File conventions

MediaPortal 2 uses file tag information to recognize audio data and download associated fanart and details about artists and composers. The quality of downloaded online information is subject to correct tagging of your audio files.

Tag Your Music

MediaPortal 2 can read the data (and album covers) stored in your ID3 tags. Many music media library apps can create a music database for you and store the details in your ID3 tags, however the quality of the data, and especially images, can vary significantly.

There are several external preparation tools, which can do that.

External preparation tools

Following tools are recommended to tag your media items in advance.

• MP3Tag
• MPTagThat
• TagScanner

Following fields should be always tagged (supported for mp3 and flac) to ensure 100% recognition and full experience.

• Track #
• Track title
• Artist (related to track)
• Album title
• Album artist
• Year
• Cover (Please add it for every track)
• Disc #/#

Example of a tagged album with MP3Tag:

Artist meta data and nfo files

To have a full experience with artist information, poster, fanart, ... you need to create a certain folder structure. This means a single folder for each Album Artist, named with the correct artist name. For compilations the folder is "Various Artists".

The content of each album artist folder contains the fanart images and optionally an artist.nfo containing further artist information. The artist image itself is named folder.jpg. The complete folder content looks for example like below:

The content of the artist.nfo looks for example as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--created on 29.12.2021 11:49:21 - Media-Buddy 1.0.0.23 -->
<artist>
   <name>Billie Eilish</name>
   <sortname>Billie Eilish</sortname>
   <musicBrainzArtistID>f4abc0b5-3f7a-4eff-8f78-ac078dbce533</musicBrainzArtistID>
   <type></type>
   <gender>Female</gender>
   <disambiguation></disambiguation>
   <genre>Pop</genre>
   <style>Rock/Pop</style>
   <mood></mood>
   <yearsactive></yearsactive>
   <born>2001</born>
   <formed>2015</formed>
   <biography>Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (* 18. Dezember 2001 in Los Angeles, Kalifornien) ist eine US-amerikanische Singer-Songwriterin. Im Januar 2020 gewann sie alle vier Hauptkategorien bei den Grammy Awards. </biography>
   <died></died>
   <disbanded></disbanded>
</artist>

The Album Artist folders contain the Album folders. Separate album folders are not mandatory (because tracks can be distinguished by album tags), but are strongly recommended to not create conflicts between fanart (folder.jpg can be used for artists and albums).

The folder structure (/Artist/Album/CD ##/...) can be created automatically with the tool Media Buddy. Please make sure to use the latest version and follow the instruction in the related thread. The "CD ##" folder is optional for multi disc albums or compilations, it can be also skipped in case tracks are tagged correctly.

\\audio share
           ¦—— Artist 1

                         ¦—— Album 1
                                       ¦—— Track 1.xxx
                                       ¦—— Track 2.xxx
                                       ¦—— ...

                         ¦—— Album 2

                                       ¦—— ...

           ¦—— Artist 2
                         ¦—— ...

To receive all metadata and fanart you might need a TheAudioDB API key. For test purposes "2" can be added (state 09/2022 - it might change) and all basic data can be scrapped.

The creation of an album.nfo is optional and not supported by Media Buddy. Besides the album description an album.nfo would not provide more data than anyway available from the ID3 tags. The album description can be added to the "comment" field in the ID3 tags

FanArt

FanArtMediaTypes

• Undefined
• Album
• Artist
• Composer
• MusicLabel

FanArtTypes

• Banner (banner.jpg)
• ClearArt (clearart.png)
• DiscArt (discart.png)
• FanArt (fanart.jpg)
• Cover (folder.jpg)