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View Full Version : No m4b tags in iTunes when converting from audiobook



massspecgeek
12-05-2008, 02:41 PM
I have a large number of audiobooks from a certain large online audiobook distributor who shall remain nameless -- the one who seems to have a dislike for dBpoweramp. I have always used dMC to back these up to MP3 in case I ever had a falling out with the distributor. I have recently begun to change over to using an iPod, and so would like to now change my backup format to m4b in order to have the bookmarking feature active on the backup.

I have everything set up so that I can take the native aa files and convert them to m4b. It all seems to work properly -- I can transfer the resulting m4b files through iTunes to the iPod and they play and bookmark correctly. However, the tags are not making it from the source file to iTunes (there is no artist info, no album art, etc; the only thing that shows up in iTunes is the filename and length of the track). The tooltip in windows explorer says "Contains: ID Tag [Apple iTunes]", but if I right-click in windows explorer and try to "Edit ID Tag" the tag editor shows only "cdec = ndaudio 1.3.3.0 / -q 0.15 -lc" and "Encoded by Nero AAC codec 1.3.3.0".

I am running R13 and have the m4a and m4b codecs installed from Codec Central, and have installed the Nero AAC encoder according to the instructions in the help file. The only other codec I have installed is DirectShow.

I have tried encoding as m4b, m4a and apple lossless with no improvement. I have also changed the m4a layout from "optimized for streaming" to "streaming incompatible" in the codec tagging configuration page, to no effect. I didn't try changing padding or compatibility.

There is a thread from a couple of months ago that said tags are properly transferred when converting from mp3 to m4b. I guess what I am not sure about is if there is a known problem with tags that are coming from aa files.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has this working.

Spoon
12-05-2008, 03:30 PM
Our implementation of DirectShow does not have support for ID Tags (as they are handled independantly).

massspecgeek
12-05-2008, 10:15 PM
Thanks for the confirmation. "Our implementation of DirectShow does not have support for ID Tags" seems clear, but I don't think I understand "as they are handled independantly". Can you explain what "handled independently" means in this context?

I am assuming my only option is to tag them manually, or at least dMC can't do anything to transfer the existing tags -- is that correct?

LtData
12-05-2008, 11:47 PM
Tags are handled by something besides normal Directshow audio codecs, therefore the decoder cannot read them. So no, dMC cannot transfer the existing tags so you have to tag them manually.

massspecgeek
12-06-2008, 01:49 PM
Thanks. I guess I'll just have to deal with it. Fortunately I only have 100 or so books that will need curating. If I had to do this manually for my music collection I think I would freak.

acidgenie
12-18-2008, 03:19 PM
you know you can import .aa directly into itunes which is fully comptaible with all audible files, inc. bookmarking etc.

Wayne
12-19-2008, 08:09 AM
you know you can import .aa directly into itunes which is fully comptaible with all audible files, inc. bookmarking etc.

But they would still be in a format that means that you still have to be on good terms with the creators of this file/format to listen to them.