Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

2004-03-16 18:17:57

So, I have taken the time to rip/encode my entire CD collection into Vorbis using EAC with the GT3b1 encoder at Q=6.  I just purchased an iRiver iHP-140 player from Amazon.com, which should be here in a few days, and was wondering about organization. 

I didn't use any ID3 tagging whatsoever.  My collection is simply organized in Windows, "My Music" folder, with the nomenclature: "C:\My Music\Artist\Album\Track# - Artist - TrackName.ogg" 

It's unclear to me, but as I understand it, according to the Ogg Vorbis site, there is metadata in the .ogg file without me creating an ID3 tag?  If so, does the iRiver iHP-140 pick this info up, so that I may organize by it?  Or at least, will the iRiver retain my directory structure?


Thank you all for your help in advance.

Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

Reply #1 – 2004-03-16 18:21:15

Ogg (Vorbis) has, as the site states, it's own metadata format. Never add ID3 tags to oggs, you will just corrupt the files.

I assume that if the player plays Vorbis it will support Ogg Vorbis tags as well...

You can use a tagger that supports Vorbis to add the tags to the files, by guessing/extracting them from the directory structure. Foobar2000 can do this for example.

Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

Reply #2 – 2004-03-16 21:00:07

or use mp3Tag! for this purpose and if you're not familiar with Foobar!
Vorbis uses its own "ogg comments", which are diffrent from id3vX.
How did you rip your CDs?Were There Comments safed to the files?(Just open an ogg in Winamp/Foobar and look at the tags, there must be some text values in the fields, if not, there are no tags present)

And iHp 1xx series (with ogg support) support vorbis comments...how much did you pay for the ihp140?

Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

Reply #3 – 2004-03-17 04:15:25

Thanks both for replying!

Der_Iltis - mp3Tag would allow me to change .ogg tag content safely?  Cool.  When I open a file in winamp, it has title, album, artist, etc. info in the tag, so I assume that is info taken from the metadata in the .ogg file when I ripped/encoded?  Okay.  So the iRiver should use that information when organizing my music?  Cool, what if I wanted the player to ignore the metadata and strictly use my directory/filename structure?

Oh, I paid $419 - $50 MIR = $369 for the iHP-140, Amazon.com, FYI.  Plus $180 for a pair of Shure E3c cans from J&R audio.

Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

Reply #4 – 2004-03-17 09:40:39

Also have a look at Tag:
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/html/tag.html
There are some lovely frontends for it. I use it to add tags to my files after ripping by using the data in the filename.

Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

Reply #5 – 2004-03-18 07:57:18

Yep, the files seem to have ogg comments.
I don't know how the iRiver plays files by directory structure, I assume it plays (by default) automatically in alphabetically order. e.g.:
if your structure is Artist\Album\Track# - Artist - TrackName.ogg
it would play at first ABBA\The complete singles CD 1\*all files by tracknumber*
and then ABBA\The complete singles CD 2\*all files by tracknumber*
...
and then Wishbone Ash\The very best of Wishbone Ash\*all files by #*
you can also easily change directory structure with mp3tag by its rename functions.

So if you move your files in this directory structure to your iHp everything should work fine.

BTW: welcome to HA

Do I need ID3 tags with .ogg?

Reply #6 – 2004-03-18 19:37:07

Cool thanks for the info.  My iRiver should arrive soon, so I'll be able to play with my new toy and see. 

Oh, thanks for the welcome too!!