[mrondello]

Sounds like you have a Tagging problem.

I feel you on this. I had a problem with my library being highly inconsistent due to bad Tagging ( eg. ac/dc not being country).

During the conversion of my CD collection over the last 4 years, it wasn't until recently that I found reliable methods to name and tag mp3 data. Up until purchasing an iPod, I used the trusty old method of directory+filename in winamp 2.x to listen and sort music.

The problem resides is the iPod being a "music database" based on the id3 tags. Also I doubt this trend is going away. It seems that most of the hardware and software being released now is using this approach, as opposed to the old directory+filename approach.

Basically, if you want to get the functionality of the iPod you need to re-tag your music. Re-tagging my current collection was very tedious, but it was WELL worth it. I have 9000+ files at 50 GB. With proper tags it takes a very short amount of time to load a correctly organized library in many different programs.

There are some good programs out there that offer batch tagging from file names. If you take the time, you will have less to worry about in the future. You can always still use directory+filename on things that support it, and also have the added bonus of being able to use database driven programs and hardware in the future.


Ongoing: Make sure you stick to one ripping and encoding method. My problems stemmed from encoding with multiple encoders that all tagged in their own way. It really got bad with headaches over id3v1 and id3v2 when the later first came out.

My choice now is to encode with EAC/Lame and then tag seperately with a self-written tagger. I had fun writing the utility so I keep using it.

PS: The iPod is very strict about tagging, as it does not ignore whitespace. so "myband" and "myband " will not show up as the same artist or song. Also my iPod seems to not like the "." character in tags and constantly duplicates these files on transfer.