donmacn wrote: > I haven't looked at this in any detail yet, but the issue must be the > storage memory used and the bandwidth needed to play larger > 'uncompressed' files? Less compression = more memory and more network > traffic?
That's it. donmacn wrote: > There are three reasons why I was thinking about this: 1) (discussed > elsewhere here) is to have a 'standalone' platform for LMS and the SB > players, independent of family PC and it different users and tasks 2) to > have a lossless version of the music and 3) because the tags are a bit > of a mess. LMS doesn't seem very forgiving of tag discrepancies in the > way that other programmes are. (but then I assume that, at heart, it's a > 'server' rather than 'database' programme? I think this means I'll > probably do as you suggest, and re-rip the MP3s. 1. I also prefer an independent platform for the LMS server that is separate from the day to day use PC's. In my case I use a Windows Home Server box that also does backups of mine and my wife's daily use PC's (both are Win7 x64 laptops). However I also keep a full copy of the music library on both mine and my wife's PC along with workable LMS servers in the event my WHS fails and requires downtime for repairs. I also never want to have to rip my 1,300+ albums again! 2. I intentionally chose MP3 VBR -v0 rather than FLAC. This was after much ringing of hands. In my own informal testing with friends and family no one I know has been able to tell the difference between FLAC and the highest bitrate MP3 ripped from the same source CD's. I also use MixMeister to maintain the BPM tag in all my files, I'm not aware of a program that does BPM analysis on non-MP3 files. I then have some "action" things in MP3Tag to round the BPM to whole integers so that LMS will scan this tag to the LMS database. I can then build SQL Playlists using the Erland pluggin to create playlists that also will filter on BPM. I have not found a platform that does not support playing MP3 where that is not the case with FLAC. This part is kind of like discussing religion and/or politics so I'll just leave it at that. 3. Regardless of the format you use or the server software you use, the better the tags are the better your library is to use and manage. donmacn wrote: > I think I'm being a bit dense - not sure I follow that completely. Would > 'SQ' = the Vortexbox appliance? SQ is just the high level directory you would point LMS at for your library, it's short for Squeeze in my example. The separate MP3/<artist>... without the SQ/ prefix would be the final resting place for your MP3's after you've created the corresponding FLAC's. This directory would be unknown to LMS. donmacn wrote: > I do use iThings! One in the car permanently, and hard-wired into the > radio via the co-ax cable (It's a very 'old tech' car - in fact it's a > 'no tech' car!) and a couple of others between myself and the kids. I > use Mediamonkey to manage these as I just couldn't get along with iTunes > at all. For the initial rips, I used EAC and LAME, and I think I set it > to VBR, but it looks like it either didn't 'stick' over time, or the > required bitrate for some of my music didn't need that level?? Maybe a > misunderstanding on my part of how that works. It seems a few of them > are 220kbps. It sounds like your VBR MP3 are ripped at a pretty high bitrate, probably -v2 or -v3. 220kbps is pretty high bit rate for VBR. For instance at -v0 for Led Zeppelin 1 I have bitrates between 250 and 280kbps. I was not aware that you could manage a iThing with anything other than iTunes, my wife has a CL Zen (which I think is Linux based), we both have Android phones and one Android tablet. Never had a iThing. EAC is probably the 2nd best ripper out there. Both EAC and DBP support Accurate rip so you know right off if your rip is good. donmacn wrote: > Yup. It's the tags alright. LMS seems picky on caps vs non-caps, and > does things with album art I don't understand - the wrong picture > showing up for a dozen or more different artists for example. This way, > I feel like I'm addressing several issues with one workstream. Yes it is! If you get the tags right for LMS, it should take you to any future server with no trouble! 2 Duets - 1 for upstairs and 1 for downstairs Rock Solid with LMS 7.7.3 and WHS 2011 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ w3wilkes's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=22973 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=100549 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
