Media Player 11 not putting tags in MP3s

[PaultheITGuy]

Hello Everyone,

Any ideas on this?

I am using Windows Media Player 11 to rip my entire record collection as I find it to be quick and error free. I have done several hundred albums with about few hundred to go.

Here is how I was doing things until the error:

Putting the CD in and WMP gets the track info from CDDB (unless it is a rare album and I type the details in - either way the end result is the same). The I make a few amendments so my library is consistent (i.e. correcting spelling mistakes, capitalisation, genre, year etc). The I click 'Rip' and the tracks are created with ID3 tags fully complete and some hidden jpg files in the folder containing the album art.

I sat down at my machine today with a few hours to spare and thought I would put a movie on in the background and spend the time ripping some more CDs. But I have discovered the following.

WMP still gets the album info and art, and in the 'Rip' view all the correct data is displayed including the album art. However, once ripped none of this data is embedded into the file which forces WMP to file it under "Unknown Album" by "Unknown Artist". All the tracks have not title except for "Unknown" and there are no track numbers. In "View Details" mode in Windows Explorer not only are all these details missing but it suggestes the files have a Bit Rate of either "0" or the Bit Rate field shows as blank. It should be 192kbps.

The files seem to play fine and the quality is good, so I don't know what is going on.

System is:
XP Pro SP3
2..49 Ghz Dual Core
2GB Ram
Dell Optiplex 360

I have seen other site suggesting loss of connection to CDDB during the rip is the cause, but internet is working fine throughout the problem.

Nothing has changed on my machine since it worked - no Windows Updates or WMP11 Updates.

Any help would be most appreciated.

And "Use a different CD ripper" is not a viable option for me - my machine's install rights are locked by the IT administrator so it it the only ripper I have.

 

[linney]

Is there anything relevant in that first link?

[XP Pro] Media Player 11 and id3 tags problem

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19384687-XP-Pro-Media-Player-11-and-id3-tags-problem

http://www.google.com/search?q=Medi...-au&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

 

[PaultheITGuy]

Fraid not - can't install any 'non-corporation approved' software.

 

[PaultheITGuy]

I might try rebuilding the library using this page I found:

http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#medialibrary

 

[PaultheITGuy]

OK - so rebuilding the library didn't work.

The tracks still download the names correctly from CDDB but as soon as I rip them they are added to Unknown Album by Unknown Artist and they have no track no. against them.

Very infuriating.

Anymore ideas anyone?

 

[kjv1611]

Are you 100% sure your employer network doesn't block access to CCDB from Media Player? I know on corporate networks it's very common to block access to anything not necessary for work purposes.. in other words, they'll block network access to applications when those programs have no business reason to access the web. Where I work, all network connectivity from Windows Media Player is blocked.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[PaultheITGuy]

100% certain.

The track names and album art are retrieved when the CD goes in so it must be getting them from somewhere.

That's not the issue anyway because even if I type all the CD details in myself they do not transfer over to the ripped files.

 

[kjv1611]

Sounds like a privileges problem or possibly something causing your files to be marked as Read-Only at the time you're changing the attributes.

Another thing I've noticed once before was that there were some instances where I could say - yeah, that's my album, and it still not stick to the account - so it could just be something in Windows Media Player.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[PaultheITGuy]

It's just weird that it worked one day and not the next.

 

[cmeagan656]

You could try doing a "system restore" to a point where you know the ripped CDs included the tags if it wasn't too long ago.

Hope this helps.

Please help us help you. Read Tek-Tips posting polices before posting.

 

[PaultheITGuy]

I'm pretty sure you would have to be an administrator to do a system restore - I mentioned before - this is my work computer so I can't do anything 'instally'.

Although I did report that Media Player was playing up (I need it for my work) so it was removed and re-installed with the same problem.

I'm beginning to think it might be a group policy or something like that because it works fine on all my personal puters at home.

 

[cmeagan656]

Although I did report that Media Player was playing up (I need it for my work)...

In that case, I would report it again as not being fixed. If you need it for your work then it is up to your IT people to get it working so that you can do your job.

Hope this helps.

Please help us help you. Read Tek-Tips posting polices before posting.

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, as cmeagan56 said, it's a no brainer. If you need it for your job, then they have to fix it for you, even if that means installing a normally non-approved program. They'd just have to "approve" the application, or else make Media Player work correctly.

One possibility I can think of with this is that they could have had your permissions set special/different from the standard for this usage. And then some update or something occurred, and someone forgot to flag your account as special, thus setting your settings to the default. I've seen it happen where I work, at least.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[PaultheITGuy]

Problem solved...

Thanks for all your suggestions guys, but none of them fixed it.

It turns out that McAfee Host Intrusion Protection stops WMP11 from reading ID3 tags because they can contain malicious code.

The solutions was frighteningly simple (scary also because it makes is very easy to circumvent the security)... HIPS runs the rule when wmplayer.exe runs, so if the exe is renamed, for example to wmplayer11.exe, then it all starts working again.

 

[ANFPS26]

I am using Windows Media Player 11 to rip my entire record collection as I find it to be quick and error free. I have done several hundred albums with about few hundred to go.

At work? Just sayin'....

Jim

 

[PaultheITGuy]

Re-read the post more carefully:

I sat down at my machine today with a few hours to spare and thought I would put a movie on in the background and spend the time ripping some more CDs.

It is a work computer at my home. I am allowed to use it when not working.