"Comment" field in iTunes

[MyAppleWorld]

Hi

I have changed the comment field of all my tracks so that they contain keywords, e.g. "Sarah" so I know it is a track of my friends.

However, this isn't what is displayed in the ID3 Tag if I view the track in Winamp.

Why not?

Why can't iTunes follow industry standards? The reason I want it standard is that in the future, if I ever move to a different application, e.g. Windows Media Player, all ID3 tags will be read the same.

I note that other tags such as Title and Artist are the same in winamp as they are in itunes, and it doesnt matter which player you edit them, they will be the same.

 

[iMeowbot]

Why can't iTunes follow industry standards?

Why can't Winamp either? It has ID3 bugs too.

In truth, ID3 isn't so much an industry standard as an awful hack that relies on audio decoders' ability to reject bogus frames. It's a wonder that it works at all.

 

[cantthinkofone]

my cd player in my car would read the comments on the track are they AAC files mp3 files etc etc? winamp may not like AAC files.

 

[MyAppleWorld]

they are mp3.

am i right in thinking that itunes syncs some id3 tags with its database, but not all

 

[iMeowbot]

You would be right in thinking that WinAmp is poor at parsing comment tags. It is. iTunes will update that tag as long as it has write access to the file.

 

[MyAppleWorld]

Do you know if it's possible for Windows Media Player to display the comment field?

 

[iMeowbot]

WMP support is partial and buggy, just like everyone else's

One thing that you can try in iTunes is to convert the ID3 tags to a different version. With a little experimentation you should find something that works reasonably okay for your setup. ID3 is a minefield, so keep your fingers crossed

 

[MyAppleWorld]

I suppose the short answer is to use only 1 application and stick to it forever. lol

I just don't like itunes having a seperate database where it stores some information, but not all