Re: [Gtkpod-devel] Enhancement proposal: enforce strict metadata

[Paul G. R. <p.g...@ph...>]

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Alex,

I for one think its a good idea. Have been intending to implement
Musicbrainz metadata lookup in the Details tab for some time (sadly
other stuff has got in the way).

~From a user point of view, I am not sure I would use a "strict" setting
as sometimes I just dont agree with what others have added to their
music tags for the tracks I am adding but that is just me. Certainly,
having musicbrainz suggest what the tags should be was where I was
heading so maybe if you implement your suggestion, this will be easy to
implement after.

Regards

PGR

Alex Pounds wrote:
| Hello,
|
| I've been using gtkpod for about a year now to manage my ipod. Recently
| I've also been using MusicBrainz and its tagger to clean up the tags on my
| MP3 collection, and this has led me to the following idea about how gtkpod
| could be enhanced. I'm planning to undertake this work myself, but welcome
| any contributions or feedback while I'm still in the planning stage.
|
|
| Summary
| -------
| Repositories have a new option - 'enforce strict metadata'. When enabled
| only tracks that have a MusicBrainz ID (MBID) will be added. Instead of
| SHA1 hashes the MBID will be used when detecting duplicates or updating
| files from the filesystem.
|
|
| What is MusicBrainz?
| --------------------
| MusicBrainz is an online database of music metadata. When adding, editing,
| or deleting data it must be voted on. There are also many comprehensive
| style guides. As a result its data is of a very high quality.
| All tracks on MB have a unique identifier - the MBID - which is specific
| to that track. If the title, artist, etc. changes the MBID remains
| constant. As a result once you have your MP3 files tagged with an MBID the
| metadata can be updated automatically via suitable software (such as MB's
| own Picard tagger). The MBID is also specific to a track/recording, and
| thus remains constant over different encodings, rips, and formats. You may
| have your copy of Led Zep III ripped as lossless FLAC, and I may have mine
| as a 48kbps mono MP3, but they will have the same MBID.
|
|
| Implementation plan
| -------------------
| 1. Extend the iTunesDB.ext file to have a field for the MBID, and store it
| when reading a file that contains the MBID.
| 2. Add a per-repository option, 'enforce strict metadata', which will not
| add tracks to that repository if the MBID is missing.
| 3. Enhance the 'add' function so that the MBID is checked as well as the
| SHA1 sum when adding files to the repository if the 'enforce strict
| metadata' option is selected.
| 4. Enhance the 'update track' function so that the MBID is checked instead
| of the SHA1 sum when updating files in the repository from the filesystem
| if the 'enforce strict metadata' option is selected.
| 5. Examine 'Repair ipod's files' option to see if that can be extended to
| use the MBID (I don't know enough about it to comment).
| 6. Examine the scrobbling support and, if working, include the MBID when
| scrobbling.
|
|
| The benefits
| ------------
| 1. Pristine metadata on your ipod - no duplicate artists, messy tags,
| uncategorised files.
| 2. No more duplicate tracks on your ipod because you've cleaned up the
| tags yourself and included the artwork.
| 3. Automatic updating of any mistagged files you do have, whether due to
| your own corrections to MusicBrainz or those of other people.
|
|
| Any thoughts you have on the above are greatly appreciated.
|

- --
P.G. Richardson

Email: p.g...@ph...

- ---

"There is no present or future, only the past
happening over and over again now."
Eugene O'Neille

"History is the nightmare from which I am trying
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