Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Ocean56;598067 Wrote: > Can I save a CD to the PC hard drive AS FLAC files to try this out? http://blowfish.be/eac/Install/install1.html this guide is thorough and simple to follow. if you go through this to set up eac and rip to flac, you will have perfect rips. -- fillmore fillmore's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=23178 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Are they FLAC files? Windows Media Player doesn't play FLAC natively. I think there may be a plug available for WMP that does, but just install Winamp and it should play them. Have you placed the files in a directory where Squeezebox Server will see them? -- JJZolx JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
OK. I downloaded sample files from HDTracks.com. When I right click on them and choose properties, it tells me they are "2496 files" and asks me how i want to open them. I picked Windows Media Player, since I have no other players installed on this PC. The Squeezebox does NOT recognize them when I rescan my library, or scan for new music. Windows Media Player does not play them on the pc because it says it doesn't recognize the codec. Help! -- Ocean56 Ocean56's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=40734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Thanks, all! I will do that -- Ocean56 Ocean56's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=40734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Uninstall iTunes and disable iTunes integration in Squeezebox Server. You don't want it. You don't need any other software to play FLAC files on the Squeezebox using Squeezebox Server. However, you will find a need from time to time to listen to FLAC files on your PC, just to preview them. Maybe after ripping a CD or after downloading something. You can use a number of programs for this. 'Winamp' (http://www.winamp.com/) is free and easy to use. -- JJZolx JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Ocean56;598754 Wrote: > I also downloaded itunes, since there was a little checkbox in the > Squeezebox Server setup that suggested it as a default. > > NOW I'm downloading some sample FLAC files from HDTracks.com. HDTracks > says itunes won't PLAY FLAC files, and suggests using something called > Mediamonkey. > > Do I download MM? Or do I do something else? Stop downloading programs now! The SqueezeCenter setting for iTunes is to use an existing iTunes library, which you obviously don't have. I would just uninstall iTunes if I were you. Squeezebox Server can transmit almost any file format to the Touch - you don't need any extra programs. What you do need to do is to put all your music files under a single folder on your PC (using subfolders to organize is OK), then open the Squeezebox Server web interface. Then go to settings (button on bottom right), "basic settings" tab. Use the browse button my the "Music Folder" field to find your music folder. After you have it set, press the "Rescan" button at the bottom of the page. In a few minutes, the Touch should be able to access and play all the music files in that folder. Regards, Kim -- krochat krochat's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6579 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
So I loaded Squeezebox Server on my PC. I DID have some music files on it, and the Touch played them without any trouble. I also downloaded itunes, since there was a little checkbox in the Squeezebox Server setup that suggested it as a default. NOW I'm downloading some sample FLAC files from HDTracks.com. HDTracks says itunes won't PLAY FLAC files, and suggests using something called Mediamonkey. Do I download MM? Or do I do something else? -- Ocean56 Ocean56's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=40734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Have someone told you to always do good backups ? You will not be happy if have spent 100's of hours ripping and then the data gets lost , make backups on portable hard-disks that you store elsewhere . -- Mnyb Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH and assorted amps SiriuS, Classe' Primare and Dynadio speakers, Contour 4 Contour Center, and Contour 1.3SE rear ch. Rel Stadium 3 sub. Bedroom/Office: Boom Kitchen: SB3 + powered Fostex PM0.4 Misc use: Radio (with battery) PLEASE FIX BUG 112 http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=112 Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Also always rip lossles otherwise you will do it again some day. Lossles is not only about sound-quality . A lossles rip is a backup of your music if the CD's get lost or damaged. A lossles rip can without losses be transcoded to other losles formats in the future without quality loss , now we solved the data migration problem . Use a free open source format like FLAC , you are no longer in the hands of big corporations (the codec can always be recreated by any literate programmer as the souce code is open) And FLAC is native to the squeezebox. 3 things that are absolutely essential and none about sound-quality :) If you are in the dark ages mp3 discard information to get smaller file sizes , that information is forever lost and can not be receated ever. But recent development in hard disk tech and proces makes file size a non problem- Also if you want to convert to another lossy format for a portable player or other uses, lossles files are superior to . Yes you can do that. on your computer take your lossles files and produce lossy mp3 copies for your iPod or similar. That is not hard to do. Portable things needs smaller file sizes if want a lot off songs with you. Converting between lossy formats as mp3 and AAC or mp3 to mp3 btw. Introduces further quality losses called "cascade coding artifacts". This is not good idea. What will happen in the futer when AAC becomes obselete (You can hear it on TV sometimes when a happles reporter have interwieved someone with a minidisc player (atrac) and the TV system uses mpeg2 . Or more often a radio reporter does this and then the show is sent as web radio to..) (You could argue that ALAC is also native to some Squeezboxes like Touch ,but all non apple alac is dependent on third party hacks and reverse engineering and don't support 24/96 or similar, so that is more fragile than you might think.) -- Mnyb Main hifi: Touch + CIA PS +MeridianG68J MeridianHD621 MeridianG98DH and assorted amps SiriuS, Classe' Primare and Dynadio speakers, Contour 4 Contour Center, and Contour 1.3SE rear ch. Rel Stadium 3 sub. Bedroom/Office: Boom Kitchen: SB3 + powered Fostex PM0.4 Misc use: Radio (with battery) PLEASE FIX BUG 112 http://bugs.slimdevices.com/show_bug.cgi?id=112 Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Thanks for the correction. I did not know about the lack of a standard for tagging WAV or PCM files. -- Blazer Blazer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=39545 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Blazer;598134 Wrote: > Since you are in the "Dark Ages"... > > 1) You do not have to convert (rip) your CDs to FLAC. We do that so > that the music takes up less space on our hard drives. (about 40% less > than the native WAV files on CDs) You could simply copy them in their > native WAV file format and stream them to your Touch. They will simply > take up more room on your hard drive. Actually WAV is not a CD's "native" format. That would be PCM. And a good reason for not storing the files as WAV is that there is no standard for tagging WAV files, and to make best use of an SB system you need good tags. -- aubuti aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Apesbrain;598130 Wrote: > I'm curious, do you have any music files on your computer that you'd > like to be able to play via your Squeezebox or are you literally > starting with a clean slate? For instance, do you have music on an iPod > that you've copied from your CDs? Your answer will help others to give > you suggestions on how to set up your server. No, I really am starting with a clean slate! -- Ocean56 Ocean56's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=40734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Since you are in the "Dark Ages"... 1) You do not have to convert (rip) your CDs to FLAC. We do that so the the music takes up less space on our hard drives. (about 40% less space) You could simply copy them in their native WAV file format and stream them to your Touch. They will simply take up more room on your hard drive. 2) FLAC is just one of several "lossless" compression formats. (codecs) Lossless means that no music is actually lost in the conversion. Others are Apple's ALAC, and Window's WMAL. 3)You could simply use iTunes and rip CDs to ALAC files for your Touch or use Windows Media Player and rip your CDs to WMAL files for your Touch. To use rip to FLAC, you need a different application (many free ones) like dbpoweramp to accomplish this. 4) There is no difference in sound quality between these lossless types. 5) FLAC is preferred by many because it is not proprietary. What if you end up with 3000 CDs converted to Apple's ALAC files and a few years from now, Apple decides that you have to pay them for that??? 6) As stated above, you could also just use Windows Media Player (or other software) and convert CDs to a "lossy" codec like MP3s. Lossy codecs take up even less space but actually loose some of the music data, so they may not sound as good. This lossy format has several different compression options like 64, 128, 256 or 320 kbs. If you Rip to the higher ones like 256 or 320, you may not notice a great deal of difference (or any) between those and a lossless codec like FLAC. This depends on your ears, the engineering of the music, and the resolving power of your stereo system. 7) You could do some experimenting... If you have a PC, simply use Windows Media Player and rip a couple of CDs to MP3s at 320kb/s and also to lossless WMAL. Then you can stream them to your Touch/stereo and see if you can tell a difference. Or if you have a MAC, just use iTunes and rip to MP3s and ALAC. Good luck... -- Blazer Blazer's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=39545 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
I'm curious, do you have any music files on your computer that you'd like to be able to play via your Squeezebox or are you literally starting with a clean slate? Your answer will help others to give you suggestions on how to set up your server. -- Apesbrain Apesbrain's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=738 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
Re: [SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
Ocean56;598067 Wrote: > OK, as mentioned in my other post, my new Touch is set up and streaming > Internet radio with no problem. > > The review in Stereophile suggests that streaming FLAC files has to be > heard to be believed. > > I'm in the dark ages when it comes to PC audio files, so to my > knowledge, I HAVE no FLAC files ON my PC! > > Can I save a CD to the PC hard drive AS FLAC files to try this out? > > I need to download Squeezebox Server to my PC as well, correct? yes, use dbpoweramp or EAC programs to rip your CDs to FLAC. Then point your SbS (running on local computer, you'll need to install this if you haven't) to the music directory that contains your FLAC files and do a clear and rescan of your library. You can have a mixture of FLAC and mp3/aac files in your SbS music library by the way. p.s. don't expect a night and day difference from a high quality mp3 or aac file, especially for rock/pop music and if you're over 30 years old (i.e., natural hearing loss of high freqs as we age). This said, I rip everything to FLAC because it is lossless and will also allow me to convert files to any future codec that is invented that may take up lots less space (200,000 SONGS ON AN IPOD ANYONE?) -- garym garym's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17325 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
[SlimDevices: Touch] Newbie file questions...
OK, as mentioned in my other post, my new Touch is set up and streaming Internet radio with no problem. The review in Stereophile suggests that streaming FLAC files has to be heard to be believed. I'm in the dark ages when it comes to PC audio files, so to my knowledge, I HAVE no FLAC files ON my PC! Can I save a CD to the PC hard drive AS FLAC files to try this out? I need to download Squeezebox Server to my PC as well, correct? -- Ocean56 Ocean56's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=40734 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84308 ___ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
