id tags in Chinese?

robinrobin · Post by **robinrobin** » March 14th, 2009, 8:40 am

Does anyone know why some of the id tags are written in Chinese on Celtic Fairy Tales? My mp3 player can't read them. (me either).

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 14th, 2009, 11:34 am

I have downloaded the zip file and opened all the files. The ID tags are all correct in my player. I don't know what to suggest, really.

Ruth

robinrobin · Post by **robinrobin** » March 14th, 2009, 11:46 am

How weird. I wonder what happened? For instance chapter00 shows:
title: ?　　 ⴀ 倀爀攀昀愀挀
album: ?䌀攀氀琀椀挀䘀愀椀爀礀吀愀氀攀猀
genre: ?匀瀀攀攀挀栀
my mp3 player can't read them and just shows □□□□□□□□□

Illiterati · Post by **Illiterati** » March 14th, 2009, 12:48 pm

robin is not imagining things at all as the last post suggests - I have at the moment the same problem with several books:

㈀㔀 ⴀ 䴀爀猀⸀ 匀渀愀最猀戀礀匀攀攀猀椀琀䄀氀氀
䌀栀愀爀氀攀猀䐀椀挀欀攀渀猀
䈀氀攀愀欀䠀漀甀猀攀

...which is Bleak House by Dickens, chapter 25. Must be some sort of glitch in the download process.

I

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 14th, 2009, 2:25 pm

I will email our contact at the Internet Archive and ask if she has any ideas on what can be causing this.

Ruth

robinrobin · Post by **robinrobin** » March 14th, 2009, 3:56 pm

I use Getright to download them if that's relevant.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 14th, 2009, 5:08 pm

Could you tell me which file format you downloaded? The zip file, or the single 64kbps, 128 kbps or ogg vorbis files?

Ruth

Jc · Post by Jc » March 14th, 2009, 8:45 pm

I,ve had this problem too at some point. it's rather strange. I don't remember which file it was. I had downloaded it to fix something, noticed the tags, thought it was weird, but I saved it with the chinese tags anyway, and it showed up OK in the validator.

I thought it was only a problem with my computer...

robinrobin · Post by **robinrobin** » March 14th, 2009, 9:44 pm

It seems to be just the individual 128kbps files. The 64kbps files and zip files are normal. Another interesting note is they all seem to have the tag: engineer: Heather Mbaye

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 15th, 2009, 3:56 am

robinrobin wrote:It seems to be just the individual 128kbps files. The 64kbps files and zip files are normal. Another interesting note is they all seem to have the tag: engineer: Heather Mbaye

Ah, so just the 128 kbps files. I can now replicate the error - it is the same for me. It is a very strange thing, because all the other formats are derived by archive.org from those 128 kbps files, so I think this must be happening at archive.org. The tags are certainly all correct on our validator and in the Metadata editor on archive.org.

The name you mention is the real name of one of the readers.

I have emailed our contact at Internet Archive and sent her a link to this thread.

Ruth

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 18th, 2009, 5:28 am

I have had a reply from Internet Archive: (the bold formatting is mine)

Hi Ruth,

I've been testing this a bit, and my suspicion is that the default character coding is funky in the original MP3 before it is uploaded (this can happen if the creator is using a computer or program with a default set to a non-English language), and that the derived MP3 is correct because it is coded to the Archive's default as part of the derive process. Since no process takes place on the 128Kbps MP3, the problem in that file would remain.

I could be wrong about this if the LibriVox collection has a customized derive process that is different than my test collection's. But I believe the track information keyed into the metadata editor is used only for the player and file list, and is not coded back into the file itself.

In the meantime, if it helps, I found I could fix the problem files in iTunes by right clicking and choosing "Convert ID3 tags." Then check "Translate Text Characters" and "Reverse Unicode."

Now, this is all very well, and I understand what she is saying. But, I don't know how we can stop this happening, as it all looks absolutely fine at all stages until someone downloads an affected 128 kbps MP3.

Ruth

Post by **hugh** » June 18th, 2009, 11:51 am

can we move this to errors?

Corpang · Post by **Corpang** » July 25th, 2009, 9:46 am

I came here to post the same strange error - and found this whole thread! I found the Chinese tags on the 128 kbps mp3s for Leaves of Grass - including the first reading by Hugh. Oddly enough, Book 3 Part 3 has Chinese but Book 3 Part 4 by the same reader doesn't. That doesn't make any sense.

Georgetsen · Post by **Georgetsen** » August 21st, 2009, 9:18 am

robinrobin wrote:How weird. I wonder what happened? For instance chapter00 shows:
title: ?　　 ⴀ 倀爀攀昀愀挀
album: ?䌀攀氀琀椀挀䘀愀椀爀礀吀愀氀攀猀
genre: ?匀瀀攀攀挀栀
my mp3 player can't read them and just shows □□□□□□□□□

As a native Chinese, even i can't make any sense of those messy words.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » August 21st, 2009, 10:49 am

Georgetsen wrote:As a native Chinese, even i can't make any sense of those messy words.

No, I think we should have said that they were changed to random Chinese characters.

This thread should have been moved to the Errors forum. I will do so when you have seen my reply, Georgetsen.

I don't think we are any nearer to solving the problem, though.

Thank goodness it doesn't happen very often.

Ruth