When I convert an ogg file (tagged in UTF-8) to a mp4 file, and transfer to my New iPod(in Windows), tags are shown as broken characters. But if I use an ogg file tagged in EUC-KR (standard Korean character set) it works properly.
So here's my assumption:
1. Tags of mp4 don't have a specific standard on character set. They are written(copied) as that of source file had.
2. In conversion, if source tags were written in UTF-8, dMC write mp4 tags in UTF-8(Actually, just copying the string). If source tags were in EUC-KR(or something else), dMC do in EUC-KR(or whatever).
3. iPod supports local character. It can't recognize UTF-8.
Anyone who can test/prove my assumption? Answer me please.
If my assumption is right, maybe you need code-convertion in dMC, Spoon.
I've tested about a hundred MP3 files and I had no character conversation error on my Korean Windows XP.
By the way, I found some bugs:
- Cause crash of dMC when making MP3 file from OGG file: dMC make error after writing tags. Retrieved MP3 file have all music informations and id3 tags, but error makes it impossible to converting several files. (Fortunatelly, it doesn't make tag conversation problem. )
- When making OGG files from MP3 files which don't have tags, dMC make tag "Artist=s", but the file shouldn't have any tags. Converting to MP3 using Lame doesn't make such a error.
I've tested about a hundred MP3 files and I had no character conversation error on my Korean Windows XP.
If you read my article again then you would know that I didn't mention any character conversion error. Actually it is about iPod that characters in UTF-8 are not shown properly in iPod. The conversion itself is accurate, tags are copied 'as-is'. That is the problem.
And I think you haven't got a hundred of MP3 files tested because this beta supporting UTF-8 just came out yesterday.
Well some of the music formats are using UTF-8 as a standard character code but some are not. Narrowing down to character code, those are system-independent while these are system-dependent. In this case, OGG uses UTF-8 (uhh, hopefully. ) but MP3 don't. Various character codes are used in MP3 depending on user's system.
In Korean Windows 2k & XP, there're two character codes used. Windows-949 and Unicode. For backward-compatibility most string are written Windows-949. (Actually Windows-949 differs from EUC-KR a little, give me a break )
So, when I tag a MP3 file, its characters will be written in 949. And iPod will display them properly. What if I tag in UTF-8? Sadly, UTF-8 characters are shown as a crap in my iPod.
Well if every file and player goes UTF-8 that would be ideal but we cannot. We have to use system-dependent tags in some files. So, in conversion, copying tags exact to the byte from source to target IS NOT a good way. code-conversion is needed sometimes, dMC should support it, I think.
For example, if source OGG file is in UTF-8, output MP3 file will be in UTF-8 too. But it is not what user expected; In MP3, tags shall be in local code like 949 in Korea or some code(Japanese, Chinese, etc.) which user choosed.
ps. By default, Winamp3 forces its user to use UTF-8 tag on every file regardless of format. As you konw, many people hate that. Code-conversion is essential to make dMC globalized and remarkably superior to other programs.
Does it say Artist=s on the yellow dMC popup when you hold the mouse over the file? are you sure no DSP effects are running in dMC.
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Let me think through this - tags are entered into ascii using the active code page, then saved in an ogg file as UTF-8. When converting from an ogg file the characters are converted back to ascii local code page, they then go into mp4 tags as local ascii. When transferring mp4 tags to iPod they are converted from local code page to unicode 16.
So this should be identical to editing an mp4 file tag and typing the korean characters?
There's no quotation of restriction using native character code on MP3 id3 tags in the id3 tag document. It only describe using ISO-8859-1(maybe en-US?) and Unicode. (There's a language field, but it means language(s) used in the audio.) I'm not sure that it is allowed to use OS native like Windows-949 in ISO-8859-1 code field. http://www.id3.org/id3v2.4.0-structure.txt (See ID3v2 frame overview section)
I couldn't find any document of structure of MP4 tags. :( Moreover, I don't use MP4 and I don't have iPod, so I didn't tested on MP4 and I don't even know how it works on iPod. I mean I had no problem on converting MP3 files to OGG files.
By the way, I've watched the forum for days and tested beta OGG codec carefully. (See the topic "BUG: LOST PART OF TAGS: WMA->OGG" on the support category. I posted the bug followed by Glin.) I have thousands of MP3 files on my harddisk and many of them are very big, so I had to squeeze them as soon as possible. I use Pentium 4 1.7G, and it takes less than 1 minute converting a file using OGG CLI.
I found it that the tag "Artist=s" is appeared when I used OGG CLI. (And without any DSP effects.) Using normal OGG doesn't make any incorrect field. (Anyway, both codecs make no conversation errors.)
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