceeds even my obsessive dedication to make this program perfect for my Music library.

BTW, I too tried to tag a rating on MP4 files using dbPoweramp. Same result in Kodi...I can see it (in MP3tag too) but Kodi doesn't read it no matter how high a value I assign (dbP and MP3tag use different numerical values)
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#12
(2016-10-22, 16:24)jasn Wrote: BTW, I too tried to tag a rating on MP4 files using dbPoweramp. Same result in Kodi...I can see it (in MP3tag too) but Kodi doesn't read it no matter how high a value I assign (dbP and MP3tag use different numerical values)
What is the name of the tag in mp4 format that is this rating value in?
For example the album title is in the TALB tag for mp3, ALBUM in FLAC (Vorbis tags) and ©alb in mp4. Album artists is TPE2 , ALBUMARTIST and aART respectively, the tag name is not the same in every format. Give me the equivalent for rating in mp4 and Kodi can be changed to process it.

Saying that tagging software show it really doesn't help. I can add a tag called Daves_Custom_tag and they will list it, but no way could Kodi be expected to process such a thing.

There is no mystery that Kodi isn't taking any notice of some unexpected tag in mp4 files. But if there is a common tag being used in mp4 for rating tell me what it is amd I will do something about Kodi.

Maybe just give me an example of your ALAC file with a rating (as added by iTunes not by you editing it in something else like Mp3tag).
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#13
Dave, the thing is Apple doesn't store ratings in files, it only keeps them in the iTunes database. That's why you have to go through hoops like I mentioned previously even if you're using mp3s to add the rating tags to the files separately. Like Jasn I'm exhausting my knowledge here a bit, but m4a files use atoms (??) as the header rather than ID3 tags. Kodi seems to be able to read those associated with title, artist, etc, but not any added for rating. However,we know by testing in things like mp3tag and dbPoweramp that there is a rating now stored in the file, we just can't access it.
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#14
(2016-10-22, 16:55)DaveBlake Wrote: Maybe just give me an example of your ALAC file with a rating (as added by iTunes not by you editing it in something else like Mp3tag).

Five Star Track (5 MB)
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#15
I'm feeling a bit exasperated, but I do really want to help.

1) ITunes ratings are in a separate place, not the files themselves.

2) You can use tagging software to add a custom tag to mp4 files that contains this value. It is a custom tag because it is not part of the known iTunes/mp4 tagging standard, and there is no commonly used tag either AFAIK.

3) However no matter what you call it Kodi does not process it. Kodi only looks for certain tags in mp4 files, those commonly used.

One route forward would be for us to agree on a mp4 tag name for the rating values, and providing you can get Mp4tag to write it and Taglib (the library of tools Kodi uses to raed tags) to read it then Kodi could process it. You tell me you are storing rating in mp4 with Mp3tag or dbPoweramp, but not where. How about letting me have some small example files so I can see what you have done. Does any other player handle iTunes ratings somehow?

Another route forward would be to be able to set the rating for all the songs in a playlist from within Kodi. That removes the tagging step, but still leaves the problem that the rating only exists within Kodi music library. Setting rating for all the songs in a playllist is an addon kind of activity, so maybe we wait for someone that writes addons to get interested.
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