by MMan » Mon Mar 09, 2009 7:43 am
mikeclarkusa wrote:Thanks for the good advice. Your solutions for MM sound good for cataloging.
Regarding multiple discs, I have been tempted to combine multiple discs in WAV format into a single disc. This seems more convenient but I haven't looked at the downside.
I still need to learn if my overall media system RF control can access MM remotely and display it on a TV. Otherwise, I will have to construct or find another catalog system of some sort able to access and display the stored WAV files or CDs.
There are systems that can control both CD players and digital music both on their own hard drive and on other devices on a network. One example is Escient. However, they are very expensive. The base Escient system with no hard drive (just controls CD/DVD players and plays digital music from a network source) is $999. Escient will allow you to access all the music with a remote through your TV's display. Unfortunately, the Ecient interface and cataloging capabilities are slow and nowhere near the power of Monkey's. Additionally, it doesn't provide the same flexibility to use your music with other devices.
For what it's worth, I had the Escient system controlling two Sony 400 disc players for the last 10 years. About 2 years ago I started ripping my 800+ CDs to FLAC files and cataloging them in Monkey. I have found it to be fantastic and unbelievably flexible relative to anything else I have seen. The piece that was missing was how to play the music through my relatively high end home audio system. I solved the problem using a high end sound card with the ASIO output plugin in monkey to play the FLAC files. I now only use Monkey to play music on the system and my Escient system sits idle. The benefit is that I can also use all the music with the family's ipods.
As Lowlander said, the last piece is finding a way to remotely control the PC that is physically connected to the audio system. I am just starting to play around with that and will post back when I get the remote access to the PC from a laptop accross the wifi network up and running. The switch from physical CDs to digital is a lot of work and very time consuming to rip and correctly tag everything. However, when it's done the benefits are amazing relative to using the CDs, even with the Escient system.
If you are interested, here are some posts on my system setup and some things to think about if you are going to rip your collection. Good luck.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... &sk=t&sd=a
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... &sk=t&sd=a
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... &sk=t&sd=a
[quote="mikeclarkusa"]Thanks for the good advice. Your solutions for MM sound good for cataloging.
Regarding multiple discs, I have been tempted to combine multiple discs in WAV format into a single disc. This seems more convenient but I haven't looked at the downside.
I still need to learn if my overall media system RF control can access MM remotely and display it on a TV. Otherwise, I will have to construct or find another catalog system of some sort able to access and display the stored WAV files or CDs.[/quote]
There are systems that can control both CD players and digital music both on their own hard drive and on other devices on a network. One example is Escient. However, they are very expensive. The base Escient system with no hard drive (just controls CD/DVD players and plays digital music from a network source) is $999. Escient will allow you to access all the music with a remote through your TV's display. Unfortunately, the Ecient interface and cataloging capabilities are slow and nowhere near the power of Monkey's. Additionally, it doesn't provide the same flexibility to use your music with other devices.
For what it's worth, I had the Escient system controlling two Sony 400 disc players for the last 10 years. About 2 years ago I started ripping my 800+ CDs to FLAC files and cataloging them in Monkey. I have found it to be fantastic and unbelievably flexible relative to anything else I have seen. The piece that was missing was how to play the music through my relatively high end home audio system. I solved the problem using a high end sound card with the ASIO output plugin in monkey to play the FLAC files. I now only use Monkey to play music on the system and my Escient system sits idle. The benefit is that I can also use all the music with the family's ipods.
As Lowlander said, the last piece is finding a way to remotely control the PC that is physically connected to the audio system. I am just starting to play around with that and will post back when I get the remote access to the PC from a laptop accross the wifi network up and running. The switch from physical CDs to digital is a lot of work and very time consuming to rip and correctly tag everything. However, when it's done the benefits are amazing relative to using the CDs, even with the Escient system.
If you are interested, here are some posts on my system setup and some things to think about if you are going to rip your collection. Good luck.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34125&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34708&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37535&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a