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Transcoder 0.1b4

If you have an iTunes track with garbled IDE tags or a translated document with gibberish for text, Transcoder may be able to help. Copy the text in question into the data into the top text area, then select the source encoding (generally Western of some sort, either Mac Roman or ISO Latin 1) and target encoding (say, a Japanese encoding of some sort)—and, optionally, a median encoding to go "chain" between the two—and click the Transcode button in the toolbar. Presto! The original glyphs appear in the lower text box in their original beauty.

For an example of how the process works: Take the text ñÓìáî¸óeé∫ and select Western (Mac OS Roman) as the source encoding and Japanese (Mac OS) as the target encoding. Click the Transcode button and you'll see 矢島美容室 (Yazima Beauty Salon, a Japanese musical group) appear in the target text box.

With some fiddling, however, Transcoder can identify a wide variety of garbled IDE tags and other textual corruption. Unfortunately, this process may require that you open the MP3 in a text editor to extract tags uninterpreted by the iTunes text engine, and as such the program can sometimes require some tinkering with the encoding settings. In order to get results through pasting the garbled tags directly from iTunes itself, one may even have to go through a string of conversions. I am considering trying to figure out a way to automate the process.

Transcoder 0.1b4 sports the following over Transcoder 0.1b3:

  • The list of encodings now appears in its own window.
  • AppleScript has been reenabled and allows for control of both the interface and the internal workings of the program.
  • Settings, including window positions, are now saved upon quitting and reopening.
  • Added improved undo support.
  • Indexed the online help.
  • Converted the help from hybrid HTML/XHTML to full-fledged XHTML.
  • The text boxes have been switched around a bit.
  • The encoding assignment display now has rounded text boxes to display the encodings being used.
  • The Show Encodings Window command has a menu item with its own key equivalent: command-shift-E.
  • Changed "Transcode" menu item shortcut to command-R.
  • Tweaked the icon slightly.
  • Updated contact information in the About box.
General Information
  • Last Modified: 5 February 2010
  • Compatibility: Universal Binary; requires Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") or above
  • License: BSD

Click here to download Transcoder 0.1b2. Click here to download the source code.

If you would like to try the previous version for comparison, please click here to download Transcoder 0.1b3. Click here to download the source code.