Hello all, Im new to all this and the first port of call was FAQs which drew a blank, then the new member and some tips please discussion started by mônman. The thing that impressed me most was that mônman seemed to understand what he was being told; macro variables, crossfade, "smart gain", bitrates. Id understood this digital audio thing can be complicated, I didnt realise I had to learn Welsh, though it might be easier!
Seriously though, how do you guys learn about all this? I read real lot of review sites and forums trying to understand enough to decide on my kit and here I am, hopefully sounding like I know what Im talking about looking for help (please). All I needed was something to rip my CD/cassette music collection, store it and play it at a decent quality, with a decent UI, ideally all in one box. The product reviews of the Cocktail, Olive Media or the Brennan units sound between good and wonderful - until you read the customer comments, then you want to slit your throat. I settled on FLAC by a VortexBox and a Squeezebox Touch into my Hi-Fi with RCA phono plugs. I had Hi-Fi separates, Celestion Ditton 15s and Shure cartridges but that was back then. I tell you that to show Ive got some respect for what the audio is supposed to be but when buying CDs, did I check the audio specifications? No! And all I wanted with the VB and SB was quality access to my music and the info. on the CD cover such as album name, cover art, tracks and notes and the same ability to organise them. Accepting that VortexBox tagging might not always be correct, I presumed a means of correcting them would be available. Somehow the SBs (Touch and Radio) can access the VB and play the 24 CDs worth of music ripped so far. They cant see the cover art that I know is there (though only 50% correct/available) but do show half a double-CD incorrectly labelled Various Artists. Obviously a VB listing error but how to amend/correct it? Ive seen instructions but they dont say precisely which and where the incorrect files are I have a PC so is this what mp3tag, the best tag editor does - edits the file names, is that what you have to do? Ive also seen your recommendations for dBpoweramp's metadata/tagging facilities but, tinker with the paths/macro variables? Like I said, I just want to find and play some music Ive heard of something called Bliss too, that might help but Ive got a feeling its a different sort of bliss. The only thing working as it should is music, both RIP and PLAY but every answer about anything else seems to generate two new questions, and the result is this embarrassingly long posting. Ill try to conclude with some straightforward questions. - Leave the Squeezebox Touch / Hi-Fi connection as is with RCA phono plug leads? - Find/buy something that will allow me put the music in alphabetical order by Album and by artist, where tracks werent associated with an album. E.g. pre-album singles or random compilations like Hits of the 60s - mp3tag? Or can the SB Search facility show all artists music grouped by name? - Buy dBpoweramp and Bliss? - Where can I find and what is Samba? Should I be looking for this? Logitech Media Server - Control Panel I start this from a Desktop icon instead of automatically. Does this have to be kept started or stopped, and does this affect anything else? I suppose Ive synced to my MySqueezebox.Com account as Ive entered my details as instructed but I cant tell. Im supposed to configure LMS to find my media through the Library tab. How? (I have Googled all this!) a. The Media Library Name is Nil Yet. I didnt create that. Do I call it something else? The Control Panel doesnt seem to see the VB, so rescans come up at zero. Even though the VB is obviously on the network, re-mapping didnt show it up. b. Still in the Library tab, my Windows Music, Videos and Picture folders are listed already. I see Playlist but I havent set any of these up; theres nothing else unless I Browse to Network where the VB name is listed, is that it, or one of its sub-lists? Or all of them? Do I select and click to Add? (I have Googled all this too!). Logitech Media Server In the top right hand corner the Player selection button offers Player 1, Player 2, and the two SBs, plus Syncronize. This is a bit obvious even for me but Syncronize what? And what decides which synchronised component dominates if any settings differ? If I go to Settings (which Im aware I cant expect to understand yet) I see that somehow LMS knows I have ripped 24 albums even though the rescans on the Control Panel come up at zero, so something is working. On the Information tab I can see that the SB Touch has a Wireless Signal Strength of around 45%. It seems to play OK (but what do I know?), would the % affect the fidelity? I ask because Ive seen the advice posted by Garym and Julf about digital-analog-digital and other mysteries, which begs the question am I doing this all wrong? Do the settings in LMS apply even when its not on? (I.e. accessing the VB by the SB Touch directly). Im reluctant to make random try and see changes anywhere in case what is working stops. So far we are using the SBs to access the music so Im guessing LMS isnt essential. On my Windows 7 laptop, browsing to Network is supposed to show the VB and SBs on the map but it doesnt and re-mapping didnt work either. However, if I enter the VB name in Search, it finds everything in Network. As far as I know, other than Rescans in the LMS Control Panel, everything works, so should I just ignore this? Now Ive found out how to do it, I hope to place a similar post (not the same) on the VortexBox forum. Thank you for any help and information, very much appreciated and welcomed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ dtw3's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=59997 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98814
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