djSpinnerCee
4th April 2005, 22:06
Seems like a stupid question, since an MP3 CD is basically a CD-ROM that contains MP3 files, but now that there are physical devices (CD, DVD players) on the market that claim to play MP3 Digital Audio, or the MP3CD format -- what "spec" if any, in terms of ISO (file names in particular), and other structure (ie directories) are they supporting?
For example, I have a cheap, progressive scan DVD player, that can play a CD-ROM containing mp3 files, but it has problems:
It does not display full filenames, but it must know the full names because, it can ID the files as MP3s (I assume by extension).
If the CD contains "media" files in any other format in addition to the MP3s (ie .MPEGs, .AVI...), the player will not read past the non-mp3 in the directory. For that matter, this player (Samsung DVD-P241, fyi) does not seem to be able to parse directory trees, so it will only recognize mp3s in the root directory.
Should the mp3 player read ID3 tags? Should it also recognize an m3u or pls playlist?
The point is, I want to know how to master the disc so that it has the best chance of playing on most hardware that claims to be MP3-CD-able. You can see the potential problem if I am forced to use 8.3 filenames when the "player" will not read the ID tag info... It wouldn't be a good idea to create a different "format" for different devices.
Does anyone know (or where I can find) the "spec?"
I'm not really expecting WinAMP or RealPlayer functionality, but just the minimum capability that can be expected when one sees the "MP3 Digital" (or MP3-CD) tag on a product.
As an example -- I have been able to find some documentation on various flash/SD/MM-card players (RealPlayer for PalmOne [Zire72] for example), and they don't seem to have much consistency either -- Some expect a directory named "Audio" and/or other player-proprietary directory name in addition to looking in the root directory. I'm just looking for someting most can do, without losing data.
For example, I have a cheap, progressive scan DVD player, that can play a CD-ROM containing mp3 files, but it has problems:
It does not display full filenames, but it must know the full names because, it can ID the files as MP3s (I assume by extension).
If the CD contains "media" files in any other format in addition to the MP3s (ie .MPEGs, .AVI...), the player will not read past the non-mp3 in the directory. For that matter, this player (Samsung DVD-P241, fyi) does not seem to be able to parse directory trees, so it will only recognize mp3s in the root directory.
Should the mp3 player read ID3 tags? Should it also recognize an m3u or pls playlist?
The point is, I want to know how to master the disc so that it has the best chance of playing on most hardware that claims to be MP3-CD-able. You can see the potential problem if I am forced to use 8.3 filenames when the "player" will not read the ID tag info... It wouldn't be a good idea to create a different "format" for different devices.
Does anyone know (or where I can find) the "spec?"
I'm not really expecting WinAMP or RealPlayer functionality, but just the minimum capability that can be expected when one sees the "MP3 Digital" (or MP3-CD) tag on a product.
As an example -- I have been able to find some documentation on various flash/SD/MM-card players (RealPlayer for PalmOne [Zire72] for example), and they don't seem to have much consistency either -- Some expect a directory named "Audio" and/or other player-proprietary directory name in addition to looking in the root directory. I'm just looking for someting most can do, without losing data.