shortcuts to mp3 files with no id tag are not displayed well in the playslist

[tomer1levin]

while using drag and drop,
shortcuts to mp3 files with no id tag are not displayed well in the playslist.
the displayed only with eight character , something like "AB80~_-_1".

[Batter Pudding]

Need more details. For example - which version of Windows? Which Winamp? Have you tried the Beta 5.7?

Why don't you like tagging your MP3 files? Would be an easy solution.

Where, exactly, are these files when you drag them? Full path please.

Are you dragging the MP3 file or a shortcut to it?

[tomer1levin]

OS: Windows XP home edition. ( I have checked with also windows 7 , the same problem).
Winamp: 5.63
I didnt try 5.7

Answer for not using tags:
My father use this , and I need to teach him the minimum number of actions in order to handle mp3 files.
In addition, he likes to change and update the file names, and working with tags will double his work copy the file name to the id tag.
we have few thousand of mp3 songs.
I can make python scripts the scans all the files and update id tag , but it seems to me a bit ackward, and hard to maintain.

I am dragging the shortcuts.

[Aminifu]

Hi,

Winamp works best when files are properly tagged.

You can try using the "General Preferences - Media Library - Library - Watch Folders - Metadata Reading Settings - Configure" options to tell Winamp to only use the filename for the song title and leave the other tags empty, when some or all of the tags are missing.

[DJ Egg]

I don't think this is a bug, as such. It's kind of working as designed...

AB80-_~1 is the MS-DOS-equivalent 8-letter short filename
(aka: 8.3 filename : 8 characters for file name, followed by a period and 3 characters for file extension).

If there's no tags (or no Title specified in the tags), then Winamp will display the filename instead,
as determined by the default title formatting string in Prefs > Titles:
[%artist% - ]$if2(%title%,$filepart(%filename%))

It's possibly more to do with how Windows handles shortcuts, rather than an issue with Winamp displaying the 8.3 filename.

There might be a way for us to display the long filename instead,
but I would need to leave that for someone like Benski or DrO to reply...

[Batter Pudding]

tomer1levin: I can see what you are trying to do, and I think you are always going to get headaches trying to use Winamp without the MP3 tags. Especially when changing file names a lot as that then leaves you with items in the library that you have to run the "Remove missing files from Library" option to clean up.

There is an answer for you. Instead of the python scripts, go and investigate the program "MP3Tag" (from www.mp3tag.de). One of the tricks this program does is to copy the file name to the MP3 tag.

I'd also look at the autotag options from within Winamp itself. From the Media Library, Send To -> Autotag.

If you use the two above methods you should be able to get most of your Dad's collection correctly tagged up and then easier to make use of. That should then start to leave him with a simpler library of music to work with in the one program. Instead of having to mess around with shortcuts to single tracks on the PC.

Once you have the above sussed - then you start building him some playlists.


By trying to leave the music tracks untagged you are going to always be on a loosing battle. Especially if you want to keep things simple for your Dad. Tags were designed for people like your Dad so they didn't have to understand the filing system.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by tomer1levin

Answer for not using tags:
My father use this , and I need to teach him the minimum number of actions in order to handle mp3 files.
In addition, he likes to change and update the file names, and working with tags will double his work copy the file name to the id tag.

I understand you just want to help your father. Maybe a different approach with work.

He seems to understand how to use the right click context menu to get to the command used to rename files. Is he renaming the files in the Explorer folders or is he renaming the shortcuts? Either way he is using the context menus and/or the opposite mouse button (right click).

You can setup Winamp (General Preferences - File Types - Shell Options) to add commands to the Explorer context menu to add (enqueue) songs to the active Winamp playlist and/or add and play the songs. You can even add a context menu command to add and/or add and play all the songs in a folder (available with a right click on the folder name).

You then can teach him how to select one or more songs and use these context menu commands to get them to Winamp. Windows 7 can make the selection process easier by adding check-boxes next to each file in the folders. If he has trouble finding the folders with the songs, you can make shortcuts that will open the file folders for him.

Teach him a little at a time. Don't try to do everything at once, work at his speed. In two or three days, he should be comfortable with selecting songs and using the context menu to get them to play.

[tomer1levin]

Thank all for your replies.
DJ egg:
In previous version 5.034 dragging from window exploerer a shortcut with long file name did work.
(that is the reason I am using it right now, instead of version 5.63 which I bought few days ago).
I do think it is a bug because from user perspective 8.3 file name are encripted file names which has no functional meaning.Other softwares which I use do show long file name correctly, and I dont understand why just winamp does not.


I know am not using full winamp functionality,specifically media library, nor tagging.
I am using windows as for searching , filenames ,categories(hirarchial,shortcuts).
This is very comfortable and striaght forward for my dad ( fonts,hirarchiels ,searches ,scripts...) and I dont think I should change the method just beacuse winamp remove this feature ( display long file name for dragged shortcuts which not cotains ID tag ).

There is another bug , opened in other trhead, dragging multiple shortcuts result only the first selected. Also ,in the old version 5.034 it is woring well.

I bought winamp 5.63 just becuase of the burning and encoding feature which verycool, But unfortenly I can not use it because of the two bugs.

Thanks again all for your support and help.

[DJ Egg]

Hmm, k.
Did you mean 5.34 (which is ~6 years old)?
When was the change in behaviour? In v5.35 or 5.5?

[tomer1levin]

I dont know from which version is the change which cause the bug.
I can confirmed that 5.094 does working (eliminates the bug).

Also,
Here is a quote from other user who experience the same problem.
Actually I took from the information.

18th February 2008, 23:44 #1
Clopy
Junior Member


Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1 Shortcuts to mp3s don't display full title in playlist editor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The full filename of an mp3 is not shown in the Winamp playlist editor when you load it by opening a shortcut to the mp3. This is a problem in Winamp 5.3 and later.

(ie: Create a windows shortcut to an mp3 with no id3 tag, drag the shortcut into the Winamp playlist editor in Winamp 5.3+, and the filename is shortened to 8 characters in the playlist editor.)

This is a problem in Winamp 5.32, 5.35, and 5.52. It is not a problem in version 5.094, where the entire title is displayed.

The problem only occurs when opening or dragging the actual shortcut files into Winamp. When dragging a folder containing shortcuts to mp3s into Winamp, the titles display correctly. I am running Windows XP.

Since I often organize music by creating shortcuts to the mp3 files, this bug has discouraged me from updating Winamp beyond version 5.094

-Raymond

[Batter Pudding]

Here is a simple answer for you - just turn off the old 8.3 naming in XP on your Dad's PC. I very much doubt there are any programs he uses that want to keep that ancient 1990s compatibility with old DOS 6.1 and earlier and Windows 3.11!!

Hit START select RUN... type cmd and press OK
Now type this command prompt the following
fsutil.exe behavior set disable8dot3 1
Hit ENTER then close the box. Now every thing you do on your PC will ONLY use the long file names. Any new folder or new short cut will not have a 8.3 file name to use. So Winamp will be forced to use the long names.


This can be re-enabled by putting a ZERO at the end instead.

More details here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/121007

I can also talk about this in more detail with you so you understand it.

-=-=-

My memory as a developer is rusty, but there are often flags that are used to set the naming scheme in use. And often these have to be used to handle older versions of windows. Or just plain working with older libraries, backward compatibility, all kinds of odd reasons.

I can see what you are doing is pretty "weird" and not exactly how Winamp works. Yet it works for you which is clearly the important bit. Clearly your Dad is from an era when he is comfy with low level technical stuff and odd ways of doing things. I understand that "habit memory" that people have. Only today I had to assist a client who has been totally through as to what has happened to Hotmail. Now he is forced to use Outlook.com he is having major problems getting his head around the "improvements".