Metadata

[lucky]

How and where does amp store the metadata for music? Like if I rate one track a 5 and the other a .5, how does it know? If I remove a track from the MMC and bring it back in, will it rtain its previous rating? If not, can I preserve the data on my own and import it?

[LtData]

Re: Metadata

It is probably stored in the Music Collection file. And I'm pretty sure that if you delete and re-add a file, you lose the ratings, volume boost, etc.

[Spoon]

Re: Metadata

Correct.

[kweller]

Re: Metadata

Doesn't the ID3V2 standard allow rating to be added to the tag?

Kevin

[LtData]

Re: Metadata

Not that I'm aware of, no.
Edit: And if it does, its probably not in a form dAP can use or will work with.

[kweller]

Re: Metadata

> And if it does, its probably not in a form dAP can use or will work with.

I believe it does but I accept it's not in a form dAP currently works with and that's the problem.

I've been with dAP since before it was dAP in the early days of Shuffler and many of its features are a result of requests I and probably others put into Spoon but it's stagnating now with no new updates for a very long time and I'm beginning to wonder if it's a dead product. It still has killer features like the select capability but, IMO, it's missing out on so much more such as the ability to edit and display extended tag features and being able to control the application from other PCs on the same network to name just two. I don't think it has an API which is what I assume prevents plug-ins being written to fill usability gaps (just look at the range of plug-ins for WinAmp for example) and its UI is...idiosyncratic and IME much slower and resource-hungry than competing products when running on lower-spec PCs. It's losing out on integration into powerful tools such as MusicMagicMixer (MMM) although it is possible to create a playlist in MMM and feed it automatically into dAP because I asked Predixis to do this.

Bottom line, and I realise this is IMO, is that dAP used to be a clear winner for PC music playback and it no longer is which is a shame.

I, and again there may have been others, pushed Spoon in the early days to make his work shareware so he reaped some reward for all his hard work. I think I was the first person to register and pay for the PowerPack. If that's what it takes to bring dAP back to the front of the pack again I'm more than happy to pay for it.

I realise there are devotees on here who worship at the feet of Spoon and will dismiss this viewpoint out of hand but, if you're going to do that, don't just come at it from a 'Spoon can do no wrong' angle tell me where dAP is so much better than its rivals.

Edit: As I posted this I realised I should probably don asbestos trousers!

[Spoon]

Re: Metadata

It is possible, but form a technical point the codecs for dBpowerAMP are not set up for that (such as saving rating, album art, possibly internet streaming, unicode). There is a fundamental redesign going on, once the foundations are layed then it opens up other new possiblities. dAP will have time spent on it, it will be repositioned in an ever changing market (there is Winamp, Foobar, iTunes and WMP that are all progressing as they are big companies (with one exception) products with 10's of developers for each).

[kweller]

Re: Metadata

I'm really pleased to hear there is a redesign going on and I'd like to make a suggestion...

> they are big companies (with one exception) products with 10's of
> developers for each).

If, as part of your redesign, you can create an API in the same way as WinAmp has an API you won't have to do it all yourself as there will be people queueing up to create plug-ins to fill any perceived functionality gaps; most of the things WinAmp can do is a result of plug-ins a 3rd-party has written. A dAP API would probably be the final impetus I needed to transport my mainframe programming skills to the PC!

I know you won't have taken this as a personal criticism Spoon but for the 'devotees' I've been here practically from the beginning so I'm not someone who's come along and tried the product for 5 minutes then started criticising. I'm just sad to see a once great product fall behind.

[Spoon]

Re: Metadata

The reality of it is all the top audio players are reaching a pinacle (there will be very little to choose between them feature wise, they are all becoming polished products), but everyone will go for iTunes or WMP, because they are most pushed, and more critically they will contain online music stores.

In another note, I could spend the next 365 days soley working on dAP and would be very lucky to get 100,000 extra downloads per year.