I recently ran across an edit that adds a data track to an existing release. The editor admitted there was more than one video contained in that data track, so I suggested splitting it up to account for each video. They refused, citing the fact the software they were using showed only one data track on the disc. This to me seems like a stretch, but my experience with these releases is limited. What does everyone else think?
Hello. I am not sure what to do here, either. The two relevant examples I found in the wiki are:
- Data tracks, concerning the inclusion and title of the data track.
- Multi-session (audio + data) CD, concerning reading the TOC in a multi-session CD.
Unless I am overlooking something, there is only one data track. But I cannot claim to be an expert on multi-session CDs. Any advice from an expert would be appreciated.
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I understand the editor’s position. I’ve seen this with music tracks where one track contains several songs, but is still listed as just one track on the release. Usually in this case the songs are listed like “Song 1 / Song 2 / Song 3” and so on. Perhaps a similar thing can be done for the videos in the data track?
From what I understand, a data track is an allocated block of data on a disc that can store files. TOC calculation software can only see how big that block is (the program @mir0 was using displays this in the form of a length of time); it can’t tell what files it contains.
I don’t think I’ve ever added a blank “data track” track to a medium in MB; I always (and only) listed what MB-relevant content there was. If there wasn’t anything relevant (e.g. screensavers, AOL trials, etc.) I would just leave it blank.
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Yes, I think this is the intention. There is usually one more or less large data “track” on the CD which can contain data just like on a regular CD-ROM. There can be multiple files. On the MB release you should add multiple data entries for the content.
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Thank you all for replying. I will replace the proposed edit with separate data tracks for each video.
Is there a special style guideline for video track titles? I do not see one in the wiki.
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You should change the medium format to “Enhanced CD” as it is a data + audio cd.
You then need to click the “This disc contains data tracks at the end” check box to allow you to add more tracks that represent files you will see when putting this in to your computer.
From my collection take a look at https://musicbrainz.org/release/3788553b-460f-4e81-bf00-3d7c1b613882, the last 2 tracks are mp3’s found on the data track.
As they are just files on disk the order you add them most likely does not matter.
You should add both audio and video files (and click the “is video” checkbox on the recording).
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Yes, it is very similar to DVDs, where there is often also no strict order of tracks. There can be some hints for the best order, though. Sometimes the individual videos are listed on the back cover or booklet, in this case I’d go with this order. Or maybe the video files are numbered. Sometimes there is kind of a “menu” application on the CD (usually a Windows application) which can directly playback the videos. This app could also show the videos in a specific order, but probably it does not run anymore for older releases.
Otherwise just list them in the order they fit. For videos a separate recording should be used, and this recording can be edited and set to “video”. There are also some special relationships for videos, e.g. a person can be linked to the recording with a “was directed by” relationship.
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