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PostPosted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:46 am 
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This software looks very promising. I've been making mp3s books since 1997 when the mp3 codec came out. With every mp3 player in the world, except the ipod, it's easy, they either read the file name or id3 tags, play in the correct order, all is well. Ipod's are wildly different, like some cheap chinese no-name mp3 player that sometimes uses id3 tags, never uses file name, won't play in right order, etc, etc, etc. However, This software seems to fix the giant clusterfudge mess that is apple/itunes/ipod. So, in making some of my books a little more ipod friendly, I have a few questions: (I am a PC with a mac handy for ABB and an ipod video "classic" 30GB) and will be using ID3: standard; if ABB departs from the de facto terminology - so be it.)

1. So I have ripped a few CDs worth of books,

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I have absolute numbered the files and properly populated "Track - Artist - Album - Title" (Track; zero padded track - Atrist(Author) - Album (Book Title) - Title (chapter or Track title) , etc) the id3 tags (with Mp3tag). At this point, it will work perfectly in every single MP3 player in the world. (Except ipod)

Of course I can't tag this simply as "ITUNESMEDIATYPE" = "AUDIOBOOK" and "GENRE" = AUDIOBOOK, for it to play nice in ipod...

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I also have to convert it to M4b (which is dumb, because it's just a notation, not a real file difference, why can't you just use tags apple...Anyways) Then of course when you get into an ipod > Audiobook, it has the books there... listed alphabetically by title, um, WFT? seriously? 100% Useless. Who reads a book by alphabetical chapters mixed in with all your other books? Anyways, go to music > album and you can find you're book there sorted correctly.

But ABB solves oh so much of that problem. I love it. However, when I play a file that's been all conjoined up by ABB, I see the pic on the left (of an ipod classic,) the Album scross on top, the Artist is static in the middle and then the Album again.

How do I get the Title of the segment to scroll across the top instead of the album?

I've been through the "Rename chapters" section and tried every combination possible to make change the "title" to the title for the track.

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When I look at a ID3 tags of the file that ABB's has made, it shows the Title as the Ablum name, (which makes sense, this is what ipod sees) I understand there is some embedded stuff going on, but this is possible, to show the track Title with the ipod?

2. I also can't seem to be albe to fastforward through a track? Is this possible or do I just need to reset the ipod? I know that problem happens a lot with ipods. It just jumps to the next embedded track, but is this disabled in the software somehow? I'm just checking.

3. Can I also get a guide that explains what ABB calls it vs the ID3 standard, for example:

ABB = ID3 Standard (my guess)

Chapter #= Track(?)
Chapter Count = Totaltracks (?)
Audiobook Title = Album(?)
Chapter Name = Title(?)

Just those few would be great. I don't need an explanation of WHY the departure from the standard vernacular, just want the guide, I can deal with it.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:41 pm 
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There is not much we can do to influence what Apple decides to show on the title bar of the iPod when playing back audiobooks. We follow their lead as much as we can when it comes to how tags are used so it makes the most sense when using them for audiobooks.

Audiobook Builder uses 'Album' for the name of the book. It uses the 'Title' tag for the book title + the part number in a multipart book, or it simply duplicates the name of the book if it is a single part audiobook. If you choose to build your book with a part style of 'Per Chapter' in the build options, the 'Title' tag becomes the name of the chapter because your book will be multiple files instead of one file with multiple chapters. We use the Album tag as the book name because iTunes and iPods use the Album tag to group a book of multiple files together into one.

Chapters are not stored as a tag. Chapters are actually another track within the file. Part of the reason for that is that a standard tag is not dynamic and cannot change as a file plays through and switches chapters within the same file.

Here is a rough breakdown of tags:

(ABB = ID3)

Title (Book name in the Cover Section) = Album
Author = Artist, Album Artist or Composer (configurable in ABB's preferences)
Narrated By = Artist, Album Artist or Composer (configurable in ABB's preferences)
Year = Date
Part name or Chapter name (depends on build options) = Title
Part number or Chapter number (depends on build options) = Track #

The rest used have pretty much the same name. The one that is varied in use is the Title tag as mentioned above (used for both part name in a multipart book, or chapter name in a part per chapter book). Track number is also varied. This counts 'x of x' number of parts in a book in a multipart book, or it counts 'x of x' number of chapters in a part per chapter book.

I hope this helps!

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:19 am 
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Thanks for the reply, so the only way to have the changing "Chapter" tag be populated is the build the audiobook in the "Per Chapter" part style? Which is the multiple file format?


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:58 pm 
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If your goal is to get the 'Title' tag to change for each chapter, then yes, you will need to build your book so each chapter is a separate file.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:40 am 
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Thanks for the reply.

1. Why is 13 hour limitation thing? Is that ipod's limitation or something?

2. I can't tell any difference between the break by file, chapter, equal length, is there for the type I am doing (above, CD rip books each track is a chapter for example).

3. If I used dbpoweramp to encode an mp3 and I put it in the M4B format, and I tag it the id3 tag is "ITUNESMEDIATYPE" = "AUDIOBOOK" It still won't show up in itunes as a book, is there something I'm doing wrong or is this not possible?


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:37 am 
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Sorry for the delay in the reply.

13 hours for 128 kbps is a limitation of the iPod and iPhone. You can increase that length limitation by decreasing the quality. It all has to do with how many samples Apple's portable players can handle based on 32 bit numbers.

If Audiobook Builder has to create parts due to length limitations, the part style section is where you control that. Break between files allows Audiobook Builder to split part files between your actual audio files. Break between chapters allows Audiobook Builder to only split part files between the chapters you have organized in your project. This keeps chapters from being split between part files, but can also make part files uneven given less options for part splits.

Equal length is a bit different. It forces part breaks based on getting your parts to an equal length. This means it can split audio mid-word if needed to get the parts to line up.

Once your file is added to iTunes, you may want to Get Info on it, and select the Audiobook media kind in the options tab. This should force it to appear in the books section.

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:56 pm 
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Cool, thanks.

I don't know if I am either misunderstanding something, my audio files are 64 kbps, mono, and 44.1, and I am keeping the same format, but I can not get over the 13 hour limitation.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:04 pm 
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If you change your Custom settings from 44.1 kHz to 32 kHz you will be able to set a target length of up to 18 hours per part.

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