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CD Text missing PERFORMER for m4a files


gottogo99

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Hello,

 

I recently noticed a problem when making an audio CD from files purchased from iTunes in their m4a format. When making the cue sheet, the PERFORMER information was not included. The TITLE information was correctly included. I thought maybe this was some sort of iTunes issue even though foobar2000 showed the performer correctly.

 

I made a test. I ripped one song from a CD I own using Exact Audio Copy to FLAC and tagged it in EAC. Then I went to foobar2000 and converted the FLAC to wav, mp3, m4a, and ogg formats, using the latest version of the command line encoders (LAME, NeroAACEnc, and oggenc2). The I added each song to a cue sheet in ImgBurn. It looks like this:

 

TITLE "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.flac" FLAC

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:47

TRACK 01 AUDIO

TITLE "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.m4a" M4A

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:51

TRACK 02 AUDIO

TITLE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.mp3" MP3

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:53

TRACK 03 AUDIO

TITLE "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.ogg" OGG

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:47

TRACK 04 AUDIO

TITLE "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.wav" WAVE

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:47

TRACK 05 AUDIO

TITLE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

 

As you can see, the m4a file is the only one that doesn't have the PERFORMER information. (Nothing for wave format files, I know). That was using the DSP Worx DirectShow filters for each file type. In case they were causing the problem, I uninstalled DSP Worx and installed madFLAC for FLAC and orban for m4a (nothing for ogg since I don't use it, only for this test).

 

The new cue sheet looks like this:

 

TITLE "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.flac" FLAC

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:47

TRACK 01 AUDIO

TITLE "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.m4a" M4A

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:53

TRACK 02 AUDIO

TITLE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.mp3" MP3

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:53

TRACK 03 AUDIO

TITLE "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

PERFORMER "The Rolling Stones"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.wav" WAVE

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:47

TRACK 04 AUDIO

TITLE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash"

INDEX 01 00:00:00

 

Once again the m4a format file does not have PERFORMER information. My conclusion is that ImgBurn is not reading the data correctly. Either that, or both Orban and DSP Worx have defective AAC DirectShow filters with similar bugs.

 

PC is Windows 7, 32 bit, fully updated, ImgBurn 2.5.5.0.

 

Thanks for your time.

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If you look properly you'll see the 'TITLE' isn't correct at all.

 

It's just using the file name.

 

Your m4a file must be using a tagging format that ImgBurn simply doesn't support.

 

The reading of tags is nothing to do with DirectShow, it's all internal stuff.

I think you are misunderstanding the bug. I have no complaints about TITLE. The bug is that PERFORMER is missing from the cue sheet for m4a files, when it is included for FLAC, mp3, and ogg files all from the same source. PERFORMER is missing for m4a files generated by me using NeroAACEnc, and for iTunes files which presumably use QuickTime. Foobar2000 shows that the PERFORMER is there for both iTunes and Nero generated files, but it isn't getting into the cue sheet as it should.

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No, you're misunderstanding the bug - which isn't a bug at all.

 

All of the tag info is missing for the M4A files, they contain tag info in a format that's simply not supported by ImgBurn.

 

Like I said, take a proper look at what's written in the CUE file.

 

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.m4a" M4A

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:53

TRACK 02 AUDIO

TITLE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash"

 

is not the same as...

 

FILE "01. Jumpin' Jack Flash.mp3" MP3

REM FILE-DECODED-SIZE 04:02:53

TRACK 03 AUDIO

TITLE "Jumpin' Jack Flash"

 

The 'TITLE' bit is just coming from the name of the file. No actual metadata has been read from the m4a file at all.

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Ok, I understand what you are getting at now. I checked my iTunes cue sheet and see that it also matches the TITLE information to the file name as opposed to the actual song title.

 

So, ImgBurn does not read metadata from either iTunes/QuickTime or NeroAAC encoded m4a files. Any chance of reading that metadata in the future? Would be a nice feature. It does for mp3, FLAC, and ogg already.

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