Hi all,

I have written a basic CD -> CDDB -> Lame Mp3 application. I want to add ID tags to the result but I also want to be backward capatible with 1st generation iPods. Does anyone know which version I should be using?

Thanks

Doesn't matter, as the iPod does not read nor use ID3 tags.

iTunes is capable of reading several ID3 versions. I'd recommend sticking to ID3v1 and/or ID3v2.3 if you want to stay as compatible as possible. Avoid ID3v2.4, as Windows and XP are not very happy with it in general.

Oh OK. I didn't know that - I am developing "blind" as I do not have one! I guess then that iTunes tranlates the tags into equivalent database fields when you add a song to the unit??

I know for sure that at least the newer iPods do read id3-Tags. The complete database is based upon id3-tags so I really doubt that first generation iPod do not use them.

I know for an absolute *certainty* that they do not.

iTunes and other iPod synching programs read tags or whatever and use this information to build a file on the iPod that's named "iTunesDB". The iPod gets everything it knows about the songs from this file. So it's iTunes or whatever syncing program you use that reads the tags, not the iPod itself.

I wrote a library to parse and read this file, as well as other files on the iPod, and Aero helped improve it and has used it to build a plugin for foobar 2000 called "foo_pod". Do a search on this forum.

Source to my library can be found here: http://otto.homedns.org:8888/iTunes/iPodDB.zip

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Cheers Otto,

I'll have a look into it.