[ID3 Tags] How to extract standard -s format as well as all UserDefinedText?

[westrock2000]

I like the "-s" format, but when it comes to "User Defined Text", it gives me whatever the last one was. If I use "-a" switch then I get all the User Defined Text, but then I also get some duplicates. Particularly, I'm concerned about the Genre tags below where one is correct, but one says "None" (since it's blank?). But I'm also concerned about other duplicates/empty fields that I haven't ran into yet.

Here is -a output

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Track                           : 1
Part Of Set                     : 1
Band                            : Great Singer
User Defined Text               : (CATALOG) PCCA-20025  <--- This is what I want
Title                           : Amazing Song
Album                           : The Best Album
Genre                           : Pop <--- This is the real genre
Artist                          : Great Singer
Composer                        : τÑûσáൡúµà╢
User Defined Text               : (PERFORMER)   <--- This is all shows up with -s switch
Picture MIME Type               : image/jpeg
Picture Type                    : Front Cover
Picture Description             :
Picture                         : (Binary data 184402 bytes, use -b option to extract)
Title                           : Amazing Song
Artist                          : Great Singer
Album                           : The Best Album
Year                            :
Comment                         :
Track                           : 1
Genre                           : None      <---- This is a problem
Audio Bitrate                   : 123 kbps
Duration                        : 0:04:19 (approx)


and here is with -s, note that (CATALOG) is missing

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Track                           : 1
PartOfSet                       : 1
Band                            : Great Singer
Title                           : Amazing Song
Album                           : The Best Album
Genre                           : Pop
Artist                          : Great Singer
Composer                        : τÑûσáൡúµà╢
UserDefinedText                 : (PERFORMER) <--- Just shows this and not (CATALOG)
PictureMIMEType                 : image/jpeg
PictureType                     : Front Cover
PictureDescription              :
Picture                         : (Binary data 184402 bytes, use -b option to extract)
Year                            :
Comment                         :
AudioBitrate                    : 123 kbps
Duration                        : 0:04:19 (approx)


So I would like the -s output, but also add all the UserDefinedText catagories. Is that possible?

This is on Windows.
Love this program by the way, has helped me in a couple other projects over the years with organizing my media libraries.

[StarGeek]

You can combine the two.  Use exiftool -s -a.  You also probably want to add -G (groupNames) option to get the group names.  The reason you get two Genre tags is because the file probably has ID3v1 and ID3v2 tag groups.

As I recall, the ID3v1 Genre tag is limited,  ID3v2 more flexible.

Example output using exiftool -G1 -a -s -UserDefinedText -genre

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[ID3v2_3]       UserDefinedText                 : (Rip date) 2011-11-16
[ID3v2_3]       UserDefinedText                 : (Source) CD (LP)
[ID3v2_3]       UserDefinedText                 : (Ripping tool) EAC
[ID3v2_3]       UserDefinedText                 : (Release type) Normal release
[ID3v2_3]       Genre                           : Alternative
[ID3v1]         Genre                           : Alternative

There's also the -g (groupHeadings) option with a slightly different output:

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---- ID3v2_3 ----
UserDefinedText                 : (Rip date) 2011-11-16
UserDefinedText                 : (Source) CD (LP)
UserDefinedText                 : (Ripping tool) EAC
UserDefinedText                 : (Release type) Normal release
Genre                           : Alternative
---- ID3v1 ----
Genre                           : Alternative

[westrock2000]

Thanks for the response.

You can combine the two.  Use exiftool -s -a.  The reason you get two Genre tags is because the file probably has ID3v1 and ID3v2 tag groups.

Yep, I have two tag types. The actual genre is "Video Game" which isn't one of the original supported genres.

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[ID3v2_3]       Genre                           : Video Game
[ID3v1]         Genre                           : None


In the tag, is the ID3v1 actually populated as "None" or is that a placeholder for no value?
Right now I'm checking that if Genre = "None", but Genre was already described for this file then ignore, because there is the possibility of someone having the Genre as "None" and being legitimate.

Is Genre probably the only field that is affected like this? Since Genre field changed the way it was handled as time went by.

[StarGeek]

In the tag, is the ID3v1 actually populated as "None" or is that a placeholder for no value?

I'm not all that familiar with ID3 tags, so I'm not sure.  The ID3 tag page gives it a value of 255, but it "None" doesn't appear on the List of ID3v1 Genres wikipedia page.  You would probably have to read up on the spec to figure it out.

Is Genre probably the only field that is affected like this? Since Genre field changed the way it was handled as time went by.

Sorry I can't help there.  I don't get too in depth with my music tags.