I do not mean to hijack your post, but my query is very closely related to this. I have an issue with this on just reading tags from MP3 and M4A files. I often get the famous ballot boxes "☐" in many parts of the MP3TAG UI. Is there any way to set MP3TAG to read all in UTF8 in addition to writing UTF8?
My intent is not to debate ASCII vs UTF, if there are some who have reasons for ASCII, all are free to make their own choices.
EDIT:
Wanted to add the specifics for this...here is the artist for example:
Artist: リーラ・ジェイムス
In MP3TAG it appears as a series of ☐'s, but if I copy and paste it, it will paste with the correct characters as long as it is not in MP3TAG.