Support and General Use > Audio Playback, Database and Playlists
How to play iTunes 7 tracks gaplessly in Rockbox?
zlp:
--- Quote from: linuxstb on January 12, 2007, 08:24:39 PM ---Just to clarify, Rockbox DOES NOT parse the itunes db...
--- End quote ---
Thanks for the clarity. I assumed iTunes mangled the tags as well.
And thanks to soap for reminding me to investigate the uneasy territory between iTunes and LAME, which I gave up a few years ago due to problems with the only elegant OS X solution I could find, the "iTunes-LAME" script:
http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/
Here's a crucial guide for anybody attempting installation: (It's crucial because the developer's download page links to an outdated version of both his own script and the lame lib.)
http://alpharuin.blogspot.com/2006/01/guide-itunes-lame-correct-way.html
I now use the "iTunes-LAME" script along with the newest LAME source. None of my existing tracks will be gapless on Rockbox but at least my new ones will!
Thanks all.
zlp:
In response to my own original question (How does iTunes7 store gapless data?)
It's in the ID3 tags and here's the best conjecture about their meaning that I could find:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=48231&view=findpost&p=430949
and:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=48231&view=findpost&p=430981
and:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=48231&view=findpost&p=440456
Other notes from that looooong thread:
1) If iTunes7 encodes the file, it writes the tag (and no LAME header).
2) If you import a gapless LAME MP3 then it skips the analysis and honors the LAME header (no tag is added).
3) If you import an MP3 with no LAME header, it analyzes the file and stores the gapless info in the database without adding any tag.
So the gapless data may be in 3 different places! That throws a significant wrench into the Rockbox playback of iTunes7 tracks, eh?
robin0800:
Where does gapless info need to be for rockbox to work,
embeded. or taged or somwhere else?
saratoga:
--- Quote from: zlp on January 13, 2007, 01:56:35 AM ---
Other notes from that looooong thread:
1) If iTunes7 encodes the file, it writes the tag (and no LAME header).
2) If you import a gapless LAME MP3 then it skips the analysis and honors the LAME header (no tag is added).
3) If you import an MP3 with no LAME header, it analyzes the file and stores the gapless info in the database without adding any tag.
So the gapless data may be in 3 different places! That throws a significant wrench into the Rockbox playback of iTunes7 tracks, eh?
--- End quote ---
iTunes is a horrific encoder, easily the worst modern MP3 encoder. You shouldn't be using it all, so gapless is probably a secondary concern with #1. #2 is no big deal either, since we can already read the LAME tag. #3 only applies if you've not used LAME.
IMO the solution is to use LAME if you want MP3, and use iTunes only if you want AAC (it's AAC encoder is on par with LAME).
Though we don't have a way to read the iTunes gapless info for AAC either.
--- Quote ---Where does gapless info need to be for rockbox to work,
embeded. or taged or somwhere else?
--- End quote ---
I think it depends on the format. For MP3 I believe only the lame tag is supported (since its the only way to store gapless info until iTunes started doing it too).
mightybrick:
--- Quote from: GodEater on January 12, 2007, 02:50:21 AM ---*Flameproof suit on*
I use iTunes to look after my music, and always have done - even before I actually owned an iPod.
By "look after" I mean :
I, put my shiny new CD into my PC. I push the "rip" button in iTunes.
iTunes does the following : Goes off to cddb and grabs all the info about the CD. Extracts the audio from the CD. Encodes it to mp3 at the encoding level I've chosen, and writes all the id3 tags for me. It then writes all those files into a nicely organised folder on my PC.
I've still yet to find another application that does the same with the minimum of fiddling.
--- End quote ---
Check out J River Media Center. It does all this and more... Plus it comes with the LAME encoder.
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/
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