[solved] Compilation album name duplicates

[grolschie]

Hello. I'm running Serviio on Linux. I have an issue with compilation albums. When browsing music by Album I see duplicate entries of the album name - one for each track/artist. Possibly Serviio might be getting confused where Artists have been entered in the meta data. Here is an example from a compilation album called Big Rock. I can't see anywhere from the ffmpeg -i output that it's a compilation album. I am guessing a work around would be if the albums are located in a parent folder called "Compilations" or "Various Artists" that albums of the same name could get merged?

  Code:

ffmpeg -i /media/ntfsdrive/iTunes/Music/Compilations/Big\ Rock/1-03\ The\ Boys\ Are\ Back\ In\ Town.m4a -v verbose
ffmpeg version 1.1.git Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Mar 26 2014 12:15:04 with gcc 4.7 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
  configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab --enable-librtmp --enable-libxvid
  libavutil      52. 37.101 / 52. 37.101
  libavcodec     55. 16.100 / 55. 16.100
  libavformat    55.  9.100 / 55.  9.100
  libavdevice    55.  2.100 / 55.  2.100
  libavfilter     3. 77.101 /  3. 77.101
  libswscale      2.  3.100 /  2.  3.100
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  3.100 / 52.  3.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from '/media/ntfsdrive/iTunes/Music/Compilations/Big Rock/1-03 The Boys Are Back In Town.m4a':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : M4A
    minor_version   : 0
    compatible_brands: M4A mp42isom
    creation_time   : 2010-01-12 17:47:42
    title           : The Boys Are Back In Town
    artist          : Thin Lizzy
    album           : Big Rock
    genre           : Rock
    track           : 3/8
    disc            : 1/2
    date            : 1976
    gapless_playback: 0
    encoder         : iTunes 9.0.2.25, QuickTime 7.6.4
  Duration: 00:04:44.21, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 283 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Audio: aac (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 281 kb/s
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2010-01-12 17:47:42
At least one output file must be specified


The library was organized by iTunes, and in iTunes there are fields for the artist as well as a check-box for whether or not it's a compilation album.
Thanks.


[EDIT:] I now see that I wish that the Albums view could be listed by Album Artist instead of by Artist. That should group up the compilations.

However, the Album Artists view seems to not get this right either. When I view my library using Banshee, the album artist view groups "Big Rock" album under Various Artists and "Thin Lizzy" in no longer listed - good. However, in Serviio when browsing by Album Artist I don't see "Big Rock" in Various Artists - and I am still seeing Thin Lizzy listed.

[grolschie]

I can view the metadata with the puddletag program and can see that the metadata fiedl partofcompilation is set to "Yes". I am thinking that ffmpeg does not set this tag.

Proposed solution:

package: mp4v2

I suggest a possible solution is to include this package and check this tag when scanning the library. I installed mp4v2 from Debian's repository.

Here is the output of mp4info (from mp4v2):

  Code:

mp4info 1-03\ The\ Boys\ Are\ Back\ In\ Town.m4a
mp4info version 2.0.0
1-03 The Boys Are Back In Town.m4a:
Track   Type   Info
1   audio   MPEG-4 AAC LC, 284.212 secs, 256 kbps, 44100 Hz
 Name: The Boys Are Back In Town
 Artist: Thin Lizzy
 Encoded with: iTunes 9.0.2.25, QuickTime 7.6.4
 Release Date: 1976
 Album: Big Rock
 Track: 3 of 8
 Disk: 1 of 2
 GenreType: 18, Rock
 BPM: 0
 Part of Compilation: yes
 Part of Gapless Album: no

UPDATE: I have now logged a bitbucket report.

[grolschie]

Here is an example of Album double-ups in Mediabrowser:




Here are some of the same, but in Artist view:

[grolschie]

Here is the simple solution (for iTunes users with .m4a files at least):

1. In iTunes, right-click the album cover.
2. Select Get Info.
3. You will be asked "Are you sure you wand to edit information for multiple items?".
4. Click "Edit Items".
5. On the next dialog box, click "Add field".
6. Select "Album Artists".
7. Enter "Various Artists" (or whatever you prefer).
8. Rescan Serviio's library.

ffmpeg now can see an "album_artist" tag and albums are no longer duplicated in Serviio.

Hi There,

OK, so using a tag editor on "m4a" files this works, should this work around also work for other file format such as flac? I have tried it and first time round it didn't seem to?

Does ffmpeg look for this field on all formats, or?

Cheers, Derek

Running Serviio on an iMac

[remixedcat]

I got this as well and I even used Mp3Tag to clear the "album artist" field and it still has this issue. Very annoying.

[grolschie]

I got this as well and I even used Mp3Tag to clear the "album artist" field and it still has this issue. Very annoying.

Instead of clearing the "Album Artists" field, enter "Various Artists" in that field. That works for me.

[remixedcat]

I'll try that. Thanks.