MergeFolderAlbums superfalse option?

[Chrobar13]

Simon and Simon,

Thank you for the responses,

Simbun, your point hit home a little. My first plan for music on the server was simpler, indeed. I was only going to point to the higher quality, probably FLAC only plus all the MP3s I could no longer create FLACS for. Once I got into Minimserver I saw the possibilities of keeping them all pointed to. The story behind the other types is this:

For years I only did MP3 at 320 because I thought it was the compromise between storage and sound quality. But it left me wanting the better sound, but I also bought devices that I wish I could have put more music on. So when I had the chance I decided to go to the extremes. Make a set of MP3 192 for devices I wanted more songs on, and have FLAC and WAV for quality. FLAC because it is more easily tagged and WAV because it is more traditionally the standard I can rip from if I even want to do another standard without using original CDs and also my PS3 does not play FLAC.

Once working with Minimserver, I did get a little obsessed with having them all available, but it is true that I would rarely use the MP3 options in my home setup. Going through the Forums, I did see possibility of access Minimserver remotely through apps, and that may have enforced the idea of keeping them all indexed, too.

I like having the most options available and will keep working toward that if possible and when I have all the final options, I will adjust my reality. Thanks for reminding me my original intentions. Minimserver has been so much fun the last two weeks since I found out how to change properties, I want to try to use it to the fullest. I am a computer programmer by trade.

I will test both theories. I just have one question for Simoncn, where can I find documentation on what a 'Match filter' consists of? Maybe my assumption on what is causing the matching being done is wrong. I will post what I discover.

Thanks, again, to all.

Chris

(25-04-2020 14:24)simbun Wrote:  Hi Chris,

Firstly, I assume you have a good reason for storing various copies of the music given MimimStreamer can transcode them for you; although this is now going to be a paid addition, so maybe that's a good enough reason?

I too had frustrations with the merging behaviour but for different reasons. I looked at various workarounds (including those mentioned above) but I was happy with my file layout and tagging strategy and didn't want to compromise it just to have it look pretty in the control point.
So, the only way I worked around this is to create a new tag that uniquely identifies what I want to call an album, and then use that in place of album in MinimServer so it can perform the album grouping how I want it to be performed, and then use tag formatting to display the actual album name in the control point.

So in your scenario, I'd:
Create a new tag called ALBUMUNIQID comprised of album||codec||bitrate/sample_rate (or whatever you need)
Then in MinimServer have:
aliasTags: Album:inAlbum,ALBUMUNIQID:Album
itemTags: inAlbum
tagFormat:Album.displayFormat={$inAlbum^^^$#Audioformat^ [^^$#Audiodata^|^]^}

Instead of the actual text values in ALBUMUNIQID I use foobar to CRC the values and create a 10 digit number instead.

Given this tag is easily automated (depending upon what tool you use) for me it was a good compromise.

Happy to help with any tagging queries as I went through a similar exercise myself just over a year ago :-)

Simon