Audiosoft Forums - powered by XMB

How does eJ read tags?

michealb1969 - 10-12-2005 at 01:26 PM

I can't seem to figure out how eJukebox is pulling ID tags into its database. I use Tag&Rename, and have categorized all my MP3s by genre, but eJukebox seems to ignore those tags, unless I am doing something wrong. I have hundreds in one particular genre, and yet eJ says there are only 50.

Any help would be hot.

Pirk - 10-12-2005 at 04:51 PM

ID tags are only read once when eJukebox scans your folders during the database construction. So after that, if you have edited your mp3s OUTSIDE of eJukebox, you need to REBUILD your database so that eJ pulls again all the modified ID tags from your mp3s:
Options -> Update database -> Re-Build Database

NB: You can also use the eJukebox internal Tag Editor (Right click on a song in the songlist to open it).
In this case no need to rebuild the database: All your changes are made directly in the music database AND are automatically saved in the mp3 tags.

michealb1969 - 10-12-2005 at 07:32 PM

I rebuilt the db twice and still it is not reading the tags properly. I even uninstalled and reinstalled to create an entirely new db... nothing. Still false numbers. I don't get it, but I'm about to give up on eJukebox. I hate to do that, because it seems, at least superficially, to be an exceptional program. This one flaw I've found is major for my purposes, however.

michealb1969 - 10-12-2005 at 07:55 PM

For the sake of being thorough, I just finished updating the db again, and still it tells me I have only 32 songs in the "Metal" genre. This is inaccurate. I used Tag & Rename to bulk edit the genres, using both IDv1 and IDv2, and I have over 1000 "Metal" songs.

The frustration continues.

Pirk - 10-12-2005 at 08:06 PM

Ah? I'm surprised because I also use Tag & Rename and it works very good with eJukebox: I've edited my 37000 mp3s with it, without a problem!

I'm not sure that uninstall/reinstall eJ initialises the database file. Maybe it is necessary you delete these 2 files manually before you reinstall eJukebox:
c:/program files/ejukebox/ejuke.asn
c:/program files/ejukebox/db.m3u

You are right, eJukebox is really an exceptional program! Certainly it is not yet totally accomplished, but I recommend you to persevere... I can assure you that you will not regret your efforts!

Good luck!

michealb1969 - 10-12-2005 at 08:53 PM

Ok, I deleted those two files and it reloaded the db... now it says I only have 2 songs in the "Metal" genre.

What is up with this?

Pirk - 10-12-2005 at 09:11 PM

I have 1033 songs in the "Metal" genre, so it's not a bug with this genre name. I can't explain your problem!?

I hope that Audiosoft or someone else will be better than me to solve your problem...

But... Have you tried to fix your tags using the eJukebox editor ? It is handy for that: You can set a genre for a whole artist in 1 click!

Audiosoft - 10-12-2005 at 09:27 PM

michealb1969,

Try restarting eJukebox right after rebuilding the database and see if you get the correct number of metal songs. If not open eJukebox's editor for a metal song and see what the genre says.

michealb1969 - 10-12-2005 at 09:56 PM

As per your instructions, I just down eJukebox and restarted. It shows the 32 songs, and the interesting thing about those is that they were assigned to the metal genre by eJukebox, using the internal editor.

When I open a song in the internal editor to see its genre, there is only a blank. By the way, it isn't only doing this to the metal songs, that was just my example. It is doing it to all of the songs.

The suggestion to use the internal editor seems impractical as I have so many songs and artists that going through them one by one would take more time than would seem necessary. I also am worried at this point about using eJukebox on my files. If it isn't reading the IDv tags properly, I'm worried what it might do to the files themselves.

Pirk - 10-12-2005 at 10:40 PM

What is your version of Tag & Rename ?

Audiosoft - 10-12-2005 at 10:47 PM

Are all these genre-less songs .mp3 files or some other file format?

michealb1969 - 10-12-2005 at 10:51 PM

They are all .mp3 and i am using T&R 3.2

Pirk - 10-13-2005 at 11:37 AM

Can you see your genres using Windows Explorer in the files properties? Right click on a mp3 file -> Properties -> Summary

michealb1969 - 10-13-2005 at 02:41 PM

yes

michealb1969 - 10-13-2005 at 03:13 PM

While I think eJukebox has great potential and is a very clever idea, I feel that in its current condition, I must pass. I have spent far too many hours this week attempting to learn the program and explain away its difficulties.

Version 3.98 should, in my opinion, be called an alpha-release. Between the lock ups and the loops it seems to get caught up in, the tendency to ignore the ID info from the MP3 files and the uneccessarily high CPU usage (at times), the program simply is not ready for a professional market. Perhaps I will check back in a few months to see where the project lies.

Best of luck to you all, and thanks to those who tried to help me through the last couple days of difficulty.

cbsoundman - 10-13-2005 at 03:37 PM

I make sure I write both the V1 and V2 tags and not just one. I never have any problems that way.

Dyno Don - 10-13-2005 at 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by michealb1969
and the uneccessarily high CPU usage (at times),

Audiosoft, I have noticed this too. It started in 3.98. It takes a lot more resources now. It even takes a lot longer to start up. The progress bar stops at abut 75% and sticks for a bit, then continues. Started at least twice as fast before. (it seems)

Pirk - 10-13-2005 at 04:43 PM

Quote:

Message original : cbsoundman
I make sure I write both the V1 and V2 tags and not just one. I never have any problems that way.

Same here, both v1 and v2 tags. Never a problem with genres tags.

michealb1969,
Your problem is quite unusual.

Ok for your decision... but you come close to the good fortune!

See you soon!

Pirk - 10-13-2005 at 05:00 PM

Quote:

Message original : Dyno Don

Quote:

Originally posted by michealb1969
and the uneccessarily high CPU usage (at times),

It seems to me that is when eJukebox launch Winamp that the progress bar stops a bit: eJ sticks around 7 seconds on Winamp loading...

lewisjsuk - 11-28-2005 at 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by michealb1969
As per your instructions, I just down eJukebox and restarted. It shows the 32 songs, and the interesting thing about those is that they were assigned to the metal genre by eJukebox, using the internal editor.

When I open a song in the internal editor to see its genre, there is only a blank. By the way, it isn't only doing this to the metal songs, that was just my example. It is doing it to all of the songs.

The suggestion to use the internal editor seems impractical as I have so many songs and artists that going through them one by one would take more time than would seem necessary. I also am worried at this point about using eJukebox on my files. If it isn't reading the IDv tags properly, I'm worried what it might do to the files themselves.

I am having similar problems and it's driving me bonkers! I'm just about to knock eJukebox on the head, I've spent the last 4 days solid back and forth between eJukebox and Tag & Rename, I've been using T&R V3.2rc1 but I've also used V3.2 and V3.2rc2 over the last few days to try and fix the problem, to no avail. It appears that eJukebox is not reading the id3 tags, or at least not consistently, all my files are tagged with id3v1 and v2 and most but not all, contain the album art. eJukebox appears to sometimes read the tags, when it feels like it, but not always. I draw this conclusion as all my tagged files are named by just the track title; no artist, album or track number is coded into the filename and I really don't want to name them this way if I can avoid it, ejukebox however, is listing tracks of say "Carpenters, The" under the first letter of the file name in the artist list.

I am also having a problem, as I have posted elsewhere on this forum, with building the database, ejukebox hangs nearing the end of building. This appeared to be happening on the same track, so I removed this and the entire album, but then the problem shifted to another track, I repeated the process and removed the new offending track, same deal, until it hung on a track which I had previously witnessed ejukebox read with no problem and figured that was a herring rouge! Finally, I have just tried rebuilding the database, but this time, pointing it at one album folder containing only previously troublesome files. All went well, the database built ok, granted with only one album, but the .asn file reduced from several megs to 644kB! However, all bar one track displays with the first letter of the file name, being interpreted as the artist name and funnily enough the one track that displayed correctly was the one on which the database build repeatedly hung before. No album art is initially displayed despite all tracks having the same embedded artwork and there is also a cover.jpg and folder.jpg of the same artwork in the folder containing the tracks. When I play the track displaying the correct artist details the cover art appears and then when I refresh the albums the cover appears, but when I click this, only the one track appears in the album track list. When I play any other track off this album, no artwork displays and the artist still appars as the first letter of the track!

I have subsequently checked the id3 info and artwork in tag and rename, itunes and windows explorer for all these tracks and all is fine!

There is something inconsistent and seriously screwed up in eJukebox, there appears to be a number of people experiencing this or very similar problems dating back well over a year judging by the forums. I certainly feel it deserves looking at closely and sorting out. I don't believe it is the fault of Tag and Rename, compatibility with other apps backs up this assumption, but what about compatibility of the jpeg image, with eJukebox, does it, for example, have to be progressive or not and is there a maximum pixel size? Just some thoughts, but even if the image is a problem this doesn’t explain the artist, album and track info being read from the id3 tag.

Audiosoft, I think we need an answer, I'll gladly send you my mp3s if it helps diagnose the problem. eJukebox certainly looks like it could be a very nice product but amongst some of it's other idiosyncrasies, this problem is a crippling make or break and I'm just about at the point of giving up.

Before anyone asks have I done this or that, rest assured I've tried just about everything suggested on this forum, so please don't ask the obvious! That said if you have any obscure suggestions, I'm more than willing to help, so just to confirm, yes they are all mp3, no WMAs, I've tried every way of rebuilding the database and adding files, with and without deleting the .asn file and replacing with a new one, and clearing out the .m3u file.

So, anybody got any ideas?

Thanks for reading that diatribe, sorry if it went on a bit, but a complicated and detailed scenario to describe.

Thanks and regards

Jamie

Sorry, in all that I should have said, I'm using V3.991

kimert - 12-16-2005 at 01:16 AM

tags

I had the same problem with an album name ejukebox would only see 51 out of 128 songs on the album - - what i did was delete the tag "asnalbum" using "mp3tag" you don't see it with tag and rename - then I rebuilt the database - and set the compilation "on" - amazing! 128 songs.

Looks like maybe ejukebox write some of its own tags. Use mp3tag to see them, and delete the one you're having trouble with.

Maybe Audiosoft would be nice enough to give a list of the tags - and what they are for?

ASNALBUM
ASNCOMP
ASNIMG
ASNPLAYCNT
ASNUPC

These are some of them - there may be more. Looks like they aren't always written, some of the songs have them - some don't.

kimert