Album art and ID3 tags v1.1 ?

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Level 1

13 points

Album art and ID3 tags v1.1 ?

I'm using iTunes for Windows version 7.5.0.20
I have a large music library imported from CDs.
All music is imported in the MP3 format.
When it imports, the ID3 tags are in version 2.2 which is not compatible with my Kenwood KDC-X859 car stereo, so I then need to manually change them to ID3 tags format version 1.1

So, how can I force iTunes to always use the version 1.1 format for ID3 tags?

Also, if iTunes finds and downloads the album artwork, the ID3 tags format does not change. However, if iTunes does not find the album artwork, and I need to add the album artwork manually, then iTunes will always change the ID3 tags to the version 2.2 format. If I then change it back to version 1.1, my album artwork also dissapears.

So, how can I have iTunes not change the ID3 tag version when adding album artwork?

- James.

Windows XP Pro

Posted on Dec 16, 2007 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 16, 2007 1:27 PM in response to jal741

AFAICT, you can't set iTunes to automatically use ID3v1.1.

If iTunes finds artwork automatically for you, it does not embed the artwork in the ID3 tag. Instead, it adds it to its proprietary artwork database.

However, if you manually add artwork to a track, iTunes must use ID3v2 because it stores/embeds the artwork in the ID3v2 tag. ID3v1 does not support embedding artwork, so if you force the tag to ID3v1, the artwork is removed.

So, how can I have iTunes not change the ID3 tag version when adding album artwork?

You can do this by using the coverArt script here:
http://www.jacobweber.com/scripts/
but you must install Python if you don't have it already. See this hint for more info on the script:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006100111071871

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Answer 2

jal741 Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 17, 2007 7:28 PM in response to Robert Jacobson1

Thank you Robert.

The script appears to be for use on a MAC, however I did get it to work on Windows XP. But, in http://localhost it will display the list of missing artwork, but will not let me add my own. Every time I try it indicates that it was successful, and tries to show me my selected image but it is blank. The image I was trying to add was on "C:\CD-scans\1.jpg". I even tried different locations on my hard drive with no success.

Any suggestions? Does the image need to be in a format other than .JPG?

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Answer 3

Dec 18, 2007 5:04 AM in response to jal741

Yes, JPG worked for me. For a local file, I wasn't able to get a path like yours to work. If you enter a relative path, it works. For example, if you copy your artwork file(s) into the same folder as "coverArtServer.py", you can just enter the file name. Note: The image still will not show up on the localhost web page. However, when you "Get Album Artwork" again, it should work.

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Answer 4

jal741 Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 18, 2007 7:57 PM in response to Robert Jacobson1

Thank you very much. That solved the problem.

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