I've got this working ... with a lot of caveats. Frankly, I probably would not go through this again. But, if you're handy with fiddling and have the time to burn, it can work.
My situation: -Mac laptop, using iTunes. -Windows generic boxx, XP, mainly used as fileserver. All music files actually reside here. -Slimserver on the XP box. -Using trackstat for the tracking functions. Process: -Trackstat reads the iTunes XML file. I have to convert the drive references in the xml file, although Trackstat has functionality to do this (just doesn't work for me). I have a shell script that does this, basically slightly modified perl text from some other source. -Listen to music on squeezebox. Trackstat keeps a history file. -I use the iTunesUpdate.pl perl script to update the play history and rankings periodically in iTunes. -Repeat as necessary. Caveats: -Requires more effort than you would think to get it working. -Automation not ideal, but reasonably little work once done. -Changes in slimserver / XP functions occasionally cause problems. -Minor filename issues periodically because the windows drive is NTFS; I have heard from others that this works better if the XP box is set up to use HFS (Mac) drives, but this requires buying some product. Major issues (think carefully): -Slimserver Perl (at least the windows version) has a major issue with foreign characters. For me, any file with non-English characters just doesn't show up. There may also be a problem with some punctuation characters (perhaps related to NTFS issues mentioned above). Only solution for me has been to remove foreign characters. -Tagging issues: iTunes does not appear to consistently write or work with different gens of MP3 tags - it relies on its own database. This can be a major nightmare - Slimserver may not recognize music properly. You can spend a lot of time trying to fix MP3 tags - identifying problem ones takes time, and the solutions do not always "take." I find AAC files almost never have tag issues. If I were to do over, I am not sure I would bother with all this. But if you decide to go ahead, it is theoretically workable, and actually functions - sometimes. If you want some pointers, feel free to ask. If you're not comfortable with (at minimum) doing some command line work in terminal, etc., think hard. -- gsalton ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gsalton's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7598 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34435 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
