FLAC TAG and the infamous "=artist" issue

DaremoS · 04-17-2009, 11:49

It has been discussed here that FLAC TAG produce an error in Cowon D2 if it contains embedded cover art, in simple words: if the cover of the album is included in the TAG of the file.
The player then shows in album name the text "=artist".

This is not so!

Cowon D2, in my fw 3.02 at least, have no problems when cover art is included in FLAC TAG. It depends what TAG manager was used to include the cover art into the TAG.
I do a very simple exercise:
. Using mp3tag v2.4.3 I extract the picture of the cover from the TAG and save it as “cover.jpg”.
. The I remove the cover from the TAG... this was added by MediaMonkey 3, at least the file was ripped by MM3.
. Then I put back the same “cover.jpg” into the FLAC TAG using this time mp3tag.

The problem was solved!!! Cowon D2 shows perfectly well the name of the album. No more "=artist". It seems that MM3 manages in an improper way cover art in FLAC TAG.

Most simple solution is to remove cover art using any TAG manager, as embedded cover is useless for the player which takes the cover from the file "cover.jpg". But if some audiophile like me, wants to have cover art embedded in his FLAC files there is no problem, just don’t use MediaMonkey3, I’ve tested it long last year, finally I remove it.
I've used from year the best media manager available: J River Media Center without problems, if I need some extra TAG managing I use only mp3tag.

If somebody wants to do further investigations in the exercise I did I've posted one track in each version with cover.jpg in Mediafire here
Sorry for the somehow boring song… but Celtic progressive folk is some times interesting... but really relaxing.

ned7077 · 04-17-2009, 15:46

I use DBPowerAmp Reference 13.2 to rip CDs and produce FLAC 1.2.1 files with embedded cover art that don't produce the ARTIST= problem. The D2 just ignores the embedded art and uses the cover.jpg like you stated.

Dicky Dave · 04-17-2009, 17:55

Perhaps it has to do with the order of the Vorbis comments in the track header. By removing the cover art and re-adding it, the cover art tag will be last. Maybe initially it appeared earlier in the tag list giving the D2 grief for some reason. Just a guess.

damole · 02-08-2010, 02:50

I have this same problem with my i7. The reason for this is the Cowon players read the tags sequentially. If the 'ALBUM' tag is first then the player will read the correct name for the album. If after this is reads any tag that starts with 'ALBUM' e.g. 'ALBUM ARTIST' then because it isn't correctly reading the tag name up to the '=' which is the delimiter for VORBIS comments (FLAC tags) it thinks that this is the 'ALBUM' tag and replaces whatever it correctly read before with everything that starts 1 character after 'ALBUM'.

e.g.

tag value
ALBUM ARTIST=Wrong

It reads ALBUM as the tag name, the 'space' as the delimiter and then "ARTIST=Wrong" as the value to display.

tag value
ALBUMXHELLO=Did you read the VORBIS comments spec?

It reads ALBUM as the tag name, the 'X' as the delimiter and then "HELLO=Did you read the VORBIS comments spec?" as the value to display.

I've raised a support Q&A ticket so we shall see what happens. If all firmwares have this bug that might seem like a lot of work for a small fix.

04-17-2009, 11:49	#1
DaremoS Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Santiago, CHILE Posts: 887	FLAC TAG and the infamous "=artist" issue It has been discussed here that FLAC TAG produce an error in Cowon D2 if it contains embedded cover art, in simple words: if the cover of the album is included in the TAG of the file. The player then shows in album name the text "=artist". This is not so! Cowon D2, in my fw 3.02 at least, have no problems when cover art is included in FLAC TAG. It depends what TAG manager was used to include the cover art into the TAG. I do a very simple exercise: . Using mp3tag v2.4.3 I extract the picture of the cover from the TAG and save it as “cover.jpg”. . The I remove the cover from the TAG... this was added by MediaMonkey 3, at least the file was ripped by MM3. . Then I put back the same “cover.jpg” into the FLAC TAG using this time mp3tag. The problem was solved!!! Cowon D2 shows perfectly well the name of the album. No more "=artist". It seems that MM3 manages in an improper way cover art in FLAC TAG. Most simple solution is to remove cover art using any TAG manager, as embedded cover is useless for the player which takes the cover from the file "cover.jpg". But if some audiophile like me, wants to have cover art embedded in his FLAC files there is no problem, just don’t use MediaMonkey3, I’ve tested it long last year, finally I remove it. I've used from year the best media manager available: J River Media Center without problems, if I need some extra TAG managing I use only mp3tag. If somebody wants to do further investigations in the exercise I did I've posted one track in each version with cover.jpg in Mediafire here Sorry for the somehow boring song… but Celtic progressive folk is some times interesting... but really relaxing. __________________ I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. ---- Voltaire, the guy who sells newspapers

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04-17-2009, 15:46	#2
ned7077 Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Ellington, CT USA Posts: 115	I use DBPowerAmp Reference 13.2 to rip CDs and produce FLAC 1.2.1 files with embedded cover art that don't produce the ARTIST= problem. The D2 just ignores the embedded art and uses the cover.jpg like you stated.

04-17-2009, 17:55	#3
Dicky Dave Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 276	Perhaps it has to do with the order of the Vorbis comments in the track header. By removing the cover art and re-adding it, the cover art tag will be last. Maybe initially it appeared earlier in the tag list giving the D2 grief for some reason. Just a guess.

02-08-2010, 02:50	#4
damole Junior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 13	I have this same problem with my i7. The reason for this is the Cowon players read the tags sequentially. If the 'ALBUM' tag is first then the player will read the correct name for the album. If after this is reads any tag that starts with 'ALBUM' e.g. 'ALBUM ARTIST' then because it isn't correctly reading the tag name up to the '=' which is the delimiter for VORBIS comments (FLAC tags) it thinks that this is the 'ALBUM' tag and replaces whatever it correctly read before with everything that starts 1 character after 'ALBUM'. e.g. tag value ALBUM ARTIST=Wrong It reads ALBUM as the tag name, the 'space' as the delimiter and then "ARTIST=Wrong" as the value to display. tag value ALBUMXHELLO=Did you read the VORBIS comments spec? It reads ALBUM as the tag name, the 'X' as the delimiter and then "HELLO=Did you read the VORBIS comments spec?" as the value to display. I've raised a support Q&A ticket so we shall see what happens. If all firmwares have this bug that might seem like a lot of work for a small fix.