# Feature Request: Support for more MP4 metadata boxes

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-support-for-more-mp4-metadata-boxes/12676
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [November 9, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-support-for-more-mp4-metadata-boxes/12676 "2011-11-09T05:23:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![djbronko](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/4bbf92/32.png) [@djbronko](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/djbronko)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/feature-request-support-for-more-mp4-metadata-boxes/12676/1 "2011-11-09T05:23:29Z")

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Hi all,

I have compatibility issues on metadata of MP4 files, and an enhancement of MP3Tag could help.

Reading the [Atomic Parsley documentation](http://atomicparsley.sourceforge.net/mpeg-4files.html), I found out that the MP4 metadata format consists of _boxes_ (also called _atoms_) that have one out of two formats. I call the first format _native_ and the second format _dash_. A box in native format simply holds a name and a value. A box in dash format has the name "----" (four dashes) and contains a _mean_ property of fixed value _com.apple.iTunes_ followed by a name and a value (looks like the same idea as the TXXX field in the ID3v2 standard).

As I wrote in [another thread](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/12620/1), I use a media center software that relies on [TagLib#](https://github.com/mono/taglib-sharp) for tagging. Amongst others, it expects the following boxes in native format:

- Conductor: _cond_
- Standard Genres: _gnre_
- Custom Genres: _@gen_

MP3Tag writes these fields in dash format, so they are not available in my media center software. There's curently no way to create a custom mapping for this purpose. **Thus I 'd like to see an option to write these fields as native boxes.**

For the sake of completeness, I created a list of all native boxes from the [TagLib# source code](https://github.com/mono/taglib-sharp/blob/master/src/TagLib/Mpeg4/AppleTag.cs):

- IsCompilation: _cpil_
- Title: _@nam_
- Artist: _@ART_
- Album Artist: _aART_
- Composer: _@wrt_
- Album: _@alb_
- Comment: _@cmt_
- Conductor: _cond_
- Standard Genres: _gnre_
- Custom Genres: _@gen_
- Year: _@day_
- Track number & total of tracks: _trkn_
- Disc number & total of discs: _disk_
- Lyrics: _@lyr_
- Album grouping: _@grp_
- BPM: _tmpo_
- Copyright: _cprt_
- Sort Order Album Artist: _soaa_
- Sort Order Artist: _soar_
- Sort Order Album: _soal_
- Sort Order Title: _sonm_