Streamlining the browsing tree & multiple configs

[Dieter Stockert]

(21-09-2013 00:06)DavidHB Wrote:  I tend to regard the file system as just another set of metadata

So do I. And I almost only browse by folder view because the system of music servers and control points, working together like they are now, is in my opinion more 18th than 21st century of computer age.

(21-09-2013 00:06)DavidHB Wrote:  Classical music throws a curved ball at the metadata writer from (I'd guess) at least one album in three. When, as from time to time it will, the tagging proves to be faulty, it is good to have the dear old omnipresent file system to fall back on. And ripping and tagging always involve a great deal of file system use and maintenance, so it is as well to devote as much care and attention to this as to other forms of metadata input and editing.

All true.

[haggis999]

(21-09-2013 00:06)DavidHB Wrote:  Another conclusion from my digital photography work was that it is essential the correct data structure, software and hardware infrastructure in place before allowing the library to grow. If your experience is like mine, it is during the course of ripping and managing the first 100 or so albums that you learn what the 'correct' infrastructure actually is. I'm glad that I had mine in place before I committed to the purchase of the Akurate.

I couldn't agree more. I stopped ripping my CDs three or four months ago after ripping about 130 albums for exactly that reason (and also because I was investigating the ripping of DVDs and Blu-ray disks). You can't really evaluate HTPC solutions or the various options for UPnP/DLNA servers, players and control points without a decent quantity of media to play with.

Quote:I take your point about browsing long data elements (of any kind) on devices with limited screen real estate. I could install Kinsky on my Android phone, but I doubt that I will. A high resolution (Nexus 10) tablet is an essential part of my infrastructure.

In time, you might regret choosing a metadata approach that cuts you off from small screen controllers. I prefer to keep my hardware options open.

Quote:Are there circumstances where metadata-based browsing does not work? Well, yes. The obvious one is where tagging-type metadata is inaccurate, inconsistent or just absent. Getting the data right, even using the best software applications, is challenging and labour-intensive. Classical music throws a curved ball at the metadata writer from (I'd guess) at least one album in three. When, as from time to time it will, the tagging proves to be faulty, it is good to have the dear old omnipresent file system to fall back on.

If I find an oddball presentation of my music caused by incorrect metadata (as I do from time to time) I simply fix the metadata. This normally takes just a few minutes. I would never think of reverting to the file system just because of a metadata error.

Quote:And ripping and tagging always involve a great deal of file system use and maintenance, so it is as well to devote as much care and attention to this as to other forms of metadata input and editing.

If you set up dBpoweramp CD Ripper correctly then it will create the folder structure automatically. Once this was done, I found that I spent almost no time at all thinking about the physical disk storage aspect. I simply concentrated on getting the metadata right, a process I found to require manual intervention on almost every classical CD. The online databases are of very variable quality but I soon became quite slick at making the required edits to achieve a consistent approach.

Quote:Your comments about JRiver interest me. I agree that the cost is not exorbitant, but, looking at the media-rich but content-poor website, I find it hard to form a view as to whether JRiver does anything I need for which I do not already have a capable application. Certainly, it deals with aspects of media (video, for example) in which I currently have little interest. But if it can tag files more easily than, say, MP3Tag (which is very powerful, but presents the new user with a pretty steep leaning curve), I might be interested.

JRMC does far more than MP3Tag and also (inevitably) has a steep learning curve but the forums are very active and helpful. You can use JRMC for almost everything, including ripping, but I prefer dBpoweramp CD Ripper because it is the only ripper I have found to give me the choice of four online metadata databases. For this reason, I enter most of my metadata via dBpoweramp. Subsequent edits have been done in MP3Tag or (more often) in JRMC.

I think you get a 30 day fully functional trial of JRMC. It is now on version 19, so it has been evolving and improving over quite a long time. I was so impressed with its ability to display my CD collection that I paid up long before the 30 days were up. One thing I particularly liked was the very flexible 'panes view', which you can see in the attached screenshot.

JRMC is my tool of choice for rapidly reviewing my collection, making sure that all the metadata does what I expect and fixing any problems. It is also the application in which I sort out my custom Work tag. After saving any tag changes back to the FLAC files, all other media applications (such as MinimServer) reap the benefits.

David

[DavidHB]

(21-09-2013 08:12)Dieter Stockert Wrote:  ... the system of music servers and control points, working together like they are now, is in my opinion more 18th than 21st century of computer age.

I think you might wait a long time for the update! The issue here is not that the current state of things is outmoded, but programmers and equipment makers, sometimes in sheer stupidity and sometimes for commercial reasons, while claiming to be standards-compliant, try to impose their own variations on the system.

DNLA is a very clever concept; it essentially takes UPnP and locks the user out - the price of predictable operation is that the user gets few if any choices. Even worse is the "you can have any standards you like so long as we control them" approach associated with Apple, Microsoft, Adobe and now Google. Contrast this with the approach adopted by Linn; they do try to extend the established standards but make sure that their kit works without those extensions if need be. There are those who would say that, being outside the mass market, Linn can afford to be virtuous. I disagree; anyone can be disciplined and control their greed if they choose.

As a wise project manager once said to me, "We love standards here. That is why we have so many of them".

David

[haggis999]

I'm not sure that we really have any standards when it comes to classical metadata . . .

Anyway, if Simon is still listening in, let me return to the results of my tweaking of the MinimServer settings. I have attached two screenshots of my current preferred configuration. One of them is a composer view, which seems OK. The other is an album view covering all composers, which I find useful if I don't quite know what to select and wish to see a pretty display of album covers as a source of inspiration.

MinimServer's album view, in both my current configuration and others I have tried, suffers from repetition of the album name for every work. Is there any way to suppress this repetition. What I really want is for the album name to appear once and, if selected, for it then to show the list of works on that album.

David
       

[simoncn]

(21-09-2013 13:13)haggis999 Wrote:  MinimServer's album view, in both my current configuration and others I have tried, suffers from repetition of the album name for every work. Is there any way to suppress this repetition. What I really want is for the album name to appear once and, if selected, for it then to show the list of works on that album.

Do you have each work in a separate folder? If so, MinimServer will by default treat these works as belonging to different albums. You have two options for fixing this:

1) Put all the works from the same album into the same folder

2) change the mergeFolderAlbums property from false to true

[haggis999]

Setting mergeFolderAlbums to true fixed that problem.

As ever, many thanks for the rapid response. You are a star!

David

[Dieter Stockert]

(21-09-2013 10:36)haggis999 Wrote:  If I find an oddball presentation of my music caused by incorrect metadata (as I do from time to time) I simply fix the metadata. This normally takes just a few minutes.

Well, how can I do this on my iPhone or iPad? The computer is in another room.

[DavidHB]

(21-09-2013 10:36)haggis999 Wrote:  You can't really evaluate HTPC solutions or the various options for UPnP/DLNA servers, players and control points without a decent quantity of media to play with.

Absolutely. This thought could be the basis of a think piece one might post in Simon's new Digital Audio forum - working title "Before you spend your money, read this ... "

Quote:In time, you might regret choosing a metadata approach that cuts you off from small screen controllers. I prefer to keep my hardware options open.

It's a considered risk. I hate the usability of small screen devices in any case.

Quote:If I find an oddball presentation of my music caused by incorrect metadata (as I do from time to time) I simply fix the metadata. This normally takes just a few minutes. I would never think of reverting to the file system just because of a metadata error.

Well, I prefer to keep my data access options open ...

Quote:If you set up dBpoweramp CD Ripper correctly then it will create the folder structure automatically. Once this was done, I found that I spent almost no time at all thinking about the physical disk storage aspect. I simply concentrated on getting the metadata right ...

The file system is also metadata ...

I use dBPoweramp much as you do, but I watch where I'm putting things, and set the folder path accordingly. dBPoweramp makes this quick and simple.

Quote:JRMC does far more than MP3Tag and also (inevitably) has a steep learning curve but the forums are very active and helpful. You can use JRMC for almost everything, including ripping, but I prefer dBpoweramp CD Ripper because it is the only ripper I have found to give me the choice of four online metadata databases. For this reason, I enter most of my metadata via dBpoweramp. Subsequent edits have been done in MP3Tag or (more often) in JRMC.

I think you get a 30 day fully functional trial of JRMC. It is now on version 19, so it has been evolving and improving over quite a long time. I was so impressed with its ability to display my CD collection that I paid up long before the 30 days were up. One thing I particularly liked was the very flexible 'panes view', which you can see in the attached screenshot.

JRMC is my tool of choice for rapidly reviewing my collection, making sure that all the metadata does what I expect and fixing any problems. It is also the application in which I sort out my custom Work tag. After saving any tag changes back to the FLAC files, all other media applications (such as MinimServer) reap the benefits.

I will clearly need to look into JMRC at some stage. For now, I haven't found anything I can't do in MP3Tag, though regilar expressions make my head ache ...

That said, I do rather resent applications that use a forum as the replacement for a user manual. To a significant extent, MP3Tag does this as well. By contrast, you have to give Simon full marks for the clarity and accessibility of his MinimServer documentation.

David

[DavidHB]

(21-09-2013 14:15)Dieter Stockert Wrote:  Well, how can I do this on my iPhone or iPad? The computer is in another room.

I think that your doctor will tell you that you need the exercise ...

I'm with the other David on this one. Metadata editing is the kind of work-type structured activity that is best done on a workstation of some sort, ideally one with access to lots of screen real estate.

David

[simoncn]

(21-09-2013 14:32)DavidHB Wrote:  I think that your doctor will tell you that you need the exercise ...

I'm with the other David on this one. Metadata editing is the kind of work-type structured activity that is best done on a workstation of some sort, ideally one with access to lots of screen real estate.

David

I generally find that listening to music for relaxation/enjoyment doesn't mix too well with work-type structured activity.

To put this another way, I'm fine with browsing my tags as part of a listening session, but I wouldn't want to fix them at that time.