Music Server Newbie Experiences and Questions

[JanBakker]

Well having imbibed some Moorland brewery Real Ale I went to the next pub to discover it was a friends birthday party, so when I got home having consumed some Otter Best Bitter there, I wasn't exactly what could be described as unaffected by C2-H5-OH!

Anyway now sober I have discovered that the Panasonic (surround FLAC ) & it seems the Pioneer Amp (2.0 only FLAC ) sort and play alphabetically according to the track Title, not Tag order by the looks of it - I edited the Title and put a '1' at the beginning and it came up first. So is there a way of modifying the track Titles to get the correct album track order?

Yeah load the files in Tagscanner, select them all, click rename and they will have the tracknumber included in the name (see my post 35).

Edit: I have an older version of Tagscanner, what's called music renamer in my version is called rename in the latest.

 

[JanBakker]

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I tag everything on my local hard drives then copy to my NAS and backup drive (USB 3.0)

Tagging changes each file's size so doing it on your NAS means your files become fragmented across the drive which affects performance (tagging plus future reads and writes). NAS writes can be slower too if you have a RAID.

Also, you may want to check your network is 1Gbps and not the old 100Mbps standard (actually the latest standard is 10Gbps but that still quite expensive). But upgrading to 1Gbps is cheap and is 10 times faster than 100Mbps).

If you are doing hundreds of albums, do yourself a favour and speed the process! (Tag on yourLocal hard disc and use 1Gbps network to copy to your NAS).

So NOW this information is revealed

Of course it comes when I'm at the tail end of converting and tagging 80 or so DVDA's. Only 15 left to go. I assume I can de-fragment the drive and it will all be happy again. Im gonna try out the local disk convert and tag routine and then upload the days take to the NAS overnight.

 

[DuncanS]

Sobriety has its uses! Sadly!!

I haven't tried Tagscanner yet, but I have solved the problem using Mp3Tag.

So that the Panasonic DMPBDT700 plays the songs in 5.1 FLAC track order (as it plays by selecting alphabetically the embedded track title not the track filename).

[1] Highlight/Select all the album tracks
[2] Select Tag -> Tag conversion
[3] Select Field = TITLE
[4] Make the Format String Field = %track% - %title%
[5] Push OK

So Overture became 01 - Overture etc.

 

[DuncanS]

I have also found out that if there is no actual song title in the embedded TITLE field then the Panasonic DMPBDT700 plays in the tagged/filename order.

As the Led Zeppelin 2.0 FLACs have been authored inconsistently, Physical Graffiti has embedded Song Titles, whereas Led Zep III doesn't.

 

[JanBakker]

Sobriety has its uses! Sadly!!

I haven't tried Tagscanner yet, but I have solved the problem using Mp3Tag.

So that the Panasonic DMPBDT700 plays the songs in 5.1 FLAC track order (as it plays by selecting alphabetically the embedded track title not the track filename).

[1] Highlight/Select all the album tracks
[2] Select Tag -> Tag conversion
[3] Select Field = TITLE
[4] Make the Format String Field = %track% - %title%
[5] Push OK

So Overture became 01 - Overture etc.

View attachment 25302

I assumed that part was correctly tagged and that the filename was the culprit since these programs have several possibilities to rename a file. Glad you solved it .

 

[DuncanS]

It's one of the problems with all this embedded firmware on the Panasonic & Pioneer, you can't see what it is actually doing, plus being a newbie to streaming from a NAS & PC to a player it did get a bit confusing. Thanks for your suggestions.

I assumed that part was correctly tagged and that the filename was the culprit since these programs have several possibilities to rename a file. Glad you solved it .

 

[HomerJAU]

I have done but I wanted a report of all by albums not files so I wrote an app that does it and also finds the codec info (channels, sample and bit rates). I've been meaning to publish it here on QQ.

Here's a link to the small utility that creates a CSV (excel) file reporting all your albums, some of its tags and the album's bit rate/sample rate and no. of channels. (A list of all your albums)


Prerequisites:
Before using please check the following prerequisite is installed on your target PC: (Microsoft .NET 4.6.1)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=49981

The Music App (Windows only) can be downloaded from the link below (it's a zip file containing all the installer files), click the small 'download icon' at top when the link below opens):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B67BGVX7nHIlVWdLa1dzcFdWLWM/view?usp=sharing

Download, unzip and run the setup.exe, this creates a shortcut on your desktop and adds to start menu (QQ Music Media App). You can also just unzip into a new folder on you desktop and run the QQMusicMediaApp.exe directly with no install.

Once running, You just need to select the 'parent' folder and it finds all music sub-folders and all music files (see below)

The only screen asks you to select your music file parent folder (e.g. C:\My Music)

There a 3 options:
1. Make CSV File List... (This option creates a list of all your music folders/albums along with their codec info)
2. Check Album Art Exists (reports any missing album art (named in the text box e.g 'folder.jpg')
3. Update Music File Album Art (Tags each music file with the Album rt file (if it exists) - allows you to chnage tagged album art easily



It always outputs a CSV file listing every music file and its codec info to the parent folder selected in first textbox (above).
If optionally outputs a CSV file of all Albums and their codec info to the parent folder (if first checkbox is selected)

Happy reporting! Let me know if you want something else added.

I have some code to automatically tag all music files based on the folder name (e.g. Folder 'Pink Floyd - Animals' is split into artist and album title and auto tags the files)
I also have some code to create PlayLists (m3U). I use it for Kodi. It also creates them for music videos.
I can add these to the app if requested.

THX
Garry

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Hi Garry, thanks. I will give this a try later during the week and report back.

 

[magicmarkie]

Hi Duncan,
I have exactly the same problem with my Oppo playing files from Windows Media-Oppo gave me a site which they said should help- http://sourceforge.net/projects/oshare/ -didn't work for me but am getting DP Power Amp nest week so shall see if that helps.

 

[JanBakker]

Here's a link to the small utility that creates a CSV (excel) file reporting all your albums, some of its tags and the album's bit rate/sample rate and no. of channels. (A list of all your albums)


Prerequisites:
Before using please check the following prerequisite is installed on your target PC: (Microsoft .NET 4.6.1)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=49981

The Music App (Windows only) can be downloaded from the link below (it's a zip file containing all the installer files), click the small 'download icon' at top when the link below opens):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B67BGVX7nHIlVWdLa1dzcFdWLWM/view?usp=sharing

Download, unzip and run the setup.exe, this creates a shortcut on your desktop and adds to start menu (QQ Music Media App). You can also just unzip into a new folder on you desktop and run the QQMusicMediaApp.exe directly with no install.

Once running, You just need to select the 'parent' folder and it finds all music sub-folders and all music files (see below)

The only screen asks you to select your music file parent folder (e.g. C:\My Music)

There a 3 options:
1. Make CSV File List... (This option creates a list of all your music folders/albums along with their codec info)
2. Check Album Art Exists (reports any missing album art (named in the text box e.g 'folder.jpg')
3. Update Music File Album Art (Tags each music file with the Album rt file (if it exists) - allows you to chnage tagged album art easily

View attachment 25317

It always outputs a CSV file listing every music file and its codec info to the parent folder selected in first textbox (above).
If optionally outputs a CSV file of all Albums and their codec info to the parent folder (if first checkbox is selected)

Happy reporting! Let me know if you want something else added.

I have some code to automatically tag all music files based on the folder name (e.g. Folder 'Pink Floyd - Animals' is split into artist and album title and auto tags the files)
I also have some code to create PlayLists (m3U). I use it for Kodi. It also creates them for music videos.
I can add these to the app if requested.

THX
Garry

Thank you very much for this!!:upthumb

Works perfectly and quick too :worthy

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I've just started using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to convert and tag Redbook CD's to Flac. It's working well so far. The program is freeware but there is a subscription required for the GD3 metadata lookup function, if you decide you want to use it. GD3 gives you a trial of 10 free albums. I blew through the first 10 and never missed a beat. No errors. No metadata hiccups. A lifetime subscription to the GD3 database is $7.99. It is extremely easy to use. The cover art reproductions I have seen so far are well done. For most titles you will be able to choose from several options. I think it may be specific to CD’s, compared to Musicbrainz which also lists LP’s and some Hi Res formats. I gladly purchased a subscription when the 10 disk trial ended.
The publisher of EAC touts how the products special routines for handling errors is what sets it apart. It can connect to a secondary data base (the name escapes me) to compare the ripped statistics you generate to other who have ripped the same disc. EAC “tunes” the software to your drives upon installation. It also tunes itself to align with your most often used ripping regime. It can be set to provide quick rips to MP3’s with minimal error detection or to provide a much slower conversion to Flac or uncompressed WAV with a high degree of error detection.
This thing is just so easy to use and so versatile, I don’t think I want to try anything else for ripping my CD’s to the NAS.

 

[JanBakker]

I've just started using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to convert and tag Redbook CD's to Flac. It's working well so far. The program is freeware but there is a subscription required for the GD3 metadata lookup function, if you decide you want to use it. GD3 gives you a trial of 10 free albums. I blew through the first 10 and never missed a beat. No errors. No metadata hiccups. A lifetime subscription to the GD3 database is $7.99. It is extremely easy to use. The cover art reproductions I have seen so far are well done. For most titles you will be able to choose from several options. I think it may be specific to CD’s, compared to Musicbrainz which also lists LP’s and some Hi Res formats. I gladly purchased a subscription when the 10 disk trial ended.
The publisher of EAC touts how the products special routines for handling errors is what sets it apart. It can connect to a secondary data base (the name escapes me) to compare the ripped statistics you generate to other who have ripped the same disc. EAC “tunes” the software to your drives upon installation. It also tunes itself to align with your most often used ripping regime. It can be set to provide quick rips to MP3’s with minimal error detection or to provide a much slower conversion to Flac or uncompressed WAV with a high degree of error detection.
This thing is just so easy to use and so versatile, I don’t think I want to try anything else for ripping my CD’s to the NAS.

AccurateRip it's called I think. EAC is a very good program.

 

[DuncanS]

It took me a while to figure out it sorts on embedded track title, tagging the title with the track number using MP3tag has worked well for me.

Hi Duncan,
I have exactly the same problem with my Oppo playing files from Windows Media-Oppo gave me a site which they said should help- http://sourceforge.net/projects/oshare/ -didn't work for me but am getting DP Power Amp nest week so shall see if that helps.

 

[krkier]

For those of you finding Exact Audio Copy too complicatedl, the author of the programm offers another one with simplified user interface here:

Easy Audio Copy

-Kristian

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Here's a link to the small utility that creates a CSV (excel) file reporting all your albums, some of its tags and the album's bit rate/sample rate and no. of channels. (A list of all your albums)


Prerequisites:
Before using please check the following prerequisite is installed on your target PC: (Microsoft .NET 4.6.1)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=49981

The Music App (Windows only) can be downloaded from the link below (it's a zip file containing all the installer files), click the small 'download icon' at top when the link below opens):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B67BGVX7nHIlVWdLa1dzcFdWLWM/view?usp=sharing

Download, unzip and run the setup.exe, this creates a shortcut on your desktop and adds to start menu (QQ Music Media App). You can also just unzip into a new folder on you desktop and run the QQMusicMediaApp.exe directly with no install.

Once running, You just need to select the 'parent' folder and it finds all music sub-folders and all music files (see below)

The only screen asks you to select your music file parent folder (e.g. C:\My Music)

There a 3 options:
1. Make CSV File List... (This option creates a list of all your music folders/albums along with their codec info)
2. Check Album Art Exists (reports any missing album art (named in the text box e.g 'folder.jpg')
3. Update Music File Album Art (Tags each music file with the Album rt file (if it exists) - allows you to chnage tagged album art easily

View attachment 25317

It always outputs a CSV file listing every music file and its codec info to the parent folder selected in first textbox (above).
If optionally outputs a CSV file of all Albums and their codec info to the parent folder (if first checkbox is selected)

Happy reporting! Let me know if you want something else added.

I have some code to automatically tag all music files based on the folder name (e.g. Folder 'Pink Floyd - Animals' is split into artist and album title and auto tags the files)
I also have some code to create PlayLists (m3U). I use it for Kodi. It also creates them for music videos.
I can add these to the app if requested.

THX
Garry

Works Thanks Garry, very easy now to have a list of all files on the NAS.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

I took a large step getting the system up and running by acquiring an Emotiva UMC-200 pre/pro. Until this point I had no device with HDMI inputs other than a television. The Emotiva works perfectly when reading from optical disks via my OPPO. Using the NAS/JRiver combo is a bit more problematic. Whenever I try to play Multichannel music files (Flac conversions of DVDA's and SACD ISO's) the system exhibits dropouts to facilitate buffering. Occasionally it even happens with stereo Flac files. Very annoying. I have tried changing settings in JRiver as follows: increasing pre buffering to the max (20 seconds), using the "read from memory" option as opposed to "read from disc", and even limiting sample rate output to 96 KHz, but the problem still persists. Am I missing some setting in JRiver that I need to address? The QNAP NAS has a quad core Intel Celeron 2.0 Ghz processor with 8 GB RAM. I am not very PC hardware savvy, but I assume that is enough horsepower to get the job done. As always your comments are most appreciated.

 

[HomerJAU]

Try hard wired (Ethernet) instead of wireless (WiFi) connection between devices.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Try hard wired (Ethernet) instead of wireless (WiFi) connection between devices.

It is hard wired. In fact, since the QNAP NAS is equipped with an HDMI port, passing a data stream from the NAS to the Pre/Pro doesn't have to go through the network at all.

 

[HomerJAU]

Where is your JRiver running? Is it on the NAS?