Album tracks in wrong order

[zaentzpantz]

SA2RGA08SN/02
Each album shows and plays the tracks in a mixed up order on my player despite them being labelled correctly.
The id3 tag information has the tracks numbered 01, 02, 03 etc correctly at the start of each filename, and I have even added 1,2,3 etc to the front of the track titles to try and sort them.
The id3 track numbers are correct as well but for instance I get one classical album that lists and plays the tracks as 3,5,7,9,10,8,6,4,2,1.
How does the player sort the tracks in each album?
I have tried:
1 Making sure all tracks start with 01, 02 etc.
2 Making sure all filenames start with 01,02 etc
3 Changing track id3 tag to 01 instead of 01/16
4 Erasing all id3 tags except title, album, artist
5 Making sure the time stamp on each tracks is sequential
None of the above have worked but I'm still searching.
It seems to be a common problem if you google this.

[Caveman]

I have same issue with Muse2 (model SA2MUS16s/17). It's unbelievable that Philips had released devices with such a blatant bug.

[zaentzpantz]

I have same issue with Muse2 (model SA2MUS16s/17). It's unbelievable that Philips had released devices with such a blatant bug.

It's not just Philips, the web is full of people posting the same complaint. It is a common fault with many players, and I have an Archos with the same problem.
There is a predictable pattern in the jumble, my order of tracks on an album I copied over last night are 3,5,7,8,6,4,2,1 so it counts up the odd tracks then counts down the even tracks and tacks 1 or 10 on the end, which is similar to several other albums in my players.
It's a pity Bletchley Park aren't still in operation as I'm sure they could crack this one in a week.

[Caveman]

I also have Ariaz2 and Ariaz3, the same albums having tracks played in wrong order are played in correct order with these Ariaz players. As an unfortunate compensation, these Ariaz players have other issues (slow FF speed).

[Caveman]

I think I have found the reason. It could be mp3 tag ID3 v2.4 which is incompatible with some of these Philips player. For the Muse2, I retagged the troubled albums using ID3 v2.3 instead of 2.4 and now the track are sorted in the proper order. This is definitely a bug.

[zaentzpantz]

I think I have found the reason. It could be mp3 tag ID3 v2.4 which is incompatible with some of these Philips player. For the Muse2, I retagged the troubled albums using ID3 v2.3 instead of 2.4 and now the track are sorted in the proper order. This is definitely a bug.

Many thanks for that insight, I think that may well be the problem.
I ripped an album using Songbird last night and copied the files to the player, and all tracks come up in the right order. Investigating the filenames and metadata with mp3tag, I can see the player sorts tracks on the filenames and if I copy the same format for details to other albums they stay in the wrong order so it all points to your solution.
Unfortunately I can only use Songbird on an old laptop as it crashes on my newer desktop computer, and the laptop is a bit slow, so I use EAC and other programmes to rip cds on the desktop.
One of the tag editors I have allows the user to choose different id3 tag versions, so I will look into this and report back.

[Caveman]

Unfortunately I can only use Songbird on an old laptop as it crashes on my newer desktop computer, and the laptop is a bit slow, so I use EAC and other programmes to rip cds on the desktop.
One of the tag editors I have allows the user to choose different id3 tag versions, so I will look into this and report back.

Rip the MP3 using your favorite tool and feed all the tag info as best as you can. Then use mp3tag v2.49b (http://mp3tag.de/en/download.html) to force a rewrite of all tags, mp3tag is configured by default to write ID3 v2.3 tags for mp3. For example, let's assume all the mp3 were already perfectly tagged. use mp3tag select all tracks and click on the AutoNumbering Wizard button on the toolbar. The tool will then overwrite the track info (with probably the same track number). At the end, mp3tag just resaves all the mp3 tags in ID3 v2.3. Of course, if the mp3 were badly tagged. You can also use mp3tag tool to fix them.

In summary, as soon as the tags is rewritten using mp3tag (or any tool capable of writing ID3 v2.3) then it will be parsed correctly by these Philips players. I fixed all the troubled albums by this trick and this worked every time.

[zaentzpantz]

Thanks Caveman, that did the trick!
I already use mp3tag and could see the tags were nearly all v2.4. Once they were changed all my albums jumped back into proper order. This is very important with classical music.
You'd think Philips (and others) should know about this and make a relevant entry in the product FAQ pages, after all it's a simple bug that's easily cured when you know about it. Hello moderator..

[Caveman]

You'd think Philips (and others) should know about this and make a relevant entry in the product FAQ pages, after all it's a simple bug that's easily cured when you know about it. Hello moderator..

For some strange reasons, the Ariaz2 & 3 recognize ID3v2.4 but not the Muse2. As for Philips Dev Team, I wonder if they monitor the forum for feedback. The GUI of the Muse2 is catastrophically bad. I don't know what is Philips strategy in the MP3 player market. In spite of the good brand name, good built, good price, they seems to shoot themselves in the foot with bad firmware design.

[silu]

Greetings from Lithuania,

I came to the Philips Forums having the same issue, my mp3 player SoundDot not playing audiobooks' tracks in a simple and logical order even if the files are named 01, 02, 03 ...

Thanks to your comments, guys, I can see there is a solution to the problem, but unfortunately I am such a noob and it is hard for me to understand how should I tag my mp3 files to make them play in correct order.

Can someone explain step by step how to rewrite those damn tags? I installed Songbird and Mp3tag on my laptop.

[Caveman]

Hi,

It's quite long to explain you how to use a tagger utility. I advise you to search a tutorial on the internet for using mp3tag. Otherwise I think there should be documention on mp3tag web site.

Good lucks.

[silu]

Thanks.

I tried to rewrite tags after reading the mp3tag manual and went for advice on mp3tag forum. In this case it wasn't for tags. It appears that the Sound Dot plays tracks in proper sequence if the files are dragged into the Sound Dot window one by one and in a wanted order. So simple like this.

[Caveman]

So if you have a compil of 200 songs, you drag drop 200 times to get the correct playing order? Then let's assume that you delete these songs from the player to replace by new songs. A while later you want to listen to that compil of 200 songs again. I hope you won't go to the 200x drag drop exercise again.

Writing tags will fix that sequence issue once for all because the info is written inside the song. Better yet, learning how to use a tagger utility will help you to fix the tags whenever you have songs with messy tags. For example what if the song has an ugly (or missing) album art? You can use a tagger to embed any cover you want. Trust me, if you want to classify correctly for songs, you must pay attention to tag them correctly.

[silu]

200x drag drop exercise sounds hilarious Fortunately, I don't have to do this because there is a better way . The trick is to select the first track on the list, than scroll down to the last one and hit on it when holding the Shift key down. All the tracks get selected and when dragged in the SounDot window they get copied exactly in order as they are sorted on the list. The SoundDot plays them correctly than.

Of course, I can only agree with you about the tag fixing. I learned how to use mp3tag to number the tracks and to save ID3v2.3 tags but it doesn't help the SounDot to play tracks in correct order. I can't see where's the problem http://i.imgur.com/s4ZaN.jpg - an example of an audiobook tracks I tagged using mp3tag.

[Caveman]

Hi,

The 200x example I mentioned seems indeed silly. Because you said you needed to do one by one

It appears that the Sound Dot plays tracks in proper sequence if the files are dragged into the Sound Dot window one by one and in a wanted order

In the screenshot you showed, tried to force a Save using mp3tag, without changing anything to see if this could fix. Example:
1- Select All tracks, blank the comment field, click Save
OR
2- Select all tracks, click on Autonumbering wizard (the 12 button on toolbar), leave the "Leading zero numbers box checked" Hit OK
OR
3- Do #2 above + Rename the files:
Hit the Tag -> Filename button in toolbar
Format string = $num(%track%,2) - %title%

After the the tracks have been retagged. Delete them from your SoundDot. Disconnect SoundDot from computer, wait a minute for it to reparse the library. Then connect SoundDot to computer again and copy the new retagged trackes.

If this doesn't solve the issue, then I am afraid you better change for another MP3 player. BTW, why would you use a player without a screen? The SoundDot player looks expensive, $20 for 2GB and no screen ?!? A Sony NWZE464KB, 8GB + external speaker is less than $80.