[linux-audio-user] gstreamer, rhythmbox, and mp3

[Victor Roetman]

carmen wrote:
> banshee is even worse, generally freezing up while populating the
> library, let alone playing a track. but then amarok freezes
> populating the library until i move utf-8/shift-jis dirs out of the
> music directory as well..

I had lots of problems with utf-8 and Chinese GB encoded id3 tags in my
mp3 files.  Even though they were utf-8, lots of the applications still
didn't recognize them as such - amarok and rhythmbox all gave me
problems with them - I guess because they were not marked specifically
as utf-8 in id3v2.

I finally went and compiled Easytag 1.99.13 and needed to find a patched
libid3 (id3lib)
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/id3lib3.8.3/3.8.3-6
which I build for Ubuntu edgy, since the included id3lib has a nasty
Unicode bug.  Then I went through and had it fix all the id3 tags.  I
think it puts in a  BOM or marks it as UTF-8 somehow (I really don't
understand id3).  In a few files I had to tell easytag to read them as
GB encoded, and then it wrote them as utf-8.

Now everything works great in every application that I use, including
iTunes in Windows.  (Except XMMS which has always given me problems with
non-roman tags, but is still the most reliable and flexible mp3 mplayer
I have ever used).  I even have a file with Unicode Japanese file name
and Japanese id3 tags, and my little iRiver iFP-190TC displayed them
with no problems, kanji and all.

Easytag is, as far as I'm concerned, the best thing to happen for id3
tags since id3v2, and I am sure happy with utf-8 tags.

vic