Nero and Asian languages...

[aznsound]

i have a lot of mp3's that have Asian language characters in the title... when i burn mp3's i just like to drag folders into Nero Express... well Nero can not read these Asian language characters and it just leaves the files out... is there any solution to this...? the burn software that came with XP does it, but i am trying to avoid using that since it does not let me control some stuff on my burner...

[cfitz]

I did a little playing around on a W2K box and couldn't get Nero to accept Asian character sets in filenames either. I do have Asian language support installed, but the basic OS is English. Using Microsoft Word I can save and open files with Japanese/Chinese names, but those same files don't even show up in Nero's file browser.

I even went so far as to install the Chinese language pack for Nero. It did change most of the menu settings to Chinese, but some interface elements were unreadable (all question marks), and I still couldn't drag and drop files with Asian characters.

The Joliet file system does support Unicode, so it is possible in general (as you have found with XP's built-in support). As for Nero, it may just be easiest to rename the files before importing them into Nero.

If I ever do figure out how to burn files whose names contain Asian characters in Nero, I will post.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

cfitz

[aznsound]

thanks for the reply... i think i'll just use XP for now... even though it's slower than Nero... i can't read Asian languages, but when i burn cd's for my Japanese and Korean friends, it's a lot cooler when they can actually read it instead of something like ‰F‘½“cƒqƒJƒ‹...

[cfitz]

Yeah, I'm sort of in the same boat. That is why I was interested in your question. I can read a little Japanese, and I'd like to be able to make CDs with Japanese filenames for my Japanese friends.

cfitz

[cfitz]

Okay Aznsound, I got Nero to burn a CD with Asian characters in the filenames.

Now, before I explain how I did it, let me present my disclaimer: I am comfortable enough with Japanese and Windows that I was willing to mess with the regional options on my system and run the risk of turning all my system menus into Japanese. I felt I would be able to restore them to English without any great difficulty if that did happen.

I did not run into any problems. The procedures I performed were not difficult, they did not change my menus from English, and they were easily reversed. I honestly don't think there is any real risk of accidentally changing the language of the system menus. The dialogs I adjust in my procedures specifically state that they will not change the language of the system menus, and even when I deliberately tried to change the system menus I could not. However, you still need to decide for yourself whether you wish to run even the small risk of switching the system interface from English to another language. In other words, if you try this and by some unforeseen and unlikely circumstances something actually does go wrong, leaving you with indecipherable and unusable Korean/Japanese/etc menus, I probably won't be able to help you.

Finally, I ran my test on a Windows 2000 box, not Windows XP. Since XP shares a fair amount of code with Windows 2000, I think it will work the same with XP, but I can not guarantee it.

Now, on to the procedures:

1. Open the "Regional Options" control panel applet (Start-> Settings-> Control Panel-> Regional Options

2. Select the "General" tab of the "Regional Options" window. The lower half of this tab has a box labeled "Language settings for the system". Press the "Set default..." button in the lower left corner to bring up the "Select System Locale" window as show here:



3. Select your desired locale. I only tested Japanese, because that is the only language in which I am interested. I assume Korean and Chinese will work the same way. However, be aware that there are multiple types of Chinese (traditional/simplified/etc) from which you can choose. If you also want to do Chinese and don't know what is appropriate for you, ask a Chinese friend.

4. Close the "Select System Locale" window by pressing the "OK" button, then switch to the "Input Locales" tab of the "Regional Options" window. Make sure that your default input locale is still English:



5. Close all the windows by pressing the "OK" buttons. You may be asked to insert the original OS CD-ROM so that some files can be copied, and the system will tell you it needs to reboot.


That is it. When your system comes up, you may notice a slightly different default system font, but it will still be in English.

You don't have to change anything with Nero, but now when you open it up you will see a new choice in the "Character Set" box of the "Write CD" dialog window. That choice is "Multibyte":



Make sure that you have both "Multibyte" and "Joliet" selected. You will now find that you can drag and drop files with Japanese (or Korean, if that is what you selected) characters, and that you can burn CDs with the same.

Good Luck!

cfitz

[Kennyshin]

It works the same way with Korean. I'm trying again and again to make my Windows display all the Japanese and Chinese characters correctly.

[palmfern]

I have done this for a long time. I use window XP and Nero uses Chinese Font.

[itaychi]

i have english, chinese and hebrew installed on win2k, and hebrew defined as my local. however, there is no "multibyte" option in nero, and when i try browsing for files nero just doesn't show any directory or file with a hebrew name! i tried nero 5.5.something , 6.something , easy cd creator platinum, and all no go!

am i doing something wrong here?
easy creator btw tries to turn all the hebrew charecters in filenames into question marks..

Itay.

[Matt]

I'm going to move this thread to the Ahead forum.

[cfitz]

Try setting your system locale to Hebrew. Note that the system locale is different than the user locale. Press the "Set default..." button on the "General" tab of the "Regional Options" dialog (Start->Settings->Control Panel->Regional Options). Nero 5.5.x still won't work perfectly, because the filenames will be displayed as gibberish inside the Nero dialogs. However, it does seem to burn the filenames to the CD properly. You will have to verify this yourself because I don't speak/read/write Hebrew.

I don't know if Nero 6.x is any different. I haven't tried it.

cfitz

[itaychi]

see, the thing is, my system locale is set to hebrew, and have always been set to hebrew.. i tried now to set it to english, and then to hebrew again, it looked as if it was installing sth and asked me to reboot, but after it booted things are still exactly the same. i have sp4 installed as well btw, could this be the problem perhaps?

Itay.

[cfitz]

Did you try burning with Nero after making Hebrew the default system locale? Changing the system locale won't change the user interface, so it might at first appear that nothing has changed.

I also have installed SP4 and all security related hot-fixes, so I don't think that has anything to do with your problem.

Here is what I did to enable burning of files with Hebrew names using Nero on my English version of Windows 2000:

Enable Hebrew language support via the "Regional Options" applet in the control panel:


Set the default system locale...


...to Hebrew:


Click "OK"...


...to install the Hebrew language files...


...and reboot the system:


Check the input locales. If Hebrew is not already installed, then click "Add"...:


...and select Hebrew...


...so that you can input Hebrew characters:


Create some sample files with "Hebrew" filenames (just gibberish from random pecking at the keyboard - I don't know Hebrew at all):


The Hebrew doesn't display properly in Nero (this is 5.5.9.17), but at least the files do now show up. When Hebrew is not the system locale the files, as you noted, don't show up at all:


My burn settings (for a DAO disc):


The burned CD as viewed in Windows Explorer. Even though Nero didn't display the filenames properly, it did burn them properly:


cfitz

[UALOneKPlus]

whoa!!!

after all that hard work someone give cfitz a kosher hot dog!!!

[cfitz]

Coincidentally, UALOneKPlus, Friday evening I was lamenting to a friend that summer was over and I hadn't had my one hot dog for the year. I don't eat hot dogs often, and I only like them when they are cooked on a charcoal grill outdoors, so now I am probably out of luck for this year. But perhaps I will get a dog out of this... And kosher dogs are the best!

cfitz

[itaychi]

well, finally, it looks like it's working.
after setting the locale to english, and then back to hebrew, nero 5.5 still wasn't able to see hebrew file names (showed ONLY files with english names). after uninstalling it and installing 6.0.0.15 i can finally see files with hebrew filename AND add them to disc!

cfitz, thanks for the effort, any time you're around jerusalem, i'll buy you all the kosher hot dogs you can eat!

Itay.

[cfitz]

You're welcome.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

well done, cfitz (as always!).

[dodecahedron]

Now, before I explain how I did it, let me present my disclaimer: I am comfortable enough with Japanese and Windows that I was willing to mess with the regional options on my system and run the risk of turning all my system menus into Japanese. I felt I would be able to restore them to English without any great difficulty if that did happen.

I did not run into any problems. The procedures I performed were not difficult, they did not change my menus from English, and they were easily reversed. I honestly don't think there is any real risk of accidentally changing the language of the system menus. The dialogs I adjust in my procedures specifically state that they will not change the language of the system menus, and even when I deliberately tried to change the system menus I could not. However, you still need to decide for yourself whether you wish to run even the small risk of switching the system interface from English to another language. In other words, if you try this and by some unforeseen and unlikely circumstances something actually does go wrong, leaving you with indecipherable and unusable Korean/Japanese/etc menus, I probably won't be able to help you.

as far as i know, it isn't at all possible to change the language of the operating system.
here in Israel you can buy Windows in one of two versions: a Hebrew version (in which the OS language is Hebrew) and a "Enabled" version, in which the OS language is English but you can run Hebrew apps (the dialogs etc. of applications can be Hebrew, but not the OS interface/dialogs/etc.). AFAIK you can't switch the OS language in any way.

i've no idea what's the difference between the so called "Enabled" version of Windows, and a "regular" Windows (like you might buy in the US for instance).

so there's really no cause for concern over this issue.

[itaychi]

ok, i know this forum is not about operating systems and the languages they support (:oops: ), but just a little correction to the last post:

the "hebrew enabled" versions refer only to windows 95/98, and windows NT 4.0, since those systems did not have built in unicode support.
starting from win2k, apart from the localized version (translated user interface) the operating systems sold in israel are exactly identical to those sold in every other place in the world, and languages supported by the system are configured during or after the installation, for instance, my computer is configured to be able to write in hebrew, english, and chinese.

see this link for more info: http://www.microsoft.com/israel/downloa ... rsion.mspx

[dodecahedron]

thanks for the clarification, Itay.

BTW, welcome to CDRLabs. not too many Israelis here.

Shana Tova and Gtmar Khatima Tova.

[cfitz]

well done, cfitz (as always!).

Thanks, dodecahedron.

as far as i know, it isn't at all possible to change the language of the operating system.

At the time I originally posted the statement to which you refered, I wasn't sure if this might be a problem in some versions of Windows, and wanted to make sure people were careful. Since then I found, as you suggested, that this is not a worry for the normal user. However, Microsoft does sell a Multilingual User Interface (MUI) version of Windows in which changing the language of the operating system's user interface is possible (see the "Language used in menus and dialogs" drop-down box):



However, the MUI version of Windows is not available for retail purchase. You have to be an institutional user with a volume license program in order to purchase it. Thus, most users would never run into this feature.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

on my XP box this dialog looks the same except for the last part of the Language used in dialogs...
thanks for the tip.

[cfitz]

on my XP box this dialog looks the same except for the last part of the Language used in dialogs...
thanks for the tip.

Yep, that's the part that the MUI version has but the regular versions don't.

cfitz