How to make Winamp read MP4 metadata

[Petrz]

I want to manage my movies library with Winamp as it is still my most favorite Media Player. I already downloaded all required codecs and everything, so playing movies already works perfectly (all movie formats without problem).

But I want to have these movies also beautifully tagged in Winamp (Genre, Director, Comment and so on...)

When I tag them in Winamp, they are stored only in Winamp, and not in actual files metadata (that I can see in other tagging software or in file properties). So that means, if I delete whole library and put it back, all tags would be missing...

If I tag them with those other tagging software (mp3tag Pro or MediaMonkey), it also shows in file properties, so I believe they are properly tagged, but Winamp just can't read them and won't show them at all...
Only movie format, which I can properly tag in Winamp, and Winamp can really read them from files tags is wmv. I would not have any problem convert all of my videos to wmv, but it is already pretty old format which works only on Windows and not on other devices... But still the main problem is, that if I convert mp4 videos to wmv, it sometimes even double the size of the file, which is unacceptable..

So I would like to have all those movies in mp4, but I want to make the Winamp read those mp4 tags I was searching whole internet for almost a day and without a success

PS: I have set all of my movies NOT to be read only and I am an owner of them, so this surely is not causing the problem

PS2: I found that Winamp don't read mp4 metadata, but isn't there any solution, some plugin or something? Nobody ever had mp4 movies tagged in Winamp?


Thanks so much, any help greatly appreciated

[ryerman]

....When I tag them in Winamp, they are stored only in Winamp, and not in actual files metadata (that I can see in other tagging software or in file properties). So that means, if I delete whole library and put it back, all tags would be missing...

PS2: I found that Winamp don't read mp4 metadata, but isn't there any solution, some plugin or something? Nobody ever had mp4 movies tagged in Winamp?....

I find that Winamp does read and write MP4 metadata.

For MP4 files, my Winamp reads and writes these 14 fields: Artist, Title, Album, Comment, Track #, Genre, BPM, Year, Composer, Disc, Album Artist, Rating, Publisher and Category
Mp3tag reads and writes all 14 fields, although there is some confusion about Publisher because of the field name's case. (ie PUBLISHER vs publisher)
The file details view in Windows 10 File Explorer has column headings to display all but the last 3.
The details tab of the properties dialogue does not include all the fields available as column headings.

When editing tags in Winamp, make sure to check-mark "Update file tag(s) supported by the tagging format"
And make sure Winamp is configured to read metadata:
Preferences > Media Library > Local Library > Watch folders tab > click "Configure" > check-mark "Read media information on import if available"

Not every application supports every field for a specific file type.
The challenge is to find a way to tag your files that meets your requirements in all the applications you use.
One way to find out what is happening is to write tags in one app and observe where/if they are read in another.

When you know what you're working with, you can use what exists in some way that works for you.
For example, Winamp does not write the "Director" field to file, so maybe you could use "Album Artist" or "Artist" instead.

[Petrz]

Thank you very much for your answer, you gave me hope that it is really possible to do

Maybe I have something broken in Winamp, I installed a lot of plugins and codecs, I will try it with clean Winamp on different PC and I will see, if this is not causing the problem

And well, when I edit tags in Winamp, I have checked "Update file tag(s) if supported by tagging format"...
It actually writes to that tags but only in Winamp... Are you sure you see those tags you made in Winamp in file properties as well, and also after you remove those files from Winamp Library and re-add them again?

I also have checked this one "Read media information on import if available" and also I have all my files NOT read only, so I really don't understand, what is causing the problem...

And well, I have also read, that mp4 has some different metadata types:
1. Normal metadata ( id3 ????)
2. XMP Metadata

Do you know which type of tags you actually use?

Thanks so much for your help, I appreciate it

[ryerman]

Hi Petrz
I'm sure Winamp writes to MP4 files and that the tags persist after the file is removed and re-added.

Attached are 4 screen-shots to show what I see on my system.
2 show a file in Winamp. Another shows the same file in the details view of Windows 10 File Explorer.
Take note that not everything that is available in the details view is shown in the right-click file properties dialogue.

The 4th screen-shot shows the file in Exiftool.
Exiftool is an application that reads metadata for many file types.
Apparently, Winamp writes Quicktime tags.

[Sabine Klare]

I remember, also I myself had added tags to MP4-files via Mp3tag, and then the Last.fm Desktop Client had scrobbled the music-video to Last.fm. Since a longer time I didn't have added new MP4-files on my computers, and since January 2015 I didn't have scrobbled to Last.fm anymore.

[Aminifu]

...

I'm sure Winamp writes to MP4 files and that the tags persist after the file is removed and re-added.

...

Hi ryerman,

I'm also not able to get my Winamp configuration to write tags to my mp4 video files. They only show up in the files' library records and not in Exiftool or Windows Explorer. Also my Windows 10 Explorer doesn't look like your screenshot. Have you added something to your Explorer and is it possible you've also added something to Winamp that you have forgotten about?

[Petrz]

Oh nice

I still don't know where the fuck the problem is
BUT I tried to tag mp4 videos with Winamp on my sister's PC, and it worked perfectly
So I assume, somewhere in the proccess of customizing Winamp (settings, plugins or codecs), I did something which made it not working...

I also downloaded Winamp from the official site and while it was the same version as I already had (5.666), it is also possible that it is a newer version with something repaired which didn't change this first version number, it sometimes happens. I will uninstall my Winamp and also all codecs, plugins and everything from my PC with IObit Powerful Uninstall, and then I will try to make it work, and if I succeed, I will slowly add my stuff back to it, and I might find where to problem is

I will post my findings as soon as I am done

[ryerman]

I'm also not able to get my Winamp configuration to write tags to my mp4 video files. They only show up in the files' library records and not in Exiftool or Windows Explorer. Also my Windows 10 Explorer doesn't look like your screenshot. Have you added something to your Explorer and is it possible you've also added something to Winamp that you have forgotten about?

Hi Aminifu.

That is the StExBar, a tool bar I use in Windows Explorer. (notice StEx at the far left)
All the other icons are buttons to execute scripts (my customized or native to the app).
http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/StExBar.html

As for any changes I've made to Winamp: I stopped playing videos with Winamp and removed MP4 from the configurations of all input plug-ins, except in_mp4.dll.
Maybe that makes a difference.
I will experiment later.

[Petrz]

Ok so I uninstalled Winamp and everything that might interfere with Winamp from my PC with IObit Uninstaller and then downloaded Winamp from this site:

https://winamp.en.softonic.com

And reinstall all plugins, and codecs, and also recover my plugins with "Winamp Backup Tool"
Everything works without a problem now

And thanks guys for cooperation, you really helped me

And Aminifu, if you still have problems, I might be able to help you now

[Petrz]

And yeah, I also uninstalled these 3 plugins:
in_avi.dll (Nullsoft AVI Demuxer)
in_mkv.dll (Nullsoft Matroska Demuxer)
in_mp4.dll (Nullsoft MP4 Demuxer)

Because my mp4s were not playing correctly
I found this information in this awesome tutorial:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=369826

But I also downloaded this "Shark Advanced Codecs"

http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html

And if you still have some trouble, I might upload whole media pack of codecs, settings, plugins and everything I have in my Winamp, I have made it extremely awesome

[ryerman]

@ Petrz
I'm glad you've got things working.
When I uninstalled in_mp4.dll, Winamp would not load MP4 files into the Library. I don't use any 3rd party codecs.
Are you sure you can tag MP4 files in Winamp when in_mp4.dll is not installed?

@ Aminifu
My tests show that if MP4 is not included in the extension list of in_mp4.dll, tags are not written to file.
Maybe you moved MP4 from in_mp4.dll to in_dshow.dll? I did, when I still played videos using these instructions: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....id=155680#mp4v

I am able to either play MP4 files or tag them, but not both. Maybe Petrz has found a way.
Long ago, I gave up on trying to write tags to video files.
Instead, I satisfied myself with using the filepath to provide basic tags via the "Smart" option in the Watch Folder Settings.

[Petrz]

Haha, yes, you are right, I broke it when I uninstalled those plugins...
It's not working now after I deleted it

I will repair it again
And yeah, I couldn't tag my mp4 files while playing some mp4 at the same time, but that is not that important, because I won't be tagging when watching a movie
(I hope I understood your sentence well )

[Petrz]

Oh well, I understand the problem now
That's so bad....

If I do not uninstall mp4 Demuxer, my mp4 videos are not playing correctly (there are some artificial pixels showing and it's lagging and audio is playing very badly...)
But if I uninstall mp4 Demuxer, it suddenly stops working...

Well, I will try to play with it for a while, maybe I come up with a solution

[ryerman]

And yeah, I couldn't tag my mp4 files while playing some mp4 at the same time, but that is not that important, because I won't be tagging when watching a movie
(I hope I understood your sentence well )

I didn't mean tagging and viewing at the same time.
I meant that I could not play MP4 videos and write tags to their files with the same Winamp configuration.
But I have jumped to that conclusion without thorough investigation.

I no longer play videos in Winamp, but when I did I had Windows 7 and used the instructions found here: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....id=155680#mp4v
I was then able to play my MP4 videos without problems. (Note the WARNING on that linked page)
Maybe it is possible to modify those instructions in way that continues to provide good playback and allows tagging to files.
But I'm not going to test for that because I don't want to install the 3rd party codecs, splitters and tweakers necessary for playback, now that I use Windows 10.
If I did, the first thing I would do after getting MP4 videos to play would be to re-add MP4 to the extension list of in_mp4.dll to see if that allowed tags to be written to file and still allow playback.

My last resort would be to use one Winamp configuration to tag the videos, then switch to the configuration that allows them to be played.
But that sounds like more trouble than it's worth and I would abandon an "all Winamp" solution.

Well, I will try to play with it for a while, maybe I come up with a solution

Good luck! You sound like you're having fun and know what you're doing.

I don't use Winamp to tag files: instead, Mp3tag is much more powerful and customize-able.
I don't use Winamp to play videos: instead, VLC doesn't require any extra software.
I still have music videos in my Winamp Library, and in my playlist, but I use another plug-in to intercept them for playback with VLC.

[Aminifu]

@ Aminifu
...

I am able to either play MP4 files or tag them, but not both. Maybe Petrz has found a way.
Long ago, I gave up on trying to write tags to video files.
Instead, I satisfied myself with using the filepath to provide basic tags via the "Smart" option in the Watch Folder Settings.

Well that explains things, thank you for investigating.

Yes, I did add mp4 to in_dshow.dll and disabled in_mp4.dll some time ago. I was more interested in playing my music videos than tagging them. I rename all my music videos to include the artist, song title, year, and genre in their filenames (which lets me find what I want fast enough to suit me).