Yet another unicode broken thread

[endymon]

Well, I didn't get any responses when posting this in a thread to a topic similar to this so heres a new one.


So I've been using MS applocale to work around my trouble with japanese file names in winamp for a while now. I even tried the "permanent" solution by changing the default language for non unicode programs to japanese, however this caused numerous other problems with poorly coded applications and so was unacceptable. So recently I decided this was ridiculous and tried to get winamp working properly without the MS hack.

I had seen previously the statement that unicode was not supported in winamp (prior to 5, and this post was in like 2002). I checked again and found "hey its supports unicode now, heres the steps" http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=267691 (this post linked in dozens of other threads as THE SOLUTION).
I go through step by step and find nothing needed changing so I'm confused. I even downloaded the unicode font (ariel unicode MS) that it suggested. No dice.

I see a large number of 3rd party plugins break unicode support, but I'm not using any of them (you can verify this by looking at the attached plugin list)

I tried updating to the very latest version 5.581 thinking maybe my version 5.552 was broken.... nope.

I even tried changing my skin, I was using an old skin, but tried the stock modern skin for the hell of it. No change.
I was hopeful when I saw that there was now support for the m3u8 playlist files and re-imported the files, and saved as the new list type. No change.


The characters CAN display fine in the playlist window and the media library (though I don't use it). But as soon as the file is played, the playlist entry updates to garbage/incorrect characters and the scrolling text in the main window is always incorrect. Furthermore the file info in the id3v2 tag is garbled.... but the file location information along the top of the window displays fine.
I tried disabling id3v1 tag reading since I read somewhere that id3v1 doesn't support unicode. Nope nothing.

Again, I followed all steps listed here http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=267691 and nothing changed.

I'm at my wits end. Please advise.

[Koopa]

Are you loading playlist files or normal audio files directly?

For playlist files, you must use m3u8 files, since the normal m3u format doesn't support Unicode.

Is there any chance that you could upload an example audio file, where Unicode fails for you? Could you may make a screenshot, which shows the specific issues you have?

[endymon]

Originally Posted by Koopa

Are you loading playlist files or normal audio files directly?

For playlist files, you must use m3u8 files, since the normal m3u format doesn't support Unicode.

Not entirely sure what you mean by this, how can you play a file direct without a playlist? I mean if I open a file in winamp, it will clear the playlist editor, and just display the new song..... so thats a unsaved playlist right?

Either way I recreated my playlist as a m3u8 file type when I found out that type existed, unfortunately It didn't effect anything.

Attached some images.
Mainwindow - You can see that the file information shows up garbled.
Playlist window - You can see that the files that have not been played yet show up correctly, and the one that has, appears garbled.
Media Library window - You can see that files info appears correctly.
ID3v1 & ID3v2 - You can see that the file information along the top of the screen is correct, but the title/artist info can show up garbled.


Any Ideas?

[JonnyMac]

I am starting to think the tag data (metadata) is corrupted. What is the 'Metadata Reading' setting?...
1. Winamp > Ctrl+P (for Preferences)
2. General Preferences > Titles
The box at the top which allow you to choose when the metadata is read, what is the setting?

[endymon]

Its set to recommended, "read meta data when files are played".

How would I check if the meta data is messed up? Is there a quick way to fix that?

[JonnyMac]

Its set to recommended, "read meta data when files are played".

That helps to confirm my suspicion. With that setting, the file name is displayed upon loading the files then when played the file name is replaced by the tag data. It does look like that the unicode data was not properly saved to the tag. The artist on the file name seems to be intact.

So, as a suggestion try a external tag editor fix the metadata. In the forums MP3Tag is a commonly suggested tag editor. One of its features is the ability to write or rewrite tags from the file name. That option/function is available in MP3Tag's Convert menu. So, the idea here is to use MP3Tag to rewrite the Artist tag from the file name. Try it on a couple file first to get the hang of MP3Tag and see if that fixes the issue.

-- or --

An alternative, would be to tell Winamp to just use the file names...

1. Winamnp > Ctrl+P
2. General Preferences > Titles
3. In 'Advanced Title Formatting' replace the string with $filepart(%filename%)

[endymon]

Wow, It was the tags corrupted..... wtf. Spending so much time trying to figure out why it was having problems only for it to be something so simple.

Thanks for the help.

Would it be difficult to add an option into the in_mp3.dll to choose the language to read ascii tags in? (I mean other than either "system language" vs "latin"). If that had been there I probably could have found this solution on my own.

Thanks again.

[DrO]

Originally Posted by endymon

Would it be difficult to add an option into the in_mp3.dll to choose the language to read ascii tags in? (I mean other than either "system language" vs "latin").

i think it was done like that as it's the only reasonable way to deal with the tags being encoded with a different language from latin or the current system's codepage as its a nightmare to deal with code pages at the best of times.

at least its worked out now though you may need to keep an eye on the source of files in future for such things

-daz