Foobar2000:Metadata Compatibility 1.1.6 changes

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To improve the interoperability between foobar2000 and other media players, foobar2000 v1.1.6 offers the following changes to tag handling:

  • ID3:
    • Special work-around for slash characters in ID3v2.3 [behavior changed in beta 2]
      • ID3v2.3 specification does not support slash characters in artist names; the slash character is reserved for delimiting multiple artist names. Because this is unacceptable from user's point of view, foobar2000 now uses " / " string as multi-artist delimiter in ID3v2.3 artist fields.
    • The ALBUM ARTIST field is now mapped to the ID3v2 TPE2 (BAND) frame. ALBUM ARTIST entries written by older foobar2000 versions are still being read.
      • This behavior can now be reverted through an advanced preferences option if you wish to strictly treat TPE2 as BAND [behavior changed in beta 2]
    • ID3v2.3 tags are now written by default, without unsynchronization.
      • Various popular software does not read ID3v2.4 tags or any ID3v2 tags with unsynchronization. The new default behavior aims for maximum compatibility, not for specification compliance.
    • To prevent problems with converting tags between different ID3v2 revisions, foobar2000 will no longer convert ID3v2 tags between 2.3 and 2.4 unless explicitly requested by the user. [behavior changed in beta 5]
      • The advanced preferences ID3v2 revision setting now affects creation of new tags only.
      • New options have been added to the "MP3 tag types" dialog to accommodate for this.
    • ID3v2 revision is now reported in the "tagtype" field. [behavior changed in beta 5]
    • foobar2000 links the iTunes ITUNESCOMPILATION tag to the ALBUM ARTIST tag. In case an ITUNESCOMPILATION tag is found in a file, foobar2000 treats it as if ALBUM ARTIST was set to "Various Artists". If an ALBUM ARTIST tag is found, ITUNESCOMPILATION will be ignored.
    • iTunes-private COMM frames are ignored so they don't pollute comment fields and are always preserved when retagging. [behavior changed in beta 4]
    • Added support for more iTunes-specific fields. [behavior changed in beta 4]
  • WMA:
    • Support added for multi-value fields in WMA tags, as specified here.
  • MP4
    • foobar2000 links the iTunes ITUNESCOMPILATION tag to the ALBUM ARTIST tag. In case an ITUNESCOMPILATION tag is found in a file, foobar2000 treats it as if ALBUM ARTIST was set to "Various Artists". If an ALBUM ARTIST tag is found, ITUNESCOMPILATION will be ignored.
    • Added support for more iTunes-specific fields. [behavior changed in beta 4]
    • Unknown or unsupported Apple metadata atoms are preserved when retagging. [behavior changed in beta 4]

To benefit from these changes, users have to reload the metadata from the relevant files. This can be done by selecting the files in the Media Library or Playlist, and opening the context menu (right mouse button) while holding down the shift key to show additional options. From the menu select Tagging->Reload Info from file(s) to reload the info of the selected files.