ID3 tag browsing wrong with WMA files

[jimmyjohn]

I am running firmware 2.5b and my entire collection is wma vbr ripped at high bitrate using Windos Media Player 11. When browsing using ID3 tags (browsing by artist, album) my songs are listed alphabetically even though my id3 tag titles and filenames are numbered. I have tried adjusting the display setting to both "filename" and "id3 tag" without any change. It completely ignores the numbers.

Then, I loaded an album of mp3's and found that the my album was loaded correctly in order! This must be a firmware problem. I am surprised that more people don't complain about this problem. Am I the only one? I hope the next firmware will fix this issue. I don't feel like re-ripping 400 CDs. Browsing by folder is not a solution when you have an SD card - then you're constantly moving around folders too much.

Anybody have suggestion? What is this about Firmware 3.51 - would that fix my problem?

[doniago]

You can always get around it by appending the track # to the track name. Maybe not the cleanest solution, but it's relatively practical if you use MediaMonkey or another decent music organization program, and it will solve the problem.

[jimmyjohn]

All my tracks do have numbers, both in the filename and the Title of each track of the tag. My gripe is that the D2 does not recognize the numbers in WMA tracks. Again, this does not happen for MP3-encoded tracks.

[Dalmane98]

All my files are WMA.

All the tracks start in a number, like this:

01 - All Of You.wma

See the attached screen shot.

What you see is what I copy to the D2. The graphic is embedded in each file too.

I use the folder view and all my songs play in the right order and the album art is displayed.

Everything works just fine.

I use media monkey gold and Mp3tag to tag all my files and spend a lot of time doing it. For Music I have 101 Folders and 1713 files on a 8GB SDHC.

What you see in my signature is what I have.

[jimmyjohn]

Thanks for your reply, but I am not interested in browsing in "Folder view". As I explained in my 1st post the problem is in ID3 tag browsing. Folder view is not ID3 tag browsing.

Please do an experiment for me, and try to browse your D2 by artist or album and tell me whether your songs are in alphabetical order or still in correct order.

[Dalmane98]

Alphabetical order.

The Why:

The ID3 Organization receives one frequent question in various forms:

* What is the tagging format in my Windows Media File?
* What is the tagging format in my iTunes file?
* What is the tagging format in my ogg vorbis file?

Answer? ID3 tags were designed with the MP3 file format in mind. ID3v2 tags will break formats which are container-based such as Ogg Vorbis and WMA. Here is some information on specific formats:

* ID3 tags work in MP3 and MP3pro files
* WAV has no tags
* WMA has its own tagging format, which is specified in the wma spec, available in the MSDN (which unfortunately, basically does not allow Open Source implementations)
* Ogg Vorbis uses "Xiph Comments" (same as later versions of FLAC and Speex), which are embedded into the Ogg container. You can find information on these in the comment and container specs on www.xiph.org
* AAC uses yet another tagging format, which does not at present have a published spec as of 3/1/2006.

Convert all your WMA to MP3.

But what do I know...I am new to DAP's.

[jimmyjohn]

I know nothing about the technology of ID3 tags. And as a consumer, who just spent a lot of money on a new MP3 player, I don't believe I should have to know anything about ID3 tags. It is ironic to me, that the programmers at Cowon are smart enough to allow the D2 to play Flash files, and voice recording, and even scientific calculators, but can't get this right. My Creative Zen Xtra (60GB, now converted to 160GB) from 2003 has never had one problem with organizing WMA tags, I don't think it is unreasonable for my new 2007 MP3 player to do the same. I may return this thing based on this problem.

And, I am still curious what happened when you attempted to browse your songs by ID3 tags - alphabetical right?

[Dalmane98]

I know nothing either. The D2 is the second DAP I have owned. The first was a Sansa 280e.

I just figured out how to use ID3.

When I browse Albums by ID3 the are are in alphabetical order. When I select an album, the songs are listed in the correct order. By track number.

When I browse by artist, they come up in alphabetical order. When I select an Artist, the albums for that artist are in alphabetical order. When I select an Album, the songs are displayed in the correct track order.

I attached a thumbnail of what my Tags look like in MM. Sorry for it being so small

[jimmyjohn]

Thanks for trying to help, but I think you must have posted an incorrect thumbnail:
1) this is a capture from MP3tag v2.38 not MediaMonkey
2) the files listed are mp3 files. As I have explained, mp3 files work flawlessly in my D2; it is the WMA files that are in the wrong order. Are you sure your files are in correct order for WMA?

FYI I did download MP3tag and will play with it to see if there is a work around.

[Dalmane98]

Sorry about that.

Yes they are displayed and played in the right order.

Here is a screen shot of the Album I rechecked and the extended tag for one song.

[jimmyjohn]

Sweet Success! I can't say I figured out why my tags were screwed up before, but I can tell others what not to do.

I keep all my WMA files on my Creative Zen Xtra 160GB player. It is recognized using the MTP USB connection. I had my Cowon D2 set as a MSC device. I was transferring files directly from the Creative to the Cowon and somehow this would change the tags so that numbers were ignored.

Out of desperation (and an inkling that what I was doing was non-standard) I changed the Cowon to MTP mode so it would match my Creative player and transferred some files. The first thing I noticed was that it transferred at a significantly faster rate. Then I browsed and Voila! my files are in order. So, I owe the Cowon programmers an apology, and they can keep working on adding some new amazing feature to the D2 (What about that device Doc used in Star Trek to heal people instantly?)