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View Full Version : TuneFusion conversion from FLAC to M4A does not support Gapless ITUNSMPB tag



dmcritchie
04-22-2020, 08:13 PM
Hi,

I switched from Batch Converter to TuneFusion at your recommendation for my workflow last June:
https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?43688-BUG-Report-Problems-with-Conditional-Encoding-DSP-Effect&p=192103*post192103

However, I have now noticed that TuneFusion's "m4a FDK (AAC)" encoder does not support the ability to configure Gapless Signaling as does Batch Converter/Music Converter. The latter has an Advanced Settings button that allows you to pick the encoder Profile and the Gapless Signaling option (iTuneSMPB). When selected, the post-conversion M4A file contains an ITUNSMPB tag that supports gapless playback.

Is there a way to enable the generation of the ITUNSMPB tag when using TuneFusion to convert my FLAC files to M4A?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
04-23-2020, 04:46 AM
On TuneFUSIONs configuration page, the encoder settings are exactly the same as for Music Converter, it is the same codec, there is an advanced button which allows access to the Gapless setting.

dmcritchie
04-23-2020, 02:49 PM
On TuneFUSIONs configuration page, the encoder settings are exactly the same as for Music Converter, it is the same codec, there is an advanced button which allows access to the Gapless setting.

Thanks for the prompt reply, but I see a different encoder settings page for TuneFusion 1.2 than for Music Converter. Please see attached images for both. There is no Advanced button on the TuneFusion page.

Is there a different TuneFusion configuration page I should be looking at?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
04-23-2020, 05:20 PM
See:

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?44582-TuneFUSION-R1-3

dmcritchie
04-23-2020, 08:30 PM
See:

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?44582-TuneFUSION-R1-3

Thanks Spoon. But I am unable to install it. I started by installing it over v1.2 as recommended, but each time I do, I get the dialog box in the attached message. I have rebooted twice now, and then I try the 1.3 install again. But I get the same dialog box each time.

Running Windows 10 on latest updates.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dennis

dmcritchie
04-23-2020, 08:53 PM
See:

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?44582-TuneFUSION-R1-3

Thanks Spoon. But I'm unable to install v1.3 beta over 1.2 (as recommended). When I try, I get the dialog box shown in the attached image. I have rebooted 3 times, but still get the same message.

So I reinstalled 1.2 and tried to then install 1.3 beta again; but I still just keep getting that same dialog box even after rebooting.

I am running Windows 10 with the latest updates.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dennis

dmcritchie
04-23-2020, 09:02 PM
Related question: TuneFusion 1.2 is configured to do a 1:1 copy of my existing M4A files from the source to the destination directory. The M4A files do appear to be copied (rather than re-encoded) because the process is instantaneous. But the ITUNSMDB tag that is present in the source directory copy is removed by TuneFusion and is no longer present in the destination dir.

Two questions:
1) Is this fixed in 1.3 beta?
2) What is it that TuneFusion changes during the 1:1 copy of M4A or MP3 files?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
04-30-2020, 07:37 AM
It was fixed yes, in 1:1 copies the tags are re-written. I will have to check if itunsmpb is preserved.

We will start work on TuneFUSION again soon and release a new beta update.

dmcritchie
04-30-2020, 10:03 PM
It was fixed yes, in 1:1 copies the tags are re-written. I will have to check if itunsmpb is preserved.

Music Converter adds the ITUNSMPB tag when encoding from FLAC to M4A, and also preserves ITUNSMPB when doing a 1:1 copy of M4A files. It's essential for my collection to have gapless playback supported. So I do hope both the encoding and 1:1 copy have been fixed in TuneFusion 1.3.


We will start work on TuneFUSION again soon and release a new beta update.

Great. But just to set my expectations, by "soon", are you thinking weeks or months?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
05-01-2020, 05:56 AM
Could be weeks as there have been other mods made to TF which need posting to beta.

dmcritchie
06-07-2020, 06:43 PM
Hi Spoon,

I saw that you had release a new 1.3 BETA for TuneFusion on 5/19 and that it was supposed to have a fix for preserving the ITUNSMPB tag: "iTunes gapless preserved on m4a (aac) when doing a 1:1 copy".

However, I installed the new beta today, and it still does not copy the ITUNSMPB tag when doing a 1:1 copy of M4A files. Furthermore, it also does not add an ITUNSMPB tag when converting from FLAC to M4A.

As I had mentioned earlier, Music Converter does both these things.

So I am not sure if I have the right beta. I downloaded it from the link at the start of the "TuneFUSION R1.3" thread": http://www.dbpoweramp.com/beta/TuneFUSION.exe
Is this the right link to use?

If so, is there anything I can do to help identify the problem?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
06-24-2020, 08:30 AM
I just took the existing TuneFUSION install and manually cleared out all the files and subfolders in C:\Program Files\TuneFUSION

then installed the beta. Setup a sync where 1 m4a file would be 1:1 copied and one lossless file encoded to m4a, both resulting files had the iTUNSMB tag.

dmcritchie
07-22-2020, 07:29 PM
I just took the existing TuneFUSION install and manually cleared out all the files and subfolders in C:\Program Files\TuneFUSION

then installed the beta. Setup a sync where 1 m4a file would be 1:1 copied and one lossless file encoded to m4a, both resulting files had the iTUNSMB tag.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I had to deal with other matters, but am now back on this project.

I tried what you said above. I uninstalled the previous 1.3beta install; deleted any remaining files in the C:\Program Files\TuneFUSION folder; rebooted; installed the new released 1.3.

And the problem is only partially resolved:
What works: 1:1 copies of m4a files preserve the ITUNSMPB tag; 1:1 copies of mp3 files preserve the Xing header info.
What doesn't work: encoding FLAC files to m4a does not generate the ITUNSMPB tag. (Music Converter continues to perform this conversion correctly.)

NOTE: I do have the Gapless Signaling set to iTunSMPB in the "m4a FDK (AAC)" encoder's Advanced tab.
And I did not define any DSP effects.

One question is whether I have the correct m4a encoder installed. Last year when I started with dbPowerAmp, I also installed "dbPowerAmp m4a FDK (AAC) encoder release 7 (FDK 2.0.0)". I don't know if TuneFUSION is using this encoder installation, but if it is, is this the right version to use? I am no longer able to find it on your website. Is this still needed?

In any event, I am still unable to get gapless to work when converting flac files to m4a with the released 1.3. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Dennis

dmcritchie
10-12-2020, 04:23 PM
I just upgraded to TuneFusion 1.4, and the same problem that I reported with 1.3 in July still exists: encoding FLAC files to m4a does not generate the ITUNSMPB tag. (Music Converter continues to perform this conversion correctly.)

When I upgraded from 1.3 to 1.4, the installer uninstalled 1.3, asked me to reboot, which I did, and then I installed 1.4. This time, I did not clean out the C:\Program Files\TuneFUSION folder (as you had had me do before) since it had not helped the last time I did it.

Also as I mentioned before, I have the Gapless Signaling set to "iTunSMPB" in the "m4a FDK (AAC)" encoder's Advanced tab. There is also a "iTunSMPB & ISO" option. Does it matter which of the two I set Gapless Signaling to?

I really need this feature to work if TuneFusion is to be of any use to me.

Can you help?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
10-13-2020, 06:02 AM
You have right clicked on the resulting m4a file >> edit id tags

and the tag is missing?

dmcritchie
10-13-2020, 01:33 PM
Yes I have, and the tag is missing. I also use the mp3tag app, which confirms the same.

Whereas if I look at the output of a 1:1 copy of an m4a file, I see the iTunSMPB tag using both methods.

So the problem is specific to FLAC -> m4a encoding.

Dennis

dmcritchie
10-22-2020, 04:01 PM
Yes I have, and the tag is missing. I also use the mp3tag app, which confirms the same.

Whereas if I look at the output of a 1:1 copy of an m4a file, I see the iTunSMPB tag using both methods.

So the problem is specific to FLAC -> m4a encoding.

Dennis

Bump

Spoon
10-22-2020, 06:11 PM
We look again at TF in the next 6 weeks, so will test this again.

dmcritchie
01-08-2021, 07:41 PM
We look again at TF in the next 6 weeks, so will test this again.

Hi Spoon,

It's been more than 2 months. Any ETA on getting this looked at?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
01-09-2021, 07:14 AM
Still on other programs (currently Video Converter R2), will get around soon.

Spoon
02-04-2021, 10:42 AM
Just tested this exact issue and cannot reproduce. Try this please, create 2 folders on the hdd:

c:\tf-source
c:\tf-destination

add a new sync (Network share / local folder), the destination to the tf-destination, the source to tf-source.

Set the lossy encoder as 'm4a FDK (aac)' CBR 224kbps, (advanced >> profile LC AAC gapless: iTUNSmbp)

Then add a flac file to the tf-source folder, do a sync, and use dBpoweramp rc >> edit id tags, does it show the iTUNSMPB tag?

dmcritchie
10-27-2021, 02:12 PM
Thanks Spoon.

I just got around to trying your suggestion above, and found that my upgrade from 1.4 to 1.5 was totally corrupted.
The problem I previously reported where 1:1 copies of m4a files had the ITunSMPB tag, but the conversion of FLAC files to m4a did not, was done with v1.4.
When I found my 1.5 installation to be corrupted, I reinstalled 1.5 into a new directory, and now it all works fine. The ITunSMPB flag is present for both 1:1 copies of m4a files and for FLAC->m4a conversions.

Thanks for your help, and apologies for the delay in reporting back.
Dennis

dmcritchie
10-27-2021, 03:18 PM
OK, I spoke too soon. I was able to reproduce the case where FLAC->m4a conversion doesn't create an ITunSMPB tag:
This fails to work if the DSP Effect called ID Tag Processing for "Multiple Artists to 'Artist1; Artist2' (for non multiple artist aware programs)" is enabled: multiple artists are handled correctly in MediaMonkey, but the ITunSMPB tag is lost during the FLAC->m4a conversion.

Alternately, if I don't set this DSP Effect, I lose the multiple artists in MediaMonkey but the ITunSMPB tag is created during FLAC->m4a conversion.

(For 1:1 copies of m4a files, the DSP Effect works if defined, and the ITunSMPB tag is preserved in either case.)

Is there a way around this so I can have both the ID Tag Processing for multiple artists AND the ITunSMPB tag during FLAC->m4a conversion?

Thanks,
Dennis

Spoon
10-28-2021, 06:14 AM
Will have a look at it, next time working on TF.