[X] Squares and images

#1

I'm experiencing some strange behaviour but I can't seem to pinpoint it or reproduce it again. I'll just describe what the situation was, what I did and what the results are. I assume it's a combination of serveral bugs.
All this happend after I updated from 2.36a to 2.36h because of the large image not being displayed issue (described below).

I've got all my files tagged with foobar2000 (0.9.4.1) which results in squares being displayed in iTunes. No problems so far.
I wanted to add cover art to the files and since Mp3tag is the only program I know of which writes ID3v2.4 tags in UTF-8 according to the specs like foobar2000 does I wanted to give Mp3Tag a try.

First attempt:

  • Two untouched files
  • Add a large image file (+/- 3MB) using 'Extended Tags...' [save]
  • Add a small image file (+/- 400 KB) using 'Extended Tags...' [save]
  • Change title of both files using 'Extended Tags...' again [save]

Results in iTunes:

  • iTunes displays both images of both files fine
  • iTunes doesn't display squares behind the strings anymore?!

I opened the files with an hex editor and there where NULL characters between each string character in the tags.

Second attempt:

  • Alter both titles again but this time not using 'Extended Tags...' [save]

Result in iTunes:

  • Only the image of the file with the small image get's displayed
  • All strings show squares behind them again accept for the artist name ("Weird Al" Yankovic)

Third attempt:

  • Two new untouched files of the same album
  • Add a large image file (+/- 3MB) and change title using 'Extended Tags...' [save]
  • Add a small image file (+/- 400 KB) and change title using 'Extended Tags...' [save]

Result in iTunes:

  • Only the image of the file with the small image get's displayed
  • All strings show squares behind them

No matter what, I'm unable to get the same results as the first attempt again. The only thing I can think of which might have changed the behaviour after the first attempt is that I check the prefs after the first attempt to check if it was still set to writing UFT-8, which it was.

No matter what I do now and no matter how I do it, I always get the results of the third attempt now. Squares are displayed behind each string (artist, album, title, genre, etc.) and the large image doesn't get displayed. There are also no NULL characters between each string character anymore.

The first two files which don't display a square behind the artist name after the second attempt remain like that, no matter how I change them in Mp3tag, all but the artist string will display a square behind it.

P.s. Yeah, I know it's stupid to store such a large image in an MP3 but it should cause problem in the first place. The size does increase with 3 MB so the least I should get is a displaying image in return :wink:

#2

If you want to use your files in iTunes, you MUST use ID3v2.3 with utf-16 or ISO-8859-1, especially with embedded covers.
Please change your tag options.

If you think you need to send ID3v2.4 utf-8 files to iTunes, ok, but then we can't help you (unless maybe one glory day, apple fixes their bugs).

(If you had NULL bytes between each character, the tags were utf-16)

#3

I'm only using iTunes to update my iPod. Tag&Rename (3.3 beta 1) is another program which isn't able to display the large image. If you name me other programs which can view cover art I'll be happy to test it in those as well.

In that case there's something going wrong with the update process from 2.36a to 2.36h. I set it to UTF-8 in 2.36a which wasn't used after the update.

#4

T&R: Last time I checked this program would only show the first of several embedded covers. Did you try it with only the big cover in the tag?

Other programs: It seems not many programs can deal with the ID3v2.4 features that are used in the image tag here. ATM only id3-tagit comes to my mind which you could use, but it also only shows one cover from Mp3tag (the reason is a different).

Between these versions the settings were moved from registry to cfg file, maybe something happened there, but I can only guess.

#5

In all cases I only tried adding one image. When I add a small one it does show up, when I add a big one it doesn't.

#6

Does it show "Picture: [Width] x [Height], [size] MB" ?

Anyway, I think you should ask T&R support about this, they can better find out why it doesn't work.