MinimServer 0.8.4, Win 7 Enterprise
The "Group" tag is not part of the Vorbis Comment field recommendations and it is not listed in the User Guide under "Tag mappings". Nevertheless, it seems that MinimServer uses it for its own purposes. I used it in my library for my own purposes, which led to numerous errors when MinimServer scanned my library.
What's the best way to handle this? Naturally, I should prefer not to re-label my library (> 5000 albums, by MinimServer's count).
You're right the MinimServer uses the Group tag; see
http://minimserver.com/ug-browsing.html#...mpositions . I use it as described on this page together with the Composition tag for my classical music.
Simon or other folks may have better suggestions for you. All I can think of is to rename your group tag to something else using a program that can process large numbers of files at once. I suggest mp3tag,
https://www.mp3tag.de/en/ . I've used it to work on multiple albums, although nowhere near as many as you have. I'm not sure what the upper limit is in terms of how many files you can have open at once. (And, to emphasize the obvious, make sure you have good backups before starting on large-scale changes like this.)
You can use the aliasTags property to avoid the need to make changes to your library. If you set aliasTags to Group:xxxx where xxxx is any other name of your choosing, MinimServer will read all your Group tags as if they were named xxxx.
(03-11-2017 18:50)simoncn Wrote: [ -> ][...] If you set aliasTags to Group:xxxx where xxxx is any other name of your choosing, MinimServer will read all your Group tags as if they were named xxxx.
Thanks for your replies. I think that's rather easier than retagging the library.
A few further comments:
(1) Thanks to the log, I was able to correct a few tagging errors. However, the "tracks that aren't consecutive" error could contain a little more detail, such as a path. For instance, one log line said the error was "in album Bach: Das Orgelwerk". The problem is that I have 7 different albums with that exact title...
(2) While the MinimServer concept of GROUP works well most of the time, it doesn't do so always.
For instance, I have two versions of the Monteverdi Vespers in which orchestral works by other composers were inserted between movements of the Monteverdi score. Naturally, that throws the GROUP tags out of sequence. And I have quite a few other instances of the same thing.
(3) In a few cases, the error seems to be thrown by the GROUP tag extending over multiple discs. For instance, in a recording of Parsifal, Act 1 begins on CD 1 and concludes on CD 2. The GROUP tag for all these tracks is "Act 1", and I could find no error, but MinimServer recorded a "tracks that aren't consecutive" error.
(4) Unfortunately, several control points interpret the GROUP container as a stand-alone container... they play the tracks in that group, then stop... which isn't helpful.
(07-11-2017 02:25)Rasmussen Wrote: [ -> ]A few further comments:
Thanks for this feedback. See comments inline below.
Quote:(1) Thanks to the log, I was able to correct a few tagging errors. However, the "tracks that aren't consecutive" error could contain a little more detail, such as a path. For instance, one log line said the error was "in album Bach: Das Orgelwerk". The problem is that I have 7 different albums with that exact title...
I will look at this. The point might be moot because I am planning to change this to remove the error message and treat each consecutive run of tracks as a separate group.
Quote:(2) While the MinimServer concept of GROUP works well most of the time, it doesn't do so always.
For instance, I have two versions of the Monteverdi Vespers in which orchestral works by other composers were inserted between movements of the Monteverdi score. Naturally, that throws the GROUP tags out of sequence. And I have quite a few other instances of the same thing.
Because GROUP defines a containment substructure within an album, it isn't possible to include non-consecutive tracks in the same group and still play the entire album in the correct order. You would need to use a different non-containment tag such as WORK or COMPOSITION instead of GROUP to avoid this problem.
Quote:(3) In a few cases, the error seems to be thrown by the GROUP tag extending over multiple discs. For instance, in a recording of Parsifal, Act 1 begins on CD 1 and concludes on CD 2. The GROUP tag for all these tracks is "Act 1", and I could find no error, but MinimServer recorded a "tracks that aren't consecutive" error.
You can fix this by changing your tagging so that MinimServer automatically merges the discs (see
this section). If you don't want to do this, the planned change I described above will remove the error and give you two groups for Act 1, one on disc 1 and the other on disc 2.
Quote:(4) Unfortunately, several control points interpret the GROUP container as a stand-alone container... they play the tracks in that group, then stop... which isn't helpful.
Which control points do this?
Marantz Remote, 8player, PlugPlayer, Sitecom Media Controller, i.e., all that I use on a regular basis.
On Android, BubbleUPnP is an excellent control point and is able to play multiple groups without user intervention. On iOS, Linn Kinsky can do this if the renderer supports the OpenHome protocol. I have tried other iOS control points but I haven't yet found any good ones.
Well, I chose FLAC & UPnP/DLNA because I wanted to be platform- and vendor-independent. I've heard only good things about BubbleUPnP, but, at this point, I'm not changing my mobile platform for the sake of a remote control. As for Kinsky, I tried it more than once. (Btw, isn't it practically dead and replaced by Kazoo?) I find its basic design antithetical to my expectations. It is essentially a queue-based player, and I want the CD experience -- pop it in and start playing it. Moreover, it has been buggy and unreliable (perhaps because I've tested it with non-Linn DMRs?)...
The issue is that each group is represented in UPnP terms as a sub-album of the actual album. The UPnP specification allows this but nearly all UPnP control points for iOS fail to support this correctly and treat the group as if it were a complete album. Also, the lack of a playing queue prevents the user from selecting multiple albums or groups to be queued and played in succession, which is what is needed for this case.
Kinksy is indeed buggy when used to control non-OpenHome renderers. This is unfortunate as it handles groups and albums exactly as you and I would like.