Quote:
Originally Posted by GlennMaples
is there any reason we cannot also allow people to specify the input format similarly (ala media monkey) when adding files?
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Hoping not to beat a dead horse:
One difference between audio files and ebooks is that all of the audio file formats of interest can (and do) store all metadata of interest within the file. When you change the metadata for a file in MediaMonkey, you change the music file, not the library. Ebooks do not, and in some cases cannot, store all metadata (consider txt files).
This fact means that although MediaMonkey (which I use) can recreate the library from the files no matter where the files are stored, calibre cannot. Because of this inconvenience, calibre must separate the metadata from the files, then choose some method to store the book files and stick to it. If it did not do this, then it would be incapable of presenting a unified user interface, and (perhaps more interestingly) knowing whether a given book format is in fact a copy of the given book.
If we could guarantee that all books were in a format that could store arbitrary metadata, then could guarantee that the metadata in the file followed the standards, then could guarantee that the metadata was complete, then we could avoid the fixed-path storage. Unfortunately, none of these three guarantees exist.