'Test: Flacs / Oggs / Album Art / Tags

[robjrock]

So basically I love OGGs and FLACs. Sometimes they seemed to work and sometimes they did not. So I decided to do some tests to get to the bottom of it. Turns out its pretty simple, goes like this:

On the P3, under settings you can choose to connect to your PC via UMS or MTP.

Basically when using MTP;
FLACs - Tags are not read. No Album art. Plays fine but only findable through folder view. Now playing screen shows album / artist as 'unknown.'
OGGs - Tags are not read. No Album art. Plays fine but only findable through folder view. Now playing screen shows album / artist as 'unknown.'

When using UMS;
FLACs - Tags read fine. Album artwork works.
OGGs - Tags read fine. Album art does not work.

In all cases I drag n dropped the files over. Its possible using Emodio / MediaMonkey / Winamp / WMP may yield different or better results. Also in both cases I tried including a M3U file in the album folder. For some reason I thought this would help when using MTP mode. It didn't.

I didn't test WMAs this time but off the top of my head they work just like FLACs, ok as long as you use UMS.


Which brings me to my next question, can anybody explain a benefit of using MTP? I think its got something to do with playlists or something, I'm not quite sure.

[CrowdAds]

[dfkt]

Originally Posted by robjrock

Which brings me to my next question, can anybody explain a benefit of using MTP? I think its got something to do with playlists or something, I'm not quite sure.

Some players might have better playlist support via MTP, but mainly it's just there for DRMed content.

[Leroy Bad]

Great, that answered my question in the other thread!
Not what is it about UMS that makes such a difference? I assumed it was just a transfer protocol for USB. So why would it have anything to do with content embedded in flac files?

ALso, in UMS mode do MP3 metadata still work?

[Scragbat]

Great info on FLAC's and UMS Robjock.
I was resigned to not having album art on FLAC's till I read that.

Very useful info indeed.

Regards
Scrag

[robjrock]

Mp3s work consistently well, no matter what mode your in.
About all I know concerning UMS is it what USB flash drives use.
Didn't think about DRM. Thanks dfkt.
Come on Sammy, give us album art in OGGs damn you!

[mq4ever]

Thanks for your testing!
Really helpful !

[vladsinger]

Originally Posted by robjrock

Come on Sammy, give us album art in OGGs damn you!

From the quick searching I did about this issue, there doesn't seem to be a consistent standard for album art in the Ogg format for them to support. Though I don't see any reason why they can't use the same working method that MediaMonkey uses.

[TomCat39]

Originally Posted by Leroy Bad

Great, that answered my question in the other thread!
Not what is it about UMS that makes such a difference? I assumed it was just a transfer protocol for USB. So why would it have anything to do with content embedded in flac files?

ALso, in UMS mode do MP3 metadata still work?

Specifically, UMS = Universal Mass Storage protocol.

MTP = Media Transfer Protocol.

MTP is designed around media only, thus it "looks" into the files and will only have the amount of support that has been currently developed at the time the protocol is used in the software.

UMS is designed as a file system protocol and so it doesn't look into files. It merely controls how they are moved around and ordered. The software then looks into the files for compatibility.

I think MTP, by design, tweaks files while UMS just moves them around.

[triarii117]

I didn't test WMAs this time but off the top of my head they work just like FLACs, ok as long as you use UMS.

Work fine for me in both UMS and MTP.