[Fixed]MP3 tags in Chinese on some recordings?

[DaedalusYoung]

Hi, I've downloaded a number of LibriVox recordings, and I came across a strange problem. The mp3 tags for some recordings appear to be in Chinese when I import them in iTunes.

For example, in the Ghost Story Collection, vol 001 I get this in iTunes:



I downloaded the 128 kbps mp3s manually.

When I open one of these in TextEdit, the correct data is there (in English), but iTunes (and QuickTime Player) doesn't like it and insists on showing me Chinese characters. I've never had this problem before with mp3 files, only with certain LibriVox recordings.

Now, I do value and respect the Chinese culture and language, but sadly I have never been able to read or understand it, so needless to say, when I want to listen to a specific story, it is not at all easy to quickly determine which file I'd have to play.

Could there be some issue with the encoding of the tags? Are they in a non-standard format perhaps? Does anybody else have this issue?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this issue.

[RuthieG]

I have many thoughts , many not suitable for a family forum. We have occasionally encountered this strange phenomenon with 64 kbps files, which are a derived format produced by the Internet Archive. I have never seen it with the original 128 kbps file, which should be exactly as we uploaded them.

The metadata was all correct when it left here. I have downloaded Section 10 and the metadata appears correctly in Windows 7 file properties. It may, I fear, be some incompatibility with iTunes. Are you able to view this link: itpc://librivox.org/bookfeeds/ghost-story-collection-001.xml? I do not have iTunes installed on my computer, but the RSS feed (which should be identical) looks perfectly normal to me.

I have ordered a re-derive of the item on the Internet Archive, just in case it might resolve the problem. Possibly another admin will be able to re-upload to iTunes to see if that makes any difference. I will ask him Other than that there is nothing to be done, I'm afraid.

Ruth

ETA The rederive has run into slight problems at the moment. I will keep an eye on it.

[DaedalusYoung]

Thanks for your reply.

The RSS feed displays the titles correctly, but atm it's not playing, but that may be caused by the rederive.

Seeing that also QuickTime Player doesn't display the data correctly, I would think it's an issue with the way the mp3 codec reads the files on Mac, or maybe it is outdated. However, I downloaded the ogg version and openend it in Audacity. The metadata there is also in Chinese characters.

I have tried downloading one of the files directly from archive.org, but that didn't change anything. The 64 kbps version is not much different, except that an old version of QuickTime (version 7) displays the tags, but the newer version (version 10) doesn't read any tags at all.

Interestingly, the 128 kbps version does not show the album artwork, but the 64 kbps version does.

Well, if all else fails, I'm afraid I'll just have to copy & paste all the tags myself.

[RuthieG]

Hmm, that really doesn't sound good. It is a very, very early project, and perhaps the way things were done then, both here and at Internet Archive, caused these strange results. I will try downloading, re-tagging and re-uploading all the files, and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for all your testing. It is much appreciated.

Ruth

[CalmDragon]

When downloading the 128kbs files for Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott, I get the chinese characters on tracks 1,8,13,17, and 23 and am unable to correct them.

[RuthieG]

Oh gloom.

I will try to look at all these things but it won't be today.

Ruth

[dlolso21]

Further information, but unfortunately not a solution.

1) Once a RSS feed has been submitted, it can't be submitted again. Updates to the information in the feed and the related files are detected by iTunes Store software. The updates are then added to the submission queue for verification and quality control. About a week later they may be available in the iTunes Store for public download.

2) The podcast version of this title shows up in English. So updating the RSS Feed is not necessarily going to solve the problem; re-deriving on Archive might.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/librivox-ghost-story-collection/id343099568?mt=2

3) In Windows the ID tags and properties appear in English.

4) When downloaded and dragged to iTunes for windows both the mp3 and the m4b files sometimes appear in what looks to be Chinese characters or some related Far Eastern language. In one case it was mixed: English for filename and album, but not for artist or genre. I got similar results with the zip file.

David O

[RuthieG]

I have rederived Ghost Story 001 on archive, but to be honest I cannot see how this is going to make any difference to the 128 kbps file, which is original, not a derived file. I am going to try downloading, retagging and reuploading this one project, but this isn't an overall solution as it is very time-consuming. I also won't know if it makes any difference, as I do not let iTunes anywhere near my PC.

I note, incidentally, that it has been downloaded over half a million times without anyone noting problems on the archive page, so I don't know how widespread this problem is.

EDITED TO ADD: I have just downloaded the first file and imported it into Audacity, where it does indeed display the characters as Chinese, though it displays correctly in Windows File Properties. Curiouser and curiouser.

Ruth

[RuthieG]

I think I have fixed Ghost Story 001 . Perhaps you would kindly check for me?

When downloading the 128kbs files for Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott, I get the chinese characters on tracks 1,8,13,17, and 23 and am unable to correct them.

I will try the same technique on this.

Ruth

[chocoholic]

I wonder if the files with the Chinese characters were read by the same person, or by readers using the same type of hardware and software. Perhaps it's an encoding glitch of some kind, something produced by the source equipment that isn't recognized correctly at the other end?

[RuthieG]

Not in the case of the Ghost Stories, but in Good Wives, 4 of the 5 were encoded in Amadeus Pro. They were Arielle's first recordings for LibriVox.

I have retagged and re-uploaded the Good Wives files, and they are currently re-deriving.

Ruth

[DaedalusYoung]

I think I have fixed Ghost Story 001 . Perhaps you would kindly check for me?

Yes, thank you! They are fixed.

[RuthieG]

Excellent! Thank you

Ruth