Windows and ID3v2.4 tags - what I use

[mcp at technologist.com]

Windows Media Player 11 (XP/Vista) and Windows Media Player 12 (Win7) both 
support ID3v2.4, in fact they have a decent tag editor built-in.  I have not 
tested versions prior to 11, so I don't know how well they support v2.4. 
 
Windows Media Center on Vista/7 both support ID3v2.4 because they use Media 
Player internally.  I don't know about Windows XP Media Center Edition. 
 
In Windows Vista and Win7, they only component I know of that doesn't support 
ID3v2.4 is the shell (explorer.exe).  To have tag info displayed in Windows 
Explorer, you'll need to use ID3v2.3 tags, or older, as you already know. 
 
What I do about this: 
I use taglib to modify my mp3 files, so of course, this converts the tag to 
v2.4.  To convert it back to v2.3, I use iTunes.  I know that iTunes isn't 
popular, but it is a really good library manager.  Anyway... Open iTunes, drag 
the mp3 files/folders into the window, select all, right-click and you can 
choose to convert the tag to any version you want.  It rewrites all the files 
quickly and easily.  When done, select all and delete the files from iTunes. 
 
I've done this process on tens of thousands of mp3 files.  It works well.  
iTunes doesn't add any goofy frames or modify any of the data - it simply 
converts the tag. 
 
Also, iTunes has a great tag editor built-in, and it doesn't change the tag 
version when editing.  One caveat, if you add artwork using iTunes, it will save 
the picture in PNG format.  PNG is several times larger than JPEG.  Thus making 
the file much larger than necessary. 
 
To summarize my process: 
1. Drag questionable mp3 file into iTunes 
2. Use iTunes tag editor to update tag info including pictures.  Then remove 
file from iTunes. 
3. Use my taglib app to clean up frames and convert picture to JPEG.  It also 
rewrites the file to reclaim wasted space. 
4. Reload file back into iTunes and convert tag to v2.3 
5. Verify Windows Explorer can see all data (it always does). 
 
I use iTunes as a tag editor and version converter only.  I am a not an iTunes 
expert.  I have only used iTunes v8.x and v9.x, so I cannot comment on behavior 
of other versions. 
 
I hope my comments were helpful. 
 
-Tony