From: Brian Wolven <brian.wolven_at_verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 15:31:48 -0400

F. Andres wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian Wolven" <brian.wolven_at_verizon.net>
> To: <rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se>
> Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 4:01 AM
> Subject: Re: Flash Games question...
>
>
>> F. Andres wrote:
>>>
>>> Yes, in my root dir are about 600 to 800 files, I haven't got it
>>> here at the moment, but I think it must be around this number. As
>>> soon as I have the possibility, I will move the files to another
>>> dir and leave just 10 or 20 mp3s in the root, I'll post it here if
>>> the problem is gone or not.
>>
>> Why do you need to have *any* mp3s in the root dir? I have only 1
>> file (ajbrec.ajz, and that can go away once I've flashed my
>> recorder), and four folders - Music Files, Playlists, ID3 (permits
>> ipod-like browsing by ID3 tag data), and of course, .rockbox. I keep
>> it clean the same way I do my house - nothing much visible on the
>> surface, but be very careful when you open the closets or the
>> drawers. =)
>
> Hi Brian!
> How do you do this with 'browsing the ID tags'? Is this a plugin or is
> it already in firmware? I use the one that came with the 'flash plug
> in' Please tell me how to do it or how it works, it sounds very
> interesting!

There is a windows application called ID3Browse that creates a file
structure of folders and playlists that duplicate selected aspects of
your ID3 tags; you run the program, point it at your music
files/folders, and get the resulting info out, either on your jukebox,
or on your PC and then copy it to your jukebox (if you mirror your music
files on the two). I'll just paste in the readme that came with the
application; you can see if it looks useful to you (URL is in the
readme).

HTH

------------------------------------------------------------------------

--
              ID3Browse - ID3 Playlist Generator v1.0
               Copyright 2002 - Shane Brinkman-Davis
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Webpage: shanebrinkmandavis.com/homepage/JBMM
Contact: shanbdavis_at_yahoo.com
This software is FREEWARE. You can use it and copy it as much as you
want. I warranty NOTHING. Of something goes wrong because you used this
software, its not my fault. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
That said, I don't think this soft will cause any deleterious effects.
Requirements
------------
This software requires Windows 95 or better. I have tested it on Win98
and Win2000, and it should work on 95, ME, XP, NT, etc...
The program needs about 25megs to run. That means your computer needs at
least 64 megs to be able to run this program reasonably.
Goal
----
The goal of this software is to generate playlists organized in
directories from any information found in ID3 tags. The core use of
this is to emulate ID3 based browsing for File-System based MP3 players
such as Archos' Jukebox line.
After using coding this up, I have realized that this program allows you
to have much more control over ID3-based browsing that you get on MP3
players with hard-coded ID3 based browsing.
First Time Use
--------------
To generate some standard ID3-based browsing directories and playlists,
follow this simple quick-start guide below. This sill make an ID3
directory on the root of your MP3 player's hard drive with many
directories and playlists inside it. It will not delete, move, copy
or modify your MP3s.
Quick Start:
    1)  Copy all your MP3s to your player
    2)  Copy ID3Browse.exe and the .bat files to your MP3 player
    3)  Double click on the "Generate Standard ID3 Based Browsing.bat"
        file ON YOUR MP3 player
    4)  Wait a few minutes while the ID3 directories and playlists
        are created
    5)  When it is done you will see the message: "ID3Browse - done!"
        and some statistics.
    6)  Press a key to close the window - that's it!
The batch file in step 3 above creates 4 standard ways to browse your
MP3s:
    By Artist
    By Album
    By Genre
    By Year
Disconnect your MP3 player and browse the ID3 directory - you should
find it very much like browsing your whole collection my ID3 tags!
Whenever you add MP3s, just re-run this program. If you delete MP3s,
delete the ID3 directory and re-run this program.
Want more? With ID3Browse you can setup just about any way to browse
your MP3s based on ID3 tags. Read on if you want to learn how.
Basic Command Line Options
--------------------------
ID3Browse is a command-line utility. If you are not familiar with the
DOS command line, you may prefer to make copies of the example .BAT file
and editing it to change the options.
ID3Browse command line options look like this:
    ID3Browse ScanDir FormatString(s)
Basically, this program scans ScanDir and all its subdirs for all MP3s.
Then, it creates directory trees with M3U playlists from the MP3's ID3
tags based on the format strings.
When you run ID3Browse, you must provide a ScanDir and at least one
FormatString.
The power of this program comes from its FormatStrings
Format Strings
--------------
A format string describes how you want to browse your MP3s. Format
strings consist of a directory name and a sequence of keywords joined by
pluses ('+'s):
    RootDirectory=Keyword[+Keyword][+Keyword]
A keyword refers to an ID3 field - or data calculated from an ID3 field.
Valid keywords are:
    ARTIST, ALBUM, SONG, GENRE, YEAR, DECADE, and COMMENT
    Any 4 character ID3v2 text tag ID: T???
       (see below for some known text tag ids)
Some example Format Strings:
    \ID3\JustArtist=Artist
    \ID3\JustGenre=Genre
    \ID3\Artist=Artist+Album
    \ID3\Genre=Genere+Album
    \ID3\Year=Decade+Year
    \ID3\ArtistAndYear=Artist+Decade+Year+Album
ID3Browse takes all your mp3s in ScanDir and, for each format string,
sorts them by the keywords you specified. It sorts by the first keyword
first and then subsorts on the second, etc... For each keyword up to the
last one, it creates directories and sub directories. For the last
keyword, it creates a playlist file (.m3u) for each unique value.
For example, the keyword sequence "Artist+Album" directs ID3Browse to
sort all MP3s by Artist and subsort by Album. It then creates a
directory for each Artist and, in each artist's directory, it creates a
playlist for each album.
The format string "\ID3\JustArtist=Artist" makes a playlist of all songs
for each artist and puts it in the directory \ID3\JustArtist.
There is one more thing you can do with your keywords. You can limit the
number of characters used from the keyword. Any keyword can have a colon
(:) added immediately after it and then a number that specifies how many
characters to use. This can be very handy if you have too many, say,
artists to list in one directory.
Example Format String:
    \ID3\Artist=Artist:1+Artist+Album
This string tells ID3Browse to sort all MP3s by the first letter of each
artist. Then, inside those directories, sort by the fill artist name.
Inside each artist's directory, it makes a playlist for each of that
artist's albums. Here is how \ID3\Artist might look after you run this
format string:
    \ID3\Artist\A\Anelli Dreker\Tunra.m3u
    \ID3\Artist\A\Art of Noise\In no sense? Nonsense.m3u
    \ID3\Artist\A\Art of Noise\The Seduction of Claude Debussy.m3u
    \ID3\Artist\D\Depeche Mode\Exciter.m3u
    \ID3\Artist\D\Depeche Mode\Violator.m3u
    ...
So, to be very formal, the format of a FormatString is:
    RootDirectory=Keyword[:Num][+Keyword[:Num]]*
Where:
    RootDirectory can be any valid path
    Keyword is any valid keyword - see above
    ':' and '+' appear literally
    [...] parts are optional - when used don't type the '[]'s,
        only what is inside them.
    [...]* parts can be repeated 0 or more times
    'Num's are positive decimal integers
Some ID3v2 Text TagIDs
----------------------
    TALB    Album/Movie/Show title
    TBPM    BPM (beats per minute)
    TCOM    Composer
    TCON    Content type
    TCOP    Copyright message
    TDAT    Date
    TDLY    Playlist delay
    TENC    Encoded by
    TEXT    Lyricist/Text writer
    TFLT    File type
    TIME    Time
    TIT1    Content group description
    TIT2    Title/songname/content description
    TIT3    Subtitle/Description refinement
    TKEY    Initial key
    TLAN    Language(s)
    TLEN    Length
    TMED    Media type
    TOAL    Original album/movie/show title
    TOFN    Original filename
    TOLY    Original lyricist(s)/text writer(s)
    TOPE    Original artist(s)/performer(s)
    TORY    Original release year
    TOWN    File owner/licensee
    TPE1    Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)
    TPE2    Band/orchestra/accompaniment
    TPE3    Conductor/performer refinement
    TPE4    Interpreted, remixed, or otherwise modified by
    TPOS    Part of a set
    TPUB    Publisher
    TRCK    Track number/Position in set
    TRDA    Recording dates
    TRSN    Internet radio station name
    TRSO    Internet radio station owner
    TSIZ    Size
    TSRC    ISRC (international standard recording code)
    TSSE    Software/Hardware and settings used for encoding
    TYER    Year
Limitations
-----------
Currently, ID3Browse supports ID3 v1, v1.1, v2.3 and v2.4 tags. That
means ID3 v2.2 tags are not supported. If there is demand, I'll put them
in, too.

Received on 2003-07-12