mAirlistDB n m4a tags

[imilkovic]

Hi, is there a way for the mAirList database to recognize tags from m4a files? The plugin folder already contains BASS_AAC.dll, but the tags are still not readable in the database.

[Stefan_Hillen]

@imilkovic

tags from m4a

Are your files lossless or compressed? m4a is only a container that can i.e. have ALAC or AAC packed with the m4a-suffix.

So if they are lossless (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) you could try to install the bassalac.dll too.

Don’t forget to re–read the file tags after restarting mAirList…

[imilkovic]

Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work even after I added the ALAC plugin.

[Stefan_Hillen]

@imilkovic

even after I added the ALAC plugin.

Did you

@Stefan_Hillen

re–read the file tags after restarting mAirList…

in the database app?

[Stefan_Hillen]

…“date“ is no official tag, btw.

It may be the reason why it doesn’t correspond with your attribute. Try an attribute YEAR and see if mAirList will import it correctly…

[UliNobbe]

@Stefan_Hillen

…“date“ is no official tag, btw.

This may be true for ALAC. However, in a comparable lossless codec such as FLAC, there is a ‘date’ field which is imported exactly as it is into mAirList, unless a configuration setting converts it into a year.

Torben set this up in July 2010 (!), in version 3.1 build 762 (!!). It has worked flawlessly ever since, across many mAirList generations.

This option is not set in a new, ‘fresh’ standard configuration.

You can read the discussion in the german section of the forum from #16 ff on:

FLAC und Tags

Ich habe mich genau an die Vorbis-Comments-Spezifikation (siehe Link oben) gehalten. Dort gibt es kein Feld “Year” sondern nur ein Feld “Date”. Es ist offenbar vorgesehen, dort nicht nur das Jahr einzutragen sondern ggf. das genaue Datum. DATE Date the track was recorded Bei ID3v2 gibt es zwei getrennte Felder “TYER” (Year) und “TDAT” (Date). Gängige Tagger nutzen offenbar nur das Year-Feld. Was nun?

I don’t want to offend Stefan, but his quoted statement cannot be accepted as true for all codecs. It may be true for ALAC, but I am not familiar with its specifications.

[imilkovic]

Thank u guys. The Import option settings done the trick.

[UliNobbe]

Thank you for the feedback. I wasn’t sure whether this option would also have an effect on ALAC.
This is an important information.

In the quoted (german) thread Torben writes a little later:

@Torben

• Wenn der Datum-Wert nur aus einer vierstelligen Zahl besteht, wird diese als Jahreszahl interpretiert und das Feld beim Import in “Jahr” umbenannt.

• Wenn der Wert eine vierstellige Zahl enthält, wird diese als Jahreszahl interpretiert und in das Jahr-Feld kopiert, das Datum-Feld bleibt unangetastet. Das funktioniert sowohl für Angaben wie “2010-07-19” als auch “19.07.2010” oder (nach ISO 8601) “20100719” (weil die regular expression das erste Vorkommen der vierstelligen Zahl findet, also die 2010 ganz am Anfang des Strings).

Translation using a tool:

• If the date value only consists of a four-digit number, this is interpreted as the year and the field is renamed “Year” during import.

• If the value contains a four-digit number, this is interpreted as a year and copied into the year field, the date field remains untouched. This works for entries such as “2010-07-19” as well as “19.07.2010” or (according to ISO 8601) “20100719” (because the regular expression finds the first occurrence of the four-digit number, i.e. 2010 at the very beginning of the string).

I think this part of the code also had an effect on ALAC.