Re: Finding AAC (.m4a) files in Windows Media Center

Tags is the general term for meta data that has been embedded inside the
music file itself. For example, the album name, the artist name, and the
track name.

Album Artist is not the same thing as Artist. Artist is the name of the
artist(s) of that individual track, but some albums contain tracks with
different artists, the most common example being collection CDs (e.g. "Now
That's What I call Music Volume XXX"), however another good example is
"Queen's Greatest Hits Vol III" which while any right thinking person would
consider to be a 'Queen' album does contain tracks by other artists
including David Bowie and George Michael.

So one of the incredibly rare examples of Microsoft having a genuinely new
and worthwhile idea was their coming up with an extra 'tag' called Album
Artist which defines what the overall artist of albums like this would be
(in the Queen case it would obviously be Queen, in the NowThats... case it
would probably be 'Various Artists').

This as I said is stored in a tag which is stored inside the file itself,
iTunes 7 or later can fill in this tag, as can various other utilities (if
they support MPEG4 i.e. AAC files, WMP does not).

I therefore follow the sequence below

1. Run iTunes
2. Insert CD
3. RIP the CD into iTunes (in my case in Apple Lossless format, in your case
it would be AAC format)
4. iTunes will use the Gracenote CDDB internet database to fill in the Album
name, the artist name, the track name, etc., but will NOT fill in the 'Album
Artist' tag.

Note: The Gracenote database is far, far more accurate than the Microsoft
one.

5. I then use iTunes to manually fill in the Album Artist tag (and it is
possible to select all the tracks of an album and do them all at the same
time).
6. I then run WMP and tell it to add the folder containing the album I have
just ripped using iTunes. Thanks to WMPTSE, and having already filled in the
Album Artist tag, it goes straight in to my WMP library with no extra work.
Theoretically you can tell WMP to 'watch' the iTunes folders for new entries
and add them automatically. I don't trust WMP that much and prefer to
manually add the folders, this also avoids WMP trying to add iTunes podcasts
which it can't play anyway.

Note: Apple Lossless is the ONLY lossless format that can be fully shared
between iTunes and Windows Media Player (or Media Center).

On 15/8/07 04:14, in article
837351CC-7288-46C4-9BE4-957B2B02E0A1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ted the Salty Dog"
<TedtheSaltyDog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thank you John. I will likely need some time this weekend to apply your
suggestions.

I would like to point out, though, that I did not install either of the
"patches" prior to being able to play the tunes. They played just fine using
the "open with..." feature in Explorer. Does this indicate a different
problem?

Also, prior to embarking on this journey, I actually put a few CD's on the
"new" computer the old-fashioned way, by inserting them into the CD drive.
It basically worked fine. A couple of older CD's, however, came up as
"unknown artist". They also had no track names or album names.

The files that I have moved with a memory stick, though are broken into
typical MS Windows "file Folders" which are labeled with the artists' names.
Is this the "album Artist" tag that you refer to?

Thanks again, John. All of your posts that I have read have been very
helpful. I am sure that there are many of us outnhere that have benefitted
from your thorough walk-throughs.

Best regards,
Ted

"John Lockwood" wrote:

On 14/8/07 04:24, in article
FDFDC3DF-000F-48EC-A597-2AD7AD465435@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ted the Salty Dog" <Ted
the Salty Dog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am transferring my music from an old computer (windows XP Home edition) to
a new machine (Vista). I copied all of the files directly from CDs onto the
old computer - none were downloaded. I copied the files onto the old
machine
with iTunes software so I could sync with my iPod.

When I got my new Vista computer, I transferred the files using a USB memory
stick (total files approx 10GB). Lo and behold, I couldn't find the files
with either Media Center or Media Player. I DID find them with Windows
Explorer and used the "open with..." function to open the files with Media
Player. I got the warning "file format not supported, but may work
anyway..." (or words to that effect) They play just fine. in Media Player.
I can also "see" them in Media Player. I CANNOT see them in Media Center,
though.

At this point I dsicovered several posts in this forum essentially
describing the problem that I believe that I have. I have downloaded and
installed http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/ and also
http://www.orban.com/plugin/ . As best as I can tell, they are correctly
installed and turned on and running.

I still have the same problem though. I would like to use Media Center
and/or Media Player to manage, play and keep track of these files. I think
that the only reason that I can see them in Media Player is because I chose
the "open with..." option.

Now what? Help!

The fact that you can play them confirms that Orban (or another directshow
filter that also support AAC files) is working correctly.

Normally the only other step is to have WMPTSE installed and turned on (I
note you say you have installed it). When you install WMPTSE it initially is
still turned OFF. You should check this by going to the Tools Menu in WMP,
then Plugins, and then Options, then category background and making sure
WMPTSE is turned on.

There are two other things to check. Windows Media Player absolutely relies
on the presence of a filled in "Album Artist" tag, support for which was
only added in iTunes 7 and even then is not normally filled in in iTunes.
You need to make sure this tag is filled in for WMP to be happy. You can
either do this in iTunes 7 (or later) before adding the music to WMP, or use
the "Album Art Fixer" utility which despite its name also fixes this tag, or
manually do this in WMP. In your case the "Album Art Fixer" utility will
probably be the quickest and easiest option. Download it here
http://www.avsoft.nl/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid
=4

Note: I would initially just use it to fix the Album Artist tag.

The other thing to check is that sometimes the WMPTSE installer does not
successfully register .m4a files as a type that Windows Media Player (and
thus Media Center) can now understand. Check the following is present using
regedit

\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m4a
PerceivedType REG_SZ audio
Content Type REG_SZ audio/m4a

Note: "PerceivedType" does not have a space in it unlike "Content Type".

I have dozens of albums in .m4a files shared successfully from iTunes to WMP
10, and thus also to Media Center 2005. Feedback I have seen suggests the
same approach also works for Vista.

PS. To others reading this, the fact that Ted can play the tracks confirms
they are not protected AAC tracks purchased from the iTunes store so that is
nothing to do with Ted's problem.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Finding AAC (.m4a) files in Windows Media Center
    ... They just aren't being seen by WMP or WMC. ... Album Artist is not the same thing as Artist. ... different artists, the most common example being collection CDs (e.g. "Now ... between iTunes and Windows Media Player. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Adding Music Files to MCE
    ... but I see all the Artists Fine. ... I have used Tag and Rename to populate the 3 ... fields(Artist, Title, Album Artist) but Media Center still can't find songs ... MP3's I sure didn't want to manually populate this tag field. ...
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    ... additional tag called album artist this helps ... asscociate the albums with their relative artists. ... I don't have any problems using media ...
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