PerfectMeta Discussion

[EliC]

I have finally gotten around to playing with PerfectMeta - and so far I am very impressed.

Some initial comments:

-would like to see meta data pulled from multiple freedb choices

-it would be nice if each field in the PerfectMeta screen was not only editable, but dragable. I have come across a few examples now where there is correct data, but assigned to the wrong field and it would very nice to just drag the data to the correct field

-option to always show the PerfectMeta screen

-in the CD ripper window, option to show a confidence indicator next to meta-data

-right click menu on meta data should include alternate meta-data options from PerfectMeta

[BUG]When meta data is changed in PerfectMeta is does not refresh in the main screen until clicking in the meta data window at the bottom

I am sure there will be more. Thank you again.

[EliC]

The more I play with PerfectMeta the more it seems to much weight is placed on AMG. I am finding, time and again that MusicBrainz is a little better then GD3, and both of these tend to more consistent with the correct album meta data then AMG. AMG does have MORE data in fields that neither of these have.

[EliC]

I pulled out the disc "Into the Mix II" that I had used for my original proposal mock-up:

http://i17.tinypic.com/2woykbd.jpg

Here is the PerfectMeta default retrievals for the first 3 tracks:

http://i32.tinypic.com/2qs6hye.jpg

I don't think PerfectMeta performed very well on this particular disc (though in general it does quite well). The algorithm seems to weight AMG to highly. Maybe some additional code could account for AMG's tendency not to include sub? titles (the part of the title in (... ), or items like "..."). GD3 seems to default to use [ ] instead of ( ), and perfectmeta would ideally understand this. Anyway, here are the meta results that best match the meta on the album:

http://i27.tinypic.com/iw411w.jpg

[EliC]

-I would like to see the rest of the meta-data that does not fit in the visible field when the mouse is hovering over a meta-data field.

[EliC]

As noted above, I would really like PerfectMeta to query each of the multiple freeDB entries.

Also, it would be nice to have discogs as a source. This is free.

[EliC]

A couple more PerfectMeta improvements that would be very slick:

PerfectMeta DB
-When users hand edit metadata have dB collect the data. Especially useful when PerfectMeta data is hand edited. This could either be considered another source or used in the PerfectMeta Quality estimate below.


PerfectMeta Quality Meter
-use spell checker, grammer, artist lists, previous manual edits in PMdb, agreement between sources, etc to come up with some sort of measurement of the meta data quality. Prompt users to manually examine the metadata if the quality measurement is below a certain value (and of course upload any manual edits to the PMdb)



PerfectMeta Album Art
-when users have the ability to select the preferred album art from multiple sources save which one was selected to the db
-if no album art is found (or users don't like what is found) allow users to scan their album art and upload it to the PMdb


dB Album Art Scanner
-help users select the correct aspect ratio
-I don't know if any tools could be licensed at a reasonable cost from Adobe for some simple clean up of scan, etc



I know the above ideas may come into some conflict with the current metadata providers that dBpoweramp uses. However, the only data uploaded to illustrate would be user generated data. I don't know if users manually selecting a field from a provider other then one selected by PerfectMeta would count as user generated, but if possible, those types of edits should be saved as well.

[EliC]

-option to have the data from each data provider to a txt file in the rip dir. This may make it easier to do meta-data editing in the future. I know dBpoweramp is not allowed to "cache" the data for later rips, but this is written to the dir where the rip already is. This may allow for tools to review PerfectMeta results after the rip, especially with the BatchRipper.

[Porcus]

Weigh down "artist" entries matching "Various Artists" (at least if song titles match -- if they don't, weigh down that media source).

Why? If AMG says "Various Artists" and some other provider says something else, then obviously the former is wrong in most cases.

(Yeah, I have started ripping comps. Hate it.)

[Porcus]

Bug:

If I press Alt-m for Perfect Meta, check "View Track-Artists" and decide to change metadata provider (i.e. click GD3), then my choice does not seem to extent beyond the viewable tracks. I have to scroll down and choose them again.

[EliC]

I have done about 400 discs this weekend. Luckily only a small percent did not have album art from either AMG or GD3 - however, in all but one of those I was able to find the album art at Discogs! I would again like to request Discogs as an additional meta-data source, or at least an album art source.

[Spoon]

Bug noted.

[EliC]

Spoon, just wondering if there is a reason NOT to include discogs? If it is more difficult to actually query for meta-data it would at least be very nice if it was added as an album art source - its album art is frequently better quality then either AMG or GD3.
Thanks.

[bhoar]

Spoon, just wondering if there is a reason NOT to include discogs? If it is more difficult to actually query for meta-data it would at least be very nice if it was added as an album art source - its album art is frequently better quality then either AMG or GD3.
Thanks.

Half joking: I'm not impressed with the discogs accuracy: http://www.discogs.com/release/1080627

-brendan (with an "a", not an "e", dammit!)

[EliC]

I have not looked closely at their meta-data accuracy, though with pefectmeta, bad data should get filtered out. However, they have been the "go to" place for me to find album art when AMG & GD3 fail.

[Porcus]

Another peculiarity which might be transformed into a feature

I recently discovered that a couple of my CDs had the HTOA in a separate folder -- I use a folder naming system where year enters, and the HTOA had a year different from the rest. After fiddling a bit bach and forth, I found the explanation:

(1) The year (1996) is found from CD-ISRC before any other metadata provider.

(2) The metadata providers -- AMG in this case -- provides a different year (1997).

(3) AMG has no year for track 0, so track 0 ends up with 1996 and the rest with 1997.


The solution is easy, but here is the suggested feature: Use CD-ISRC to choose between metatada. I would guess that most likely, the disc is released the year of the CD-ISRC, maybe plus (or minus?) one year. So if the metadata providers disagree on what release it is -- not only how it's spelled! ;) -- then score up according to year.


(By the way, is CD-ISRC written to tags?)

[LtData]

If you check the box in the Meta Data & ID Tag Options for ISRC, it should be written to tags if it is retrieved.

[sjmac]

If you check the box in the Meta Data & ID Tag Options for ISRC, it should be written to tags if it is retrieved.

Unless PerfectMeta is being used, then it gets missed out (usually). See
Spoon's note in the beta thread. (http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showpost.php?p=81704&postcount=52)

[Porcus]

Bug, it seems:

(1) Some metadata shows up from the sources. Say, AMG has one release and Freedb has another.

(2) AMG has Composer, Freedb has not

(3) Alt-m, choose Freedb

(4) Remove Composer (still in the PerfectMeta window)

And here it comes:

(5) Composer is still there when I return to the CD Ripper window.

[Spoon]

To be expected, changes only replace fields, they will not delete them.

[Porcus]

To be expected, changes only replace fields, they will not delete them.

To wishlist: I would prefer to be able to change a string from "foo" to "bar" or even to "".

For this case, and also for cases where none of the metadata sources relate to my release (not misspelling, but different CD), I could also use "delete all" button in the PerfectMeta window. Wishlist item.

[Luuk]

I am having a big problem with PerfectMeta in that it quite often does not come up at all when I press Alt-M. Yet, I can pull info from individual databases by using Retrieve from. Am I doing something wrong (I am using Vista)?

A desideratum would be that if you are pulling info from the web on a multiple disc set, the program should consistently use the same database for all discs. Now I find that I sometimes end up with completely different sets of data for different discs (of course the tracks are different but databases use different tagging systems).

[Porcus]

I am having a big problem with PerfectMeta in that it quite often does not come up at all when I press Alt-M. Yet, I can pull info from individual databases by using Retrieve from. Am I doing something wrong (I am using Vista)?

Not patient enough. It seems to me that it will not respond to Alt-m before it has contacted -- or given up on -- all sources.

[Luuk]

You may well be right. I shall experiment a little more.