Ripped / Imported My Entire CD Collection... Almost...

[jmschnur]

Robin,

Once you have compressed files you can not get the losses back. So you must rip your CDs as lossless in the 1st. place. Using a large portable drive would work for that. The squezebox would work for the playback if you have a wireless network.

Joel

 

[Robin]

Thanks for the clarification...

Robin,

Once you have compressed files you can not get the losses back. So you must rip your CDs as lossless in the 1st. place. Using a large parotable drive would work for that. The squezzebox would work for the playback if your have a wireless network.

Joel

Joel,

Thanks again for the clarification. Yes, I see what you are saying. For my set-up I've decided to use the wireless Suqeezebox3 system, which sleepysurf recommended. I think that will work nicely for my HT system.

Thank you very much for your help and advise, I appreciate your knowledge in this matter as well...

Thanks agian

 

[socialxray]

Just to clarify, if you are going to use a Squeezebox wirelessly you have to have a wireless router.

Also your receiver may have an ethernet connector. Buying a 100 ft. ethernet cable is much cheaper than a USB or Firewire cable. Even though most home implementations of ethernet are slower than USB or Firewire, the extra speed is not necessary when streaming music. You will still need a router.

Lastly, that is the major problem with iTunes (or any music player for that matter). If you computer is not in the same room as the stereo then you will be doing a lot of running back and forth when listening to music. One solution is to have a wireless laptop with your music installed on it. Then you can take the laptop with you.

Or if your music player has a web interface (such as the Squeezebox) then you can control your player from ANY device that has a web browser.

While the remote that comes with the Squeezebox is decent and the interface via the Squeezebox display is easy to use and gets the job done, it is easier still to use the web interface. Sometimes this is how I control my Squeezebox using a wireless laptop. Still, a laptop is kind of bulky so I am thinking of getting either a Sony PSP or a Nokia 770 so I can control my Squeezebox via the web interface. The Nokia is better suited for web browsing but the PSP is cheaper (and plays games).

Lastly if you do go with a Squeezebox you can set up the server side to where you can access your music over the Internet. What this means is that you can have access to your music anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection. When I went for a business trip to Costa Rica I could still listen to my music that was on my computer in California. Now that was Pura Vida.

 

[socialxray]

For any who are interested, here is a new review of the Squeezebox3.

http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/SlimDevicesSqueezebox3MusicPlayer.php

 

[Robin]

Excellent information...

Just to clarify, if you are going to use a Squeezebox wirelessly you have to have a wireless router.

Also your receiver may have an ethernet connector. Buying a 100 ft. ethernet cable is much cheaper than a USB or Firewire cable. Even though most home implementations of ethernet are slower than USB or Firewire, the extra speed is not necessary when streaming music. You will still need a router.

Lastly, that is the major problem with iTunes (or any music player for that matter). If you computer is not in the same room as the stereo then you will be doing a lot of running back and forth when listening to music. One solution is to have a wireless laptop with your music installed on it. Then you can take the laptop with you.

Or if your music player has a web interface (such as the Squeezebox) then you can control your player from ANY device that has a web browser.

While the remote that comes with the Squeezebox is decent and the interface via the Squeezebox display is easy to use and gets the job done, it is easier still to use the web interface. Sometimes this is how I control my Squeezebox using a wireless laptop. Still, a laptop is kind of bulky so I am thinking of getting either a Sony PSP or a Nokia 770 so I can control my Squeezebox via the web interface. The Nokia is better suited for web browsing but the PSP is cheaper (and plays games).

Lastly if you do go with a Squeezebox you can set up the server side to where you can access your music over the Internet. What this means is that you can have access to your music anywhere in the world as long as you have an Internet connection. When I went for a business trip to Costa Rica I could still listen to my music that was on my computer in California. Now that was Pura Vida.

socialxray,

Thanks for the excellent information and more options for the squeezebox. Every little bit of computer information really helps me at this point.
I appricate it...

 

[jmschnur]

Robin (& son),



I use my wireless laptop via remote desktop to contol my audio computer. The audio computer outputs to my preamp and on.

This works very well with WM10 and would with other media programs.

I need 250 gigs for my wma lossless encoded 1100 Cds so it is not feasible to put them on a laptop.


Joel

Joel

 

[Robin]

Excellent!

Robin (& son),



I use my wireless laptop via remote desktop to contol my audio computer. The audio computer outputs to my preamp and on.

This works very well with WM10 and would with other media programs.

I need 250 gigs for my wma lossless encoded 1100 Cds so it is not feasible to put them on a laptop.


Joel

Joel

Joel,

Great info.
I plan to have an external (additional) Hard Drive of 300 Gigs for my computer and re-rip / import all my CD's into better sound quality FLAC or ALAC or WMA Lossless (I'm still desiding which format). Then I plan to employing a wireless router with a Squeezebox 3. I am concidering using a lap top to control everthing as you and socialxray suggest.

Thank you for the excellent in-put on this complicated subject (at least for me)....

 

[jmschnur]

Sounds good. I would get two drives-one for back up-or keep the CDs in a safe place and be ready to do it all over again.

Joel

 

[Robin]

Computer Genius...

Sounds good. I would get two drives-one for back up-or keep the CDs in a safe place and be ready to do it all over again.

Joel

Joel,

Thank you. Your advise has helped.

 

[Peter Hogan]

Sounds good. I would get two drives-one for back up-or keep the CDs in a safe place and be ready to do it all over again.

Joel

Hi,
That's why I've gone to a RAID 5 setup. I had my drive fail, and had to re-rip several hundred CD's...not a fun job. With the RAID 5, I can have a drive fail, replace it, rebuild the array from the data on the other drives, and not lose any data in the process. I have four 400GB drives in the array, giving me a total of 1.2TB of storage, which is about half used at present. I store all my music in both lossless format (for home use), and MP3's (for portable use, the copy on the RAID is for backup).

Peter

 

[Robin]

Interesting Solution...

Hi,
That's why I've gone to a RAID 5 setup. I had my drive fail, and had to re-rip several hundred CD's...not a fun job. With the RAID 5, I can have a drive fail, replace it, rebuild the array from the data on the other drives, and not lose any data in the process. I have four 400GB drives in the array, giving me a total of 1.2TB of storage, which is about half used at present. I store all my music in both lossless format (for home use), and MP3's (for portable use, the copy on the RAID is for backup).

Peter

Peter,

The RAID 5 solution seems like the most protected way to go. I like your 400GB (1.2TB) of storage capacity, but your back-up ability is impressive most impressive indeed. This situation continues to be soooo much food for thought for me to consider then re-consider again. Their are so many options and variable component with variations and possibilities it is amazing to me...

 

[socialxray]

Hi,
I have four 400GB drives in the array, giving me a total of 1.2TB of storage, which is about half used at present.
Peter

Wow!!! I have lusted after such a solution but price is prohibitive right now. (Still trying to get a decent amp for my SL3s.)

I use an external USB 2 drive to back up my FLAC and MP3 files and if you buy downloaded music it really is a must to have a backup.

The cool thing about external USB drives is that I can take my entire music library to a friends house to listen to. That is if I had a friend with a computer hooked up to a kick-ass stereo system.

 

[jmschnur]

I have gone the USB route with one set of internals. I have two 500 gig Hitach drives in my audio computer. one backs up the other.

I then have a 300 gig usb drive which is also a back up but also provides portability.

Total of 3 drives each holding the same 1100 CDs with room to spare.

Raids are great and can be really fast-I just had one set of 4 crash on my so I am gun shy.

Joel

 

[socialxray]

RAID hardware failures are very rare but they do happen. Look at it this way, houses burning to the ground (along with the CD collection residing within) are very rare in the neighborhood but it does happen. Morale to the story: there should always be a backup even for a RAID 5 system and you should have your fire insurance up to date.

 

[Peter Hogan]

RAID hardware failures are very rare but they do happen. Look at it this way, houses burning to the ground (along with the CD collection residing within) are very rare in the neighborhood but it does happen. Morale to the story: there should always be a backup even for a RAID 5 system and you should have your fire insurance up to date.

Hi,
According to jmschnur, his RAID was damaged by a power supply going bad:

Thanks for the input. At work we had a remote RAid box go bad via the power supply and in so doing corruprd all 4 disks. But that has only happend once. I just got paranois after that with my own collection.

That same scenario could happen with ANY storage setup, including any non-RAID drive(s) in your computer, though it's not very likely. It's much more likely that you'll eventually have problems with the hard drive(s) themselves. The RAID 5 setup is designed to allow any drive in the array to go bad, be replaced, then rebuild the array, all without losing data.

It is still a good idea to have a backup (preferably off-site), just in case the worst happens. I still have the original CD's as a 'worst case' backup.

Peter

 

[jmschnur]

Peter
You are of course correct; any system can go bad. A back up is required. A raid 5 system is better than singel disk for speed and back purposes.

For audio I did not need the great access speed that a fast raid system has nor the $$ to buy the extra disks. That may change in the future if I go with a networked HD video distribtin system but for now I put my $$ into new Vantage's. So I went the "cheap" way by buying ony three 500 gig hard disks. Two are in two different rooms (computers) in my home and one is away from our house in case the ome is destryed by a hurricane or fire. Two raids and single back up off site would be better but I did not have the $$.

Your system sounds very very good indeed.

Joel

 

[socialxray]

Hey guys I just found the coolest transcoder. It's so good that I had to post about it here.

MediaCoder - This will transcode any audio format to another audio format. You can go from FLAC to MP3 with ease. Or Wavepack or ACC or PCM or a bunch of other formats I have never heard of. That's not all!!! You can also transcode video formats as well! So all of you iPod owners can now convert video into the H.265 standard that iPods require. Home movies on an iPod would be sweet! Have a PSP instead? No problem. MediaCoder has a custom interface just for the PSP!

This is one piece of code that rocks!

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

 

[Robin]

MediaCoder

Hey guys I just found the coolest transcoder. It's so good that I had to post about it here.

MediaCoder - This will transcode any audio format to another audio format. You can go from FLAC to MP3 with ease. Or Wavepack or ACC or PCM or a bunch of other formats I have never heard of. That's not all!!! You can also transcode video formats as well! So all of you iPod owners can now convert video into the H.265 standard that iPods require. Home movies on an iPod would be sweet! Have a PSP instead? No problem. MediaCoder has a custom interface just for the PSP!

This is one piece of code that rocks!

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/

socialxray,

You said that MediaCoder can convert songs from FLAC to MP3 with ease, but my question for you is: Can MeidaCoder up-grade PM3 to FLAC? How does MediaCoder up-grade (add / convert) the song to FLAC when the song was recording ripped / imported as PM3?

 

[Taz]

socialxray,

You said that MediaCoder can convert songs from FLAC to MP3 with ease, but my question for you is: Can MeidaCoder up-grade PM3 to FLAC? How does MediaCoder up-grade (add / convert) the song to FLAC when the song was recording ripped / imported as PM3?

It might be able to do it but the way I understand it once the info is lost in the mp3 it can not be restored so the quality from mp3 to flac would not be the same as cds to flac.

 

[Robin]

Up-grade Conversion

It might be able to do it but the way I understand it once the info is lost in the mp3 it can not be restored so the quality from mp3 to flac would not be the same as cds to flac.

Taz,

I suspected as much...

Thanks for the information.